Nathaniel Penistone Davis (May 1, 1895 – September 12, 1973) was an American career diplomat.
Nathaniel Penistone Davis | |
|---|---|
 | |
| United States Minister to Hungary | |
| In office September 1, 1949 – May 18, 1951 | |
| Preceded by | Selden Chapin |
| Succeeded by | Christian M. Ravndal |
| United States Ambassador to Costa Rica | |
| In office January 31, 1948 – June 8, 1949 | |
| Preceded by | Walter J. Donnelly |
| Succeeded by | Joseph Flack |
| Personal details | |
| Born | May 1, 1895 Princeton, New Jersey, U.S. |
| Died | September 12, 1973 (aged 78) Winter Park, Florida, U.S. |
| Spouse |
Sarah Louise Collins
(m. 1919) |
| Alma mater | Princeton University (B.A.) |
Davis received his B.A. from Princeton University in 1916, and joined the Foreign Service in 1919. He served as Consul in Recife (then Pernambuco), Brazil from 1926–29, then as Vice Consul in London. He was appointed Consul in London in 1929.[1] He returned to State Department assignments in Washington, DC, an inspection tour of US diplomatic missions in South America, and a subsequent inspection tour of United States diplomatic missions in the Far East. He was interned in Manila, Philippines from 1942–43.[1]
Davis returned to the Philippines in 1946 as the State Department representative on the staff of the U.S. High Commissioner in the Philippines during the U.S. military occupation. He remained after the independence of the Philippines as Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Manila from 1946–47.[2]
He was American ambassador to Costa Rica from 1947–49, including during the Costa Rican Civil War.[3][4] He was United States Minister to Hungary from 1949–51.[1]
Diplomatic relations between the US and Hungary were downgraded during the Cold War, and there was no US Ambassador to Hungary during that time. The Minister was the chief of the U.S. diplomatic mission.[5]
During his time as Minister to Hungary, he handled negotiations with the government of Hungary which led to the release of Robert A. Vogeler, an American citizen and Vice President and representative for Eastern Europe of the International Telephone and Telegraph Co. (ITT) who was arrested in Hungary and tried and convicted as a spy.[6][7][8][9]
Davis was awarded the Medal of Freedom in 1946, and the Distinguished Service Award on his retirement from the State Department in 1951.[1]
In 1952, after his retirement, he returned to Washington for a month to conduct a confidential review, at the request of Secretary of State Dean Acheson, of the record of O. Edmund Clubb, a U.S. diplomat who had been accused of being a Communist sympathizer by Senator Joseph R. McCarthy.[10][11] On the basis of Davis' report that Clubb was not a security risk, Acheson overturned the decision against Clubb by the State Department's loyalty board, and restored Clubb's pension.[12]
Personal life
editDavis was born in Princeton, New Jersey on May 1, 1895,[13] the son of John D. Davis (Professor at Princeton Theological Seminary and author of Davis' Bible Dictionary) and Marguerite (Scobie) Davis, grandson of Robert and Anne Williams (Shaw) Davis, and great-grandson of John and Anna Maria (Johnston) Davis.[14]
He was married in 1919 to Sarah Louise Collins. After his retirement, he lived in Glens Falls and Silver Bay, New York, and later in Winter Park, Florida.[15] He died in Winter Park on September 12, 1973, aged 78.[16]
His autobiography, Few Dull Moments: A Foreign Service Career, was self-published in 1967.[17] His papers are in the Harry S. Truman Library and Museum in Independence, Missouri.[1]
References
edit- ^ a b c d e "Nathaniel P. Davis Papers". Harry S. Truman Library and Museum. Retrieved January 10, 2020.
- ^ "Foreign Relations of the United States 1946 Volume VIII, The Far East [Document 669]". U.S. Department of State. Retrieved December 16, 2015.
- ^ "Papers of Nathaniel P. Davis". Universidad de Costa Rica. Archived from the original on December 22, 2015. Retrieved December 17, 2015.
- ^ Diaz-Arias, David (2014). "La Temprana Guerra Fría en Centroamérica: Nathaniel P. Davis, los Estados Unidos y la Guerra Civil de 1948 en Costa Rica". OPSIS, Catalão-GO. 14 (Especial): 18–37. Retrieved 22 September 2017.
- ^ "Chiefs of Mission for Hungary". US Department of State, Office of the Historian. Retrieved December 16, 2015.
- ^ Vogeler, Robert A. (1952). I Was Stalin's Prisoner. Harcourt. (written with Leigh White)
- ^ "Foreign Relations of the United States, 1949 Volume V, Eastern Europe; The Soviet Union, Document 290". U.S. Department of State. Retrieved 16 December 2015.
- ^ "HUNGARY: Just Claims". No. April 30, 1951. Time.
- ^ "Memorandum of Conversation with Mr. Robert A. Vogeler, June 5, 1951. Acheson Papers – Secretary of State File". Harry S. Truman Library and Museum. Retrieved December 16, 2015.
- ^ "O. Edmund Clubb Is Dead at 88; China Hand and McCarthy _target". New York Times. May 11, 1989. Retrieved December 16, 2015.
- ^ Waggoner, Walter H. (March 9, 1952). "Clubb Verdict Laid To Davis, Ex-Envoy; Diplomat Who Freed Vogeler Is Revealed as Having Led Acheson to Drop Charges". New York Times. p. 1. Retrieved 22 September 2017.
- ^ Beisner, Robert (2009). Dean Acheson: A Life in the Cold War. Oxford University Press.
- ^ The Nassau Herald, p. 81
- ^ The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography: Being the History of the United States as Illustrated in the Lives of the Founders, Builders, and Defenders of the Republic, and of the Men and Women who are Doing the Work and Moulding the Thought of the Present Time, Volume 58. J.T. White. 1979. p. 260.
- ^ Davis, Nathaniel P. (1967). Few Dull Moments. Dunlap Print. Co.
- ^ "Obituary: Nathaniel P. Davis, A Career Diplomat". New York Times. September 14, 1973. p. 42. Retrieved 22 September 2017.
- ^ Few Dull Moments: A Foreign Service Career. Retrieved 16 December 2015 – via Hathi Trust Digital Library Catalog.