Charles Woodruff Yost (November 6, 1907 – May 21, 1981) was a career U.S. Ambassador who was assigned as his country'srepresentative to theUnited Nations from 1969 to 1971.
Yost was born inWatertown, New York. He attended theHotchkiss School, where he was a member of the class of 1924 that includedRoswell Gilpatric,Paul Nitze and Chapman Rose, before graduating fromPrinceton University in 1928. He did postgraduate studies at the École des Hautes Études International (École pratique des hautes études) in Paris. Over the next year he traveled to Geneva, Berlin, the Soviet Union (with authorCroswell Bowen), Poland, Rumania, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Spain, and Vienna.
Yost joined theU.S. Foreign Service in 1930 on the advice of former Secretary of StateRobert Lansing, and served inAlexandria, Egypt as a consular officer, followed by an assignment inPoland. In 1933, he left the Foreign Service to pursue a career as a freelance foreign correspondent in Europe and a writer inNew York City.
After his marriage to Irena Rawicz-Oldakowska, he returned to theU.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 theBoard of Economic Warfare. Yost was appointed assistant chief of special research in 1942, and 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 theDumbarton Oaks Conference from August to October 1944, when he worked on Chapters VI and VII of theUnited Nations Charter. He then served at theUnited Nations Conference on International Organization in San Francisco in April 1945 as aide to Secretary of StateEdward Stettinius. In July of that year he was secretary-general of thePotsdam Conference.
In 1945, Yost was reinstated in the Foreign Service, and later that year he served as political adviser to U.S. Lieutenant GeneralRaymond Albert Wheeler on the staff ofLord Louis Mountbatten inKandy, Ceylon. He then became chargé d'affaires in Thailand during the short reign ofAnanda Mahidol. Throughout the late 1940s and the 1950s, his assignments took him toCzechoslovakia,Austria (twice), andGreece. In 1954, he was named minister toLaos, and he became the first United States ambassador there a year later. In 1957, he was minister counselor inParis. At the end of the same year he was named ambassador to Syria. Shortly after his appointment, Syria and Egypt formed theUnited Arab Republic, and the U.S. was asked to close its embassy inSyria. 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 AmbassadorAdlai Stevenson. After Stevenson's death in 1965, Yost stayed on as deputy to AmbassadorArthur Goldberg. In 1964, Yost was promoted to the rank of Career Ambassador, the highest professional Foreign Service level, in recognition of especially distinguished service over a sustained period.
In 1966 he resigned from the Foreign Service to begin his career as a writer, at theCouncil on Foreign Relations, and as a teacher, atColumbia University.
In 1969, PresidentRichard 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 theBrookings Institution, and teaching atGeorgetown University'sSchool of Foreign Service.
Yost set forth his views in a syndicated newspaper column, forThe 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, andHistory and Memory. He also wrote regular articles forThe New York Times and theWashington Post.
In 1974, Yost was awarded the Foreign Service Cup by his fellow Foreign Service officers.
In 1979, Yost was co-chairman of Americans for SALT II, a group that lobbied theSenate for passage of the secondStrategic Arms Limitation Treaty. He was a trustee of theAmerican University in Cairo, Egypt, and director of theAspen Institute for cultural exchanges withIran. He took part in the unofficialDartmouth Conferences of United States and Soviet scholars. In 1973, he was named head of theNational Committee on United States-China Relations; he visited the People's Republic of China in 1973 and 1977.
Yost died of cancer on May 21, 1981, atGeorgetown University Hospital inWashington, D.C., at age 73.[1]
Yost's papers are atPrinceton University Library's Mudd Library in its Department of Rare Books and Special Collections.[2]
Yost's ancestors, who were driven out of theGerman Palatinate byLouis XIV's armies in the late 17th century, settled in the valley of theMohawk River inNew York State. Others were ofScotch-Irish origin and came to America with the immigration that took place around the mid-18th century.
Yost's ancestor Edward Howell founded Watermill on Long Island, New York, and his ancestor Abraham Cooper foundedOxbow, New York. His ancestor Brigadier GeneralNicholas Herkimer was a Revolutionary War hero.
Yost's father, Nicholas, an attorney, judge, and bank president was married to Yost's mother, Gertrude, by Pastor Dulles, the father of Secretary of StateJohn Foster Dulles.
In 1934, Yost married Irena Rawicz-Oldakowska in Poland. Her father wasKazimierz Ołdakowski [pl], the pre-war director ofFabryka Broni. They had two sons, Nicholas and Casimir, and a daughter, Felicity.
| Diplomatic posts | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | United States Ambassador to Thailand Acting 1946 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | United States Ambassador to Laos 1954–1956 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | United States Ambassador to Syria 1958 | Succeeded byasUnited States Ambassador to the United Arab Republic |
| Preceded by | United States Ambassador to Morocco 1958–1961 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | United States Ambassador to the United Nations 1969–1971 | Succeeded by |
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Italics indicates acting | |||
