Career
He was an authority on African anthropology and East Asian studies. He served as the United States Ambassador to Syria and Malta. Smythe was the tenth African-American United States. ambassador and the first to a Middle Eastern country.
His tenure coincided with the Six Day War and the severing of diplomatic ties with the United States.
He later became notorious for the "Smythe Telegram" that he wrote during the increasing tensions before the war, where he demanded that the United States. return to a pro-Arab foreign policy and said that the United States. should ignore previous promises to Israel that Egypt would not be allowed to ban Israeli ships from transiting the Straits of Tiran. He left the country on June 8, 1967.