Word: franklin
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...University kicked him out entirely. In 1939, President James Bryant Conant ’14 opted not to renew his contract—a decision that, Parker said, appears to have been politically motivated. Galbraith supported the New Deal at a time when Harvard administrators were wary of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Class of 1904, even though he was one of Harvard?...
...advised five Democratic presidents—Franklin D. Roosevelt, Class of 1904, John F. Kennedy ’40, Lyndon B. Johnson, Jimmy Carter, and Bill Clinton. Kennedy named him ambassador to India...
...this is not new. For every Franklin or Jefferson cited by Bollard, there were a dozen men like Dan Sickles, who seduced the Queen of Spain, or Robert Schenck, who as Minister to the Court of St. James taught the British to play draw poker and then cheated them out of millions. All were political figures, not professional diplomats. The U.S. did not have a professional diplomatic corps until the early 20th century. Many Americans remain ambivalent about it, in contrast to other professions like the military. It is hard to imagine the American people tolerating a high number...
...wasn’t always this way. The ambassadorship to the United Kingdom was once seen as a breeding ground for national leaders—five ambassadors went on to the Presidency, four to the Vice Presidency, and ten to serve as Secretaries of State. Benjamin Franklin used his diplomatic posting to France to secure support in the War of Independence. Thomas Jefferson honed his political skills in dealings with the French revolutionary governments while posted there...
...course, defenders of our current batch of ambassadors rightly point out that this administration was not the first to put the suitcase of cash before the diplomatic caché. Presidential scholars suggest the shift came last century, when Franklin Roosevelt appointed an especially generous donor, Joseph Kennedy, as his Ambassador to Britain. Since then it has all been downhill. President Nixon is reputed to have once told his Chief of Staff that “anybody who wants to be an ambassador must at least give $250,000.” In 1980, Congress even felt the need to legislate...