(Additional Authors Include E. C. Ropes, Bryce Wood, Ellis...)
Additional Authors Include E. C. Ropes, Bryce Wood, Ellis O. Briggs, Galo Plaza, And Robert Henry Hadow. Preface By Nicholas Murray Butler. Introduction By Arthur P. Whitaker.
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Businessman Diplomat Miner politician
Spruille Braden was born on March 13, 1894, at Elkhorn, Montana. He was the only child of William Braden and Mary Kimball.
His father was a mining engineer who did consulting work out of Helena, Montana, and in 1896, he worked for the Amalgamated Copper in Chile. The result was the opening of El Teniente mine and a partnership with the Guggenheim brothers and Anaconda Copper.
Braden's father's extensive travels and desire to have his family with him delayed Braden's formal education but brought him a wide knowledge of Spanish, which he could speak fluently, with regional or national variations. These trips provided Braden with a large number of private and government contacts in Latin America that he would use throughout his career.
At age nine, Braden entered Ridley College in St. Catharines, Ontario, a High Church of England school noted for its academics and renowned for its stern discipline. After a year he left the school. He returned to the United States in 1910 and entered Betts Academy to prepare for the Yale entrance exams.
One year later, he passed the entrance exams, enrolled in Yale's Sheffield Scientific School, and graduated in 1914 with a Ph. B. in mining engineering.
After graduation from the Yale's Sheffield Scientific School in 1914 with a Ph. B. in mining engineering, Braden joined his father in a variety of Latin American business enterprises, including mining, export-import, rural electrification, petroleum exploration, and shipping.
During the 1920's, he organized Cohoe Process (1926) and reorganized Englishtown Carpet and renamed it Monmouth Rug Mills (1925 - 1929). In 1933, following American recognition of the Soviet Union, Braden formed the Capital Goods Corporation, to sell excess or used railroad equipment in return for Russian manganese ore. Nothing came of this venture.
In 1920, Braden entered the diplomatic world as a delegate to the second Pan-American Financial Conference. After the Democrats returned to power in 1933, Braden was appointed a delegate to the Seventh International Conference of American States in Montevideo, Uruguay.
He was appointed to a newly formed Latin American advisory committee to the State Department and was the de facto chairman of the American delegation to the Pan American Commercial Conference in 1935 and 1936. In 1935, Braden was chairman of the American delegation to the Chaco Peace Conference, negotiating an end to the long war between Bolivia and Paraguay.
Originally this assignment was to last only six months, but it stretched to four years. Braden played a central role in establishing the peace treaty in July 1938. Following his success at the Chaco Peace Conference, Braden spent seven years as the United States ambassador to Colombia (1939 - 1942), the first full ambassador at that post; to Cuba (1942 - 1945); and to Argentina (1945).
In Bogot, he assisted in resolving the Colombian debt question, negotiating new assistance loans, and removing the German involvement in the Colombian airline, SCADTA, transforming it into a new national airline, AVIANCA. This action ensured the security of the Panama Canal on the eve of World War II.
During his tenure in Havana, Braden negotiated new sugar trade accords and assisted in securing American military airfields for the defense of the Caribbean.
In May 1945, Braden went to Buenos Aires to help restore relations with Argentina that had been broken during the war as a result of Argentina's support for the Axis. He clashed with Juan Perón, the emerging leader of Argentina, over fulfillment of treaties and the removal of fascist elements within Argentina.
In September 1945, Braden returned to the United States to become assistant secretary of state for American republic affairs. In his new post, Braden wrote Consultation Among the American Republics with Respect to the Argentina Situation, a State Department study that condemned Perón and Argentina for supporting the Axis.
The Blue Book was released on the eve of the Argentine elections, resulting in charges of Yankee intervention. It failed to prevent Perón from winning the presidency. In 1947, Braden left the State Department over differences in hemispheric policy and moved his family to New York City.
Braden also returned to business and consulting work, advising companies like Anaconda, United Fruit, American Foreign Power, and Lone Star Cement on business in Latin America. Braden stayed active in international affairs, becoming a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Association of Manufacturers, the Avenue of the Americas Association, the Americas Foundation, and the Colombia Association. He was president of a number of these organizations.
He died in Los Angeles of a heart ailment after unsuccessfully lobbying against the Torrijos–Carter Treaties.
Braden served as United States Ambassador to Colombia from 1938 to 1942, to Cuba from 1942 to 1945, and Argentina in 1945. As ambassador to Argentina, he famously participated in organizing the opposition against President Edelmiro Julián Farrell and Juan Perón, exacerbating the country's internal political conflict. Perón exploited his intervention with a slogan, "Braden or Perón", which contributed to his victory in the presidential election the following year. After leaving the State Department, Braden was honored by a number of countries for his work. Among his honors were Chile's officer of the Order of Merit of O'Higgins; Bolivia's Condor of the Andes, grand cross; as well as grand crosses from Peru, Brazil, Colombia, Paraguay, and Haiti. The American government awarded him the Medal of Freedom. In his later years Braden served as President of the Metropolitan Club of New York, founded in 1891 by J. P. Morgan, from 1967 to 1973.
(Additional Authors Include E. C. Ropes, Bryce Wood, Ellis...)
In his political affiliation Spruille Braden was a Democrat, so in 1945, Braden served as Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs under Harry Truman.
Braden remained a staunch champion of the free-enterprise system, democracy, and old-fashioned values.
Quotations:
"I believe in complete honesty, judgment, energy, and tolerance.
In the exercise of these qualities and carrying them through to a conclusion, one inevitably will arrive at the fifth condition a belief in God. "
Fanatically conservative in his old age, Braden was a member of the John Birch Society. Also he was a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Association of Manufacturers, the Avenue of the Americas Association, the Americas Foundation, and the Colombia Association.
In the later years of his life he was a member of the Metropolitan Club of New York, founded in 1891 by J. P. Morgan.
On September 15, 1915, Braden married Maria Humeres del Solar; they had six children.
On May 29, 1964, Braden married Verbena Victoria Williams Hebbard. She died in 1977.
14 October 1917 - 30 January 1997
7 April 1919 - 22 May 2004
19 July 1925 - 20 March 2016
Braden clashed with George S. Messersmith, former ambassador to Mexico, with whom he had many disagreements about foreign policy in Latin America.
