Norman Armour (October 14, 1887– September 27, 1982) was a career United States diplomat whomThe New York Times once called "the perfect diplomat". In his long career spanning both World Wars, he served as Chief of Mission in eight countries, as Assistant Secretary of State for Political Affairs, and married intoRussian nobility. He was theUnited States Ambassador to Canada, Haiti, Chile, Argentina, Spain, Venezuela, and Guatemala.
Armour was born inBrighton, England, while his parents were vacationing there.[1] He grew up inPrinceton, New Jersey, and graduated fromSt. Paul's School, and fromPrinceton University in 1909. In 1913, he graduated fromHarvard Law School, before returning to Princeton to study diplomacy. His first posts were toAustria in 1912 andFrance from 1915–1916 before formally entering the Foreign Service.
One of his first assignments in the Foreign Service was as Second Secretary in the United States embassy inPetrograd in theRussian Empire, beginning in 1916 (duringWorld War I). After the collapse of Czarist Russia, theBolsheviks seized control of the government and signed theTreaty of Brest-Litovsk with theCentral powers, which marked their exit from World War I. (These events precipitated theRussian Civil War which would lead to the formation of theSoviet Union in 1922.) Prior to the formal signing of the treaty, the United States partially evacuated their embassy, but Armour remained as part of the limited staff. On July 25, the Russian authorities ordered the diplomats out of Petrograd and a newlegation was set up inVologda. TheNorth Russia Campaign, anAllied Intervention in the Russian Civil War, further destabilized the situation and resulted in the legation becoming essentially under siege. (The Russian army had already attacked the British consulate and killed its Attache.) At this point, the order of events for Armour becomes somewhat unclear.
According to news reports of the time, Armour was arrested and brought back to Moscow, where he and other Americans (diplomats and otherwise) were allowed to flee the country on August 26, by train to Sweden, arriving on September 5. Later, it was revealed that Armour had during this period used a fake Norwegian passport and, disguised as a courier, sneaked back into Petrograd and arranged forPrincess Myra Koudashev of Petrograd to escape the country. Contrary to the contemporary reports, his obituary in the New York Times also says that he did not travel in the refugee train from Moscow, but rather escaped himself to Finland, still disguised as a courier, where he caught up with them.
On November 2, shortly after they arrived back in the United States, the two announced their engagement. They were married February 2, 1919 inBrussels, Belgium.
Née Myra Sergueievna Koudashev, Mrs. Armour was a daughter of a first marriage of Tatar Prince Serguey Vladimirovich Kudashev, to a Russian Countess of the Nieroth family, being born inSaint Petersburg, 7 April 1895.
Over the following years, diplomat Armour served in a number of embassies and consulates, including those inBelgium,The Netherlands,Uruguay,Italy, theUnited States Department of State (1922–1924),Japan (1925–1928), andFrance (1928–1932).
In 1929, after the death ofMyron T. Herrick on March 31, 1929, Armour was madeChargé d'affaires and Head of the Embassy in Paris until the selection of a replacement. This was Armour's first time as Chief of Mission. He was also an extremely popular social figure in France and he and his wife were often written about in American newspapers, flaunting the Parisian high life.
In 1932, Armour was assigned as Minister toHaiti in the Caribbean. His primary responsibility was to work toward returning the government of the country to native hands at the conclusion of theUnited States occupation of Haiti. The Occupation had been in effect since July 1915 when U.S. Marines landed at Port au Prince.[2] He was selected for the position due to his fluency in French, but also as a sign to the Haitians that the United States would put a well-respected diplomat in their country. On August 7, 1933, Armour signed a treaty with Haitian Foreign Minister,Albert Blanchett in which the U.S. agreed "to return government functions to the Haitians by October 1944 and to withdraw theUnited States Marines stationed there by November 1944." The plan succeeded ahead of schedule, as the Marines left the country on August 14, 1934.[3]
After the death in office ofWarren Delano Robbins, Armour was made Minister toCanada. His appointment to Canada so soon after his success in Haiti was meant to underscore Canada's importance to the United States, according to theNew York Times.
During his time in Canada, the State Department banned marriages between diplomatic personnel and the citizens of foreign countries they served due to potentialconflict of interest problems. Though there were at this time 122 diplomats who had taken foreign wives, Armour's high-profile relationship with his highborn Russian wife and the way in which they were engaged were commonly cited by the press on both sides of the issue.
In 1938, Armour was appointed asAmbassador to Chile, was a post in which he served relatively uneventfully.
The following year, he was appointed as Ambassador toArgentina, as theSecond World War was heating up. During this period, Armour worked to negotiate better trade relations with these South American countries, and, once the United States entered the war, to apply pressure on them to not support theAxis powers. One of the provisions of the treaty that he helped negotiate essentially cut off the supply oftungsten, essential for steels in armored tanks and in electrical lamps, to Japan from Argentina. Imports from that country to Japan accounted for half of that country's supply. However, Argentina refused to budge off key issues and remained ostensibly neutral.
In 1941, Armour was made honorary director of the firstPan-American Games, which were to be held in 1942, but were called off due to the war.
Near the end of the war, on January 26, 1944, Argentina finally caved to pressure from Britain and the United States and broke ties with the Axis powers. However, almost immediately after this, GeneralEdelmiro Julián Farrell seized power in a coup fromPresident GeneralPedro Pablo Ramírez.
Both generals closely backed GeneralJuan Domingo Perón, their successor from June 1946 to July 1974, who was President in three different periods: 1946–1952; 1952–1955 until a military coup ousted him; and from September 1973, after 18 years in exile, to 1 July 1974 when he died.
As a result of this turmoil, the United States refused to recognize the legitimacy of the new government. Armour was ordered to remain in Argentina, but not to officially establish relations of any kind with the new government until a list of conditions were met. The United States officially suspended relations with the country on March 3, 1944, believing that the coup was backed by pro-Axis groups. Armour was officially recalled on June 27, 1944.
After his recall, Armour was made acting Chief of the Department of Latin American Affairs, now probably integrated under theBureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs in the State Department, until his appointment the following year, on 15 December 1944, to Spain, presenting his credentials three and a half months later, on March 24, 1945.
In Spain, Armour continued to apply pressure on the government ofFrancisco Franco due in part to its support of the Axis powers during the Second World War. On his retirement on November 29, 1945 (formally, 1 December 1945), only 8 months afterwards, the United States further isolated Spain by refusing to send another ambassador until 1951.
A resolution of theUnited Nations, document 32(I) 9 February 1946, commended General Franco's regimen, stating:
... the actual Spanish Government, founded through the help of the powers of the Axis, not possessing, in view of his origins, nature, historical and the intimate association with the agreeing States, the conditions justifying his admission ...
in Spanish:
. ... El actual gobierno español, el cual habiendo sido fundado con el apoyo de las potencias del Eje, no posee, en vistas de sus orígenes, su naturaleza, su historial y su íntima asociación con los Estados agresores, las condiciones que justifiquen su admisión.
During the period from December 1945 to March 1951, the U.S. embassy remained open with a succession of Chargé d'Affaires, namelyPhilip W. Bonsal from March 1946 to June 1947, Paul T. Culbertson from June 1947 to December 1952, andStanton Griffis.
The later Chargé d'Áffaires was appointed on February 1, 1951 again as an Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary presenting his credentials on March 1, 1951, just one month after his appointment, but he relinquished the charge on January 28, 1952, 11 months later.
In 1947, Armour came out of retirement to serve as Assistant Secretary of State of Political Affairs underGeorge C. Marshall. On July 15, 1948, he retired for a second time. In 1950, Armour was asked out of retirement again to serve as Ambassador toVenezuela. In 1954, he came out of retirement again to serve as Ambassador toGuatemala, a post he only served in for seven months.
According to an interview in 1976, Armour indicated that he was proudest of his work in 1954, protestingJoseph R. McCarthy's attacks on the members of the Foreign Service who were suspected of connivance with communism during the ongoingCold War, in his February 9, 1950 Wheeling Speech onLincoln Day to the Republican Women's Club ofWheeling, West Virginia.
With a Russian wife, no matter whether she was an exiled Tsarist times aristocrat descending from Tatar Princes settled at the Saint Petersburg corridors of power centuries before, there were grounds for deep suspicions, and as aCatholic member of the Democratic Party under Democrat PresidentsFranklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman.
Armour died in 1982 and was buried in Princeton Cemetery.
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| Diplomatic posts | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | United States Chargé d'Affairesad interim, France 1929 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | United States Minister to Haiti 1932–1935 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | United States Minister to Canada 1935–1938 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | United States Ambassador to Chile 21 April 1938–10 June 1939 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | United States Ambassador to Argentina 19 June 1939–29 June 1944 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | United States Ambassador to Spain 1945 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | United States Ambassador to Venezuela 7 December 1950–2 October 1951 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | United States Ambassador to Guatemala October 18, 1954 – May 9, 1955 | Succeeded by |
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| Minister Plenipotentiary | | |
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| Chargé d'Affaires | ||
| Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary | ||
| Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary | ||
| Chargé d'Affaires | | |
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| Minister Resident | ||
| Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary | ||
| Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary | ||
| Ministers Plenipotentiary to Spain (1779–1825) | |
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| Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Spain (1825–1913) | |
| Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Spain (1913–present) | |
