Education
He later studied at the Maxwell School of Public Affairs at Syracuse University and the National War College in Washington, District of Columbia
He later studied at the Maxwell School of Public Affairs at Syracuse University and the National War College in Washington, District of Columbia
He later served as the United States Ambassador to Colombia and the United States Ambassador to Chile. Gillespie spent over thirty years in the United States foreign service as a specialist in Latin American and Caribbean affairs Many of his foreign assignments were to Latin American countries experiencing domestic strife.
Foreign example, Gillespie served as the interim Chargé d"Affaires during the 1983 United States Invasion of Grenada as well as in Colombia from 1985 until 1988, when the government sought to crack down on the Illegal drug trade in Colombia and the Colombian drug cartels.
Gillespie often received daily death threats from the Colombian cartels. Charles A. Gillespie Junior. was born on March 22, 1935, in Long Beach, California.
He received his degree from University of California, Los Angeles in 1958. Gillespie served as a United States Army officer in Europe from 1958 until 1962.
He began his career in the Foreign Service in 1965, when he was made regional security officer at the Embassy of the United States in Manila in the Philippines.
He was later posted in a variety of positions around the world including the United States North Atlantic Treaty Organization mission, Mexico City and Managua, Nicaragua. Gillespie served as the deputy Assistant Secretary of State for the Caribbean and deputy for operations in the State Department"s Inter-American Affairs Bureau from 1983 to 1985. Through this position he oversaw the opening of the first American embassy in Saint George"s, Grenada.
Gillespie was involved in the planning of the invasion of Grenada in October 1983.
lieutenant was the first major United States. military operation since the Vietnam War. The invasion by the United States and several Caribbean nations led to the overthrow of the Grenadan military government which had executed Grenadan Prime Minister Maurice Bishop.
His last posting as an ambassador was to Chile towards the end of the Augusto Pinochet regime from 1988 to 1991. Gillespie headed the United States public relations task force to gain Congressional support for the North American Free Trade Agreement (North American Free Trade Agreement).
Gillespie retired from the United States Foreign Service in 1995.
Charles A. Gillespie Junior. died of cancer at the age of 72 on March 7, 2008, at Scripps Memorial Hospital in Louisiana Jolla, California.
Approximately 100 people, including 19 members of the United States armed forces were killed in the invasion. He became a principal member of The Scowcroft Group, an international business consulting company founded by Brent Scowcroft, the former National Security Advisor.