Laurence was born on October 6, 1892 in New York City, New York, United States, the second of three children and only son of Adolph Max Steinhardt, head of a steel enameling and stamping company, and Addie (Unter-myer) Steinhardt. Both parents were of German-Jewish ancestry. His paternal grandparents had emigrated from Hamburg in 1844. His mother's family was from Bavaria; the prominent New York attorney Samuel Untermyer was his uncle.
After attending private schools, Steinhardt entered Columbia University, from which he received the B. A. degree in 1913 and the M. A. and LL. B. in 1915.
He was admitted to the New York bar in 1916. During World War I he served in the army field artillery and as a sergeant on the Provost Marshal General's staff. In 1920 he joined his uncle's law firm, Guggenheimer, Untermyer and Marshall.
Following Roosevelt's election Steinhardt sought a prestigious position for a year or two to enhance his career. He turned down an offer to become an assistant secretary of state but accepted an appointment in 1933 as United States minister to Sweden. He was the youngest chief of a diplomatic mission, and he negotiated one of the administration's first reciprocal trade agreements.
Finding the diplomatic life congenial, Steinhardt sought a higher position after the 1936 presidential election, in which he once again played an active role. He was named ambassador to Peru in 1937, and worked intensively to strengthen trade and cultural relations. His efforts impressed Secretary of State Cordell Hull, who two years later recommended Steinhardt's appointment as ambassador to the Soviet Union.
Steinhardt arrived in Moscow on the eve of the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact of 1939, and he kept Washington remarkably well informed on the progress of the Russo-German negotiations. Grasping well the realities of Soviet policies, he stressed the solidarity of the agreement with Berlin and maintained that, for the time being at least, the two nations could not afford to quarrel. Steinhardt worked closely with an extremely able staff, and the prestige of the American embassy in Moscow reached a new high within the State Department.
As Soviet-American relations continued to erode, Soviet harassment of American citizens in Russia increased. Steinhardt accordingly advocated the "reciprocal application of unpleasant measures, " and on one occasion persuaded the State Department to delay processing the request of a Soviet ship seeking passage through the Panama Canal.
He made no distinction between ambassadorial and consular functions and often intervened directly to defend the personal and property rights of American nationals; occasionally he used his full influence for rather minor ends. After the fall of France to the Germans in 1940, the United States sought to improve Soviet-American relations by granting unilateral concessions, despite Steinhardt's repeated warnings that America's prestige would be harmed by not demanding a quid pro quo. As the anticipated improvement in relations did not occur, Washington moved closer to Steinhardt's policy of reciprocity during the spring of 1941.
Despite confidential information from the German ambassador, Steinhardt failed to foresee the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941. Although he thought Moscow would fall quickly, he reported Russia's determination to resist and encouraged immediate American assistance; later he facilitated the lend-lease talks in Moscow. With the Soviet Union actively at war, Steinhardt's continued insistence on reciprocity seemed out of place. Shortly after Pearl Harbor, therefore, Roosevelt sent him as ambassador to neutral Turkey, in spite of the informal request from the late President Ataturk not to appoint a Jewish ambassador.
Recognizing the strategic importance of Turkey, Steinhardt helped influence that country's decision not to fulfill its trade commitment with Germany, particularly in delivering chrome metal, thereby achieving what one State Department officer (Livingston Merchant) called "the most complete and important victory in the field of economic warfare. " Steinhardt used his personal influence with Ankara officials to increase the flow of refugees from the Nazi-controlled Balkans to Palestine, and also obtained the release of interned American fliers, for which he received the Legion of Merit.
He afterward described his work in Turkey as his "most useful job. " Late in 1944 Roosevelt named Steinhardt ambassador to Czechoslovakia. That central European country, ruled by a Communist-dominated coalition government, was a sensitive and critical spot in postwar Europe. Steinhardt maintained a firm position against the Communists' strong anti-American campaign during these years. After the announcement in 1947 of the Marshall Plan for the rebuilding of Europe, he successfully urged Washington to delay action on the Czech government's loan application until the campaign ended and American claims in Czechoslovakia were settled.
As the Czech elections approached, Steinhardt saw the Communists' popularity declining, but he misjudged the party's ability, abetted by Moscow, to effect the coup d'etat that took place in February 1948; still, it is doubtful that earlier action on the loan could have preserved the coalition government. In the summer of 1948 President Harry S. Truman appointed Steinhardt ambassador to Canada, where he looked forward to living under normal conditions for the first time in a decade.
The Canadians appreciated the appointment of so experienced a diplomat and were quickly impressed by his opposition to "the missionary spirit" toward Canada still found in some American circles. Election to high office in New York state was Steinhardt's greatest ambition, although during his diplomatic career he did not court publicity.
Early in 1950, while flying to New York to attend a political dinner, he was killed in a plane crash near Ottawa, Ontario. He was fifty-seven years old.
Laurence Adolph Steinhardt served as the U. S. Minister to Sweden and U. S. Ambassador to Peru, the USSR, Turkey, Czechoslovakia, and Canada. A complex and controversial person, Steinhardt earned the respect if not the strong personal loyalty of his subordinates. Fluent in a number of languages, he grew with his increasingly difficult assignments and became by the late 1930's a perceptive and analytical reporter.
A liberal Democrat, Steinhardt became interested in politics and in 1932 joined the preconvention presidential campaign committee of Franklin D. Roosevelt, to which he was one of the largest financial contributors.
Quotations: After the Russian invasion of Finland late in 1939, when pressure grew in the United States for the recall of the American ambassador as a form of protest, Steinhardt wrote: "The only language (the Soviets) understand is that of action, retaliation, and force and one might as well strike an elephant with a feather as to believe that the Kremlin is responsive to gestures. "
Quotes from others about the person
A colleague (George V. Allen) called him an "unusually effective Ambassador. "
He married Dulcie Yates Hofmann in New York City on January 15, 1923. They had one child, Dulcie Ann.
