A British diplomat of war and decolonisation
At the 1945 San Francisco Conference, the foreign ministers of the four sponsoring Allied powers took turns chairing the plenary sessions, with Eden among them.
Anthony Eden was a British Conservative statesman whose First World War service reinforced his commitment to the League of Nations and collective security. He served three times as foreign secretary amid the rise of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, and during the Second World War acted as Winston Churchill’s principal diplomatic lieutenant in negotiations with the Soviet Union and the other Allies over the postwar order. Representing Britain at Yalta and at the 1945 San Francisco Conference, he helped shape the emerging international institutions, yet as prime minister he pursued the Suez invasion, exposing both the limits of British imperial power and Britain’s dependence on the United States.
Activities and affiliations
Career Timeline
- 1915–1919British Army officer, Western Front
- 1923–1957MP for Warwick and Leamington
- 1931–1934Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs
- 1935–1938Foreign Secretary
- 1940–1945Foreign Secretary and War Cabinet minister
- 1945British representative at Yalta and the San Francisco Conference
- 1951–1955Foreign Secretary
- 1955–1957Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Conservative Party leader
Related historical events
- 1914–1918First World WarBritish Army officer on the Western FrontHe served as a British Army officer on the Western Front from 1915 to 1919.
- 1938–1944.03Hungary on the Axis side: from the Vienna Awards to the DonBritish foreign secretaryWarned of a break and war over Yugoslavia and called the attack an “everlasting shame” for Hungary.
- 1945.02–08The Yalta and Potsdam ConferencesBritish Foreign Secretary at the conferenceHe co-chaired the San Francisco plenary sessions with Stettinius, Molotov, and T.V. Soong.
- 1945–1954The August Revolution and the First Indochina WarBritish foreign secretarySought a negotiated settlement and did not back American calls for united action.
Third Term as Foreign Secretary: Geneva and West German Rearmament, 1951-1955
When the Conservatives returned to office in 1951, Eden became foreign secretary for a third time and, with Churchill largely a figurehead, exercised effective control of British foreign policy. The clearest achievement of this third term was the Geneva Conference of 1954 on Indochina. With the United States opposed and ultimately declining to sign, Eden pressed for a negotiated settlement, and the success of the conference is regarded as the outstanding achievement of his time at the Foreign Office.
That same year, when the rejection of the European Defence Community (EDC) by the French National Assembly left West German rearmament deadlocked, Eden and US Secretary of State John Foster Dulles searched for a way out. Britain invited the six EDC states, the United States and Canada to a Nine-Power conference in London, producing a package that ended the occupation regime, revised the 1948 Brussels Treaty into the Western European Union (WEU), and opened the way to West German membership of NATO. To reassure France, Britain undertook to station four divisions and a tactical air fleet on the European mainland and not to withdraw them against the wishes of the other members. The settlement was judged a major step in consolidating the Western bloc, and West Germany joined NATO in May 1955.