2024-06-26

John Gunther Dean - Wikipedia

John Gunther Dean - Wikipedia


John Gunther Dean

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
John Gunther Dean
Ambassador Dean arriving in Thailand, 1975
United States Ambassador to India
In office
September 6, 1985 – November 7, 1988
PresidentRonald Reagan
Preceded byHarry G. Barnes, Jr.
Succeeded byJohn R. Hubbard
United States Ambassador to Thailand
In office
October 26, 1981 – June 6, 1985
PresidentRonald Reagan
Preceded byMorton I. Abramowitz
Succeeded byWilliam Andreas Brown
United States Ambassador to Lebanon
In office
October 10, 1978 – June 23, 1981
PresidentJimmy Carter
Ronald Reagan
Preceded byRichard Bordeaux Parker
Succeeded byRobert Sherwood Dillon
United States Ambassador to Denmark
In office
November 6, 1975 – July 18, 1978
PresidentGerald Ford
Jimmy Carter
Preceded byPhilip K. Crowe
Succeeded byWarren Demian Manshel
United States Ambassador to the Khmer Republic
In office
April 3, 1974 – April 12, 1975
PresidentRichard Nixon
Gerald Ford
Preceded byEmory C. Swank
Succeeded byPosition abolished
Personal details
Born
Gunther Dienstfertig

February 24, 1926
BreslauGermany
(now Wrocław, Poland)
DiedJune 6, 2019 (aged 93)
ParisFrance
SpouseMartine Duphenieux
Children3
Alma materHarvard University (B.S., M.A.)
University of Paris (J.D.)
ProfessionDiplomat

John Gunther Dean (born Gunther Dienstfertig; February 24, 1926 – June 6, 2019) was an American diplomat. From 1974 to 1988, he served as the United States ambassador to five nations under four American presidents.

Early life[edit]

Dean was born as Gunther Dienstfertig in Breslau, Germany, into a Jewish family, the son of Lucy (Askenazy) and prominent lawyer Joseph Dienstfertig.[1] As a child, he attended the exclusive Von Zawatzki Schule in Breslau. Escaping the rise of Nazism, the family left Germany in December 1938 and arrived in the United States in February. His original first name was Gunther; however, an immigration officer expanded it to John Gunther, to avoid it sounding “too German.” In March 1939, the family changed its surname from Dienstfertig to Dean at the City Court of New York, to better integrate into their neighborhood in Queens. They eventually arrived in Kansas City, Missouri, where his father briefly lectured at the University of Kansas.[2]

Education[edit]

Graduating from high school in Kansas City at the age of 16, he went on to Harvard University. Dean interrupted his education 1944 to serve in the United States Army. In 1946, he then returned to Harvard and obtained his undergraduate degree (B.S. Magna Cum Laude, 1947). He received his doctorate in law from the Sorbonne (1949), and returned to Harvard again to obtain a graduate degree in international relations (M.A., 1950).[2][3][4]

Career before the Foreign Service[edit]

In 1944, Dean became a naturalized United States citizen. He interrupted his education and served in the United States Army from 1944 to 1946, utilizing his language skills with the Office of Military Intelligence. Dean was trained at Fort Belvoir, after which he was sent to a top-secret intelligence site named Post Office Box 1142. There, he helped American authorities debrief scientists from Nazi Germany. After he left he was offered a job in the newly formed Central Intelligence Agency, which he refused on advice from his father.[2]

In 1950 Dean worked in government service as an economic analyst with the European Headquarters of the Economic Cooperation Administration in Paris, France. From 1951 to 1953 he was an industrial analyst with ECA in Brussels, Belgium. From 1953 to 1956 he was assistant economic commissioner with the International Cooperation Administration in French Indo-China with accreditation in SaigonPhnom Penh, and Vientiane.

Diplomatic career[edit]

Dean passed the Foreign Service Examination in 1954. He formally began his service as an officer with the U.S. Department of State in the spring of 1956. From 1956 to 1958 he served as a political officer in VientianeLaos, and then from 1959 to 1960 he opened the first American consulate in LoméTogo. From 1960 to 1961 he was Chargé d'affaires in BamakoMali where he again opened the first American consulate. He then became the officer in charge of Mali-Togo affairs in the Department of State from 1961 to 1963. Dean was awarded a Meritorious Service Award from the Department for his work there in 1963.[5] Also in 1963 Dean was an adviser to the U.S. delegation to the 18th Session of the United Nations General Assembly, and during 1964–1965 he was an international relations officer in the NATO section of the Department of State. Dean went to Paris in 1965 as a political officer and served there until 1969. From 1969 to 1970 he was a fellow at Harvard's Center for International Affairs in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

He was then detailed to the U.S. military as Deputy to the Commander of Military Region 1 in South Vietnam where he served as Regional Director for Civil Operations and Revolutionary Development Support (CORDS) until 1972. While in Da Nang, South Vietnam, he helped to protect the Cham Museum for which he was officially thanked in 2005 by the Vietnamese and French authorities. From 1972 to 1974 he was the deputy chief of mission/Chargé d'affaires in Vientiane, Laos. He is credited for having helped the establishment of a coalition government which saved thousands of lives after the Fall of Saigon in 1975. Dean was appointed Ambassador to Cambodia in March 1974 and served until all American personnel were evacuated on 12 April 1975.

In August 1980, while serving as ambassador to Lebanon, Dean was the target of an assassination attempt, which, evidence dictated, was directed by Israel.[6][7][8] According to him:

Weapons financed and given by the United States to Israel were used in an attempt to kill an American diplomat! Undoubtedly using a proxy, our ally Israel had tried to kill me.

Dean's suspicions that Israeli agents may have also been involved in the mysterious aircraft crash in 1988 that killed Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, the president of Pakistan, led to a decision in Washington to declare him mentally unfit, which forced his resignation from the foreign service after a thirty-year career. Later he was rehabilitated by the State Department, given a distinguished service medal and the insanity charge was confirmed to be phony by a former head of the department's medical service.[6]

Dean retired from the U.S. Foreign Service in 1989. Dean's freelancing efforts to get the Reagan Administration to reverse its policies on Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India angered high administration officials, and he left government service soon thereafter.

Personal life[edit]

Dean spoke four languages: English, French, German, and Danish. He was the first U.S. Ambassador to Denmark who learned and spoke Danish, thus gaining significant respect from its people. He was married to the French-born Martine Duphenieux, and they had three grown children. He lived in Switzerland and France but remained active on foreign affairs issues and went to the United States often. He died in June 2019 at the age of 93.[9]

While stationed in Paris (1965–69), Dean played a major role in bringing the U.S.-North Vietnam peace talks to Paris in 1968. In Lebanon, Dean was helpful in obtaining the release of the first American hostages in Tehran. In India, Dean helped bring about the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan according to an agreed time table.

In the film The Killing Fields, Dean is portrayed by Ira Wheeler. The evacuation of Phnom Penh scene was filmed near Bangkok in 1983 and Wheeler met Dean, who was then the U.S. Ambassador to Thailand.[10]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Röder, Werner; Strauss, Herbert A.; Schneider, Dieter Marc; Forsyth, Louise (10 November 2011). Politik, Wirtschaft, Öffentliches LebenISBN 9783110970289.
  2. Jump up to:a b c Bhattacherjee, Kallol (19 June 2017). The Great Game in Afghanistan: Rajiv Gandhi, General Zia and the Unending WarHarperCollinsISBN 9789352644391.
  3. ^ "John Gunther Dean"The American Academy of Diplomacy. Retrieved 2022-12-14.
  4. ^ Seelye, Katharine Q. (2019-06-11). "John Gunther Dean, U.S. Ambassador as Cambodia Fell, Dies at 93"The New York TimesISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-12-14.
  5. ^ "He Won the Race to Mali For the United States"State Department Newsletter: 48. June 1963 – via Hathitrust.
  6. Jump up to:a b US Envoy Writes of Israeli Threats By Barbara Crossette, March 31, 2009
  7. ^ O'Ballance, Civil War in Lebanon (1998), p. 111.
  8. ^ New book gives credence to US ambassador’s claim that Israel tried to assassinate him in 1980Philip Weiss, 22, 2018, Mondoweiss
  9. ^ John Dean obituary
  10. ^ Gray, Spalding (1986). Swimming to Cambodia. Pan Books. pp. 41–42ISBN 0-330-29947-6.

Bibliography[edit]

Book published 2009 DANGER ZONES: A Diplomat's Fight for America's Interests, published by the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training.

External links[edit]

Diplomatic posts
Preceded byUnited States Ambassador to the Khmer Republic
1974 – 1975
Succeeded by
None
(Diplomatic ties temporarily severed in 1975)
Preceded byUnited States Ambassador to Denmark
1975 – 1978
Succeeded by
Preceded byUnited States Ambassador to Lebanon
1978 – 1981
Succeeded by
Preceded byUnited States Ambassador to The Kingdom of Thailand
1981 – 1985
Succeeded by
Preceded byUnited States Ambassador to India
1985 – 1988
Succeeded by

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