William Christian Bullitt Jr.

William Christian Bullitt Jr.
United States Ambassador to France
In office
October 13, 1936 – July 11, 1940
PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt
Preceded byJesse I. Strauss
Succeeded byWilliam D. Leahy
1st United States Ambassador to the Soviet Union
In office
December 13, 1933 – May 16, 1936
PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt
Preceded byDavid R. Francis
(as Ambassador to Russia)
Succeeded byJoseph E. Davies
Personal details
BornJanuary 25, 1891
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
DiedFebruary 15, 1967(1967-02-15) (aged 76)
Neuilly, France
Political partyRepublican (after 1948)[1]
Other political
affiliations
Democratic (before 1948)
Spouses
Aimee Ernesta Drinker
(m. 1916; div. 1923)
(m. 1924; div. 1930)
Children2

William Christian Bullitt Jr. (January 25, 1891 – February 15, 1967) was an American diplomat, journalist, and novelist. He is known for his special mission to negotiate with Lenin on behalf of the Paris Peace Conference, often recalled as a missed opportunity to normalize relations with the Bolsheviks.[2] He was also the first U.S. ambassador to the Soviet Union and the U.S. ambassador to France during World War II.[3] In his youth, he was considered a radical, but he later became an outspoken anticommunist.[4]

  1. ^ Brownell, Will, and Billings, Richard, So Close to Greatness: The Biography of William C. Bullitt (NY: Macmillan, 1988) 312
  2. ^ Walt, Stephen M. (2013-08-09). Revolution and War. Cornell University Press. ISBN 9780801470004.
  3. ^ Wright, Gordon (1957). "Ambassador Bullitt and the Fall of France". World Politics. 10 (1): 63–90. doi:10.2307/2009225. ISSN 1086-3338. JSTOR 2009225. S2CID 154828427.
  4. ^ Herring, George (2008). From Colony to Superpower: U.S. Foreign Relations Since 1776. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 497. ISBN 978-0-19-507822-0.