Adlai Stevenson II
American Layer. Politician. Diplomat. Choate School. Princeton University. Quadrangle Club. Whig-Cliosophic Society. Harvard Law School. Unitarian Church.
Grandfather, Adlai Stevenson I, was Vice President of the United States under President Grover Cleveland.
April 1961 - Bay of Pigs Invasion - Adlai Stevenson was yet another skeptic about the plan. But he was kept on the fringes of the operation, receiving on April 8, nine days before the invasion, only an unduly vague briefing by Schlesinger and a CIA official. As the plan moved ahead, Stevenson complained to Schlesinger and an assistant secretary of state for international organization that “he had been given no opportunity to comment on it and believed that it would cause infinite trouble.” Anticipating Steven’s anger at being ignored, Kennedy told Schlesinger that nothing should “be done which might jeopardize … the integrity and credibility of Adlai Stevenson … one of our great national assets.” Kennedy assumed that Schlesinger would pass his comments to Stevenson, who would accept that the president was intent on shielding him from sharing in the humiliation if the operation failed.[2,p142]
…When two planes bombed Castro’s forces, Stevenson unwittingly repeated a CIA cover story in a speech before the U.N. Genera Assembly. He described the raid as conducted by defectors from Castro’s air force who had taken off from a Cuban airfield. Cuban excelies trained by the CIA actually had flown the planes from Key West, Florida.[2,p142]
When Stevenson learned the truth, he told Rusk [Rhodes 1931] and Dulles (MJ-12. CFR. Pilgrims.) that he was “greatly disturned”, and asled why he was not “wanred and provided pre-prepared material with which to defend us.” He was mortified at having described the raid as a “clear case of attacks by defectors inside Cuba. There is a graviest risj of another U-2 disaster,” he warned, referring to Eisenhower’s embarrassment at having to acknowledge that a U-2 reconnaissance aircraft was not tracking the weather, as he had publicly declared after it was shot down fifteen hundred miles inside the Soviet Union, but was in fact a spy plane…[2,p142]
23 Jan 1961 to 14 Jul 1965 - 5th United States Ambassador to the United Nations by President John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson.
Preceded by James Jeremiah “Jerry” Wadsworth (S&B 1927). Succeeded by **Arthur Goldberg (Council of Foreign Relations)
15 Nov 1952 to 20 Feb 1953 - Administration of the Federal Civil Defense Administraton
10 Jan 1949 to 12 Jan 1953 - 31st Governor of Illinois.
Lieutenant: Sherwood Dixon Preceded by Dwight H. Green. Succeeded by William Stratton
Later that year, he went to London as Deputy United States Delegate to the Preparatory Commission of the United Nations Organization, a position he held until February 1946. When the head of the delegation fell ill, Stevenson assumed his role. His work at the Commission, and in particular his dealings with the representatives of the Soviet Union, resulted in appointments to the US delegations to the United Nations in 1946 and 1947.[3]
1945, Stevenson took a temporary position in the State Department, as special assistant to US Secretary of State Edward Stettinius (Seven) to work with Assistant Secretary of State Archibald MacLeish (S&B1915) on a proposed world organization.[3]
WW2 - With the outbreak of the war, Archibald MacLeish [S&B1915] had set up a committee on war information with representatives from the White House and the Departments of State, War, Navy, and Justice. Stevenson represented the Navy and was credited by MacLeish with making major contributions to the coordination of information policies that greatly increased the flow of news. In the Navy, he encouraged Knox to appear before congreesional committees and report on problems as well as progress. He proposed that top members of the department identify the congressmen and senators they knew and make regular calls on them, and that the unfamiliar ones be earmarked for the attention of one of them. His list included fifteen congressmen and ten senators. He also became a favourite source for guidance on Navy policy and war strategy for such writers as Walter Lippmann (Phi Beta Kappa) and Arthur Krock.[3,p83]
Worked for Cutting, Moore and Sidley.
1926 - Passed Illinois State Bar
Died 14 Jul 1965, from massive heart attack (from off script interview ?) Age 65
Note: Stevenson traveled to Geneva, Switzerland, to attend the annual meeting of the United Nations Economic and Social Council. After the conference he stopped in London for several days, where he visited UK Prime Minister Harold Wilson, discussed the situation in South Vietnam with British officials, and was interviewed by CBS newsman Eric Sevareid.
On the afternoon of July 14, while walking in London with his aide and romantic partner Marietta Tree to Grosvenor Square, Stevenson suffered a massive heart attack, and died later that day of heart failure at St George’s Hospital.
[1] - FYI - Wiki - Adlai Stevenson II
[2] - Dallek, Robert. Camelot’s Court: Inside the Kennedy White House. New York: HarperCollins, 2013
[6] - Find a Grave - Adlai Stevenson II
[7] - Son Adlai Ewing Stevenson III - Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress
[8] - Grandfather, Aladi Stevenson I, Vice President to President Grover Cleveland
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