Charles W. Yost (born in Watertown, NY in 1907 – died in Washington, DC in 1981), educated at Hotchkiss School and Princeton University, was a Career U.S. Ambassador and ambassador to the United Nations from 1967 to 1971. The Hotchkiss School is a private, coeducational preparatory school in Lakeville, Connecticut, USA. // History Hotchkiss was founded in 1891 by Maria Bissell Hotchkiss with the encouragement of Yale University president Timothy Dwight V. Maria Hotchkiss was the widow of Benjamin B. Hotchkiss, who founded the French arms company Hotchkiss et... Princeton University, located in Princeton, New Jersey, is the fifth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States. ...

Biography

Charles Yost was born in Watertown, New York, on November 6, 1907. He attended Hotchkiss - with Paul Nitze, (Ambassador) Paul Warnke Assistant Secretary of Defense (1967-69) and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Livy Merchant - before graduating from Princeton University in 1928. Following his graduation he did post-graduate studies at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes International in Paris. Over the next year he traveled to Geneva, Berlin, the Soviet Union, Poland, Rumania, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Spain, and Vienna. Paul Henry Nitze (January 16, 1907 – October 19, 2004) was a high-ranking United States government official who helped shape Cold War defense policy over the course of numerous presidential administrations. ...

Yost joined the Foreign Service in 1930, on the advice of former Secretary of State Robert Lansing, and served in Alexandria, Egypt as a consular officer followed by an assignment in Poland. In 1933 he left the Foreign Service to pursue a career as a freelance foreign correspondent in Europe and writer in New York. In 1935, after his marriage to Irena Rawicz-Oldakowska, he rejoined the State Department, becoming assistant chief of the Division of Arms and Munitions Control. In 1941, he represented the State Department on the Policy Committee of the Board of Economic Warfare. Yost was appointed Assistant Chief of Special Research in 1942. His next appointment came in 1943 when he was made assistant chief of the Division of Foreign Activity Correlation. In February 1944, he became executive secretary of the Department of State Policy Committee. He attended the Dumbarton Oaks Conference from August to October 1944 working on Chapters VI and VII of the United Nations Charter. He then attended the United Nations Organization Conference in San Francisco in April 1945 as Secretary of State Edward Stettinius' aide, and the Potsdam Conference, as Secretary-General, in July of 1945. United Nations Charter Opened for signature June 26, 1945 at San Francisco Entered into force October 24, 1945 Conditions for entry into force Ratification by the Republic of China, France, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and the United States of...

In late 1945, after Yost was reinstated in the Foreign Service, he served as political advisor to General Wheeler on Lord Louis Montbatten's staff in Kandy, Ceylon bfore serving as chargé d'affaires to Thailand. Throughout the late 1940s and 1950s, his assignments took him to Czechoslovakia, Austria (twice), and Greece. In 1954, he was named minister to Laos and became the first United States ambassador, a year later, to that nation. In 1957, he served as minister counselor in Paris. At the end of the same year he was named ambassador to Syria. Shortly after his appointment, Syria and Egypt formed the United Arab Republic and the U.S. was asked to close its embassy in Syria. Yost was then named ambassador to Morocco in 1958.

In 1961, he began his first assignment at the United Nations as the deputy to Ambassador Adlai E. Stevenson. Following Stevenson's death in 1965, Yost stayed on as Arthur Goldberg's deputy. Yost obtained the rank of career ambassador, the highest professional Foreign Service rank, before resigning from the Foreign Service in 1966 to begin his career as a writer, at the Council on Foreign Relations, and teacher, at Columbia University, on foreign affairs.

In 1969, President Richard Nixon called Yost out of retirement to serve as the permanent United States Representative to the United Nations. He resigned in 1971 and returned to writing, at the Brookings Institute, and teaching at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service.

Yost set forth his views in a syndicated newspaper column, for the Christian Science Monitor, and in four books: The Age Of Triumph And Frustration: Modern Dialogues, The Insecurity of Nations, The Conduct and Misconduct of Foreign Relations, and History and Memory.

In 1979, Yost was co-chairman of Americans for SALT II, a group that lobbied the Senate for passage of the second Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty. He was a trustee of the American University in Cairo, Egypt and director of the Aspen Institute for cultural exchanges with Iran. He took part in several unofficial conferences, the Dartmouth Conferences, between the United States and Soviet scholars. In 1973, he was named head of the National Committee on United States-China Relations and visited the People's Republic of China in 1973 and 1977.

Yost died of cancer in May 1981 at Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, D.C.

Career

1930: Vice Consul Alexandria, Egypt Antiquity and modernity stand cheek-by-jowl in Egypts chief Mediterranean seaport Located on the Mediterranean Sea coast, Alexandria (in Arabic, الإسكندرية, transliterated al-ʼIskandariyyah) is the chief seaport in Egypt, and that countrys second largest city, and the capital...

1932: Vice Consul Warsaw, Poland Warsaw (Polish Warszawa, (?), in full The Capital City of Warsaw, Polish: Miasto Stołeczne Warszawa) is the capital of Poland and its largest city. ...

1933: Resigned from the Foreign Service. Became journalist

1935: Resettlement Administration

1935: Divisional Assistant, U.S. State Department; Assistant Chief Division of Arms and Munitions Control The United States Department of State, often referred to as the State Department, is the Cabinet-level foreign affairs agency of the United States government, equivalent to foreign ministries in other countries. ...

1939: Assistant Chief Division of Controls

1941: Assistant Chief Division of Exports and Defense Aid

1941-42: Designated to act in Liaison between Division of European Affairs of State Department and British Empire Division of the Board of Economic Warfare

1942: Assistant Chief, Division of Special Research; Division of European Affairs

1943-44: Assistant Chief, Division of Foreign Activity Correlation

1944: Executive Secretary, Department of State Policy Committee

1944: Executive Secretary, Joint Secretariat of Executive Staff Commission

1945:

• 1) Department of State. Assistant to the Chairman for the Dumbarton Oaks Conference
• 2) Assistant to the Chairman, U.S. Delegation to the United Nations Conference on International Organizations, San Francisco
• 3) Secretary-General, U.S. Delegation, Berlin Conference Potsdam Agreement
• 4) Assigned as U.S. Political Advisor to General Wheeler, the Commanding General of the India-Burma Theater, India & Ceylon

1946: The Dumbarton Oaks Conference (or Washington Conversations on International Peace and Security Organization) held beginning in August 1944 in a Washington, DC mansion (Dumbarton Oaks), was where the United Nations was formulated and negotiated. ... The examples and perspective in this article do not represent a worldwide view. ... The Potsdam Agreement was an agreement on policy for the occupation and reconstruction of Germany and other nations after fighting in the European Theatre of World War II had ended with the German surrender of May 8, 1945. ...

• 1) Chargé d’affairs, Bangkok, Thailand
• 2) Political Advisor to U.S. Delegation, United Nations, Lake Success, New York
• 3) General Assembly to the United Nations, New York

1947: First Secretary & Counselor, Prague, Czechoslovakia Bangkok from the Chao Phraya River at sunset, July 2004 The Wat Phra Kaew temple Bangkok Metropolitan Administration building Bangkok, known in Thai as Krung Thep (กรุงเทพฯ), or Krung Thep Maha Nakhon (กรุงเทพมหานคร, IPA: ), is the capital and largest city of Thailand, with an official 1990 population of 8,538,610. ... Prague (Czech: Praha, see also other names) is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. ...

1947-49: First Secretary & Counselor of Legation, Vienna, Austria Vienna (German: Wien [viːn]; Hungarian: Bécs, Czech: Vídeň, Slovak: Viedeň, Romany Vidnya; Serbian: Beč) is the capital of Austria, and also one of Austrias nine states (Land Wien). ...

1949: Member of U.S. Delegation; Special Assistant to Ambassador at Large for Sixth Session of the Council of Foreign Ministers Meeting, Paris, France

1949: Member of Delegation to Fourth Regular Session of GA of UN as Special Assistant to Ambassador at Large

1949: Director of the Office of Eastern European Affairs

1950:

• 1) Special Assistant to Ambassador at Large, Deputy Policy Advisor to the U.S. Delegation to the United Nations, New York
• 2) European Affairs Rep. on Policy Comm. on Immigration and Naturalization
• 3) Policy Planning Staff

1950-53: Counselor with Personal rank of Minister, Athens, Greece The Policy Planning Staff (sometimes referred to as the Policy Planning Council) is the chief strategic arm of the U.S. Department of State. ... The Acropolis in central Athens, one of the most important landmarks in world history. ...

1953: Deputy High Commissioner & Deputy Chief of Mission, Vienna, Austria

1954: Minister, Vientiane, Laos Pha That Luang temple. ...

1955-1956: Ambassador, Laos

1956: Minister, Paris, France The Eiffel Tower has become a symbol of Paris throughout the world. ...

1957-58: Ambassador, Damascus, Syria Damascus by night, pictured from Jabal Qasioun; the green spots are minarets Damascus (Arabic officially دمشق Dimashq, colloquially ash-Sham الشام) is the capital city of Syria. ...

1958: Member Policy Planning Staff

1958-61: Ambassador, Rabat, Morocco For the Maltese city on Gozo Island which can also be called Rabat, see Victoria, Malta. ...

1961-66: U.S. Deputy Representative to the United Nations with Adlai Stevenson

1964: Appointed Career Ambassador

1965: U.S. Deputy Representative to the United Nations with Arthur Goldberg

1966-69: Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations

1966: Bureau of Near East & South Asian Affairs

1966: Resigned from the Foreign Service

1969-71:

• 1)U.S. Representative to the United Nations, New York. President of the Security Council
• 2) Honorary Degree, Princeton University

1970-80: Member of the Dartmouth Conference Delegation

1971: Resigned from the Foreign Service

1971-73: Counselor to UN Association

1973-75: President, National Committee on US-China Relations

1975: Senior Fellow, Brookings Institute

1976-81: Special Advisor, Aspen Institute

1977: Woodcock delegation to Vietnam.

1979: Co-chairman Americans for SALT

Appearances Before Senate Foreign Relations Committee

• Executive Sessions of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (Historical Series), Vol. X, Eighty-Fifth Congress, Second Session, 1958: Statement and questioning of CWY to be Ambassador to Morocco
• Executive Session, Tuesday, February 7, 1961: Nomination of CWY to be Deputy U.S. Representative, Security Council, United Nations
• United States Senate, Committee on Foreign Relations, Tuesday , January 21, 1969: Nomination of CWY to be U.S. Representative to the UN

Activities

Syndicated columnist for the Christian Science Monitor

Memberships

• Board of the American University in Cairo

• Council on Foreign Relations

• American Academy Political and Social Science

• American Society International Law

• Princeton Club

• University Club

• Century Association

• Honorary Co-Chairman UN Association of U.S. America

• International House New York City-Chairman of the Board,

• American Philosophical Society

• Board of "Advertising Age"

Oral History Interviews with CWY

• Interview with Charles Yost by Dr. Thomas Soapes - Oral Historian, Dwight D. Eisenhower Library (September 13, 1978)
• Oral History Interview with Charles W. Yost by Sheldon Stern – JFK Library (Washington, DC, October 23, 1978)

CWY Papers

Deposited at Seeley G. Mudd Library at Princeton University [1]

Books

• The Age of Triumph and Frustration: Modern Dialogues
• The Insecurity of Nations: International Relations in the Twentieth Century
• The Conduct and Misconduct of Foreign Affairs
• History & Memory

Magazine Articles by CWY

• “Israelis and the Arabs: The Myth that Blocks Peace – Atlantic, 1969
• “Last Chance for Peace in the Mideast” Life Magazine
• “The Arab-Israeli War: How It Began”, Foreign Affairs, Jan., 1968
• “World Order and American Responsibility”, Foreign Affairs, Oct., 1968
• "A Letter to a Soviet Friend", Life Magazine, September 24, 1971
• “Toward Peace in the Middle East: Report of a Study Group, The Brookings Institute, 1975
• “National and Collective Responsibility: The Governance of International Affairs”, Aspen Institute ‘Wye Paper’, 1981
• BCSIA, Volume 6, Number 3, Winter 1981/82 "Commentary: The Governance of International Affairs"

CWY Online

• On Nationalism [2], [3]

• On Democrary [4]

• On Vietnam [5], [6], [7]. See Senator Frank Church on Yost opinion of Vietnam [8]

• On Greece [www.trumanlibrary.org/oralhist/markezis.htm ]

• On Cambodia [9]

• On Russia [10], [11]

• On the Middle East [12], [13], [14], [15], [16], [17], [18], [19], [20]

• On Jerusalem [21],[22], [23], [24], [25], [26], [27], [28], [29]

• Quoted by President Carter: For Israel, Land or Peace - Jimmy Carter (Washington Post, November 26, 2000) [30]

• Mentioned by President Eisenhower
  • On the Middle East [31]
  • On Mali [32]
  • On Algeria [33]

• As UN Ambassador [34]

• Cuban Missile Crisis [35], [36], [37], [38], * The Cuban Missle Crisis Timeline - Nuclearfiles.org. A project of the nuclear age peace foundation [39]

• On Sri Lanka [40]

• On China [41]

• On Namibia [42]

• United Nations [43]

• CIA [www.blackwellpublishing.com/content/BPL_Images/Journal_Samples/DIPH0145-2096~28~5~446/446.pdf]

• Meeting with Eisenhower [44]

Recordings

• “Peacekeeping and the U.N.: Charles Yost” Interview by Betty Little of the League of Women Voters of the United States (United Nations, 1961)

• Teaneck Oral History - Interview with Mal Goode (October 24, 1984)

• JFK Library: President's Office Files, Presidential Recordings, tape # 49 (Cuban Missile Crisis)

• Radio Interview with Larry King (Washington, DC, 11/11/80)

• Interview with Charles W. Yost by Charley Holmes (United Nations, 1964)

• Meet the Press 1970

• With President Nixon

Films

• Swearing in for US/UN post 1969

References

• On Laos
  • “Some Left on Stretchers, Others on Straightjackets” - Yale Richmond (Foreign Service Journal, May 1988)
  • “Ah! La Vie en Vientiane” - James F. Prosser (CANDOER, January 2001)
  • Meeker, Oden - The Little World of Laos (Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1959)
  • Menger, Matt J. - In the Valley of the Mekong: An American in Laos (Paterson, NJ St Anthony Guild Press 1970)
• On Thailand
  • “Staying Behind in Bangkok: The OSS and American Intelligence in Postwar Thailand” - E. Bruce Reynolds (The Journal of Intelligence History 2, Winter 2002)
  • McDonald, Alexander – Bangkok Editor (MacMillan, 1949)
  • “Democracy, Elections and Internal Security: U.S. Policy Toward Laos in the Late 1950s” - Koji Terachi (Rutger’s University)
• On Vietnam
  • Hass, Richard (editor), O’Sullivan, Meghan L. (editor) - Honey and Vinegar: Incentives, Sanctions, and Foreign Policy (Brookings Institution Press 2000) Chapter 8-The United States and Vietnam: Road to Normalization - Brown, Frederick Z.
• On Syria
  • " Cold War and Covert Action: The U.S. and Syria, 1945-1958" Middle East Journal, Winter 1990
• On the UN
  • Walton, Richard J. – The Remnants of Power: The Tragic Last Years of Adlai Stevenson (Coward-McCann, Inc., 1968)
  • Beschloss, Michael - Reaching for Glory: Lyndon Johnson’s Secret White House Tapes, 1964-1965 (Touchtone, Simon & Schuster, New York, 2001)
  • Finger, Seymour Maxwell - American Ambassadors at the UN: People, Politics, and Bureaucracy in Making Foreign Policy (UNITAR, 1992)
  • McKeever, Porter – Adlai Stevenson: His Life and Legacy (William Morrow and Company, 1989)
  • Martin, John Bartlow – Adlai Stevenson and the World (Anchor Press/Doubleday, 1978)
  • May, Ernest R.& Zelikow, Philip D. Editors –The Kennedy Tapes: Inside the White House During the Cuban Missile Crisis – (The Belknap Press of Harvard University, 1997)
  • Ambassador Christopher H. Phillips, Association for Diplomatic Studies, Foreign Affairs Oral History Program, Georgetown University
  • United States Ambassador to the United Nations – William C. Moore (Hotchkiss Alumni News, April, 1969)
  • Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Cold War International History Project. Russian Documents on the Cuban Missile Crisis/14 September-21 October 1962
  • Johnson, Walter Editor – The Papers of Adlai Stevenson: Ambassador to the United Nations, Volume VIII, 1961-1965 (Little, Brown and Company, 1979)
  • May, Ernest R.& Zelikow, Philip D. Editors –The Presidential Recordings: John F. Kennedy, The Great Crisis, Volume Three, October 22-28, 1962 (W.W.Norton & Company, 2001)
  • Foreign Relations, Organization of Foreign Policy; Information Policy; United Nations; Scientific Matters. Kennedy Library, Arthur M. Schlesinger Papers, UN Speeches, 8/2/61-8/11/61, Box WH22. U.S. Strategy in the 16th General Assembly
  • Schlesinger Jr., Arthur – A Thousand Days: John F. Kennedy in the White House - (Houghton Mifflin, 1965)
  • Urquhart, Brian – Ralph Bunche: An American Odyssey (W.W. Norton & Company, 1993)
• On Iran
  • Ganji, Moocher - Defying the Iranian Revolution (Praeger, 2002)
• On the Middle East
  • AlRoy, Gil Carl - The Prospects of War in the Middle East (Commentary/Mach 1969)
  • Draper, Theordore - Israel and World Politics (Commentary/August 1967)
  • Draper, Theodore - The United States & Israel (Commentary/April 1975)
  • Nef, Donald – Warriors for Jerusalem: The Six Days that Changed the Middle East in 1967 (Amana Books, Brattleboro, Vermont, 1988)
  • Sheehan, Edward R.F. – The Arabs, Israelis, and Kissinger: A Secret History of American Diplomacy in the Middle East (Reader’s Digest Press, 1976)
• The Dartmouth Conferences
  • Voorhees, James – Dialogue Sustained: The Multilevel Peace Process and the Dartmouth Conference (United States Institute of Peace Press, Washington, D.C.; Charles F. Kettering Foundation, 2002)
• On Morocco
  • Nes, Nes, Association for Diplomatic Studies, Foreign Affairs Oral History Program, Georgetown University
• On Greece
  • Markezinis, Spyros - Truman Presidential Museum and Library (Interviewer: Theodore A. Wilson- July 22, 1070
  • Goldbloom, Maurice - What Happened in Greece (Commentary/December 1967)
• On the USSR
  • Laqueur, Walter - America and the World: The Next Four Years (Commentary/March 1977)
  • Laqueur, Walter - Rewriting History (Commentary/March 1973)
• On Human Rights
  • Laqueur, Walter - The Issue of Human Rights (Commentary/May 1977)

Archives

• United Nations Archives, Private Papers of the Secretary-General: U Thant: Post Retirement 1971-1974, Correspondence with Individuals and Organizations- Misc. - 03/10/1972-28/12/1972 (Series 0893, Box 11, File 5, Acc. DAG 1/5.2.9.2
• United Nations Archives, Peace-Keeping Operations Files of the Secretary-General: U Thant: Vietnam, Correspondence with Permanent Representatives of the United States of America to the UN and USA - 09/04/1965-08/10/1970 (Series S-0871, Box 1, File 9, DAG 1/5.2.2.3.1
• United Nations Archives, Peace-Keeping Operations. Files of the Secretary-General: U Thant: Other Countries, Laos - Visit from Harriman and Yost- 19/05/1962-19/05/1962
• United Nations Archives, Correpondence Files of the Secretary-General: U Thant: With Heads of State, Governments, Permanent Representatives and Observers, USA - Yost, Charles W.- 21/12/1968-13/04/1971 (Series 0882, Box 5, File 1, Acc. DAG 1/5.2.3
• United Nations Archives, Peace-Keeping Operations. Files of the Secretary-General: U Thant: Middle East, Four-Power Meetings [US, USSR, Great Britain, France] 21/06/1967-25/05/1971 (Series S-0861, Box 1, File 7, Acc. DAG 1/5.2.2.1
• John Foster Dulles Personal Papers (Princeton University)
• Harding Bancroft Oral History (Truman Library)
• Joseph E. Johnson Oral History

Foreign Relations of the U.S. with References to CWY

• Foreign Relations of the US, Diplomatic Papers, 1945, Vol. I, General: The United Nations

• Foreign Relations of the US, Diplomatic Papers, 1945, Vol. VI, The British Commonwealth, The Far East

• Foreign Relations of the US, 1946, Vol. I, General: The United Nations

• Foreign Relations of the US, 1946, Vol. VIII, The Far East

• Foreign Relations of the US, 1947, Vol. II, Council of Foreign Ministers; Germany and Austria

• Foreign Relations of the US, 1949, Vol. II, United Nations Organization

• Foreign Relations of the US, 1949, Vol. III, Council of Foreign Ministers; Germany and Austria

• Foreign Relations of the US, 1950, Vol. I, Foreign Economic Policy

• Foreign Relations of the US, 1950, Vol. V, The Near East, South Asia, and Africa

• Foreign Relations of the US, 1952-1954, Vol. VII, Germany and Austria (in two parts) Part 2

• Foreign Relations of the US, 1961-1963, Vol. XI, Cuban Missile Crisis & Aftermath. #86, #93, #112, #138-139, #153, #156, #163, #183 , #210, #212-213, #220, #223, #233-234, #239, #245, #253, #256, #259

• Foreign Relations of the US, 1961-1963, Vol. XVI, Cyprus; Greece; Turkey, #33, #63, #76, #78, #207, #358, #359, #369

• Foreign Relations of the US, 1961-1963, Vol. XVII, Near East, 1961-1962, #242, #298

• Foreign Relations of the US, 1961-1963, Vol. XVIII, Near East, 1962-1963, #320

• Foreign Relations of the US, 1961-1963, Vol. XXIII, Southeast Asia

• Foreign Relations of the US 1961-63, Volume XXV, Organization of Foreign Policy; Information Policy; United Nations; Scientific Matters, #35, #162, #165, #168, #177, #187, #207, #284, #287, #299

• Foreign Relations of the US, 1964-1968, Vol. II, Vietnam, January-June 1965: Feb. 11-March 8, #161-162, #164:

• Foreign Relations of the US, 1964-1968, Vol. II: Vietnam, July 29-November, 1965, #99, #106, #114, #203, #207, #278

• Foreign Relations of the US, 1964-1968, Vol. XIX, Arab-Israeli Crisis and War, 1967, #100

• Foreign Relations of the US, 1969-1976, Vol. IV, Foreign Assistance, International Development, Trade Policies, 1969-1972, #26

• Foreign Relations of the US, 1969-1976, Vol. V, United Nations 1969-1972, #12, #13, #14, #16, #18, #23, #26, #30, #33