W. Averell Harriman
Encyclopedia
William Averell Harriman (November 15, 1891 July 26, 1986) was an American
Democratic Party politician, businessman, and diplomat. He was the son of railroad baron E. H. Harriman
. He served as Secretary of Commerce
under President
Harry S. Truman
and later as the 48th Governor of New York. He was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1952, and again in 1956 when he was endorsed by President Truman but lost to Adlai Stevenson. Harriman served President Franklin D. Roosevelt
as special envoy to Europe and served as the U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union
and U.S. Ambassador to Britain
. He served in various positions in the Kennedy
and Johnson
administrations.
, the son of railroad baron Edward Henry Harriman
and Mary Williamson Averell
, and brother of E. Roland Harriman
. Harriman was a close friend of Hall Roosevelt
(brother of Eleanor Roosevelt
).
During the summer of 1899, Harriman's father organized the Harriman Alaska Expedition
, a philanthropic-scientific survey of coastal Alaska and Russia that attracted twenty-five of the leading scientific, naturalist and artist luminaries of the day, including John Muir
, John Burroughs
, George Bird Grinnell
, C. Hart Merriam, Grove Karl Gilbert
, and Edward Curtis, along with 100 family members and staff, aboard the steamship George Elder. Young Harriman would have his first introduction to Russia, a nation that he would spend a significant amount of attention on in his later life in public service.
He attended Groton School
in Massachusetts before going on to Yale
where he joined the Skull and Bones
society. He graduated in 1913. After graduating, he inherited the largest fortune in America and became Yale's youngest Crew coach.
. In 1931, it merged with Brown Bros. & Co.
to create the highly successful Wall Street firm Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.
Notable employees included George Herbert Walker
and his son-in-law Prescott Bush
.
Harriman's main properties included Brown Brothers & Harriman & Co, Union Pacific Railroad
, Merchant Shipping Corporation, and venture capital investments that included the Polaroid Corporation
. Harriman's associated properties included the Southern Pacific Railroad
(including the Central Pacific Railroad
), Illinois Central Railroad
, Wells Fargo & Co., the Pacific Mail Steamship Co., American Shipping & Commerce, Hamburg-Amerikanische Packetfahrt-Actiengesellschaft (HAPAG
), the American Hawaiian Steamship Co., United American Lines
, the Guaranty Trust Company, and the Union Banking Corporation
.
in 1924, Harriman, George Walker, and Joseph E. Widener
purchased much of Belmont's Thoroughbred breeding stock. Harriman raced under the name of Arden Farms. Among his horses, Chance Play
won the 1927 Jockey Club Gold Cup
. As well, he raced in partnership with Walker under the name Log Cabin Stable
before buying him out. U.S. Racing Hall of Fame
inductee Louis Feustel
, trainer of Man o' War
, trained the Log Cabin horses until 1926. http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F70F11FF34591B7A93C7A8178CD85F428285F9
Of the partnership's successful runners purchased from the August Belmont estate, Ladkin
is best remembered for defeating the European star Epinard
in the International Special No. 2
.
connection for German
companies and the varied U.S. financial interests of Fritz Thyssen
, who had been an early financial backer of the Nazi
party until 1938, but who by 1939 had fled Germany and was bitterly denouncing Adolf Hitler
. Business transactions for profit with Nazi Germany were not illegal when Hitler declared war on the US, but, six days after the attack on Pearl Harbor
, President Franklin D. Roosevelt
signed the Trading With the Enemy Act after it had been made public that U.S. companies were doing business with the declared enemy of the United States. On October 20, 1942, the U.S. government ordered the seizure of Nazi German banking operations in New York City
.
The Harriman business interests seized under the act in October and November 1942 included:
The assets were held by the government for the duration of the war, then returned afterward. UBC was dissolved in 1951.
Beginning in the spring of 1941, he served President Franklin D. Roosevelt
as a special envoy to Europe and helped coordinate the Lend-Lease
program. He was present at the meeting between FDR and Winston Churchill
at Placentia Bay
in August 1941, which yielded the Atlantic Charter
, a common declaration of principles of the US and the UK. He was subsequently dispatched to Moscow to negotiate the terms of the Lend-Lease agreement with the Soviet Union. His promise of $1 billion in aid technically exceeded his brief. Determined to win over the doubtful American public, he used his own funds to purchase time on CBS radio to explain the program in terms of enlightened self-interest. This skepticism lifted with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
On November 25, 1941 (twelve days before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor
), he noted that "The United States Navy
is shooting the Germans – German submarines and aircraft at sea."
In the summer of 1942, Harriman accompanied Churchill to Moscow for a second meeting with Stalin. His able assistance in explaining why the western allies were opening a second front in North Africa instead of France earned him the post of US ambassador to the Soviet Union
in 1943.
At the Tehran Conference
in late 1943 Harriman was tasked with placating a suspicious Churchill while Roosevelt attempted to gain the confidence of Stalin. This conference made the divisions between the US and Britain about the postwar world clearer. Churchill was intent on carving the postwar world into spheres of influence while the US upheld the principles of self-determination laid out in the Atlantic Charter. Harriman delivered the news that the spheres approach was unsatisfactory to the US for this reason. Furthermore, if this was the driving concept behind the peace, it would give Stalin a free hand in eastern Europe.
Harriman also attended the Yalta Conference
where he encouraged taking a stronger line with the Soviet Union—especially on questions of Poland. After Roosevelt's death, he attended the final "Big Three" conference at Potsdam
. Although the new president, Harry Truman, was receptive to his increasingly hard stance against the Soviets, the new secretary of state, James Byrnes
, sidelined him. While in Berlin, he noted the tight security imposed by Soviet military authorities and the quick beginnings of a program of reparations by which the Soviets were stripping out German industry.
In 1945, while Ambassador to the Soviet Union, Harriman was presented with a Trojan Horse
gift. In 1952, the gift, a carved wood Great Seal of the United States
, which had adorned "the ambassador’s Moscow residential office" in Spaso House
, was found to be bugged.
's Long Telegram
into wide distribution. Kennan's analysis, which generally lined up with Harriman's, became the cornerstone of Truman's Cold War strategy of containment.
Later in 1946, he became ambassador to Britain
, but he was soon appointed to become United States Secretary of Commerce
under President Harry S. Truman
to replace Henry A. Wallace
, a critic of Truman's foreign policies. Harriman served between 1946 and 1948. He was then in Paris
, where he was put in charge of the Marshall Plan
, and had friendly relations with Irving Brown
, a CIA agent charged of the international relations of the AFL-CIO
. Harriman was then sent to Teheran in July 1951 to mediate between Iran and Britain in the wake of the Iranian nationalization of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company.
In the 1954 race to succeed Republican Thomas E. Dewey as Governor of New York
, Harriman defeated Dewey's protege, U.S. Senator Irving M. Ives, by a tiny margin. He served as governor for one term until Republican Nelson Rockefeller
defeated him in 1958. As governor, he increased personal taxes by 11% but his tenure was dominated by his presidential ambitions. Harriman was a candidate for the Democratic Presidential Nomination in 1952, and again in 1956
when he was endorsed by Truman but lost (both times) to Illinois
governor Adlai Stevenson. Harriman was generally considered to be on the left or liberal
wing of the Democratic party, hence his losing out to the more moderate Stevenson.
His presidential ambitions defeated, Harriman became a widely-respected elder statesman of the party. In January 1961, he was appointed Ambassador at Large in the Kennedy
administration, a position he held until November, when he became Assistant Secretary of State for Far Eastern Affairs. In December 1961, Anatoliy Golitsyn
defected from the Soviet Union and accused Harriman of being a Soviet spy, but his claims were dismissed by the CIA and Harriman remained in his position until April 1963, when he became Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs. He retained that position through the transition to the Lyndon Johnson administration until March 1965 when he again became Ambassador at Large. He held that position for the remainder of Johnson's presidency. Harriman was the chief US negotiator at the Paris peace talks on Vietnam
.
Harriman is noted for supporting, on behalf of the State department
, the coup against Vietnam president Ngo Dinh Diem
in 1963. Johnson's confession in the assassination
of Diem could indicate some complicity on Harriman's part.
Harriman received the Presidential Medal of Freedom
in 1969 and West Point's Sylvanus Thayer Award
in 1975.
In 1973 he was interviewed in the now famous TV documetary series The World at War
where he gives a recollection of his experiences as Roosevelt's Personal Representative in Britain along with his views on Cold war politics; in particular Poland and the Warsaw Pact
; along with the exchanges he witnessed between Winston Churchill
, Franklin Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin
.
Whitney, who left her husband, Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney
, to marry him. They remained married until her death in 1970. K. L. Lawrence died in 1936.
His third and final marriage was in 1971 to Pamela Beryl Digby Churchill Hayward
, the former wife of Winston Churchill
's son Randolph
, and widow of Broadway
producer Leland Hayward
. Harriman died in 1986 in Yorktown Heights, New York
, aged 94. He and Pamela are buried at Arden Farm Graveyard in Arden, New York
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Democratic Party politician, businessman, and diplomat. He was the son of railroad baron E. H. Harriman
E. H. Harriman
Edward Henry Harriman was an American railroad executive.-Early years:Harriman was born in Hempstead, New York, the son of Orlando Harriman, an Episcopal clergyman, and Cornelia Neilson...
. He served as Secretary of Commerce
United States Secretary of Commerce
The United States Secretary of Commerce is the head of the United States Department of Commerce concerned with business and industry; the Department states its mission to be "to foster, promote, and develop the foreign and domestic commerce"...
under 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....
Harry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman was the 33rd President of the United States . As President Franklin D. Roosevelt's third vice president and the 34th Vice President of the United States , he succeeded to the presidency on April 12, 1945, when President Roosevelt died less than three months after beginning his...
and later as the 48th Governor of New York. He was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1952, and again in 1956 when he was endorsed by President Truman but lost to Adlai Stevenson. Harriman served President Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
as special envoy to Europe and served as the U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
and U.S. Ambassador to Britain
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. He served in various positions in the Kennedy
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
and Johnson
Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon Baines Johnson , often referred to as LBJ, was the 36th President of the United States after his service as the 37th Vice President of the United States...
administrations.
Early life
William Averell Harriman was born in New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, the son of railroad baron Edward Henry Harriman
E. H. Harriman
Edward Henry Harriman was an American railroad executive.-Early years:Harriman was born in Hempstead, New York, the son of Orlando Harriman, an Episcopal clergyman, and Cornelia Neilson...
and Mary Williamson Averell
Mary Williamson Averell
Mary Williamson Averell was born in New York City into a prominent New York family. The only daughter, she was tutored at home and completed her education at a finishing school with the “…expectation that one day she would become a fine wife and mother for some young man of equal or greater social...
, and brother of E. Roland Harriman
E. Roland Harriman
E. Roland Harriman was a financier and philanthropist...
. Harriman was a close friend of Hall Roosevelt
Hall Roosevelt
Gracie Hall Roosevelt was the youngest brother of former First Lady of the United States, Eleanor Roosevelt and the nephew of Theodore Roosevelt. He was usually called Hall....
(brother of Eleanor Roosevelt
Eleanor Roosevelt
Anna Eleanor Roosevelt was the First Lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945. She supported the New Deal policies of her husband, distant cousin Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and became an advocate for civil rights. After her husband's death in 1945, Roosevelt continued to be an international...
).
During the summer of 1899, Harriman's father organized the Harriman Alaska Expedition
Harriman Alaska Expedition
In 1899, wealthy railroad magnate Edward Harriman arranged for a maritime expedition to Alaska. Harriman brought with him an elite community of scientists, artists, photographers, and naturalists to explore and document the Alaskan coast...
, a philanthropic-scientific survey of coastal Alaska and Russia that attracted twenty-five of the leading scientific, naturalist and artist luminaries of the day, including John Muir
John Muir
John Muir was a Scottish-born American naturalist, author, and early advocate of preservation of wilderness in the United States. His letters, essays, and books telling of his adventures in nature, especially in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California, have been read by millions...
, John Burroughs
John Burroughs
John Burroughs was an American naturalist and essayist important in the evolution of the U.S. conservation movement. According to biographers at the American Memory project at the Library of Congress,...
, George Bird Grinnell
George Bird Grinnell
George Bird Grinnell was an American anthropologist, historian, naturalist, and writer. Grinnell was born in Brooklyn, New York, and graduated from Yale University with a B.A. in 1870 and a Ph.D. in 1880. Originally specializing in zoology, he became a prominent early conservationist and student...
, C. Hart Merriam, Grove Karl Gilbert
Grove Karl Gilbert
Grove Karl Gilbert , known by the abbreviated name G. K. Gilbert in academic literature, was an American geologist....
, and Edward Curtis, along with 100 family members and staff, aboard the steamship George Elder. Young Harriman would have his first introduction to Russia, a nation that he would spend a significant amount of attention on in his later life in public service.
He attended Groton School
Groton School
Groton School is a private, Episcopal, college preparatory boarding school located in Groton, Massachusetts, U.S. It enrolls approximately 375 boys and girls, from the eighth through twelfth grades...
in Massachusetts before going on to Yale
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
where he joined the Skull and Bones
Skull and Bones
Skull and Bones is an undergraduate senior or secret society at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut. It is a traditional peer society to Scroll and Key and Wolf's Head, as the three senior class 'landed societies' at Yale....
society. He graduated in 1913. After graduating, he inherited the largest fortune in America and became Yale's youngest Crew coach.
Business affairs
Using money from his father he established W.A. Harriman & Co banking business in 1922. In 1927 his brother Roland joined the business and the name was changed to Harriman Brothers & CompanyHarriman Brothers & Company
Harriman Brothers & Company was an investment bank and brokerage firm founded by brothers W. Averell Harriman and E. Roland Harriman in 1927. In 1931, the firm merged with Brown Bros. & Co. to form Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.-History:...
. In 1931, it merged with Brown Bros. & Co.
Brown Bros. & Co.
Brown Bros. & Co. was an investment bank from 1818 until its merger with Harriman Brothers & Company in 1931 to form Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.-History:...
to create the highly successful Wall Street firm Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.
Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.
Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. is an American investment bank and securities firm, founded in 1818, it is the oldest and largest private bank in the United States. Brown Brothers Harriman serves clients globally in three main businesses: Investment Banking & Advisory, Wealth Management, Commercial...
Notable employees included George Herbert Walker
George Herbert Walker
George Herbert Walker was a wealthy American banker and businessman. His daughter Dorothy married Prescott Bush, making him a grandfather of former President George H. W. Bush and a great-grandfather of former President George W. Bush.-Life and career:Born in St...
and his son-in-law Prescott Bush
Prescott Bush
Prescott Sheldon Bush was a Wall Street executive banker and a United States Senator, representing Connecticut from 1952 until January 1963. He was the father of George H. W. Bush and the grandfather of George W...
.
Harriman's main properties included Brown Brothers & Harriman & Co, Union Pacific Railroad
Union Pacific Railroad
The Union Pacific Railroad , headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, is the largest railroad network in the United States. James R. Young is president, CEO and Chairman....
, Merchant Shipping Corporation, and venture capital investments that included the Polaroid Corporation
Polaroid Corporation
Polaroid Corporation is an American-based international consumer electronics and eyewear company, originally founded in 1937 by Edwin H. Land. It is most famous for its instant film cameras, which reached the market in 1948, and continued to be the company's flagship product line until the February...
. Harriman's associated properties included the Southern Pacific Railroad
Southern Pacific Railroad
The Southern Pacific Transportation Company , earlier Southern Pacific Railroad and Southern Pacific Company, and usually simply called the Southern Pacific or Espee, was an American railroad....
(including the Central Pacific Railroad
Central Pacific Railroad
The Central Pacific Railroad is the former name of the railroad network built between California and Utah, USA that formed part of the "First Transcontinental Railroad" in North America. It is now part of the Union Pacific Railroad. Many 19th century national proposals to build a transcontinental...
), Illinois Central Railroad
Illinois Central Railroad
The Illinois Central Railroad , sometimes called the Main Line of Mid-America, is a railroad in the central United States, with its primary routes connecting Chicago, Illinois with New Orleans, Louisiana and Birmingham, Alabama. A line also connected Chicago with Sioux City, Iowa...
, Wells Fargo & Co., the Pacific Mail Steamship Co., American Shipping & Commerce, Hamburg-Amerikanische Packetfahrt-Actiengesellschaft (HAPAG
Hapag
Hapag may mean:* Hamburg-Amerikanische Packetfahrt-Actiengesellschaft , a former German shipping company, see Hamburg America Line or Hapag-Lloyd* 724 Hapag, a minor planet...
), the American Hawaiian Steamship Co., United American Lines
United American Lines
United American Lines, the common name of the American Shipping and Commercial Corporation, was a shipping company founded by W. Averell Harriman in 1920. Intended as a way for Harriman to make his mark in the business world outside of his father, railroad magnate E. H. Harriman, the company was...
, the Guaranty Trust Company, and the Union Banking Corporation
Union Banking Corporation
The Union Banking Corporation was a banking corporation in the US whose assets were seized by the United States government during World War II under the Trading with the Enemy Act and Executive Order No. 9095. According to an Oct...
.
Thoroughbred racing
Following the death of August Belmont, Jr.August Belmont, Jr.
August Belmont, Jr. was an American financier, the builder of New York's Belmont Park racetrack, and a major owner/breeder of thoroughbred racehorses.-Early life:...
in 1924, Harriman, George Walker, and Joseph E. Widener
Joseph E. Widener
Joseph Early Widener was a wealthy American art collector who was a founding benefactor of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C...
purchased much of Belmont's Thoroughbred breeding stock. Harriman raced under the name of Arden Farms. Among his horses, Chance Play
Chance Play
Chance Play was an American Champion Thoroughbred racehorse and Champion sire. Bred by August Belmont, Jr., he was out of the mare Quelle Chance, a daughter of 1900 Metropolitan Handicap winner, Ethelbert. He was sired by Fair Play who also sired the legendary Man o' War...
won the 1927 Jockey Club Gold Cup
Jockey Club Gold Cup
The Jockey Club Gold Cup, established in 1919, is a prestigious thoroughbred flat race open to horses of either gender three-years-old and up. It is typically the main event of the fall meeting at Belmont Park, just as the Belmont Stakes is of the spring meeting and the Travers Stakes is of the...
. As well, he raced in partnership with Walker under the name Log Cabin Stable
Log Cabin Stable
Log Cabin Stable was a Thoroughbred horse racing partnership founded in 1923 by New York City financiers W. Averell Harriman and Bert Walker who raced under orange and white silks....
before buying him out. U.S. Racing Hall of Fame
National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame
The National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame was founded in 1950 in Saratoga Springs, New York, to honor the achievements of American thoroughbred race horses, jockeys, and trainers...
inductee Louis Feustel
Louis Feustel
Louis C. Feustel was an American Thoroughbred horse racing Hall of Fame trainer best known as the trainer of the legendary Man o' War.-The August Belmont Years:...
, trainer of Man o' War
Man O' War
Man O' War, man o' war or manowar may refer to:* Man-of-war, a warship* Man of war for uses with this spelling - Places :...
, trained the Log Cabin horses until 1926. http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F70F11FF34591B7A93C7A8178CD85F428285F9
Of the partnership's successful runners purchased from the August Belmont estate, Ladkin
Ladkin
Ladkin was an American Thoroughbred racehorse bred and raced by August Belmont, Jr. Out of the dam, Lading, he was sired by Fair Play who also sired Man o' War....
is best remembered for defeating the European star Epinard
Épinard
Épinard was a French Thoroughbred racehorse who was given the French name for spinach. He is considered a racing legend by French racing authority France Galop....
in the International Special No. 2
International Special
The International Specials of 1924 were a series of three Thoroughbred horse races held in September and October at three different race tracks in the United States...
.
War seizures controversy
While Averell Harriman served as Senior Partner of Brown Brothers Harriman & Co., Harriman Bank was the main Wall StreetWall Street
Wall Street refers to the financial district of New York City, named after and centered on the eight-block-long street running from Broadway to South Street on the East River in Lower Manhattan. Over time, the term has become a metonym for the financial markets of the United States as a whole, or...
connection for German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
companies and the varied U.S. financial interests of Fritz Thyssen
Fritz Thyssen
Friedrich "Fritz" Thyssen was a German businessman born into one of Germany's leading industrial families.-Youth:Thyssen was born in Mülheim in the Ruhr area...
, who had been an early financial backer of the Nazi
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
party until 1938, but who by 1939 had fled Germany and was bitterly denouncing Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
. Business transactions for profit with Nazi Germany were not illegal when Hitler declared war on the US, but, six days after the attack on Pearl Harbor
Attack on Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of December 7, 1941...
, President Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
signed the Trading With the Enemy Act after it had been made public that U.S. companies were doing business with the declared enemy of the United States. On October 20, 1942, the U.S. government ordered the seizure of Nazi German banking operations in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
.
The Harriman business interests seized under the act in October and November 1942 included:
- Union Banking CorporationUnion Banking CorporationThe Union Banking Corporation was a banking corporation in the US whose assets were seized by the United States government during World War II under the Trading with the Enemy Act and Executive Order No. 9095. According to an Oct...
(UBC) (for Thyssen and Brown Brothers Harriman). - Holland-American Trading Corporation (with Harriman)
- the Seamless Steel Equipment Corporation (with Harriman)
- Silesian-American CorporationSilesian-American CorporationSilesian-American Corporation, SACO – was a holding company for Giesche Spolka Akcyjna , operating in Upper Silesia, Poland during interwar times.Silesian-American held 100% of Giesche Spolka Akcyjna stock....
(this company was partially owned by a German entity; during the war the Germans tried to take the full control of Silesian-American. In response to that, American government seized German owned minority shares in the company, leaving the U.S. partners to carry on the portion of the business in the United States.)
The assets were held by the government for the duration of the war, then returned afterward. UBC was dissolved in 1951.
World War II Diplomacy
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
as a special envoy to Europe and helped coordinate the Lend-Lease
Lend-Lease
Lend-Lease was the program under which the United States of America supplied the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, China, Free France, and other Allied nations with materiel between 1941 and 1945. It was signed into law on March 11, 1941, a year and a half after the outbreak of war in Europe in...
program. He was present at the meeting between FDR and Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
at Placentia Bay
Placentia Bay
Placentia Bay is a body of water on the southeast coast of Newfoundland, Canada. It is formed by Burin Peninsula on the west and Avalon Peninsula on the east. Fishing grounds in the bay were used by native people long before the first European fishermen arrived in the 16th century. For a time, the...
in August 1941, which yielded the Atlantic Charter
Atlantic Charter
The Atlantic Charter was a pivotal policy statement first issued in August 1941 that early in World War II defined the Allied goals for the post-war world. It was drafted by Britain and the United States, and later agreed to by all the Allies...
, a common declaration of principles of the US and the UK. He was subsequently dispatched to Moscow to negotiate the terms of the Lend-Lease agreement with the Soviet Union. His promise of $1 billion in aid technically exceeded his brief. Determined to win over the doubtful American public, he used his own funds to purchase time on CBS radio to explain the program in terms of enlightened self-interest. This skepticism lifted with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
On November 25, 1941 (twelve days before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor
Attack on Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of December 7, 1941...
), he noted that "The United States Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
is shooting the Germans – German submarines and aircraft at sea."
In the summer of 1942, Harriman accompanied Churchill to Moscow for a second meeting with Stalin. His able assistance in explaining why the western allies were opening a second front in North Africa instead of France earned him the post of US ambassador to the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
in 1943.
At the Tehran Conference
Tehran Conference
The Tehran Conference was the meeting of Joseph Stalin, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill between November 28 and December 1, 1943, most of which was held at the Soviet Embassy in Tehran, Iran. It was the first World War II conference amongst the Big Three in which Stalin was present...
in late 1943 Harriman was tasked with placating a suspicious Churchill while Roosevelt attempted to gain the confidence of Stalin. This conference made the divisions between the US and Britain about the postwar world clearer. Churchill was intent on carving the postwar world into spheres of influence while the US upheld the principles of self-determination laid out in the Atlantic Charter. Harriman delivered the news that the spheres approach was unsatisfactory to the US for this reason. Furthermore, if this was the driving concept behind the peace, it would give Stalin a free hand in eastern Europe.
Harriman also attended the Yalta Conference
Yalta Conference
The Yalta Conference, sometimes called the Crimea Conference and codenamed the Argonaut Conference, held February 4–11, 1945, was the wartime meeting of the heads of government of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union, represented by President Franklin D...
where he encouraged taking a stronger line with the Soviet Union—especially on questions of Poland. After Roosevelt's death, he attended the final "Big Three" conference at Potsdam
Potsdam Conference
The Potsdam Conference was held at Cecilienhof, the home of Crown Prince Wilhelm Hohenzollern, in Potsdam, occupied Germany, from 16 July to 2 August 1945. Participants were the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States...
. Although the new president, Harry Truman, was receptive to his increasingly hard stance against the Soviets, the new secretary of state, James Byrnes
James F. Byrnes
James Francis Byrnes was an American statesman from the state of South Carolina. During his career, Byrnes served as a member of the House of Representatives , as a Senator , as Justice of the Supreme Court , as Secretary of State , and as the 104th Governor of South Carolina...
, sidelined him. While in Berlin, he noted the tight security imposed by Soviet military authorities and the quick beginnings of a program of reparations by which the Soviets were stripping out German industry.
In 1945, while Ambassador to the Soviet Union, Harriman was presented with a Trojan Horse
Trojan Horse
The Trojan Horse is a tale from the Trojan War about the stratagem that allowed the Greeks finally to enter the city of Troy and end the conflict. In the canonical version, after a fruitless 10-year siege, the Greeks constructed a huge wooden horse, and hid a select force of men inside...
gift. In 1952, the gift, a carved wood Great Seal of the United States
Great Seal of the United States
The Great Seal of the United States is used to authenticate certain documents issued by the United States federal government. The phrase is used both for the physical seal itself , and more generally for the design impressed upon it...
, which had adorned "the ambassador’s Moscow residential office" in Spaso House
Spaso House
Spaso House is a listed Neoclassical Revival building at No. 10 Spasopeskovskaya Square in Moscow. It was originally built in 1913 as the mansion of the textile industrialist Nikolay Vtorov. Since 1933 it has been the residence of the U.S...
, was found to be bugged.
Cold War Diplomacy
Harriman served as ambassador to the Soviet Union until January 1946. When he returned to the United States, he worked hard to get George KennanGeorge F. Kennan
George Frost Kennan was an American adviser, diplomat, political scientist and historian, best known as "the father of containment" and as a key figure in the emergence of the Cold War...
's Long Telegram
X Article
The X Article, formally titled The Sources of Soviet Conduct, was published in Foreign Affairs magazine in July 1947. The article was written by George F. Kennan, the Deputy Chief of Mission of the United States to the USSR, from 1944 to 1946, under ambassador W. Averell Harriman.-Background:G. F....
into wide distribution. Kennan's analysis, which generally lined up with Harriman's, became the cornerstone of Truman's Cold War strategy of containment.
Later in 1946, he became ambassador to Britain
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, but he was soon appointed to become United States Secretary of Commerce
United States Secretary of Commerce
The United States Secretary of Commerce is the head of the United States Department of Commerce concerned with business and industry; the Department states its mission to be "to foster, promote, and develop the foreign and domestic commerce"...
under President Harry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman was the 33rd President of the United States . As President Franklin D. Roosevelt's third vice president and the 34th Vice President of the United States , he succeeded to the presidency on April 12, 1945, when President Roosevelt died less than three months after beginning his...
to replace Henry A. Wallace
Henry A. Wallace
Henry Agard Wallace was the 33rd Vice President of the United States , the Secretary of Agriculture , and the Secretary of Commerce . In the 1948 presidential election, Wallace was the nominee of the Progressive Party.-Early life:Henry A...
, a critic of Truman's foreign policies. Harriman served between 1946 and 1948. He was then in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, where he was put in charge of the Marshall Plan
Marshall Plan
The Marshall Plan was the large-scale American program to aid Europe where the United States gave monetary support to help rebuild European economies after the end of World War II in order to combat the spread of Soviet communism. The plan was in operation for four years beginning in April 1948...
, and had friendly relations with Irving Brown
Irving Brown
Irving Brown was an American trade-unionist, member of the American Federation of Labor and then of the AFL-CIO, who played an important role in Western Europe and in Africa, during the Cold War, in supporting splits among trade-unions in order to counter Communist influence...
, a CIA agent charged of the international relations of the AFL-CIO
AFL-CIO
The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, commonly AFL–CIO, is a national trade union center, the largest federation of unions in the United States, made up of 56 national and international unions, together representing more than 11 million workers...
. Harriman was then sent to Teheran in July 1951 to mediate between Iran and Britain in the wake of the Iranian nationalization of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company.
In the 1954 race to succeed Republican Thomas E. Dewey as Governor of New York
Governor of New York
The Governor of the State of New York is the chief executive of the State of New York. The governor is the head of the executive branch of New York's state government and the commander-in-chief of the state's military and naval forces. The officeholder is afforded the courtesy title of His/Her...
, Harriman defeated Dewey's protege, U.S. Senator Irving M. Ives, by a tiny margin. He served as governor for one term until Republican Nelson Rockefeller
Nelson Rockefeller
Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller was the 41st Vice President of the United States , serving under President Gerald Ford, and the 49th Governor of New York , as well as serving the Roosevelt, Truman and Eisenhower administrations in a variety of positions...
defeated him in 1958. As governor, he increased personal taxes by 11% but his tenure was dominated by his presidential ambitions. Harriman was a candidate for the Democratic Presidential Nomination in 1952, and again in 1956
Democratic Party (United States) presidential primaries, 1956
The 1956 Democratic presidential primaries were the selection process by which voters of the Democratic Party chose its nominee for President of the United States in the 1956 U.S. presidential election...
when he was endorsed by Truman but lost (both times) to Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
governor Adlai Stevenson. Harriman was generally considered to be on the left or liberal
Liberalism
Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...
wing of the Democratic party, hence his losing out to the more moderate Stevenson.
His presidential ambitions defeated, Harriman became a widely-respected elder statesman of the party. In January 1961, he was appointed Ambassador at Large in the Kennedy
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
administration, a position he held until November, when he became Assistant Secretary of State for Far Eastern Affairs. In December 1961, Anatoliy Golitsyn
Anatoliy Golitsyn
Anatoliy Mikhaylovich Golitsyn CBE is a Soviet KGB defector and author of two books about the long-term deception strategy of the KGB leadership. He was born in Piryatin, Ukrainian SSR...
defected from the Soviet Union and accused Harriman of being a Soviet spy, but his claims were dismissed by the CIA and Harriman remained in his position until April 1963, when he became Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs. He retained that position through the transition to the Lyndon Johnson administration until March 1965 when he again became Ambassador at Large. He held that position for the remainder of Johnson's presidency. Harriman was the chief US negotiator at the Paris peace talks on Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
.
Harriman is noted for supporting, on behalf of the State department
United States Department of State
The United States Department of State , is the United States federal executive department responsible for international relations of the United States, equivalent to the foreign ministries of other countries...
, the coup against Vietnam president Ngo Dinh Diem
Ngo Dinh Diem
Ngô Đình Diệm was the first president of South Vietnam . In the wake of the French withdrawal from Indochina as a result of the 1954 Geneva Accords, Diệm led the effort to create the Republic of Vietnam. Accruing considerable U.S. support due to his staunch anti-Communism, he achieved victory in a...
in 1963. Johnson's confession in the assassination
Assassination
To carry out an assassination is "to murder by a sudden and/or secret attack, often for political reasons." Alternatively, assassination may be defined as "the act of deliberately killing someone, especially a public figure, usually for hire or for political reasons."An assassination may be...
of Diem could indicate some complicity on Harriman's part.
Harriman received the Presidential Medal of Freedom
Presidential Medal of Freedom
The Presidential Medal of Freedom is an award bestowed by the President of the United States and is—along with thecomparable Congressional Gold Medal bestowed by an act of U.S. Congress—the highest civilian award in the United States...
in 1969 and West Point's Sylvanus Thayer Award
Sylvanus Thayer Award
The Sylvanus Thayer Award is an award that is given each year by the United States Military Academy at West Point. Sylvanus Thayer was the fifth superintendent of that academy and in honor of his achievements, the award was created...
in 1975.
In 1973 he was interviewed in the now famous TV documetary series The World at War
World at War
World at War can refer to:* The World at War, a British television series documenting World War II* Call of Duty: World at War, a first-person shooter developed by Treyarch* A World At War, a WWII-themed board wargame by GMT Games...
where he gives a recollection of his experiences as Roosevelt's Personal Representative in Britain along with his views on Cold war politics; in particular Poland and the Warsaw Pact
Warsaw Pact
The Warsaw Treaty Organization of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance , or more commonly referred to as the Warsaw Pact, was a mutual defense treaty subscribed to by eight communist states in Eastern Europe...
; along with the exchanges he witnessed between Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
, Franklin Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
.
Family life
His first marriage, some two years out of Yale, was to Kitty Lanier Lawrence, with whom he had two daughters, one of whom was Kathleen Lanier Harriman (1917–2011). He divorced her in 1928, and about a year later he married Marie NortonMarie Norton
-Biography:She was born in 1903, her grandfather was Benjamin F. Einstein who was the attorney to the New York Times and a shareholder in several advertising companies whose main client was the Times. She was the first wife of Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney from 1923 to 1929, with whom she had two...
Whitney, who left her husband, Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney
Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney
Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney was an American businessman, film producer, writer, and government official, as well as the owner of a leading stable of thoroughbred racehorses....
, to marry him. They remained married until her death in 1970. K. L. Lawrence died in 1936.
His third and final marriage was in 1971 to Pamela Beryl Digby Churchill Hayward
Pamela Harriman
Pamela Beryl Harriman , also known as Pamela Churchill Harriman, was an English-born socialite who was married and linked to important and powerful men. In later life, she became a political activist for the United States Democratic Party and a diplomat...
, the former wife of Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
's son Randolph
Randolph Churchill
Major Randolph Frederick Edward Spencer-Churchill, MBE was the son of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and his wife Clementine. He was a Conservative Member of Parliament for Preston from 1940 to 1945....
, and widow of Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
producer Leland Hayward
Leland Hayward
Leland Hayward was a Hollywood and Broadway agent and theatrical producer. He produced the original Broadway stage productions of Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific and The Sound of Music.-Early years:...
. Harriman died in 1986 in Yorktown Heights, New York
Yorktown Heights, New York
Yorktown Heights is a census-designated place in the town of Yorktown in Westchester County, New York, United States. The population was 1,781 at the 2010 census.-Geography:Yorktown Heights is located at ....
, aged 94. He and Pamela are buried at Arden Farm Graveyard in Arden, New York
Arden, New York
Arden, is a hamlet around the town line of Tuxedo and Monroe, New York, in the United States. It is roughly coterminous with the 10910 ZIP Code....
.
Summary of career
- Vice President, Union Pacific RailroadUnion Pacific RailroadThe Union Pacific Railroad , headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, is the largest railroad network in the United States. James R. Young is president, CEO and Chairman....
Co., 1915–17 - Director, Illinois Central RailroadIllinois Central RailroadThe Illinois Central Railroad , sometimes called the Main Line of Mid-America, is a railroad in the central United States, with its primary routes connecting Chicago, Illinois with New Orleans, Louisiana and Birmingham, Alabama. A line also connected Chicago with Sioux City, Iowa...
Co., 1915–46 - Member, Palisades Interstate Park CommissionPalisades Interstate Park CommissionPalisades Interstate Park and its creator, the Palisades Interstate Park Commission, was formed in 1900 by governors Theodore Roosevelt of New York and Foster M. Voorhees of New Jersey in response to the destruction of the Palisades by quarry operators in the late 19th century...
, 1915–54 - Chairman, Merchant Shipbuilding Corp.,1917–25
- Chairman, W. A. Harriman & Company, 1920–31
- Partner, Soviet Georgian Manganese Concessions, 1925–28
- Chairman, executive committee, Illinois Central RailroadIllinois Central RailroadThe Illinois Central Railroad , sometimes called the Main Line of Mid-America, is a railroad in the central United States, with its primary routes connecting Chicago, Illinois with New Orleans, Louisiana and Birmingham, Alabama. A line also connected Chicago with Sioux City, Iowa...
, 1931–42 - Senior partner, Brown Brothers Harriman & Co., 1931–46
- Chairman, Union Pacific RailroadUnion Pacific RailroadThe Union Pacific Railroad , headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, is the largest railroad network in the United States. James R. Young is president, CEO and Chairman....
, 1932–46 - Co-founded Today magazine with Vincent AstorVincent AstorWilliam Vincent Astor was a businessman and philanthropist and a member of the prominent Astor family.-Early life:...
, 1935-37 (merged with NewsweekNewsweekNewsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
in 1937) - Administrator and Special Assistant, National Recovery AdministrationNational Recovery AdministrationThe National Recovery Administration was the primary New Deal agency established by U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933. The goal was to eliminate "cut-throat competition" by bringing industry, labor and government together to create codes of "fair practices" and set prices...
, 1934–35 - Founded, Sun Valley Ski ResortSun Valley, IdahoSun Valley is a resort city in Blaine County in the central part of the U.S. state of Idaho, adjacent to the city of Ketchum, lying within the greater Wood River valley. Tourists from around the world enjoy its skiing, hiking, ice skating, trail riding, tennis, and cycling. The population was 1,427...
, IdahoIdahoIdaho is a state in the Rocky Mountain area of the United States. The state's largest city and capital is Boise. Residents are called "Idahoans". Idaho was admitted to the Union on July 3, 1890, as the 43rd state....
, 1936 - Chairman, Business Advisory Council, 1937–39
- Chief, Materials Branch & Production Division, Office of Production Management, 1941
- US Ambassador & Special Representative to the Prime Minister of the United KingdomPrime Minister of the United KingdomThe Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the Head of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister and Cabinet are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Sovereign, to Parliament, to their political party and...
, 1941–43 - Chairman, Ambassador & Special Representative of the US President's Special Mission to the USSR, 1941–43
- US Ambassador to the USSR, 1943–46
- US Ambassador, Britain, 1946
- US Secretary of Commerce, 1946–48
- United States Coordinator, European Recovery Program (Marshall PlanMarshall PlanThe Marshall Plan was the large-scale American program to aid Europe where the United States gave monetary support to help rebuild European economies after the end of World War II in order to combat the spread of Soviet communism. The plan was in operation for four years beginning in April 1948...
), 1948–50 - Special Assistant to the U.S. President, 1950–52
- US Representative and Chairman, North Atlantic Commission on Defense Plans, 1951–52
- Director, Mutual Security AgencyMutual Security ActThe Mutual Security Act of 1951 is a United States federal law, signed on October 10, 1951 by President Harry S. Truman, which authorized nearly $7.5 billion for foreign military, economic, and technical foreign aid to American allies; the aid was aimed primarily at shoring up Western Europe, as...
, 1951–53 - Candidate, Democratic nomination for US President, 1952
- Governor, State of New YorkNew YorkNew York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, 1955–58 - Candidate, Democratic nomination for US President, 1956
- US Ambassador-at-large, 1961
- United States Deputy Representative, International Conference on the Settlement of the Laotian, 1961–62
- Assistant US Secretary of State, Far Eastern Affairs, 1961–63
- Special Representative to the US President, Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, 1963
- Under US Secretary of State, Political Affairs, 1963–65
- US Ambassador-at-large, 1965–69
- Chairman, President's Commission of the Observance of Human Rights Year, 1968
- Personal Representative of the US President, Peace Talks with North VietnamNorth VietnamThe Democratic Republic of Vietnam , was a communist state that ruled the northern half of Vietnam from 1954 until 1976 following the Geneva Conference and laid claim to all of Vietnam from 1945 to 1954 during the First Indochina War, during which they controlled pockets of territory throughout...
, 1968–69 - Chairman, Foreign Policy Task Force, Democratic National Committee, 1976
- Member, American Academy of Diplomacy Charter, Club of RomeClub of RomeThe Club of Rome is a global think tank that deals with a variety of international political issues. Founded in 1968 at Accademia dei Lincei in Rome, Italy, the CoR describes itself as "a group of world citizens, sharing a common concern for the future of humanity." It consists of current and...
, Council on Foreign RelationsCouncil on Foreign RelationsThe Council on Foreign Relations is an American nonprofit nonpartisan membership organization, publisher, and think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy and international affairs...
, Knights of PythiasKnights of PythiasThe Knights of Pythias is a fraternal organization and secret society founded at Washington, DC, on 19 February 1864.The Knights of Pythias was the first fraternal organization to receive a charter under an act of the United States Congress. It was founded by Justus H. Rathbone, who had been...
, Skull and BonesSkull and BonesSkull and Bones is an undergraduate senior or secret society at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut. It is a traditional peer society to Scroll and Key and Wolf's Head, as the three senior class 'landed societies' at Yale....
Society, Psi UpsilonPsi UpsilonPsi Upsilon is the fifth oldest college fraternity in the United States, founded at Union College in 1833. It has chapters at colleges and universities throughout North America. For most of its history, Psi Upsilon, like most social fraternities, limited its membership to men only...
Fraternity and the Jupiter IslandJupiter Island, FloridaJupiter Island is a town on the barrier island of Jupiter Island in Martin County, Florida, United States. It has no post office and all mail comes from Hobe Sound on the mainland. The population was 620 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Port St. Lucie Metropolitan Statistical Area. In 2004,...
Club.
See also
- Florence Jaffray HarrimanFlorence Jaffray HarrimanFlorence Jaffray "Daisy" Harriman was an American socialite, suffragist, social reformer, organizer, and diplomat...
- Papers of W. Averell Harriman, Library of Congress (see http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/eadmss.ms003012.3)
- U.S. presidential election, 1952
- U.S. presidential election, 1956
Primary sources
- W. Averell Harriman. America and Russia in a changing world: A half century of personal observation (1971)
- W. Averell Harriman. Public papers of Averell Harriman, fifty-second governor of the state of New York, 1955-1959 (1960)
- Harriman, W. Averell and Abel, Elie. Special Envoy to Churchill and Stalin, 1941-1946. (1975). 595 pp.