Benjamin Welles

Background

Benjamin Welles was born on August 1, 1916, in Kamakura, Kanagawa, Japan, in a wealthy and influential family. He was the son of Sumner Welles and Esther Slater. He had a younger brother Arnold.

Education

Benjamin Welles graduated from Harvard University in 1938.

Career

In 1938, after graduation from Harvard, Benjamin Welles began his career as a news clerk at the New York Times and worked his way up to become a reporter. In 1942 Welles joined the United States Army and served in North Africa and the Middle East with the Office of Strategic Services during World War II. By the end of the war, he was a major. He was a member of the United States forces that liberated Paris on August 25, 1944, and earned a Bronze Star.

Welles returned to work for the New York Times in 1946 and worked as a foreign correspondent for the next seventeen years, traveling to China, London, and Madrid, as well as Hungary and Algeria. He covered the Hungarian uprising and the Algerian war against the French.

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Welles was in Spain and often wrote about the power of Spanish dictator Franco. He went to Washington, D.C., in 1963 to cover national security and remained there until his retirement in 1972.

After retiring from the New York Times, Welles worked as a journalist-in-residence at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. From 1981 to 1983, he served as principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for public affairs.

Welles's book, Sumner Welles: FDR's Global Strategist, surveys his father's influential life and career. Drawing on the senior Welles's voluminous collection of papers, interviews with people who knew his father, archives, and other sources, Welles presented a detailed and intimate look at his father. Besides writing the book about his father, Welles wrote Spain: The Gentle Anarchy.

Achievements

• Benjamin Wells was a widely known and gifted journalist. He is remembered for his work at the New York Times for which he wrote for more than thirty years. For his work, he received the Weintal Prize for Diplomatic Reporting from Georgetown University in 1998. He also won renown as the author of the biography of Sumner Welles titled Sumner Welles: FDR's Global Strategist.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Sumner Welles: FDR's Global Strategist

    (In 1915, Sumner Welles, the son of an aristocratic family...)

    1997
  • Spain: The Gentle Anarchy 1965

Membership

Benjamin Welles was a member of the Metropolitan Club in Washington, D.C.

Personality

Welles loved excitement and danger.

Physical Characteristics: The cause of Welles' death was cancer.

Quotes from others about the person

• "He loved having secret rendezvous with disguised army officers. He just lapped it up." - Paul Hofmann, a journalist

Interests

• singing and dancing

Connections

Benjamin Welles was married to Cynthia Montieth, who died in 1989. Two daughters were born in this marriage, Serena Moss and Merida Holman.

Father:

Sumner Welles

Sumner Welles (October 14, 1892 - September 24, 1961) was an American government official and diplomat in the Foreign Service. He was a major foreign policy adviser to President Franklin D. Roosevelt and served as Under Secretary of State during Franklin D. Roosevelt's presidency.

Mother:

Esther Slater

late wife:

Cynthia Montieth