Chester B. Bowles

Chester B. Bowles
3rd and 8th United States Ambassador to India
In office July 19, 1963 – April 21, 1969
President	John F. Kennedy Lyndon B. Johnson Richard Nixon
Preceded by	John Kenneth Galbraith
Succeeded by	Kenneth B. Keating
In office October 10, 1951 – March 21, 1953
President	Harry S. Truman Dwight D. Eisenhower
Preceded by	Loy W. Henderson
Succeeded by	George V. Allen
22nd United States Under Secretary of State
In office January 25, 1961 – December 3, 1961
President	John F. Kennedy
Preceded by	C. Douglas Dillon
Succeeded by	George W. Ball
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Connecticut's 2nd district
In office January 3, 1959 – January 3, 1961
Preceded by	Horace Seely-Brown Jr.
Succeeded by	Horace Seely-Brown Jr.
78th Governor of Connecticut
In office January 5, 1949 – January 3, 1951
Lieutenant	William T. Carroll
Preceded by	James C. Shannon
Succeeded by	John Davis Lodge
Administrator of the Office of Price Administration
In office 1943–1946
President	Franklin D. Roosevelt Harry S. Truman
Preceded by	Prentiss M. Brown
Succeeded by	Office abolished
Personal details
Born	Chester Bliss Bowles (1901-04-05)April 5, 1901 Springfield, Massachusetts, U.S.
Died	May 25, 1986(1986-05-25) (aged 85) Essex, Connecticut, U.S.
Political party	Democratic
Spouses	Julia Fisk ​ ​ (m. 1925; div. 1933)​ Dorothy Stebbins ​ (m. 1934)​
Children	5, including Sam
Education	Yale University (BS)

Chester Bliss Bowles (April 5, 1901 – May 25, 1986) was an American diplomat and ambassador, governor of Connecticut, congressman and co-founder of a major advertising agency, Benton & Bowles, now part of Publicis Groupe. Bowles is best known for his influence on American foreign policy during Cold War years, when he argued that economic assistance to the Third World was the best means to fight communism, and even more important, to create a more peaceable world order. During World War II, he held high office in Washington as director of the Office of Price Administration, and control of setting consumer prices. Just after the war, he was the chief of the Office of Economic Stabilization, but had great difficulty controlling inflation. Moving into state politics, he served a term as governor of Connecticut from 1949 to 1951. He promoted liberal programs in education and housing, but was defeated for reelection by conservative backlash.

As ambassador to India, he established a good relationship with Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, an emerging leader of the nonalignment movement. Bowles promoted rapid economic industrialization in India, and repeatedly called on Washington to help finance it. However, Washington was angered by India's neutrality, and limited funding to literacy and health programs. During the Eisenhower years, 1953–1960, Bowles organized liberal Democratic opposition, and served as a foreign policy advisor to Adlai Stevenson and John F. Kennedy. His reward was Under Secretary of State (1961), which enabled him to staff American embassies with liberal intellectuals and activists. However his liberalism proved too strong for Kennedy, who demoted him to a nominal job as roving ambassador to the Third World in 1961. Kennedy named him as ambassador to India again, 1963–1969, where he helped improve agricultural productivity and fight local famines.^[1]