Herve Alphand
 Herve Alphand    ( diplomat) | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Evening organized by Hervé Alphand (front left) at the French Embassy in the United States with JFK and his wife Jacqueline on May 11, 1962, in honor of André Malraux. | ||||||||||
| Born | 31 May 1907 Paris, France | |||||||||
| Died | 13 January 1994 (Age 86) Paris, France | |||||||||
| Nationality | French | |||||||||
| Ethnicity | Jewish | |||||||||
| Alma mater | • Lycée Janson-de-Sailly • Sciences Po | |||||||||
| Parents | Charles Alphand | |||||||||
| Siblings | André Alphand | |||||||||
| Interests | Marshall Plan | |||||||||
Bilderberger senior French diplomat, Marshall Plan, Ambassador to NATO and United States. Attended the 1974 Bilderberg conference at the end of his active career.
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Hervé Alphand was a French diplomat. He was the French representative at the 1947 conference which defined the program of the Marshall plan, and later became Ambassador to NATO and United States. He attended the 1974 Bilderberg conference at the end of his active career.
Background
Born into a Jewish family of high-ranking officials and diplomats, Hervé Alphand is the son of Charles Alphand, French ambassador to Ireland (from 1930 to 1932), in the Soviet Union (from 1933 to 1934), then in Switzerland (from 1936 to 1940), and Jeanne Margerin de Crémont. He is the brother of the diplomat André Alphand.[1]
Education
Hervé Alphand completed his secondary studies at the Lycée Janson-de-Sailly. He studied law and graduated from Sciences Po.
Career
In 1930, at only 23 years old, he joined the Inspectorate of Finance - from which he would be excluded by the Vichy government when the statute of the Jews was adopted in 1940.[1] He married the same year, 1930, the music-hall singer Claude Raynaud (1905-1995) (sister-in-law of Claude Bouchinet-Serreulles) whom he divorced in 1957 to marry Nicole Merenda, a Swiss citizen, divorced from the aviation pioneer Étienne Bunau-Varilla.
At the age of 27, he was sent to Ankara to help the government of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk reorganize Turkey's finances, then he was appointed financial attaché in Moscow in 1936 before occupying various positions at the Ministry of Commerce.
When the Second World War broke out, he was financial advisor to the French Embassy in Washington. Opposed to the Vichy government, he resigned in 1941 and joined General de Gaulle in London. He was then appointed national commissioner for the Economy, Finance and Colonies, then director of economic Affairs of the French Committee for National Liberation (CFLN), first in London, then in Algiers, and became one of De Gaulle's close confidants.[2]
At the liberation of Paris, in 1944, Alphand became director of economic affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In this capacity, he participates in conferences on security and reconstruction in Europe. He is notably the representative of France at the Conference of the Sixteen, in July 1947, which defined the program of the Marshall plan.
Ambassador
Elevated to the dignity of French ambassador in 1950[3], he was French representative to NATO between 1952 and 1954, then permanent representative of France to the UN in 1955. He held the position of French Ambassador to the United States between 1956 and 1965[4]. He then played a leading role in Franco-American relations. In particular, he had to explain the Algerian war in a context of decolonization and then, with the return of De Gaulle to power in 1958, justify the French position on NATO which eventually led to the withdrawal of France from the integrated military command of the pact in 1966.
During their stay in Washington, Alphand and his wife Nicole (ex-wife of Étienne Bunau-Varilla), whom he married in 1958, made the French embassy a renowned reception venue for American society, maintaining in particular friendly relations with the presidential couple, JFK and his wife Jacqueline.[5]
Returning to Paris in 1965, he became secretary general of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs until 1972. He then carried out diplomatic missions in the Middle East and the Far East and then published his memoirs in 1977. He died in Paris on January 13, 1994.
Event Participated in
| Event | Start | End | Location(s) | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bilderberg/1974 | 19 April 1974 | 21 April 1974 | France Hotel Mont d' Arbois Megève | The 23rd Bilderberg, held in France |
References
- ↑ Jump up to: a b Jean-François Kesler, Les Hauts fonctionnaires, la politique et l'argent : Grandeur et décadence de l'Etat républicain, Albin Michel, 1er juillet 2016, 320 p.
- ↑ Georgette Elgey, Histoire de la IVe République, tome I : de 1945 à 1957, Robert Laffont, rééd. 2018, p. 96.
- ↑ https://www.lemonde.fr/archives/article/1950/08/24/m-herve-alphand-nomme-ambassadeur-de-france_2057404_1819218.html
- ↑ https://www.cairn.info/les-ambassadeurs--9782724612578-page-145.htm
- ↑ http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,898008-1,00.html
