Fletcher Warren
 Fletcher Warren    (diplomat) | |
|---|---|
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| Born | 1896 Texas, USA |
| Died | 1992 (Age 95) |
| Nationality | US |
| Alma mater | University of Texas |
US diplomat. "Begin earnestly trying to keep our allies and friends, whether they be the purest Democracies or the most blatant dictators".
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William Fletcher Warren was a US diplomat.[1][2][3]
Begin earnestly trying to keep our allies and friends, whether they be the purest Democracies or the most blatant dictators...Recognize that, so far as we are concerned, there is no unimportant country today and that there is no insignificant international event.[4]
Contents
Career
A native of Wolfe City, Texas, Fletcher entered the diplomatic service in 1921. His first overseas assignment was Havana, and he later worked in Nicaragua, Colombia, Hungary and Latvia. He was successively Ambassador to Nicaragua, Paraguay and Venezuela in the 1940's and 1950's, and to Turkey from 1956 until he retired in 1961.[5]
Nicaragua
Warren was ambassador to Nicaragua when Anastasio Somoza García de facto ruled the country. Somoza had been head of the National Guard during the US occupation, which ended in 1933.
We had friends in both parties. We knew General Anastasio Somoza very well indeed, his whole family, his in-laws as well, and we liked them all. Our experience with Somoza as the head of the National Guard while I was there as the secretary of legation made us glad to return to Managua... There was much political opposition to Somoza.... We had men there in tobacco, cigarette manufacturing, in mining, and in shipping. We had two Americans who were high in the ranks of the Nicaraguan government... Then, as I said, there were all the friends in the government, in the business, in society. So it was truly a splendid homecoming for us. We worked hard. We knew the President; we knew his three children, a little girl in pigtails and two boys, Luis and "Tachito," (Anastasio Jr.). Well, as you know, later, after we left there, Somoza was assassinated. Luis was the first son to become President and it's generally considered, I think, today that he made a good President.[6]
Turkey
As Ambassador to Turkey, Warren signed three military treaties in 1958 with Turkey, Iran and Pakistan that welded the United States more firmly to the anti-Communist security agreement known as the Baghdad Pact.[5]Turkish prime minister Adnan Menderes had been following a proactive policy in the Middle East in order to promote the interests of the West and to enhance Turkey's role in the region. He did so to such a degree that he earned himself the nickname "Gendarme of the West," while the domestic opposition accused him of being Washington's lackey. Menderes first tried to get Syria to join the Baghdad Pact. He then cooperated with the US to provoke a regime change in Damascus.[7]
In 1960 Menderes stated that he would travel to Moscow to try to obtain Soviet economic support, as he struggled to procure loans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the US on agreeable terms,[7] He was then toppled in a coup.[8]
On May 28, 1960, Ambassador Warren sat down with Cemal Gürsel, the general who, at 4 o'clock the previous morning had seized control of Turkish government. Ambassador Warren, citing the many coups he had seen as a diplomat in Latin America, told Turkey’s new leader that his had been “by far the most precise, most efficient, and most rapid coup” he had ever seen.[8]
References
- ↑ https://history.state.gov/departmenthistory/people/warren-william-fletcher
- ↑ https://www.ci.greenville.tx.us/DocumentCenter/View/993/Fletcher-Warren?bidId=
- ↑ https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/oral-histories/warrenw
- ↑ https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/oral-histories/warrenw3#oh3
- ↑ a b https://www.nytimes.com/1992/01/12/obituaries/fletcher-warren-95-a-former-ambassador.html
- ↑ https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/oral-histories/warrenw3#oh3
- ↑ a b https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/293/edited_volume/chapter/3692126
- ↑ a b https://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/the-menderes-metaphor-79974
