Paul Nitze
Paul Nitze | |
---|---|
12th United States Deputy Secretary of Defense | |
In office July 1, 1967 – January 20, 1969 | |
President | Lyndon B. Johnson |
Preceded by | Cyrus Vance |
Succeeded by | David Packard |
58th United States Secretary of the Navy | |
In office November 29, 1963 – June 30, 1967 | |
President | Lyndon B. Johnson |
Preceded by | Fred Korth |
Succeeded by | Paul Ignatius |
Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs | |
In office January 29, 1961 – November 29, 1963 | |
President | John F. Kennedy Lyndon B. Johnson |
Preceded by | John N. Irwin II |
Succeeded by | William Bundy |
Director of Policy Planning | |
In office January 1, 1950[1] – May 28, 1953 | |
President | Harry S. Truman Dwight D. Eisenhower |
Preceded by | George F. Kennan |
Succeeded by | Robert R. Bowie |
Personal details | |
Born | Paul Henry Nitze January 16, 1907 Amherst, Massachusetts, U.S. |
Died | October 19, 2004 Washington, D.C., U.S. | (aged 97)
Spouses | Phyllis Pratt
(m. 1932; died 1987)Elisabeth Scott Porter
(m. 1993) |
Education | Harvard University (BA) |
Paul Henry Nitze (January 16, 1907 – October 19, 2004) was an American businessman and government official who served as
Early life, education and family
Nitze was born in Amherst, Massachusetts, the son of Anina Sophia (Hilken), a homemaker, and William Albert Nitze, a professor of Romance linguistics who concluded his career at the University of Chicago.[3][4] His parents were both of German descent. His ancestors came from the region of Magdeburg in the state of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. In his memoir, From Hiroshima to Glasnost, Paul Nitze describes how as a young boy he witnessed the outbreak of World War I while he was traveling in Germany with his father, mother, and sister, arriving in Munich just in time to be struck by the city crowds' patriotic enthusiasm for the imminent conflict.
Nitze attended
In 1928 and 1929, the
In 1932, he married Phyllis Pratt, daughter of John Teele Pratt, a Standard Oil financier, and of Ruth Baker Pratt, Republican Congresswoman for New York. She died in 1987. They had four children: Heidi, Peter, William, and Phyllis Anina (Nina). The journalist Nicholas Thompson, who wrote a biography of Nitze and George F. Kennan, is his grandson.[6] He was married to Elisabeth Scott Porter from 1993 until his death in 2004.
Nitze's brother-in-law, Walter Paepcke, founded the Aspen Institute and Aspen Skiing Company. Nitze continued to ski in Aspen until well into his 80s.
Government career
Nitze entered government service during
In the early postwar era and Cold War, he served in the Truman Administration as Director of Policy Planning for the State Department (1950–1953). He was also the principal author in 1950 of the highly influential but secret National Security Council policy paper, NSC 68, which provided the strategic outline for increased US expenditures to counter the perceived threat of Soviet armament. During the Korean War, he advised the Truman administration against blaming the Soviet Union for the conflict too directly in order to avoid risking an escalation to World War III.[8]
From 1953 to 1961, Nitze served as president of the
Nitze co-founded the
Following his term as Secretary of the Navy, he served as Deputy Secretary of Defense (1967–1969), as a member of the US delegation to the
Paul Nitze was a cofounder of
According to Anne Cahn of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency (1977–1980), "if you go through most of Team B's specific allegations about weapons systems, and you just examine them one by one, they were all wrong." Nonetheless, some still claim that its conclusions about Soviet strategical aims were largely proven to be true, but this hardly squares with the elevation of Gorbachev in 1985.[11] Nitze was President Ronald Reagan's chief negotiator of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (1981–1984). In 1984, Nitze was named Special Advisor to the President and Secretary of State on Arms Control.
For more than forty years, Nitze was one of the chief architects of US policy toward the Soviet Union.
Awards and honors
In 1985 President Reagan awarded Nitze the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his contributions to the freedom and security of the United States.[12]
In 1986, he received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement.[13][14]
In 1989, Nitze received the US Senator John Heinz Award for Greatest Public Service by an Elected or Appointed Official, an award given out annually by Jefferson Awards.[15]
In 1991, he was awarded the prestigious
In 1997, Nitze was awarded the Naval Heritage Award by the US Navy Memorial Foundation for his support of the US Navy while he was Secretary of the Navy.[citation needed]
Death and legacy
Nitze died in Washington, D.C., at age 97 in October 2004.[17]
- The Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS Nitze is named in his honor. Nitze visited the ship for several ceremonial occasions prior to his death.
- The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies of the Johns Hopkins University is named in his honor.
- St. Mary's College of Maryland, where he served as a trustee, has an honors program in his name.
Offices and positions held
- Vice chairman of the U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey (1944–1946)
- Director of Policy Planning for the United States Department of State (1950–1953)
- Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs (1961–1963)
- Secretary of the Navy (1963–1967)
- Deputy Secretary of Defense (1967–1969)
- Member of the US delegation to the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (1969–1973)
- Special Adviser to the President and Secretary of State on Arms Control (1984–1989)
Quotes
- "I have been around at a time when important things needed to be done."[citation needed]
- "One of the most dangerous forms of human error is forgetting what one is trying to achieve."[18]
See also
- Dangerous Capabilities: Paul Nitze and the Cold War
References
- ^ "Directors of the Policy Planning Staff".
- ^ Strobe Talbott, The Master of the Game: Paul Nitze and the Nuclear Peace (1989).
- ^ "Nitze, Paul Henry - The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives - Encyclopedia.com".
- ^ "Guide to the Elizabeth H. Paepcke Papers 1889-1994".
- ^ "Paul Nitze". The Times. October 22, 2004.
- ^ Interview with Thompson on "New Books in History"
- ^ "Paul H. Nitze". The Telegraph. 21 October 2004.
- ISBN 978-0-691-18424-1, retrieved 2022-02-1
- ISBN 1-55750-260-9.
- ^ "DDG-94 Nitze". globalsecurity.org. 7 May 2011. Retrieved 23 July 2013.
- ^ Tanenhaus, Sam (November 11, 2003). "The Hard Liner". The Boston Globe. Retrieved June 9, 2006.
- ^ "Remarks at the Presentation Ceremony for the Presidential Medal of Freedom". Ronald Reagan. Retrieved 2023-08-22.
- American Academy of Achievement.
- ^ "Ben Bradlee Biography Photo". 1988.
Awards Council member and statesman Paul H. Nitze presents the Golden Plate Award to Ben Bradlee during the 1988 Achievement Summit in Nashville, Tennessee.
- ^ "National - Jefferson Awards Foundation". Archived from the original on 2010-11-24. Retrieved 2013-08-05.
- ^ "Namesake".
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2017-08-29.
- ^ "Paul Nitze Quotes at BrainyQuote".
This article incorporates public domain text from the United States Navy.
Further reading
- Callahan, David. Dangerous Capabilities: Paul Nitze and the Cold War (1990) online
- Drew, S. Nelson, and Paul H. Nitze. NSC-68 forging the strategy of containment (1994) online.
- Gaddis, John Lewis, and Paul Nitze. "NSC 68 and the Soviet Threat Reconsidered." International Security 4.4 (1980): 164–176. doi:10.2307/2626672
- Nitze, Paul, with Ann M Smith. From Hiroshima to Glasnost: At the Center of Decision: A Memoir (1989) online
- Talbott, Strobe. The Master of the Game: Paul Nitze and the Nuclear Peace (1989), scholarly biography; online
- Thompson, Nicholas. The Hawk and the Dove: Paul Nitze, George Kennan, and the History of the Cold War (2010) excerpt
External links
- Annotated bibliography for Paul Nitze from the Alsos Digital Library for Nuclear Issues Archived 2006-08-28 at the Wayback Machine
- Interview about the SALT I negotiations for the WGBH series War and Peace in the Nuclear Age
- Appearances on C-SPAN