- David K. E. Bruce
-
David Kirkpatrick Este Bruce (February 12, 1898 - December 5, 1977) was an American diplomat, and the only American to serve as Ambassador to France, the Republic of Germany and the United Kingdom.
Contents
Biography
Bruce graduated from the University of Virginia in 1920.[1]
On May 29, 1926, Bruce married Ailsa Mellon, the daughter of the banker and diplomat Andrew W. Mellon.[2] They divorced on April 20, 1945. Their only daughter, Audrey, and her husband, Stephen Currier, were presumed dead when a plane in which they were flying in the Caribbean disappeared on January 17, 1967, after requesting permission to fly over Culebra, a U. S. Navy installation. No trace of the plane, pilot, or passengers were ever found. Audrey and Stephen Currier left three children: Andrea, Lavinia, and Michael.
Bruce married Evangeline Bell (1914-1995) on April 23, 1945, three days after his divorce.[2] They had two sons and one daughter, Alexandra (called Sasha). She died under mysterious circumstances (possibly murder or suicide) in 1975 at age 29 at the Bruce family home in Virginia.[3][4]
During World War II, he served with the Office of Strategic Services operation in London and observed the invasion of Normandy landing there the day after the initial invasion.
He served as the United States Ambassador to France from 1949 to 1952, United States Ambassador to West Germany from 1957 to 1959, and United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom from 1961 to 1969. He was an American envoy at the Paris peace talks between the United States and North Vietnam in 1970 and 1971. Bruce also served as the first United States emissary to the People's Republic of China from 1973 to 1974.[5] He was the ambassador to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization from late 1974 to 1976. Bruce was a candidate for director of its successor the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in 1950. He is said to have written a secret report on the CIA for President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1956 that was highly critical of its operation under Allan Dulles's leadership.[6]
Bruce purchased and restored Staunton Hill, his family's former estate in Charlotte County, Virginia. He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1976.
Bruce served as the Honorary Chair on the Board of Trustees of the American School in London during his diplomatic career in the United Kingdom. The David K.E. Bruce Award was established in 2007 at the school.[7]
He died on December 5, 1977 of a heart attack at Georgetown University Medical Center.[8]
Publications
Bruce wrote a book of biographical essays on the American presidents originally published as Seven Pillars of the Republic (1936). He later expanded it as Revolution to Reconstruction (1939) and again revised it as Sixteen American Presidents (1962).
References
- ^ Mr. Jefferson's University: A History. University of Virginia Press. 1981. pp. 426–427. ISBN 081390904X.
- ^ a b Pitz, Marylynne (November 15, 2009). "Ailsa Mellon Bruce's artworks part of Carnegie collection". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09319/1013040-437.stm#ixzz0Z8KF5ZPx. Retrieved 2009-12-08. "In 1926, the beautiful, reserved and stubborn young woman married David K. E. Bruce, a talented lawyer and the son of Maryland Sen. William C. Bruce. For wedding presents, A.W. Mellon gave his daughter a pearl necklace valued at $100,000 and a 200-acre estate in Syosset, Long Island."
- ^ Nation: A Gothic Romance in Old Virginia
- ^ Public Service and Private Pain
- ^ "David Bruce, 75, Selected To Head Office in Peking". New York Times. March 16, 1973. http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FA0914F83F5C1A7A93C4A81788D85F478785F9. Retrieved 2009-12-08. "President Nixon announced today that he had recalled Ambassador David K. E. Bruce from retirement to head a United States liaison office in Peking."
- ^ Tim Weiner, The Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA (London: Allen Lane, 2007), p. 133.
- ^ School Web site Retrieved 2010-02-20.
- ^ "U.S. envoy David Bruce is dead at 79". Chicago Tribune. December 6, 1977. http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/chicagotribune/access/618355302.html?dids=618355302:618355302&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI&type=historic&date=Dec+06%2C+1977&author=&pub=Chicago+Tribune&desc=U.S.+envoy+David+Bruce+is+dead+at+79&pqatl=google. Retrieved 2009-12-08. "David K. E. Bruce, a veteran American diplomat who served in a variety of posts including mainland China, died of a heart attack Monday at Georgetown University Medical Center. He was 79."
Further reading
- Lankford, Nelson D. The Last American Aristocrat: The Biography of David K. E. Bruce, 1898–1977 (1996).
- Lankford, Nelson D., ed. OSS against the Reich: The World War II Diaries of Colonel David K. E. Bruce (1991).
External links
- First Chapter of 'The Last American Aristocrat' published by the Washington Post with permission of the author
- Review of the book, "The Last American Aristocrat" from The Washington Monthly magazine
- Oral history interview with David K. E. Bruce, 1 March 1972, at the Truman Presidential Museum and Library
Diplomatic posts Preceded by
Jefferson CafferyU.S. Ambassador to France
1949–1952Succeeded by
James Clement DunnPreceded by
James E. WebbUnder Secretary of State
1952–1953Succeeded by
Walter B. SmithPreceded by
James B. ConantU.S. Ambassador to Germany
1957–1959Succeeded by
Walter C. DowlingPreceded by
John Hay WhitneyU.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom
1961–1969Succeeded by
Walter H. AnnenbergPreceded by
noneChief of the U.S. Liaison Office in Beijing
1973–1974Succeeded by
George H. W. BushPreceded by
Donald RumsfeldU.S. Permanent Representative to NATO
1974–1976Succeeded by
Robert Strausz-HupeUnited States Under Secretaries of State Frank Polk • Norman H. Davis • Henry P. Fletcher • William Phillips • Joseph Grew • Robert E. Olds • J. Reuben Clark • Joseph P. Cotton • William R. Castle, Jr. • William Phillips • Sumner Welles • Edward Stettinius, Jr. • Joseph Grew • Dean Acheson • Robert A. Lovett • James E. Webb • David K. E. Bruce • Walter Bedell Smith • Herbert Hoover, Jr. • Christian Herter • C. Douglas Dillon • Chester Bowles • George Ball • Nicholas Katzenbach • Elliot Richardson • John N. Irwin IIUnited States Permanent Representatives to NATO William H. Draper, Jr. · John C. Hughes · George W. Perkins · Warren R. Burgess · Thomas K. Finletter · Harlan Cleveland · Robert F. Ellsworth · David M. Kennedy · Donald Rumsfeld · David K. E. Bruce · Robert Strausz-Hupé · William T. Bennett · David M. Abshire · Alton G. Keel, Jr. · William Howard Taft IV · Reginald Bartholomew · Robert E. Hunter · Alexander Vershbow · R. Nicholas Burns · Victoria Nuland · Kurt Volker · Ivo H. DaalderUnited States Ambassadors to the United Kingdom
Ministers Plenipotentiary to
the Court of St. James's
1785–1811John Adams 1785–1788 · Thomas Pinckney 1792–1796 · Rufus King 1796–1803 · James Monroe 1803–1807 · William Pinkney 1808–1811 · Jonathan Russell (chargé d'affaires) 1811–1812
Envoys Extraordinary and
Ministers Plenipotentiary to
the Court of St. James's
1815–1893John Quincy Adams 1815–1817 · Richard Rush 1818–1825 · Rufus King 1825–1826 · Albert Gallatin 1826–1827 · James Barbour 1828–1829 · Louis McLane 1829–1831 · Martin Van Buren 1831–1832 · Aaron Vail (chargé d'affaires) 1832–1836 · Andrew Stevenson 1836–1841 · Edward Everett 1841–1845 · Louis McLane 1845–1846 · George Bancroft 1846–1849 · Abbott Lawrence 1849–1852 · Joseph R. Ingersoll 1852–1853 · James Buchanan 1853–1856 · George M. Dallas 1856–1861 · Charles Adams, Sr. 1861–1868 · Reverdy Johnson 1868–1869 · John Lothrop Motley 1869–1870 · Robert C. Schenck 1871–1876 · Edwards Pierrepont 1876–1877 · John Welsh 1877–1879 · James Russell Lowell 1880–1885 · Edward J. Phelps 1885–1889 · Robert Todd Lincoln 1889–1893
Ambassadors Extraordinary
and Plenipotentiary to
the Court of St. James's
1893–presentThomas F. Bayard, Sr. 1893–1897 · John Hay 1897–1898 · Joseph Choate 1899–1905 · Whitelaw Reid 1905–1912 · Walter Page 1913-1918 · John W. Davis 1918–1921 · George Harvey 1921–1923 · Frank B. Kellogg 1924–1925 · Alanson B. Houghton 1925–1929 · Charles G. Dawes 1929–1931 · Andrew W. Mellon 1932–1933 · Robert Bingham 1933–1937 · Joseph P. Kennedy 1938–1940 · John G. Winant 1941–1946 · W. Averell Harriman 1946 · Lewis W. Douglas 1947–1950 · Walter S. Gifford 1950–1953 · Winthrop W. Aldrich 1953–1957 · John Hay Whitney 1957–1961 · David K. E. Bruce 1961–1969 · Walter H. Annenberg 1969–1974 · Elliot L. Richardson 1975–1976 · Anne Armstrong 1976–1977 · Kingman Brewster, Jr. 1977–1981 · John J. Louis, Jr. 1981–1983 · Charles H. Price II 1983–1989 · Henry E. Catto, Jr. 1989–1991 · Raymond G. H. Seitz 1991–1994 · William J. Crowe 1994–1997 · Philip Lader 1997–2001 · William Stamps Farish III 2001–2004 · Robert H. Tuttle 2005–2009 · Louis Susman 2009–
United States Ambassadors to France
Envoys Benjamin Franklin, Arthur Lee, Silas Deane (substituted by John Adams in 1778) 1776–1779
Ministers Plenipotentiary Envoy Extraordinary and
Minister PlenipotentiaryGallatin 1816–23 · Brown 1824–29 · Rives 1829–32 · Harris (chargé d'affaires) 1833 · Livingston 1833–35 · Barton (chargé d'affaires) 1835 · Cass 1836–42 · King 1844–46 · Rush 1847–49 · Rives 1849–53 · Mason 1853–59 · Faulkner 1860–61 · Dayton 1861–64 · Bigelow 1865–66 · Dix 1866–69 · Washburne 1869–77 · Noyes 1877–81 · Morton 1881–85 · McLane 1885–89 · Reid 1889–92 · Coolidge 1892–93
Ambassador Extraordinary
and PlenipotentiaryEustis 1893–97 · Porter 1897–05 · McCormick 1905–07 · White 1907–09 · Bacon 1909–12 · Herrick 1912–14 · Sharp 1914–1919 · Wallace 1919–21 · Herrick 1921–29 · Edge 1929–33 · Straus 1933–36 · Bullitt 1936–40 · Leahy 1941–42 · Tuck (chargé d'affaires) 1942 · Caffery 1944–49 · Bruce 1949–52 · Dunn 1952–53 · Dillon 1953–57 · Houghton 1957–61 · Gavin 1961–62 · Bohlen 1962–68 · Shriver 1968–70 · Watson 1970–72 · Irwin 1973–74 · Rush 1974–77 · Hartman 1977–81 · Galbraith 1981–85 · Rodgers 1985–89 · Curley 1989–93 · Harriman 1993–97 · Rohatyn 1997–2000 · Leach 2001–05 · Stapleton 2005–09 · Rivkin 2009–
United States Ambassadors to China
Envoys to the Qing Empire
1843-1858Caleb Cushing 1843-44 · Alexander Hill Everett 1845-47 · John Wesley Davis 1848-50 · Humphrey Marshall 1852-54 · Robert Milligan McLane 1853-54 · Peter Parker 1855-57 ·
William B. Reed 1857-58Envoy Extraordinary and Minister
Plentipotentiary to the Qing Empire
1858-1913John Elliott Ward 1858-60 · Anson Burlingame 1861-67 · John Ross Browne 1868-69 · Frederick F. Low 1869-73 · Benjamin Avery 1874-75 · George Seward 1876-80 · James Burrill Angell 1880-81 · John Russell Young 1882-85 · Charles Harvey Denby 1885-98 · Edwin H. Conger 1898-05 · William Woodville Rockhill 1905-09 · William James Calhoun 1909-13
Envoy to the Republic of China
1913-1929Paul Samuel Reinsch 1913-19 · Charles Richard Crane 1920-21 · Jacob Gould Schurman 1921-25 · John MacMurray 1925-29
Ambassador to the Republic of China
1929-1949Nelson T. Johnson 1929-41 · Clarence E. Gauss 1941-44 · Patrick J. Hurley 1944-45 · John Leighton Stuart 1946-49 · Embassy in Taipei 1949-Pres.
Chiefs of the U.S. Liaison Office in Beijing
1973-79David K. E. Bruce 1973-74 · George H. W. Bush 1974-75 · Thomas S. Gates, Jr. 1976-77 ·
Leonard Woodcock 1977-79Ambassador to the People's Republic of China
1979-PresentLeonard Woodcock 1979-81 · Arthur W. Hummel, Jr. 1981-85 · Winston Lord 1985-89 · James R. Lilley 1989-91 · J. Stapleton Roy 1991-95 · Jim Sasser 1996-99 · Joseph Prueher 1999-01 · Clark T. Randt, Jr. 2001-09 · Jon Huntsman, Jr. 2009-11 · Gary Locke 2011-
Categories:- 1898 births
- 1977 deaths
- Under Secretaries of State (United States)
- United States ambassadors to France
- United States ambassadors to the United Kingdom
- United States ambassadors to Germany
- United States ambassadors to the People's Republic of China
- Permanent Representatives of the United States to NATO
- American diplomats
- People from Charlotte County, Virginia
- People from Maryland
- University of Virginia alumni
- American diplomat stubs
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