Ed Gullion

Ed Gullion   (diplomat)
Gullion (left) meeting with President John F. Kennedy in 1961.
Born	March 2, 1913 Lexington, Kentucky, US
Died	March 17, 1998 (Age 85)
Nationality	US
Alma mater	Princeton University, National War College
US career diplomat  Dean In office 1964 - 1978 Employer Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy  US/Ambassador to the Democratic Republic of the Congo In office 11 September 1961 - 20 February 1964 Succeeded by G. McMurtrie Godley A week after he arrived in Zaire, Dag Hammarskjöld's plane crashed.  US/Chief of Mission for Finland In office - June 30, 1944

Edmund Asbury Gullion was an American diplomat. He was dean of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy (1964–1978) and "one of the country's most accomplished career ambassadors."'

Gullion’s last post in the State Department was as the United States Ambassador to the recently independent Congo, described as "a flashpoint of the cold war." A week after he presented his papers for this job the Douglas DC-6 aircraft carrying UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld crashed. A declassified cable to Gullion suggests that Jan van Risseghem may have piloted a Katangese jet which shot down the DC-6.

Education

He graduated from Princeton University in 1935 and from the National War College in 1949.

Career

His first diplomatic mission was in Marseilles as a deputy consul in 1937. He was in the Congo from 1961 until 1964. He was also Chargé d'Affaires ad interim to Finland when the United States severed diplomatic relations with Finland on June 30, 1944, and Deputy Director of the U.S. Disarmament Administration (1960–1961). Gullion was stationed not only in Helsinki during WWII but also Salonika, Greece “ where he witnessed the entry of German troops into both areas and coordinated the departure of American citizens and diplomatic staff.” When he finished at the National War College, he spent three years as Consul General and Counselor of the U.S. Embassy in Saigon, Vietnam, during the war in Indochina.

While he was in the Congo, what was termed as the "Congo crisis" was happening when the United Nations attempted to prevent the secession of the Katanga Province. Gullion and his staff were awarded for their work.

Gullion died at his home of a heart attack.

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