1891–1986
○ Died
Democratic foreign-policy elder, wartime ambassador in Moscow at the Big Three conferences and champion of containment
The son of a railroad baron, he co-founded the bank that became Brown Brothers Harriman and chaired the Union Pacific. He coordinated Lend-Lease, became Roosevelt's envoy to Churchill and Stalin, and as ambassador to the Soviet Union from 1943 to 1946 attended Tehran, Yalta and Potsdam, urging a stronger line over Poland. In January 1945 he signed the protocol to the Hungarian armistice for the United States. After the war he was a prominent advocate of Kennan's containment policy and served as Secretary of Commerce, coordinator of the Marshall Plan and Governor of New York, twice seeking the Democratic presidential nomination. He negotiated the 1963 Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty and was the president's personal representative at the 1968–69 Paris peace talks with North Vietnam.
Also known as: William Averell Harriman
Activities and affiliations
-
1941–1943
United States state institutionsPresidential special envoy
Diplomacy and international organization -
1943–1946
United States state institutionsAmbassador to the Soviet UnionMain
Diplomacy and international organization -
1946–1948
United States state institutionsSecretary of Commerce
Government and administration -
1955–1958
United States state institutionsGovernor of New York
Government and administration -
1961–1969
United States state institutionsUnder Secretary of State; ambassador-at-large
Diplomacy and international organization -
–1986
Democratic Party (United States)
Diplomacy and international organization
Career Timeline
- 1932–1946Chairman, Union Pacific Railroad
- 1941–1943Presidential envoy to Churchill and Stalin; Lend-Lease coordination
- 1943–1946Ambassador to the Soviet Union (Tehran, Yalta, Potsdam)
- 1946–1948Ambassador to Britain; Secretary of Commerce
- 1948–1950Coordinator of the Marshall Plan
- 1955–1958Governor of New York
- 1963Negotiates the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty
- 1968–1969Presidential representative at the Paris peace talks
Related historical events
- 1945.02–08The Yalta and Potsdam ConferencesUS ambassador in Moscow who attended Yalta and PotsdamHe attended Yalta, urging a stronger line with the Soviet Union over Poland, and on 21 March 1945 cabled Roosevelt that the Soviet programme was the establishment of totalitarianism. He also attended Potsdam.
- 1945.08The Soviet Entry into the War against JapanUS ambassador to whom Stalin set out his terms for entering the war on JapanIn December 1944 Stalin spread out a map before him and set out his conditions: southern Sakhalin and the Kurils, leases on Port Arthur and Dairen, joint operation of the Manchurian railways and the status quo in Outer Mongolia. The list went unchanged into the Yalta agreement on Japan.
- 1944–1948Poland: From the Lublin Committee to the United Workers' PartyUS member of the three-power commissionAfter Yalta in 1945 he was the US member, with Molotov and Clark Kerr, of the Moscow commission on reorganising the Polish provisional government.