John Raymond Ylitalo
Encyclopedia
John Raymond Ylitalo also known as J. Raymond Ylitalo, was an American diplomat and the 29th United States Ambassador to Paraguay
(1969–1972).
, Minnesota
, on December 25, 1916. Jussi was a first generation immigrant originally from Rautio
, Finland
, while Saima was a second generation Finnish-American. Jussi was a lumberjack and farmer in his life in America. John Raymond was one of nine children of Jussi and Saima Ylitalo who survived to adulthood.
After graduating from Floodwood High School, Ylitalo went on to St. Olaf College
, from which he was awarded a Bachelor of Arts
degree in 1937. He then attended Northwestern University
, from which he obtained a Master of Business Administration
degree the following year. He then went on to be an instructor in commerce at the University of Alabama
from 1938 to 1941. In 1941, he became a special agent
for the Federal Bureau of Investigation
, where he served until he joined the United States Foreign Service
in 1946.
, Ylitalo's first assignment in the Foreign Service was as a political attaché at the United States Embassy in Helsinki
, where he served from 1946 to 1950. Later he became the assistant chief of the State Department's Security Division; in this post, he was in a position where the Defense Department
asked him to evaluate The Pond
's material, to which he responded that he "could describe it in only one word, 'crap.'" From 1950 to 1952, Ylitalo worked in the United States Consulate in Munich
.
He also served as the United States Consul in Cebu City
, in which capacity he, on March 6, 1959, reported to the State Department concerning "Conditions Affecting Cultural Presentations in Cebu". By 1969, he had a position at the United States Embassy in Mexico City
.
by President
Richard Nixon
on July 22, 1969, and presented his letter of accreditation to Alfredo Stroessner
on August 14 of that year. Within sixteen months of Ylitalo's assumption of the mission in Paraguay
, a major point of contention in Paraguay – United States relations came to light when two pounds of heroin were seized at Miami International Airport
, aboard a plane from Paraguay in December 1970.
Narcotics
came to dominate the remainder of Ylitalo's tenure as Ambassador, becoming a topic that was always discussed in his conversations with Paraguayan officials. In April 1971, the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs
successfully infiltrated the smuggling operation and found that Auguste Ricord
was controlling the operation, which had smuggled five thousand kilograms of heroin into the United States between 1965 and 1970. The Paraguayans detained Ricord, but, much to the dismay of the United States, refused to extradite him.
With the Paraguayan refusal to extradite, the embassy responded by expressing "profound disappointment and concern with the decision of the court", noting that "the accused is one of the heads of the international heroin trafficking industry, who has brought misery and death to thousands of youths in the United States and around the World." President Nixon threatened, in January 1972, to cut off foreign aid to Paraguay if Ricord was not extradited, but Paraguay still did not relent.
With the Paraguayan refusal to extradite Ricord, Ylitalo was coming under fire from the American press for being too close to Stroessner. When he noted that there was insufficient evidence to directly connect Stroessner and others in the regime to direct participation in drug trafficking, the attacks against him from the press increased in their severity. Unable to secure Ricord's extradition and increasingly becoming a target for media attacks, Ylitalo was recalled by President Nixon on September 11, 1972.
on February 10, 1987, at Sibley Memorial Hospital
in Washington, D.C.
United States Ambassador to Paraguay
The following is a list of United States Ambassadors, or other chiefs of mission, to Paraguay. The title given by the United States State Department to this position is currently Ambassador Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary.-See also:...
(1969–1972).
Early years
Ylitalo was born to Jussi and Saima Maria (née Swen) Ylitalo of FloodwoodFloodwood, Minnesota
As of the census of 2000, there were 503 people , 254 households, and 112 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,131.9 people per square mile . There were 290 housing units at an average density of 652.6 per square mile...
, Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
, on December 25, 1916. Jussi was a first generation immigrant originally from Rautio
Rautio
Rautio is a former municipality, now a small village of Kalajoki, Finland. It was consolidated to Kalajoki in 1973....
, Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
, while Saima was a second generation Finnish-American. Jussi was a lumberjack and farmer in his life in America. John Raymond was one of nine children of Jussi and Saima Ylitalo who survived to adulthood.
After graduating from Floodwood High School, Ylitalo went on to St. Olaf College
St. Olaf College
St. Olaf College is a coeducational, residential, four-year, private liberal arts college in Northfield, Minnesota, United States. It was founded in 1874 by a group of Norwegian-American immigrant pastors and farmers, led by Pastor Bernt Julius Muus. The college is named after Olaf II of Norway,...
, from which he was awarded a Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
degree in 1937. He then attended Northwestern University
Northwestern University
Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston and Chicago, Illinois, USA. Northwestern has eleven undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools offering 124 undergraduate degrees and 145 graduate and professional degrees....
, from which he obtained a Master of Business Administration
Master of Business Administration
The Master of Business Administration is a :master's degree in business administration, which attracts people from a wide range of academic disciplines. The MBA designation originated in the United States, emerging from the late 19th century as the country industrialized and companies sought out...
degree the following year. He then went on to be an instructor in commerce at the University of Alabama
University of Alabama
The University of Alabama is a public coeducational university located in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States....
from 1938 to 1941. In 1941, he became a special agent
Special agent
Special agent is usually the title for a detective or investigator for a state, county, municipal, federal or tribal government. An agent is a worker for any federal agency, and a secret agent is one who works for an intelligence agency....
for the Federal Bureau of Investigation
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...
, where he served until he joined the United States Foreign Service
United States Foreign Service
The United States Foreign Service is a component of the United States federal government under the aegis of the United States Department of State. It consists of approximately 11,500 professionals carrying out the foreign policy of the United States and aiding U.S...
in 1946.
Diplomatic career
Since he was of Finnish ancestry and spoke fluent FinnishFinnish language
Finnish is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland Primarily for use by restaurant menus and by ethnic Finns outside Finland. It is one of the two official languages of Finland and an official minority language in Sweden. In Sweden, both standard Finnish and Meänkieli, a...
, Ylitalo's first assignment in the Foreign Service was as a political attaché at the United States Embassy in Helsinki
Helsinki
Helsinki is the capital and largest city in Finland. It is in the region of Uusimaa, located in southern Finland, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, an arm of the Baltic Sea. The population of the city of Helsinki is , making it by far the most populous municipality in Finland. Helsinki is...
, where he served from 1946 to 1950. Later he became the assistant chief of the State Department's Security Division; in this post, he was in a position where the Defense Department
United States Department of Defense
The United States Department of Defense is the U.S...
asked him to evaluate The Pond
The Pond (intelligence organization)
The Pond was a small, secret organization formed by the government of the United States of America which operated between 1942 and 1955. It engaged in espionage...
's material, to which he responded that he "could describe it in only one word, 'crap.'" From 1950 to 1952, Ylitalo worked in the United States Consulate in Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
.
He also served as the United States Consul in Cebu City
Cebu City
The City of Cebu is the capital city of Cebu and is the second largest city in the Philippines, the second most significant metropolitan centre in the Philippines and known as the oldest settlement established by the Spaniards in the country.The city is located on the eastern shore of Cebu and was...
, in which capacity he, on March 6, 1959, reported to the State Department concerning "Conditions Affecting Cultural Presentations in Cebu". By 1969, he had a position at the United States Embassy in Mexico City
Mexico City
Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...
.
Ambassador to Paraguay
Ylitalo was appointed Ambassador to ParaguayUnited States Ambassador to Paraguay
The following is a list of United States Ambassadors, or other chiefs of mission, to Paraguay. The title given by the United States State Department to this position is currently Ambassador Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary.-See also:...
by President
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
on July 22, 1969, and presented his letter of accreditation to Alfredo Stroessner
Alfredo Stroessner
Alfredo Stroessner Matiauda, whose name is also spelled Strössner or Strößner , was a Paraguayan military officer and dictator from 1954 to 1989...
on August 14 of that year. Within sixteen months of Ylitalo's assumption of the mission in Paraguay
Paraguay
Paraguay , officially the Republic of Paraguay , is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to the east and northeast, and Bolivia to the northwest. Paraguay lies on both banks of the Paraguay River, which runs through the center of the...
, a major point of contention in Paraguay – United States relations came to light when two pounds of heroin were seized at Miami International Airport
Miami International Airport
Miami International Airport , also known as MIA and historically Wilcox Field, is the primary airport serving the South Florida area...
, aboard a plane from Paraguay in December 1970.
Narcotics
War on Drugs
The War on Drugs is a campaign of prohibition and foreign military aid and military intervention being undertaken by the United States government, with the assistance of participating countries, intended to both define and reduce the illegal drug trade...
came to dominate the remainder of Ylitalo's tenure as Ambassador, becoming a topic that was always discussed in his conversations with Paraguayan officials. In April 1971, the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs
Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs
The Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs was a predecessor agency of the Drug Enforcement Administration . It was formed as a subsidiary of the United States Department of Justice in 1968, combining the Bureau of Narcotics and Bureau of Drug Abuse Control The Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous...
successfully infiltrated the smuggling operation and found that Auguste Ricord
Auguste Ricord
Auguste Ricord, nicknamed Il Commandante, was one of the founding members of the French Connection, a mafiosi-type organisation involved in heroin trade, based in France in the 1950s and 1960s....
was controlling the operation, which had smuggled five thousand kilograms of heroin into the United States between 1965 and 1970. The Paraguayans detained Ricord, but, much to the dismay of the United States, refused to extradite him.
With the Paraguayan refusal to extradite, the embassy responded by expressing "profound disappointment and concern with the decision of the court", noting that "the accused is one of the heads of the international heroin trafficking industry, who has brought misery and death to thousands of youths in the United States and around the World." President Nixon threatened, in January 1972, to cut off foreign aid to Paraguay if Ricord was not extradited, but Paraguay still did not relent.
With the Paraguayan refusal to extradite Ricord, Ylitalo was coming under fire from the American press for being too close to Stroessner. When he noted that there was insufficient evidence to directly connect Stroessner and others in the regime to direct participation in drug trafficking, the attacks against him from the press increased in their severity. Unable to secure Ricord's extradition and increasingly becoming a target for media attacks, Ylitalo was recalled by President Nixon on September 11, 1972.
Life after the Ambassadorship
Following the termination of his mission in Paraguay, Ylitalo was appointed to the Consulate General in Toronto, in 1973. He served there as Consul General until his retirement in 1976. Ylitalo died of cancerCancer
Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...
on February 10, 1987, at Sibley Memorial Hospital
Sibley Memorial Hospital
Sibley Memorial Hospital is a non-profit hospital located in NW Washington D.C.. It is fully accredited by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, and is licensed by the District of Columbia Department of Health and Human Services. The hospital specializes in surgery,...
in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....