Charles Woodruff Yost

Charles W. Yost born in Watertown, N.Y., on November 6, 1907; died in Washington, D.C., in May 1981) was a career U.S. diplomat and United States Ambassador to the United Nations from 1969 to 1971.

Biography
Charles Yost was born in Watertown, New York, on November 6, 1907. He attended the Hotchkiss School, with Roswell Gilpatric and Paul Nitze, before graduating from Princeton University in 1928. He did postgraduate studies at the École des Hautes Études International in Paris. Over the next year he traveled to Geneva, Berlin, the Soviet Union, Poland, Rumania, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Spain, and Vienna.

Yost joined the U.S. Foreign Service in 1930 on the advice of former Secretary of State Robert Lansing, and he served in Alexandria, Egypt as a consular officer, followed by an assignment in Poland. In 1933 he left the Foreign Service to pursue a career as a freelance foreign correspondent in Europe and a writer in New York. After his marriage to Irena Rawicz-Oldakowska, he returned to the U.S. State Department in 1935, becoming assistant chief of the Division of Arms and Munitions Control in 1936. In 1941, he represented the State Department on the Policy Committee of the Board of Economic Warfare. Yost was appointed assistant chief of special research in 1942, and he was made assistant chief of the Division of Foreign Activity Correlation in 1943. In February of the next year he became executive secretary of the Department of State Policy Committee. He attended the Dumbarton Oaks Conference from August to October 1944, when he worked on Chapters VI and VII of the United Nations Charter. He then served at the United Nations Conference on International Organization in San Francisco in April 1945 as aide to Secretary of State Edward Stettinius. In July of that year he was secretary-general of the Potsdam Conference.

In 1945 Yost was reinstated in the Foreign Service, and later that year he served as political adviser to U.S. Lieutenant General Raymond Albert Wheeler on the staff of Lord Louis Mountbatten in Kandy, Ceylon. He then became chargé d'affaires in Thailand. Throughout the late 1940s and the 1950s, his assignments took him to Czechoslovakia, Austria (twice), and Greece. In 1954, he was named minister to Laos, and he became the first United States ambassador there a year later. In 1957, he was minister counselor in Paris. At the end of the same year he was named ambassador to Syria. Shortly after his appointment, Syria and Egypt formed the United Arab Republic, and the U.S. was asked to close its embassy in Syria. Yost was then sent as ambassador to Morocco in 1958.

In 1961, he began his first assignment at the United Nations as the deputy to Ambassador Adlai Stevenson. After Stevenson's death in 1965, Yost stayed on as deputy to Ambassador Arthur Goldberg. Yost was promoted to career ambassador, the highest professional Foreign Service rank, before resigning from the Foreign Service in 1966 to begin his career as a writer, at the Council on Foreign Relations, and as a teacher, at Columbia University.

In 1969, President Richard Nixon called Yost out of retirement to become the permanent United States representative to the United Nations. He resigned in 1971 and returned to writing, at the Brookings Institution, and teaching at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service.

Yost set forth his views in a syndicated newspaper column, for the Christian Science Monitor, and in four books — The Age of Triumph and Frustration: Modern Dialogues, The Insecurity of Nations, The Conduct and Misconduct of Foreign Relations, and History and Memory.

In 1979, Yost was co-chairman of Americans for SALT II, a group that lobbied the Senate for passage of the second Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty. He was a trustee of the American University in Cairo, Egypt, and director of the Aspen Institute for cultural exchanges with Iran. He took part in the unofficial Dartmouth Conferences of United States and Soviet scholars. In 1973, he was named head of the National Committee on United States-China Relations; he visited the People's Republic of China in 1973 and 1977.

Yost died of cancer in May 1981 at Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, D.C.

His papers are at Princeton University Library. Dept. of Rare Books and Special Collections under call number MC193.

Family
Yost’s ancestors, who were driven out of the German Palatinate by Louis XIV’s armies at the end of the 17th century, settled in the Valley of the Mohawk River in New York State. Others were of Scotch-Irish origin and came to this country with the immigration that took place about the middle of the 18th century.

Yost’s ancestor, Edward Howell, founded Watermill on Long Island, New York and his ancestor Abraham Cooper founded Oxbow, New York. His ancestor, Brigadier General Nicholas Herkimer, was a Revolutionary War hero.

Yost’s father Nicholas, an attorney, judge and bank president was married to his mother Gertrude by Pastor Dulles the father of Secretary of State John Foster Dulles.

In 1934, Yost married Irena Rawicz-Oldakowska in Poland. They had two sons, Nicholas and Casimir, and a daughter Felicity.

Career Timeline

 * 1931: Vice Consul Alexandria, Egypt
 * 1932: Vice Consul Warsaw, Poland
 * 1933: Resigned from the Foreign Service and became a journalist
 * 1935:
 * 1) Progress Report Specialist at the Resettlement Administration
 * 2) Divisional Assistant, U.S. Department of State, Division of Western European Affairs;
 * 1936 Assistant Chief, U.S. Department of State, Division of Arms and Munitions Control
 * 1939: Assistant Chief, U.S. Department of State, Division of Controls
 * 1941:
 * 1) Assistant Chief, U.S. Department of State, Division of Exports and Defense Aid
 * 2) Assistant to the U.S. High Commissioner to the Philippine Commonwealth
 * 1941-42: Designated to act in Liaison between Division of European Affairs of State Department and British Empire Division of the Board of Economic Warfare
 * 1942:
 * 1) Assistant Chief, U.S. Department of State, Division of European Affairs
 * 2) Assistant Chief, U.S. Department of State, Division of Special Research
 * 1943: Office of Foreign Economic Coordination, U.S. Department of State,
 * 1943-44: Assistant Chief, U.S. Department of State, Division of Foreign Activity Correlation
 * 1944:
 * 1) Executive Secretary, Department of State Policy Committee
 * 2) Executive Secretary, U.S. Department of State, Joint Secretariat of Executive Staff Commission
 * 3) Assistant to the Chairman for the Dumbarton Oaks Conference
 * 1945:
 * 1) Special Assistant to the Chairman, Secretary of State Stettinius, U.S. Delegation to the United Nations Conference on International Organizations, San Francisco
 * 2) Secretary-General, U.S. Delegation, Berlin Conference, Potsdam Agreement
 * 3) Assigned as U.S. Political Advisor to General Wheeler, Deputy Supreme Allied Commander to the Southeast Asia Command (SEAC), India & Ceylon
 * 4) Assigned as U.S. Political Advisor to General Thomas Terry, Commander of the American India-Burma Theater
 * 1946:
 * 1) Chargé d’affairs, Bangkok, Thailand
 * 2) U.S. Delegation to UNESCO, United Nations, Lake Success, New York
 * 3) Political Advisor to U.S. Delegation, General Assembly of the United Nations
 * 1947: First Secretary & Counselor, Prague, Czechoslovakia
 * 1947-49: First Secretary & Counselor of Legation, Vienna, Austria
 * 1949:
 * 1) Member of U.S. Delegation; Special Assistant to Ambassador at Large for Sixth Session of the Council of Foreign Ministers Meeting, Paris, France
 * 2) Member of Delegation to Fourth Regular Session of GA of UN as Special Assistant to Ambassador at Large
 * 3) Director of the Office of Eastern European Affairs, Department of State
 * 1950:
 * 1) Director of the Office of Eastern European Affairs, Department of State
 * 2) Special Assistant to Ambassador at Large, Deputy Policy Advisor to the U.S. Delegation to the United Nations, New York
 * 3) European Affairs Rep., U.S. Department of State, on Policy Comm. on Immigration and Naturalization
 * 4) U.S. Department of State, Policy Planning Staff
 * 1950-53: Counselor with Personal rank of Minister, Athens, Greece
 * 1953: Deputy High Commissioner & Deputy Chief of Mission, Vienna, Austria
 * 1954: Minister, Vientiane, Laos
 * 1955-1956: Ambassador, Laos
 * 1956: Minister, Paris, France
 * 1957-58: Ambassador, Damascus, Syria
 * 1958:
 * 1) Foreign Affairs Specialist, U.S. Department of State, Policy Planning Staff
 * 1958-61: Ambassador, Rabat, Morocco
 * 1961-65: U.S. Deputy Representative to the United Nations with Adlai Stevenson
 * 1965-66: U.S. Deputy Representative to the United Nations with Arthur Goldberg
 * 1966:
 * 1) Bureau of Near East & South Asian Affairs, State Department
 * 2) Chairman, United Nations Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East (ECAFE), New Delhi
 * 3) Resigned from the Foreign Service
 * 1966-69: Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations
 * 1967:
 * 1) Consultant to the State Department, member of the Panel of Advisers on Near East, South Asian and International Organizations
 * 2) President Johnson's Special Envoy to the Middle East (May-June)
 * 1968: U.S. Presidential envoy to Egypt
 * 1969-71:
 * U.S. Representative to the United Nations, New York . President of the Security Council
 * 1970-80: Member of the Dartmouth Conference Delegation
 * 1971: Resigned from the Foreign Service
 * 1971-73:
 * 1) Counselor to UN Association
 * 2) Professor at Columbia University's School of International Affairs
 * 1973-75: President, National Committee on US-China Relations
 * 1974: Professor at Rockefeller Foundation's Villa Serbelloni Study and Conference Center in Bellagio
 * 1975-81: Chairman, National Committee on US-China Relations
 * 1975-81:
 * 1) Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution
 * 2) Professor at the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy, Georgetown University
 * 1976-81: Special Advisor, Aspen Institute
 * 1977: Woodcock delegation to Vietnam.
 * 1979: Co-chairman Americans for SALT Strategic Arms Limitation Talks

Associations

 * Syndicated columnist for the Washington Post
 * Syndicated columnist for the Christian Science Monitor
 * Trustee of the American University in Cairo
 * Member of the Council on Foreign Relations
 * American Academy Political and Social Science
 * American Society International Law
 * Princeton Club
 * University Club
 * Century Association
 * Honorary Co-Chairman UN Association of U.S. America
 * Chairman of the Board, International House, New York City
 * American Philosophical Society
 * Chairman of the National Advertising Review Board
 * Editorial Board, Foreign Service Journal
 * Editorial Committee, VISTA Magazine
 * Institute for World Order
 * American Association for the Advancement of Science
 * The Fund for Investigative Journalism
 * Member of the Dartmouth Conferences

Honors

 * Hotchkiss Man of the Year
 * 1958: Appointed Career Minister
 * 1961: Lotus Award of Merit
 * 1964: Appointed Career Ambassador
 * 1964: Rockefeller Public Service Award
 * 1971: State Department Distinguished Honor Award
 * 1974: Awarded The Foreign Service Cup
 * Honorary Degree, Princeton University
 * Honorary Degree, St. Lawrence University
 * Honorary Doctor of Laws, Hamilton College
 * Honorary Doctor of Social Science, University of Louisville

Appearances Before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee

 * 1958: Executive Sessions of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (Historical Series), Vol. X, Eighty-Fifth Congress, Second Session- Statement and questioning of CWY to be Ambassador to Morocco
 * 7 February 1961: Executive Session, Tuesday- Nomination of CWY to be Deputy U.S. Representative, Security Council, United Nations
 * January 21, 1969: United States Senate, Committee on Foreign Relations, Nomination of CWY to be U.S. Representative to the UN
 * 26 May 1971: Senate Foreign Relations Committee-Statement on Southeast Asia
 * 18 May 1972: Committee on Foreign relations-Subcommittee on the Near East
 * 22 February 1973: Statement to Foreign Affairs Committee on the Rhodesian situation
 * 11 May 1973: Senate Foreign Relations Committee-International Court of Justice
 * 5 December 1973: Foreign Affairs Committee-United Nations Peacekeeping

Oral History Interviews

 * International Negotiations Project - Columbia University (May, 1974)
 * Interview with Charles Yost by Dr. Thomas Soapes - Oral Historian, Dwight D. Eisenhower Library (September, 1978)
 * Oral History Interview with Charles W. Yost by Sheldon Stern – JFK Library (Washington, DC, October, 1978)

Writings

 * The Age of Triumph and Frustration: Modern Dialogues (Speller, 1964)
 * The Insecurity of Nations: International Relations in the Twentieth Century (Praeger, 1968
 * The Pursuit of World Order (Villanova University Press, 1969)
 * The Conduct and Misconduct of Foreign Affairs (Random House, 1972)
 * American Foreign Policy in a New Era (Aspen Institute for Humanistic Studies, 1976)
 * History & Memory (Norton, 1980)

Articles and Papers by CWY

 * Carnegie Foundation "Bermuda" paper on Vietnam
 * "The United Nations: Crisis of Confidence and Will", Foreign Affairs Magazine, Oct., 1966
 * “The Arab-Israeli War: How It Began”, Foreign Affairs Magazine, Jan., 1968
 * “World Order and American Responsibility”, Foreign Affairs Magazine, Oct., 1968
 * “Israel and the Arabs: The Myths that Block Peace – Atlantic Magazine, 1969
 * “Last Chance for Peace in the Mideast” Life Magazine, 1971
 * "A Letter to a Soviet Friend", Life Magazine, September 24, 1971
 * "The Instruments of American Foreign Policy", Foreign Affairs Magazine, Oct., 1971
 * “Toward Peace in the Middle East: Report of a Study Group, The Brookings Institute, 1975
 * "National Security Revisited", Bulletin of the Atomic Scientist, Oct., 1980
 * “National and Collective Responsibility: The Governance of International Affairs”, Aspen Institute ‘Wye Paper’, 1981
 * BCSIA, Volume 6, Number 3, Winter 1981/82 "Commentary: The Governance of International Affairs"

CWY Online

 * On Jerusalem

Recordings

 * JFK Library: President's Office Files, Presidential Recordings, tape # 49 (Cuban Missile Crisis)


 * Radio Interview with Larry King (Washington, DC, 11/11/80)


 * Interview with Charles W. Yost by Charley Holmes (United Nations, 1964)

Archives

 * United Nations Archives, Private Papers of the Secretary-General: U Thant: Post Retirement 1971-1974, Correspondence with Individuals and Organizations- Misc. - 03/10/1972-28/12/1972 (Series 0893, Box 11, File 5, Acc. DAG 1/5.2.9.2
 * United Nations Archives, Peace-Keeping Operations Files of the Secretary-General: U Thant: Vietnam, Correspondence with Permanent Representatives of the United States of America to the UN and USA - 09/04/1965-08/10/1970 (Series S-0871, Box 1, File 9, DAG 1/5.2.2.3.1
 * United Nations Archives, Peace-Keeping Operations. Files of the Secretary-General: U Thant: Other Countries, Laos - Visit from Harriman and Yost- 19/05/1962-19/05/1962
 * United Nations Archives, Correspondence Files of the Secretary-General: U Thant: With Heads of State, Governments, Permanent Representatives and Observers, USA - Yost, Charles W.- 21/12/1968-13/04/1971 (Series 0882, Box 5, File 1, Acc. DAG 1/5.2.3
 * United Nations Archives, Peace-Keeping Operations. Files of the Secretary-General: U Thant: Middle East, Four-Power Meetings [US, USSR, Great Britain, France] 21/06/1967-25/05/1971 (Series S-0861, Box 1, File 7, Acc. DAG 1/5.2.2.1
 * John Foster Dulles Personal Papers
 * Joseph E. Johnson Oral History [www.unitedelite.net/johnson.pdf]

Foreign Relations of the U.S. with References to CWY

 * Foreign Relations of the US, Diplomatic Papers, 1941, Vol. IV, General: The Far East


 * Foreign Relations of the US, Diplomatic Papers, 1945, Vol. I, General: The United Nations


 * Foreign Relations of the US, Diplomatic Papers, 1945, Vol. VI, The British Commonwealth, The Far East


 * Foreign Relations of the US, 1946, Vol. I, General: The United Nations


 * Foreign Relations of the US, 1946, Vol.  VIII, The Far East


 * Foreign Relations of the US, 1947, Vol. II, Council of Foreign Ministers; Germany and Austria


 * Foreign Relations of the US, 1949, Vol. II, United Nations Organization


 * Foreign Relations of the US, 1949, Vol. III, Council of Foreign Ministers; Germany and Austria


 * Foreign Relations of the US, 1950, Vol. I, Foreign Economic Policy


 * Foreign Relations of the US, 1950, Vol. V, The Near East, South Asia, and Africa


 * Foreign Relations of the US, 1952–1954, Vol. VII, Germany and Austria (in two parts) Part 2


 * Foreign Relations of the US, 1961–1963, Vol. XI, Cuban Missile Crisis & Aftermath. #86, #93:, #112: , #138-139: , #153, #156, #163: , #183 #210, #212-213, #220, #223:  #233-234, #239, #245:  #253, #256, #259:


 * Foreign Relations of the US, 1961–1963, Vol. XVI, Cyprus; Greece; Turkey, #33, #63, #76, #78, #207, #358, #359, #369


 * Foreign Relations of the US, 1961–1963, Vol. XVII, Near East, 1961–1962, #242, #298


 * Foreign Relations of the US, 1961–1963, Vol. XVIII, Near East, 1962–1963, #320


 * Foreign Relations of the US, 1961–1963, Vol. XXIII, Southeast Asia


 * Foreign Relations of the US 1961-63, Volume XXV, Organization of Foreign Policy; Information Policy; United Nations; Scientific Matters, #35, #162, #165, #168, #177, #187, #207, #284, #287, #299


 * Foreign Relations of the US, 1964–1968, Vol. II, Vietnam, January-June 1965: Feb. 11-March 8, #161-162, #164:


 * Foreign Relations of the US, 1964–1968, Vol. II: Vietnam, July 29-November, 1965, #99, #106 ;state/history/vol iii/098.html #114:, #203, #207: , #278:


 * Foreign Relations of the US, 1964–1968, Vol. XIX, Arab-Israeli Crisis and War, 1967, #100


 * Foreign Relations of the US, 1969–1976, Vol. IV, Foreign Assistance, International Development, Trade Policies, 1969–1972, #26


 * Foreign Relations of the US, 1969–1976, Vol. V, United Nations 1969-1972,

Charles Woodruff Yost Charles Woodruff Yost