Background
William Averell Harriman was born on November 15, 1891 in New York City.
(Recounts the distinguished diplomat-statesman's activitie...)
Recounts the distinguished diplomat-statesman's activities and observations as Roosevelt's personal World War II emissary to Churchill and Ambassador to the Soviet Union, with assessments of the Allied leaders, their decisions, and their Big Three meetings
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chairman Financier government official politician
William Averell Harriman was born on November 15, 1891 in New York City.
He was educated at Groton School and Yale University.
He attended the Quebec, Casablanca, Moscow, Tehran, San Francisco, and Potsdam conferences.
Averell Harriman became vice-president of the Union Pacific Railroad in 1915. He founded the Merchant Shipping Corporation in 1917 and William A. Harriman and Company, a private bank, in 1920.
In 1928 Harriman became a Democrat, and during the New Deal he served in various capacities in the Department of Commerce and in the National Recovery Administration.
In 1931 it merged and became Brown Brothers, Harriman and Company, of which he became a partner. He became board chairman in 1932.
Harriman's effective work as chief of the raw materials branch in the Office of Production Management in 1941 led to his appointment as defense expediter. In this capacity he made trips to London, the Near East, and Moscow to discuss lend-lease possibilities. He attended the Quebec, Casablanca, Moscow, Tehran, San Francisco, and Potsdam conferences.
He was U. S. ambassador to the U. S. S. R. from 1943 to 1946 and ambassador to Great Britain in 1946. When Henry A. Wallace was forced to resign as secretary of commerce in September 1946, Harriman succeeded him.
In 1947 he headed the group of civilians established by President Truman to make a report on American resources available for the European Recovery Program.
In 1948, he resigned as secretary of commerce to become special United States representative abroad for the Economic Cooperation Administration. Named special White House adviser on foreign affairs in 1950, Harriman was sent to try to settle the Iranian oil dispute in July 1951. Later in the year he was named to head the Mutual Security Agency to coordinate the United States aid programs for Europe.
In 1952 and again in 1956 he sought the Democratic presidential nomination, which was each time voted to Adlai E. Stevenson of Illinois.
He retired as head of the MSA, January 19, 1953.
In 1954 he was elected governor of New York. In 1958 he was defeated in his bid for reelection by Republican Nelson A. Rockefeller. Harriman became ambassador-at-large early in 1961, serving as a roving representative for President John F. Kennedy until November 1961, when he was appointed assistant secretary of state for Far Eastern affairs. In March 1963 he was appointed undersecretary of state for political affairs.
In July 1963 Harriman led the U. S. mission to the Soviet Union that resulted in successful talks leading to the limited nuclear test-ban treaty. He remained in the administration of President Lyndon B. Johnson but asked to be relieved of his duties as an undersecretary in February 1965.
In March 1965 Harriman resumed his duties as ambassador-at-large, charged with the responsibility of trying to arrange negotiations to end the Vietnam War. During the next three years he made many visits to foreign capitals to explain the U. S. position.
In 1968 Harriman led the U. S. delegation to peace talks in Paris between the United States and North Vietnam. He was replaced in 1969 when Richard M. Nixon took office as president.
(Recounts the distinguished diplomat-statesman's activitie...)
(America and Russia in a Changing World: A Half Century of...)
He married Kitty Lanier Lawrence. They had two daughters: Mary Averell Harriman (1917-1996) and Kathleen Lanier Harriman (1917–2011).
After his divorce from Lawrence, he married Marie Norton Whitney (1903–1970).
In 1971, he married Pamela Beryl Digby Churchill Hayward (1920–1997).