GEORGE S. MESSERSMITH: A DIPLOMATIC BIOGRAPHY.
Item
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Title
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GEORGE S. MESSERSMITH: A DIPLOMATIC BIOGRAPHY.
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Identifier
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AAI8409420
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identifier
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8409420
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Creator
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STILLER, JESSE HERBERT.
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Contributor
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Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.
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Date
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1984
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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History, United States | Biography
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Abstract
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This dissertation recounts for the first time the life and career of George S. Messersmith (1883-1960), an important member of the United States Foreign Service. A native of Pennsylvania, Messersmith moved to Delaware shortly after graduation in 1900, where he became a leader of the movement to reform the public schools. Frustrated in that endeavor, he joined the consular service in 1914. He achieved his prominence as consul general in Berlin, where he witnessed the rise to power of Adolf Hitler. His heroic efforts to defend Americans and their interests amid Nazi bedlam brought him recognition and the attention of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, whose patronage Messersmith henceforth enjoyed. From his next post, minister to Austria, he continued to warn that Hitler meant to conquer the world and could not be appeased. As assistant secretary of state (1937-1940), he carried through an important package of administrative reform in the machinery of American foreign policy.;During the seven years of service in Latin America that followed, Messersmith became a leading exponent of the Good Neighbor policy. As ambassador to Cuba, he successfully promoted a program of economic cooperation. In the same capacity in Mexico, he supervised wartime relations with that important neighbor. Sent in 1946 to Buenos Aires by President Harry S. Truman, Messersmith effected rapprochement with President Juan D. Peron, thus ending a long period of strain in relations between the United States and Argentina. In so doing, he ran afoul of the powerful, anti-Peronist assistant secretary of state, Spruille Braden. An acrimonious feud developed between them, which resulted in the forced resignation of both men. Now a private citizen, Messersmith became chief executive officer of the Mexican Light and Power Company, retiring again in 1955. Messersmith spent his last five years in the Mexico he had come to love.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
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Program
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History
