|
| |
Bunker, Ellsworth (1894-1984) |
|
| |
|
|
| |
An American businessman with no experience in diplomacy until 1951, when (already aged 56) he was appointed US ambassador to Argentina. Success in this post led to three other postings as head of a major mission, culminating in South Vietnam (1967-73). Bunker\'s chief renown arose from his skill as a practical negotiator. In 1962, at the request of the UN, he successfully mediated a solution to the dangerous dispute between the Netherlands and Indonesia over West New Guinea/West Irian. Subsequently he mediated between Saudia Arabia and Egypt over Yemen (1963) and in the Dominican crisis (1965). Not long after his return from Vietnam at the age of 79, with the rank of ambassador-at-large and the reputation as the greatest American negotiator of his generation, he led the US delegation to the Geneva Conference on the Middle East (December 1973) which followed the Yom Kippur War. He then headed the US team in the sensitive Panama Canal negotiations, which concluded successfully in 1977. Henry Kissinger, who chose Bunker for both of these tasks, described him as ‘one of the great men of American diplomacy’. He retired finally in 1978. |
|
| |
|
|
| |
Bookmark this page:
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
<< former term |
|
next term >> |
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
