Nathaniel Davis

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Nathaniel Davis
United States Ambassador to Guatemala
In office
November 21, 1968 (1968-11-21) – August 21, 1971 (1971-08-21)
PresidentLyndon B. Johnson
Richard Nixon
Preceded byJohn Gordon Mein
Succeeded byWilliam G. Bowdler
Envoy of the United States to Bulgaria
In office
May 6, 1965 (1965-05-06) – May 20, 1966 (1966-05-20)
PresidentLyndon B. Johnson
Preceded byEugenie Anderson
Succeeded byJohn M. McSweeney
Personal details
Born(1925-04-12)April 12, 1925
Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy

Nathaniel Davis (April 12, 1925 – May 16, 2011)[1] was a career diplomat who served in the United States Foreign Service for 36 years. His final years were spent teaching at Harvey Mudd College, one of the Claremont Colleges.

Early years

Davis was born in

Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy of Tufts University
in 1960.

Diplomatic career

Davis began his Foreign Service career with an assignment in Prague in 1947, followed by postings in

.

Resignation

Communist People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), refuse to take sides in factional fighting, or increase support for the FNLA and UNITA. He warned, however, that supporting UNITA would not sit well with Mobutu Sese Seko, the ruler of Zaire.[4][5][6]

Davis was subsequently appointed

Ambassador to Switzerland (1976–1977). In 1977, Davis moved to Newport, Rhode Island, where he taught at the Naval War College
for six years as Diplomat in Residence. In 1983, he retired from the Foreign Service.

Lawsuit

When Costa-Gavras's film Missing was released by Universal Studios in 1982, Davis, who had been the United States Ambassador to Chile from 1971 to 1973, filed a US$150 million libel suit against the director and the studio. Although he was not named directly in the movie, he had been named in the book on which the movie was based. The court eventually dismissed Davis's suit. The film was removed from the market during the lawsuit but re-released upon dismissal of the suit.[7]

Academia, retirement, and death

While still in the Foreign Service, between 1977 and 1983, Davis taught at the

U.S. Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island, where one of his students was Oliver North.[8] Upon his retirement from the Foreign Service, Davis accepted a position as the first Alexander and Adelaide Hixon Professor of Humanities at Harvey Mudd College, in Claremont, California, where he taught political science from 1983 until his retirement in 2002, at which time he was named Professor Emeritus of Political Science.[9][10] During his time at Harvey Mudd College, he wrote a book, using research he had been working on since 1947, which had also been the basis for his doctoral dissertation, called A Long Walk to Church: a Contemporary History of Russian Orthodoxy. He wrote a second edition of the book in 2003.[11]

Davis was a skier and had awards and accomplishments in white water canoeing and mountain climbing, most notable of which was a "first ascent" of Mount Abanico in the Venezuelan Andes with George Band. (Band was a member of the team that first successfully climbed Mount Everest.) He also was a political activist, starting in the 1960s with the civil rights movement. Beginning in the 1980s, he held a variety of positions in the Democratic Party, both in California and nationally. On May 16, 2011, Davis died, aged 86, in Claremont, California.[12]

References

  1. ^ Douglas Martin (May 22, 2011). "Nathaniel Davis, Diplomat, Is Dead at 86". The New York Times.
  2. ).
  3. ^ Brown, Seyom. The Faces of Power: Constancy and Change in United States Foreign Policy from Truman to Clinton, 1994. Page 303.
  4. ^ Jussi HanhimÄki and Jussi M. Hanhim̀eaki. The Flawed Architect: Henry Kissinger and American Foreign Policy, 2004. Page 408.
  5. ^ Andrew, Christopher M. For the President's Eyes Only: Secret Intelligence and the American Presidency from Washington to Bush, 1995. Page 412.
  6. ^ Richard H. Immerman and Athan G. Theoharis. The Central Intelligence Agency: Security Under Scrutiny, 2006.asdqwtqw. Page 325.
  7. ^ nwo.media.xs2.net
  8. ^ Elaine Woo, "Nathaniel Davis dies at 86; U.S. ambassador to Chile when Allende was deposed." http://articles.latimes.com/2011/may/21/local/la-me-nathaniel-davis-20110521, May 21, 2011, retrieved Sept. 10, 2011.
  9. ^ Nathaniel Davis, A Long Walk to Church: A Contemporary History of Russian Orthodoxy,(Oxford: Westview Press, 2003), back cover
  10. ^ "Nathaniel Davis dies at 86; U.S. ambassador to Chile when Allende was deposed". Los Angeles Times. May 21, 2011.
  11. ^ Nathaniel Davis, A Long Walk to Church: A Contemporary History of Russian Orthodoxy,(Oxford: Westview Press, 2003).
  12. The Los Angeles Times incorrectly referenced the cause of death as cancer. Elaine Woo, "Nathaniel Davis dies at 86; U.S. ambassador to Chile when Allende was deposed."
    May 21, 2011, retrieved Sept. 10, 2011.

External links

Political offices
Preceded by Director General of the Foreign Service
November 13, 1973 – March 17, 1975
Succeeded by
Diplomatic posts
Preceded by Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs
April 2, 1975 – December 18, 1975
Succeeded by
William E. Schaufele, Jr.
Diplomatic posts
Preceded by
United States Ambassador to Bulgaria

June 4, 1965 – May 20, 1966
Succeeded by
Preceded by
United States Ambassador to Guatemala

November 21, 1968 – August 21, 1971
Succeeded by
Preceded by
United States Ambassador to Chile

20 October 1971 – 1 November 1973
Succeeded by
Preceded by
United States Ambassador to Switzerland

January 9, 1976 – July 31, 1977
Succeeded by