Harriman Wm A

<p>=</p><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><nobr style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">=</nobr></font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/11/why-nixons-vp-spiro-agnew-attacked-the-new-media-50-years-ago/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2019/11/why-nixons-vp-spiro-agnew-attacked-the-new-media-50-years-ago/</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Why Nixon’s VP Spiro Agnew attacked the new media 50 years ago</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Spiro Agnew, Wikipedia</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Written by Thomas Alan Schwartz, The Conversation November 8, 2019</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Americans witnessed an unprecedented event 50 years ago: live television coverage on all three national networks of a speech by the vice president of the United States.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Speeches by vice presidents never received such attention. But the address on Nov. 13, 1969, by Vice President Spiro T. Agnew to the Midwest Regional Republican Committee Meeting in Des Moines, Iowa, blandly titled “The Responsibilities of Television,” set off a public uproar.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Almost overnight, it made Agnew one of the most significant conservative political leaders in the country.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Agnew, delivering the speech in Des Moines.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">‘Querulous criticism’</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Agnew argued that the television network news programs, and the<b> “tiny and closed fraternity of privileged men” who produced them, had acquired “a profound influence over public opinion,” with few checks on their “vast power.</b>”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">He then attacked their treatment of President Richard Nixon’s recent speech on the Vietnam War, known now as the “Silent Majority” speech.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">According to Agnew, after the president finished the “most important address of his administration,” a “small band of network commentators and self-appointed analysts” subjected it to instant and “querulous criticism,” demonstrating their outright hostility to the president’s policy.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In Agnew’s view, their opposition was at odds with how the majority of Americans viewed the speech.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Although he said he was not calling for any censorship, Agnew posed the question of whether it was “time that the networks were made more responsive to the views of the nation and more responsible to the people they serve.”</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Suspicious of the media</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In many respects, Agnew was Donald Trump before Donald Trump. He was a polarizing political figure, beloved by conservatives, hated and mocked by liberals, yet favored as the likely Republican nominee to succeed Richard Nixon.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In his attacks on television news, Agnew struck a chord with conservatives who had long regarded the media with suspicion. Nixon later called Agnew’s speech a “turning point” in his presidency. He described how “within a few hours telegrams began arriving at the White House; the switchboards were tied up all night by people calling to express their relief that someone had finally spoken up.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The networks themselves calculated that the messages they were receiving were running almost five to one in support of Agnew.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Why did Agnew speak out when he did?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The immediate background to the speech involves the intersection of two developments, both connected to the long, bloody war in Vietnam that appeared to have no end.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The first was the rise of adversarial journalism during the Vietnam War. Before Vietnam most news coverage “tended to be bland and deferential to government.” The government’s lies and false optimism about the war, revealed most dramatically after the losses of the Tet Offensive, fundamentally changed the relationship.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Vietnam, as the historian of journalism Matthew Pressman argues, “established a baseline level of antagonism between the press and the government.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Most famously, Walter Cronkite, the anchor of CBS News and the “most trusted man in America,” delivered an unusual editorial in February 1968 calling on the Johnson administration to negotiate an end to the war.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Walter Cronkite, delivering his Vietnam editorial.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In the weeks before the Agnew speech, television news provided extensive and overwhelmingly positive coverage of the large antiwar protests, including the October “moratorium” against the war.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The second development was the failure to end the protracted war. Nixon and his National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger tried a variety of military threats and enticement to convince North Vietnam to negotiate. They even launched a secret nuclear alert to intimidate Hanoi.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Nothing worked, and Nixon’s Silent Majority speech was a plea to the American people to give him more time to achieve a “peace with honor” in Vietnam.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The absence of any dramatic new steps toward peace in Nixon’s speech was the main reason the network’s “self-appointed analysts,” including the </font><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">former Paris negotiator <b style="">W. Averell Harriman</b></span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">, engaged in the “instant” and “querulous criticism” that Agnew described. Their abrupt dismissal of the speech infuriated Nixon and his aides and motivated them to respond forcefully.</span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Justified aggression or ‘appeal to prejudice’?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Patrick Buchanan, Nixon’s ultra-conservative speechwriter, encouraged the president to launch an attack on the networks, and drafted the speech for Agnew.</b>Buchanan later remembered that as Nixon read his proposed draft, he heard him mutter, “This’ll tear the scab off those bastards.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The networks reacted strongly, with NBC’s President Julian Goodman calling it “an appeal to prejudice,” implying that Agnew’s focus on the small group of “privileged men” living in New York was a code for anti-Semitism.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Both Goodman and CBS President Frank Stanton accused Agnew of trying to undermine the freedom of the press, especially in the attempt to “intimidate a news medium which depends for its existence upon government licenses.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Some journalists saw this as an overreaction, and viewed Agnew’s attack as part of the larger challenge to the country’s traditional institutions that the war in Vietnam had catalyzed.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Richard Harwood and Laurence Stern wrote in the Washington Post that “the issue of media performance is not going to evaporate in this country simply because publishers and network presidents wrap themselves in the First Amendment and sneer at Spiro Agnew. For the facts are that the media are as blemished as any other institution in this society and that there is growing public concern over their performance.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>But CBS’s renowned news magazine, “60 Minutes,” devoted an hour-long special to rebutting Agnew’s criticism, featuring Walter Cronkite speaking at a Chamber of Commerce function in his hometown of St. Joseph, Missouri.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Cronkite rejected the idea that the media overreacted, and maintained that “What we’re defending is the people’s right to know, and we have to be at the frontline of that battle at all times.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Populist attacks</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">This early version of a government war on the news media did not give Agnew what he and the president wanted. Although the networks eventually abandoned the “instant analysis” of presidential speeches in favor of giving the opposition “equal time” to respond, TV network news continued to retain the trust of most Americans as the most objective source for their news well into the 1970s, particularly during the Watergate period.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>And when Agnew himself resigned in disgrace, brought down by his own greed in a bribery scandal, his assault on TV news seemed discredited as well.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But Agnew had demonstrated the vulnerability of the mass media to populist attacks, firing some of the first shots in a culture war that persists to this day.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Like what you’ve read? Want more? Sign up for The Conversation’s daily newsletter.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Thomas Alan Schwartz, Professor of History, Vanderbilt University</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.</font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><p>==</p><p>From 1926, George’s father Prescott Bush showed a fierce loyalty to the Harrimans and a dogged determination to advance himself; he gradually came to run the day-to-day operations of W.A. Harriman & Co. After the firm’s 1931 merger with the British-American banking house Brown Brothers, Prescott Bush became managing partner of the resulting company: Brown Brothers Harriman. This was ultimately the largest and politically the most important private banking house in America.</p>

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Financial collapse, world depression and social upheaval followed the fevered speculation of the 1920s. The 1929-31 crash of securities values wiped out the small fortune Prescott Bush had gained since 1926. But because of his devotion to the Harrimans, they “did a very generous thing,” as Bush later put it. They staked him to what he had lost and put him back on his feet.</p>

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=</p>

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<a href="http://tarpley.net/online-books/george-bush-the-unauthorized-biography/chapter-4-the-center-of-power-is-in-washington/">http://tarpley.net/online-books/george-bush-the-unauthorized-biography/chapter-4-the-center-of-power-is-in-washington/</a></p>

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Av Harr at yalta</p>

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 </p>

<h1 id="firstHeading" class="firstHeading">W. Averell</h1>

<table><tbody><tr><td colspan="2" style=" text-align: center; font-size: 125%; font-weight: bold;" class="n"><span class="fn">William Averell Harriman</span></td></tr><tr><td colspan="2" style=" text-align: center;"><a class="image" title="W. Averell Harriman" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:William_Averell_Harriman.jpg"><img src="/7991e54b-f940-5d7f-a358-b6927e96a082.jpg"/></a>

</td></tr><tr><th colspan="2" style=" text-align: center; font-size: 110%;">

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<div style=" background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% lavender;">48<sup>th</sup> <a title="Governor of New York" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Governor_of_New_York">Governor of New York</a></div>

</th></tr><tr><td colspan="2" style=" text-align: center; border-bottom: medium none;"><b>In office</b>

January 1, 1955 – December 31, 1958</td></tr><tr><th><a title="Lieutenant Governor of New York" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lieutenant_Governor_of_New_York">Lieutenant</a></th><td><a class="mw-redirect" title="George De Luca" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_De_Luca">George De Luca</a></td></tr><tr><th>Preceded by</th><td><a class="mw-redirect" title="Thomas Dewey" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Dewey">Thomas E. Dewey</a></td></tr><tr><th>Succeeded by</th><td><a title="Nelson Rockefeller" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nelson_Rockefeller">Nelson A. Rockefeller</a></td></tr><tr><td colspan="2" style=" text-align: center; font-size: 110%;">

<hr />

<div style=" font-weight: bold; background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% lavender;"><a class="mw-redirect" title="United States Ambassador to the Soviet Union" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Ambassador_to_the_Soviet_Union">United States Ambassador to the Soviet Union</a></div>

</td></tr><tr><td colspan="2" style=" text-align: center; border-bottom: medium none;"><b>In office</b>

23 October 1943 – 24 January 1946</td></tr><tr><th>President</th><td><a title="Harry S. Truman" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_S._Truman">Harry S. Truman</a></td></tr><tr><th>Preceded by</th><td><a title="William Harrison Standley" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Harrison_Standley">William H. Standley</a></td></tr><tr><th>Succeeded by</th><td><a title="Walter Bedell Smith" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Bedell_Smith">Walter Bedell Smith</a></td></tr><tr><td colspan="2" style=" text-align: center; font-size: 110%;">

<hr />

<div style=" font-weight: bold; background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% lavender;"><a title="United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Ambassador_to_the_United_Kingdom">United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom</a></div>

</td></tr><tr><td colspan="2" style=" text-align: center; border-bottom: medium none;"><b>In office</b>

1946–1946</td></tr><tr><th>Preceded by</th><td><a class="mw-redirect" title="John G. Winant" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_G.Winant">John G. Winant</a></td></tr><tr><th>Succeeded by</th><td><a class="mw-redirect" title="Lewis W. Douglas" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_W.Douglas">Lewis W. Douglas</a></td></tr><tr><th colspan="2" style=" text-align: center; font-size: 110%;">

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<div style=" background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% lavender;">11<sup>th</sup> <a title="United States Secretary of Commerce" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Secretary_of_Commerce">United States Secretary of Commerce</a></div>

</th></tr><tr><td colspan="2" style=" text-align: center; border-bottom: medium none;"><b>In office</b>

October 7, 1946 – April 22, 1948</td></tr><tr><th>President</th><td><a title="Harry S. Truman" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_S.Truman">Harry S. Truman</a></td></tr><tr><th>Preceded by</th><td><a title="Henry A. Wallace" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_A.Wallace">Henry A. Wallace</a></td></tr><tr><th>Succeeded by</th><td><a title="Charles W. Sawyer" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_W._Sawyer">Charles W. Sawyer</a></td></tr><tr><td colspan="2">

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</td></tr><tr><th>Born</th><td>November 15, 1891<span style=" display: none;">(<span class="bday">1891-11-15</span>)</span>

<a title="New York City" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_City">New York City</a>, <a title="New York" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York">New York</a></td></tr><tr><th>Died</th><td>July 26, 1986 (aged 94)

<a title="Yorktown Heights, New York" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yorktown_Heights,New_York">Yorktown Heights, New York</a></td></tr><tr><th>Political party</th><td><a title="Democratic Party (United States)" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Party%28United_States%29">Democratic</a></td></tr><tr><th>Spouse(s)</th><td>Kitty Lanier Lawrence (divorced)

Marie Norton Whitney (her death)

<a title="Pamela Harriman" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pamela_Harriman">Pamela Beryl Digby Churchill Hayward</a></td></tr><tr><th><a title="Alma mater" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alma_mater">Alma mater</a></th><td><a title="Yale University" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yale_University">Yale University</a></td></tr><tr><th>Signature</th><td><a class="image" title="W. Averell Harriman's signature" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:William_Averell_Harriman_Signature.svg"><img src="/2bcc62ed-e2c6-569e-80e8-2dcd1101acb2.png"/></a></td></tr></tbody></table>

</div>

<p>

<b>William Averell Harriman</b> (November 15, 1891  – July 26, 1986) was an <a title="United States" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States">American</a> <a class="mw-redirect" title="United States Democratic Party" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Democratic_Party">Democratic Party</a> politician, businessman, and diplomat. He was the son of railroad baron <a title="E. H. Harriman" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E.H.Harriman">E. H. Harriman</a>. He served as <a title="United States Secretary of Commerce" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Secretary_of_Commerce">Secretary of Commerce</a> under <a title="President of the United States" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President_of_the_United_States">President</a> <a title="Harry S. Truman" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_S.Truman">Harry S. Truman</a> and later as the <a title="List of Governors of New York" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Governors_of_New_York">48th Governor of New York</a>. He was a candidate for the Democratic Presidential Nomination in 1952, and again in 1956 when he was endorsed by President Truman but lost to <a title="Adlai Stevenson" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adlai_Stevenson">Adlai Stevenson</a>. Harriman served President <a title="Franklin D. Roosevelt" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_D.Roosevelt">Franklin D. Roosevelt</a> as special envoy to Europe and served as the U.S. Ambassador to the <a title="Soviet Union" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_Union">Soviet Union</a> and U.S. Ambassador to <a title="United Kingdom" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom">Britain</a>. He served in various positions in the <a title="John F. Kennedy" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_F.Kennedy">Kennedy</a> and <a title="Lyndon B. Johnson" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyndon_B.Johnson">Johnson</a> administrations.</p>

<h2>Contents</h2>

<ul>

<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-1"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Averell_Harriman#Early_life"><span class="tocnumber">1</span> <span class="toctext">Early life</span></a></li>

<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-2"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Averell_Harriman#Business_affairs"><span class="tocnumber">2</span> <span class="toctext">Business affairs</span></a></li>

<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-3"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Averell_Harriman#Thoroughbred_racing"><span class="tocnumber">3</span> <span class="toctext">Thoroughbred racing</span></a></li>

<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-4"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Averell_Harriman#War_seizures_controversy"><span class="tocnumber">4</span> <span class="toctext">War seizures controversy</span></a></li>

<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-5"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Averell_Harriman#Diplomatic_and_political_career"><span class="tocnumber">5</span> <span class="toctext">Diplomatic and political career</span></a></li>

<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-6"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Averell_Harriman#Family_life"><span class="tocnumber">6</span> <span class="toctext">Family life</span></a></li>

<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-7"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Averell_Harriman#Summary_of_career"><span class="tocnumber">7</span> <span class="toctext">Summary of career</span></a></li>

<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-9"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Averell_Harriman#References"><span class="tocnumber">9</span> <span class="toctext">References</span></a></li>

<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-10"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Averell_Harriman#Bibliography"><span class="tocnumber">10</span> <span class="toctext">Bibliography</span></a>

<ul>

<li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-11"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Averell_Harriman#Primary_sources"><span class="tocnumber">10.1</span> <span class="toctext">Primary sources</span></a></li>

</ul>

</li>

<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-12"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Averell_Harriman#External_links"><span class="tocnumber">11</span> <span class="toctext">External links</span></a></li>

</ul>

</td></tr></tbody></table>

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</p><h2><span class="editsection">[<a title="Edit section: Early life" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=W._Averell_Harriman&action=edit&section=1">edit</a>]</span> <span class="mw-headline" id="Early_life">Early life</span></h2>

<p>William Averell Harriman was born in <a title="New York City" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_City">New York City</a>, the son of railroad baron <a title="E. H. Harriman" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E.H.Harriman">Edward Henry Harriman</a> and <a title="Mary Williamson Averell" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Williamson_Averell">Mary Williamson Averell</a>, and brother of <a title="E. Roland Harriman" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._Roland_Harriman">E. Roland Harriman</a>. </p>

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Harriman was a close friend of <a title="Hall Roosevelt" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hall_Roosevelt">Hall Roosevelt</a> (brother of <a title="Eleanor Roosevelt" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eleanor_Roosevelt">Eleanor Roosevelt</a>).

During the summer of 1899, Harriman's father organized the <a title="Harriman Alaska Expedition" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harriman_Alaska_Expedition">Harriman Alaska Expedition</a>, a philanthropic-scientific survey of coastal Alaska and Russia that attracted twenty-five of the leading scientific, naturalist and artist luminaries of the day, including <a title="John Muir" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Muir">John Muir</a>, <a title="John Burroughs" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Burroughs">John Burroughs</a>, <a title="George Bird Grinnell" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Bird_Grinnell">George Bird Grinnell</a>, <a class="mw-redirect" title="C. Hart Merriam" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._Hart_Merriam">C. Hart Merriam</a>, <a title="Grove Karl Gilbert" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grove_Karl_Gilbert">Grove Karl Gilbert</a>, and <a class="mw-redirect" title="Edward Curtis" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Curtis">Edward Curtis</a>, along with 100 family members and staff, aboard the steamship George Elder.</p>

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 Young Harriman would have his first introduction to Russia, a nation that he would spend a significant amount of attention on in his later life in public service.</p>

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He attended <a title="Groton School" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groton_School">Groton School</a> in Massachusetts before going on to <a title="Yale University" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yale_University">Yale</a> where he joined the <a title="Skull and Bones" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skull_and_Bones">Skull and Bones</a> society. He graduated in 1913. After graduating, he inherited the largest fortune in America and became Yale's youngest Crew coach.</p>

<h2><span class="editsection">[<a title="Edit section: Business affairs" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=W._Averell_Harriman&action=edit&section=2">edit</a>]</span> <span class="mw-headline" id="Business_affairs">Business affairs</span></h2>

<p>Using money from his father he established W.A. Harriman & Co banking business in 1922. In 1927 his brother Roland joined the business and the name was changed to <a title="Harriman Brothers & Company" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harriman_Brothers%26_Company">Harriman Brothers & Company</a>. In 1931, it merged with <a title="Brown Bros. & Co." href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_Bros.%26_Co.">Brown Bros. & Co.</a> to create the highly successful <a title="Brown Brothers Harriman & Co." href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_Brothers_Harriman_%26_Co.">Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.</a>. Notable employees included <a title="George Herbert Walker" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Herbert_Walker">George Herbert Walker</a> and his son-in-law <a title="Prescott Bush" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prescott_Bush">Prescott Bush</a>.</p>

<p>

Harriman's main properties included Brown Brothers & Harriman & Co, <a title="Union Pacific Railroad" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_Pacific_Railroad">Union Pacific Railroad</a>, Merchant Shipping Corporation, and venture capital investments that included the <a title="Polaroid Corporation" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polaroid_Corporation">Polaroid Corporation</a>. Harriman's associated properties included the <a class="mw-redirect" title="Southern Pacific Railroad" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Pacific_Railroad">Southern Pacific Railroad</a> (including the <a title="Central Pacific Railroad" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Pacific_Railroad">Central Pacific Railroad</a>), <a title="Illinois Central Railroad" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illinois_Central_Railroad">Illinois Central Railroad</a>, <a class="mw-redirect" title="Wells Fargo & Co." href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wells_Fargo%26_Co.">Wells Fargo & Co.</a>, the <a class="mw-redirect" title="Pacific Mail Steamship Co." href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Mail_Steamship_Co.">Pacific Mail Steamship Co.</a>, <a class="new" title="American Shipping & Commerce (page does not exist)" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=American_Shipping%26_Commerce&action=edit&redlink=1">American Shipping & Commerce</a>, Hamburg-Amerikanische Packetfahrt-Actiengesellschaft (<a class="mw-redirect" title="HAPAG" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HAPAG">HAPAG</a>), the <a class="mw-redirect" title="American Hawaiian Steamship Co." href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Hawaiian_Steamship_Co.">American Hawaiian Steamship Co.</a>, <a title="United American Lines" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_American_Lines">United American Lines</a>, the <a class="mw-redirect" title="Guaranty Trust Company" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guaranty_Trust_Company">Guaranty Trust Company</a>, and the <a title="Union Banking Corporation" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_Banking_Corporation">Union Banking Corporation</a>.</p>

<h2><span class="editsection">[<a title="Edit section: Thoroughbred racing" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=W._Averell_Harriman&action=edit&section=3">edit</a>]</span> <span class="mw-headline" id="Thoroughbred_racing">Thoroughbred racing</span></h2>

<p>Following the death of <a title="August Belmont, Jr." href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_Belmont,Jr.">August Belmont, Jr.</a> in <a title="1924" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1924">1924</a>, Harriman, George Walker, and <a title="Joseph E. Widener" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_E.Widener">Joseph E. Widener</a> purchased much of Belmont's Thoroughbred breeding stock. Harriman raced under the name of <a class="new" title="Arden Farms (page does not exist)" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Arden_Farms&action=edit&redlink=1">Arden Farms</a>. Among his horses, <a title="Chance Play" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chance_Play">Chance Play</a> won the 1927 <a title="Jockey Club Gold Cup" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jockey_Club_Gold_Cup">Jockey Club Gold Cup</a>. As well, he raced in partnership with Walker under the name <a title="Log Cabin Stable" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Log_Cabin_Stable">Log Cabin Stable</a> before buying him out. <a title="National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Museum_of_Racing_and_Hall_of_Fame">U.S. Racing Hall of Fame</a> inductee <a title="Louis Feustel" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Feustel">Louis Feustel</a>, trainer of <a title="Man o' War" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_o%27_War">Man o' War</a>, trained the Log Cabin horses until 1926. <a class="external autonumber" rel="nofollow" href="http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F70F11FF34591B7A93C7A8178CD85F428285F9">[1]</a> Of the partnership's successful runners purchased from the August Belmont estate, <a title="Ladkin" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ladkin">Ladkin</a> is best remembered for defeating the European star <a class="mw-redirect" title="Epinard" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epinard">Epinard</a> in the <a title="International Special" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Special">International Special No. 2</a>.</p>

<h2><span class="editsection">[<a title="Edit section: War seizures controversy" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=W._Averell_Harriman&action=edit&section=4">edit</a>]</span> <span class="mw-headline" id="War_seizures_controversy">War seizures controversy</span></h2>

<p>While Averell Harriman served as Senior Partner of Brown Brothers Harriman & Co., Harriman Bank was the main <a title="Wall Street" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wall_Street">Wall Street</a> connection for <a title="Germany" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germany">German</a> companies and the varied U.S. financial interests of <a title="Fritz Thyssen" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fritz_Thyssen">Fritz Thyssen</a>, who had been an early financial backer of the <a title="Nazism" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazism">Nazi</a> party until 1938, but who by 1939 had fled Germany and was bitterly denouncing <a title="Adolf Hitler" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Hitler">Adolf Hitler</a>. Business transactions for profit with Nazi Germany were not illegal when Hitler declared war on the US, but, six days after the <a title="Attack on Pearl Harbor" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_on_Pearl_Harbor">attack on Pearl Harbor</a>, President <a title="Franklin D. Roosevelt" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_D._Roosevelt">Franklin D. Roosevelt</a> signed the <a title="Trading with the Enemy Act 1917" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trading_with_the_Enemy_Act_1917">Trading With the Enemy Act</a> after it had been made public that U.S. companies were doing business with the declared enemy of the United States. On October 20, 1942, the U.S. government ordered the seizure of <a class="mw-redirect" title="Nazi German" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_German">Nazi German</a> banking operations in <a title="New York City" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_City">New York City</a>.<sup class="Template-Fact" title="This claim needs references to reliable sources from August 2009" style=" white-space: nowrap;">[<a title="Wikipedia:Citation needed" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed"><i>citation needed</i></a>]</sup></p>

<p>

The Harriman business interests seized under the act in October and November 1942 included:<sup class="Template-Fact" title="This claim needs references to reliable sources from August 2009" style=" white-space: nowrap;">[<a title="Wikipedia:Citation needed" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed"><i>citation needed</i></a>]</sup></p>

<ul>

<li><a title="Union Banking Corporation" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_Banking_Corporation">Union Banking Corporation</a> (UBC) (for Thyssen and <a class="mw-redirect" title="Brown Brothers Harriman" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_Brothers_Harriman">Brown Brothers Harriman</a>).</li>

<li>Holland-American Trading Corporation (with Harriman)</li>

<li>the Seamless Steel Equipment Corporation (with Harriman)</li>

<li><a title="Silesian-American Corporation" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silesian-American_Corporation">Silesian-American Corporation</a> (this company was partially owned by a German entity; during the war the Germans tried to take the full control of Silesian-American. In response to that, American government seized German owned minority shares in the company, leaving the U.S. partners to carry on the portion of the business in the United States.)</li>

</ul>

<p>The assets were held by the government for the duration of the war, then returned afterward. UBC was dissolved in 1951.</p>

<h2><span class="editsection">[<a title="Edit section: Diplomatic and political career" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=W._Averell_Harriman&action=edit&section=5">edit</a>]</span> <span class="mw-headline" id="Diplomatic_and_political_career">Diplomatic and political career</span></h2>

Averell Harriman (center) with <a title="Winston Churchill" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winston_Churchill">Winston Churchill</a> (right) and <a title="Vyacheslav Molotov" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vyacheslav_Molotov">Vyacheslav Molotov</a> (left)</div>

</div>

<p>See also: <a title="1963 South Vietnamese coup" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1963_South_Vietnamese_coup">1963 South Vietnamese coup</a>, <a title="Arrest and assassination of Ngo Dinh Diem" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrest_and_assassination_of_Ngo_Dinh_Diem">Arrest and assassination of Ngo Dinh Diem</a>, <a title="Reaction to the 1963 South Vietnamese coup" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reaction_to_the_1963_South_Vietnamese_coup">Reaction to the 1963 South Vietnamese coup</a>, <a title="Cable 243" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cable_243">Cable 243</a>, <a title="Buddhist crisis" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhist_crisis">Buddhist crisis</a>, <a title="Krulak Mendenhall mission" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krulak_Mendenhall_mission">Krulak Mendenhall mission</a>, and <a title="McNamara Taylor mission" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McNamara_Taylor_mission">McNamara Taylor mission</a>

 </p>

</div>

<p>Harriman served President <a title="Franklin D. Roosevelt" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_D._Roosevelt">Franklin D. Roosevelt</a> as special envoy to Europe, and was present at the meeting between <a title="Winston Churchill" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winston_Churchill">Winston Churchill</a> and the US president at <a title="Placentia Bay" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Placentia_Bay">Placentia Bay</a> in August 1941. The outcome of this five-day meeting became known as the <a title="Atlantic Charter" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_Charter">Atlantic Charter</a>, a common declaration of principles of the US and the UK. He served as the US Ambassador to <a title="Soviet Union" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_Union">Soviet Union</a> between 1943 and 1946 and the Ambassador to <a title="United Kingdom" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom">Britain</a> in 1946.

In 1945, while Ambassador to the Soviet Union, Harriman was presented with a <a title="Trojan Horse" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trojan_Horse">Trojan Horse</a> gift. In 1952, the gift, a carved wood <a title="Great Seal of the United States" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Seal_of_the_United_States">Great Seal of the United States</a>, which had adorned "the ambassador’s Moscow residential office" in <a title="Spaso House" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaso_House">Spaso House</a>, was found to be <a title="Covert listening device" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Covert_listening_device#Examples_of_use">bugged</a>.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W.Averell_Harriman#cite_note-0"><span><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-0">[</sup></span><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-0">1<span>]</span></sup></a><span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W.Averell_Harriman#cite_note-1"><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-1">[</sup></a></span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Averell_Harriman#cite_note-1"><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-1">2<span>]</span></sup></a></p>

<p>

He was later appointed the <a title="United States Secretary of Commerce" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Secretary_of_Commerce">United States Secretary of Commerce</a> under President <a title="Harry S. Truman" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_S.Truman">Harry S. Truman</a> to replace <a title="Henry A. Wallace" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_A.Wallace">Henry A. Wallace</a>, a critic of Truman's foreign policies. Harriman served between 1946 and 1948. He was then in <a title="Paris" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris">Paris</a>, where he was put in charge of the <a title="Marshall Plan" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_Plan">Marshall Plan</a>, and had friendly relations with <a title="Irving Brown" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irving_Brown">Irving Brown</a>, a <a class="mw-redirect" title="CIA" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA">CIA</a> agent charged of the international relations of the <a title="AFL-CIO" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AFL-CIO">AFL-CIO</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W.Averell_Harriman#cite_note-Kelber-2"><span><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Kelber_2-0">[</sup></span><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Kelber_2-0">3<span>]</span></sup></a><span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W.Averell_Harriman#cite_note-Charpier-3"><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Charpier_3-0">[</sup></a></span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W.Averell_Harriman#cite_note-Charpier-3"><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Charpier_3-0">4<span>]</span></sup></a>. Harriman was then sent to Teheran in July 1951 to mediate between Persia and Britain in the wake of the Persian nationalization of the <a class="mw-redirect" title="Anglo-Iranian Oil Company" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Iranian_Oil_Company">Anglo-Iranian Oil Company</a>.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W.Averell_Harriman#cite_note-4"><span><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-4">[</sup></span><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-4">5<span>]</span></sup></a></p>

<p>

In the <a title="New York state election, 1954" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_state_election,1954">1954 race</a> to succeed Republican <a title="Thomas E. Dewey" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_E.Dewey">Thomas E. Dewey</a> as <a title="Governor of New York" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Governor_of_New_York">Governor of New York</a>, Harriman defeated Dewey's protege, <a class="mw-redirect" title="U.S. Senator from New York" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S.Senator_from_New_York">U.S. Senator</a> <a class="mw-redirect" title="Irving M. Ives" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irving_M.Ives">Irving M. Ives</a>, by a tiny margin. He served as governor for one term until <a class="mw-redirect" title="United States Republican Party" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Republican_Party">Republican</a> <a title="Nelson Rockefeller" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nelson_Rockefeller">Nelson Rockefeller</a> defeated him in <a title="New York state election, 1958" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_state_election,_1958">1958</a>. As governor, he increased personal taxes by 11% but his tenure was dominated by his presidential ambitions. Harriman was a candidate for the Democratic Presidential Nomination in 1952, and again in 1956 when he was endorsed by Truman but lost (both times) to <a title="Illinois" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illinois">Illinois</a> governor <a title="Adlai Stevenson" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adlai_Stevenson">Adlai Stevenson</a>. Harriman was generally considered to be on the left or <a title="Liberalism" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberalism">liberal</a> wing of the Democratic party, hence his losing out to the more moderate Stevenson.</p>

<p>

His presidential ambitions defeated, Harriman became a widely-respected elder statesman of the party. In January <a title="1961" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1961">1961</a>, he was appointed Ambassador at Large in the <a title="John F. Kennedy" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_F._Kennedy">Kennedy</a> administration, a position he held until November, when he became Assistant Secretary of State for Far Eastern Affairs. In December 1961, <a title="Anatoliy Golitsyn" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatoliy_Golitsyn">Anatoliy Golitsyn</a> defected from the Soviet Union and accused Harriman of being a Soviet spy, but his claims were dismissed by the CIA and Harriman remained in his position until April 1963, when he became <a title="Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Under_Secretary_of_State_for_Political_Affairs">Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs</a>. </p>

<p>

He retained that position through the transition to the <a class="mw-redirect" title="Lyndon Johnson" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyndon_Johnson">Lyndon Johnson</a> administration until March 1965 when he again became Ambassador at Large. He held that position for the remainder of Johnson's presidency. Harriman was the chief US negotiator at the Paris peace talks on <a title="Vietnam" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam">Vietnam</a>.

Harriman is noted for supporting, on behalf of the <a title="United States Department of State" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Department_of_State">State department</a>, the coup against Vietnam president <a title="Ngo Dinh Diem" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ngo_Dinh_Diem">Ngo Dinh Diem</a> in 1963. Johnson's confession in the <a title="Assassination" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination">assassination</a> of Diem could indicate some complicity on Harriman's part.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W.Averell_Harriman#cite_note-5"><span><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-5">[</sup></span><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-5">6<span>]</span></sup></a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W.Averell_Harriman#cite_note-6"><span><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-6">[</sup></span><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-6">7<span>]</span></sup></a>

Harriman received the <a title="Presidential Medal of Freedom" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presidential_Medal_of_Freedom">Presidential Medal of Freedom</a> in 1969 and West Point's <a title="Sylvanus Thayer Award" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylvanus_Thayer_Award">Sylvanus Thayer Award</a> in 1975.</p>

<h2><span class="editsection">[<a title="Edit section: Family life" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=W._Averell_Harriman&action=edit&section=6">edit</a>]</span> <span class="mw-headline" id="Family_life">Family life</span></h2>

<p>His first marriage was to <a class="new" title="Kitty Lanier Lawrence (page does not exist)" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Kitty_Lanier_Lawrence&action=edit&redlink=1">Kitty Lanier Lawrence</a>, whom he had divorced before her death in 1936. He subsequently married <a title="Marie Norton" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Norton">Marie Norton</a> Whitney, who left her husband, <a title="Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornelius_Vanderbilt_Whitney">Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney</a>, to marry him. They remained married until her death in 1970.</p>

<p>

His third and final marriage was in 1971 to <a title="Pamela Harriman" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pamela_Harriman">Pamela Beryl Digby Churchill Hayward</a>, the former wife of <a title="Winston Churchill" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winston_Churchill">Winston Churchill</a>'s son <a title="Randolph Churchill" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randolph_Churchill">Randolph</a>, and widow of <a title="Broadway theatre" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadway_theatre">Broadway</a> producer <a title="Leland Hayward" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leland_Hayward">Leland Hayward</a>. Harriman died in 1986 in <a title="Yorktown Heights, New York" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yorktown_Heights,New_York">Yorktown Heights, New York</a>, aged 94. He and Pamela are buried at Arden Farm Graveyard in <a title="Arden, New York" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arden,New_York">Arden, New York</a>.</p>

<h2><span class="editsection">[<a title="Edit section: Summary of career" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=W._Averell_Harriman&action=edit&section=7">edit</a>]</span> <span class="mw-headline" id="Summary_of_career">Summary of career</span></h2>

<ul>

<li>Vice President, <a title="Union Pacific Railroad" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_Pacific_Railroad">Union Pacific Railroad</a> Co., 1915-17</li>

<li>Director, <a title="Illinois Central Railroad" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illinois_Central_Railroad">Illinois Central Railroad</a> Co., 1915-46</li>

<li>Member, <a title="Palisades Interstate Park Commission" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palisades_Interstate_Park_Commission">Palisades Interstate Park Commission</a>, 1915-54</li>

<li>Chairman, Merchant Shipbuilding Corp.,1917-25</li>

<li>Chairman, W. A. Harriman & Company, 1920-31</li>

<li>Partner, Soviet Georgian Manganese Concessions, 1925-28</li>

<li>Chairman, executive committee, <a title="Illinois Central Railroad" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illinois_Central_Railroad">Illinois Central Railroad</a>, 1931-42</li>

<li>Senior partner, <a class="mw-redirect" title="Brown Brothers Harriman" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_Brothers_Harriman">Brown Brothers Harriman</a> & Co., 1931-46</li>

<li>Chairman, <a title="Union Pacific Railroad" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_Pacific_Railroad">Union Pacific Railroad</a>, 1932-46</li>

<li>Co-founded <i>Today</i> magazine with <a title="Vincent Astor" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincent_Astor">Vincent Astor</a>, 1935-37 (merged with <a title="Newsweek" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newsweek"><i>Newsweek</i></a> in 1937)</li>

<li>Administrator and Special Assistant, <a title="National Recovery Administration" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Recovery_Administration">National Recovery Administration</a>, 1934-35</li>

<li>Founded, <a title="Sun Valley, Idaho" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_Valley,_Idaho">Sun Valley Ski Resort</a>, <a title="Idaho" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idaho">Idaho</a>, 1936</li>

<li>Chairman, Business Advisory Council, 1937-39</li>

<li>Chief, Materials Branch & Production Division, Office of Production Management, 1941</li>

<li>US Ambassador & Special Representative to the <a title="Prime Minister of the United Kingdom" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_Minister_of_the_United_Kingdom">Prime Minister of the United Kingdom</a>, 1941-43</li>

<li>Chairman, Ambassador & Special Representative of the US President's Special Mission to the USSR, 1941-43</li>

<li>US Ambassador to the USSR, 1943-46</li>

<li>US Ambassador, Britain, 1946</li>

<li>US <a class="mw-redirect" title="Secretary of Commerce" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secretary_of_Commerce">Secretary of Commerce</a>, 1946-48</li>

<li>United States Coordinator, European Recovery Program (<a title="Marshall Plan" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_Plan">Marshall Plan</a>), 1948-50</li>

<li>Special Assistant to the U.S. President, 1950-52</li>

<li>US Representative and Chairman, North Atlantic Commission on Defense Plans, 1951-52</li>

<li>Director, Mutual Security Agency, 1951-53</li>

<li>Candidate, Democratic nomination for US President, 1952</li>

<li>Governor, State of <a title="New York" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York">New York</a>, 1955-58</li>

<li>Candidate, Democratic nomination for US President, 1956</li>

<li>US Ambassador-at-large, 1961</li>

<li>United States Deputy Representative, International Conference on the Settlement of the Laotian, 1961-62</li>

<li>Assistant <a class="mw-redirect" title="US Secretary of State" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US_Secretary_of_State">US Secretary of State</a>, Far Eastern Affairs, 1961-63</li>

<li>Special Representative to the US President, Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, 1963</li>

<li>Under US Secretary of State, Political Affairs, 1963-65</li>

<li>US Ambassador-at-large, 1965-69</li>

<li>Chairman, President's Commission of the Observance of Human Rights Year, 1968</li>

<li>Personal Representative of the US President, Peace Talks with <a title="North Vietnam" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Vietnam">North Vietnam</a>, 1968-69</li>

<li>Chairman, Foreign Policy Task Force, Democratic National Committee, 1976</li>

<li>Member, American Academy of Diplomacy Charter, <a title="Club of Rome" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Club_of_Rome">Club of Rome</a>, <a title="Council on Foreign Relations" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council_on_Foreign_Relations">Council on Foreign Relations</a>, <a title="Knights of Pythias" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knights_of_Pythias">Knights of Pythias</a>, <a title="Skull and Bones" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skull_and_Bones">Skull and Bones</a> Society, <a title="Psi Upsilon" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psi_Upsilon">Psi Upsilon</a> Fraternity and the <a title="Jupiter Island, Florida" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jupiter_Island,_Florida">Jupiter Island</a> Club.</li>

</ul>

<table class="metadata mbox-small plainlinks" style=" border: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); background-color: rgb(249, 249, 249);"><tbody><tr><td class="mbox-image"><img src="/55799ed2-262b-5789-8723-5ecc51d2b4ae.png"/></td><td class="mbox-text">Wikimedia Commons has media related to: <a class="extiw" title="commons:Category:W. Averell Harriman" href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:W._Averell_Harriman"><b><i>W. Averell Harriman</i></b></a></td></tr></tbody></table>

<ul>

<li><a title="Florence Jaffray Harriman" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence_Jaffray_Harriman">Florence Jaffray Harriman</a></li>

<li>Papers of W. Averell Harriman, Library of Congress (see <a class="external autonumber" rel="nofollow" href="http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/eadmss.ms003012.3">[2]</a>)</li>

<li><a class="mw-redirect" title="U.S. presidential election, 1952" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S.presidential_election,1952">U.S. presidential election, 1952</a></li>

<li><a class="mw-redirect" title="U.S. presidential election, 1956" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S.presidential_election,1956">U.S. presidential election, 1956</a></li>

</ul>

<h2><span class="editsection">[<a title="Edit section: References" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=W._Averell_Harriman&action=edit&section=9">edit</a>]</span> <span class="mw-headline" id="References">References</span></h2>

</td><td class="mbox-text">This article includes a <a title="Wikipedia:Citing sources" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citing_sources">list of references</a> or <a title="Wikipedia:External links" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:External_links">external links</a>, but <b>its sources remain unclear because it has insufficient <a title="Wikipedia:Citing sources" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citing_sources#Adding_the_citation">inline citations</a></b>. Please help to <a title="Wikipedia:WikiProject Fact and Reference Check" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Fact_and_Reference_Check">improve</a> this article by introducing more precise citations <a title="Wikipedia:When to cite" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:When_to_cite">where appropriate</a>. <small><i>(September 2009)</i></small></td></tr></tbody></table>

</td><td class="mbox-text">This article <b>may require <a title="Wikipedia:Cleanup" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Cleanup">cleanup</a> to meet Wikipedia's <a title="Wikipedia:Manual of Style" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style">quality standards</a>.</b> Please <a class="external text" rel="nofollow" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=W._Averell_Harriman&action=edit">improve this article</a> if you can. <small><i>(November 2007)</i></small></td></tr></tbody></table>

<li id="cite_note-0"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Averell_Harriman#cite_ref-0"><b>^</b></a> <a class="external text" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.nsa.gov/museum/museu00029.cfm">The Great Seal</a></li>

<li id="cite_note-1"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Averell_Harriman#cite_ref-1"><b>^</b></a> <a class="external free" rel="nofollow" href="http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/R?r101:FLD001:E53490,E53490">http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/R?r101:FLD001:E53490,E53490</a> INTRODUCTION TO `EMBASSY MOSCOW: ATTITUDES AND ERRORS' – (BY HENRY J. HYDE, REPUBLICAN OF ILLINOIS) (Extension of Remarks - October 26, 1988) page [E3490]</li>

<li id="cite_note-Kelber-2"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Averell_Harriman#cite_ref-Kelber_2-0"><b>^</b></a> Harry Kelber, <a class="external text" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.laboreducator.org/darkpast3.htm">« AFL-CIO’s Dark Past »</a>, 22 November 2004, on laboreducator.org</li>

<li id="cite_note-Charpier-3"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Averell_Harriman#cite_ref-Charpier_3-0"><b>^</b></a> <a class="new" title="Frédéric Charpier (page does not exist)" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Fr%C3%A9d%C3%A9ric_Charpier&action=edit&redlink=1">Frédéric Charpier</a>, <i>La CIA en France. 60 ans d'ingérence dans les affaires françaises</i>, Seuil, 2008, p. 40-43. See also <a class="external text" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.bakchich.info/article2289.html">Les belles aventures de la CIA en France</a>, 8 January, 2008, <a title="Bakchich" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bakchich"><i>Bakchich</i></a>.</li>

<li id="cite_note-4"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Averell_Harriman#cite_ref-4"><b>^</b></a> <a class="external free" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.bibliothecapersica.com/articles/v12f1/v12f1011.html">http://www.bibliothecapersica.com/articles/v12f1/v12f1011.html</a></li>

<li id="cite_note-5"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Averell_Harriman#cite_ref-5"><b>^</b></a> <a class="external free" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.whitehousetapes.org/clips/1963_1104_jfk_vietnam_memoir.html">http://www.whitehousetapes.org/clips/1963_1104_jfk_vietnam_memoir.html</a></li>

<li id="cite_note-6"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Averell_Harriman#cite_ref-6"><b>^</b></a> <a class="external free" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.whitehousetapes.org/clips/1966_0201_lbj_mccarthy_vietnam.html">http://www.whitehousetapes.org/clips/1966_0201_lbj_mccarthy_vietnam.html</a></li>

</ol>

</div>

<h2><span class="editsection">[<a title="Edit section: Bibliography" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=W._Averell_Harriman&action=edit&section=10">edit</a>]</span> <span class="mw-headline" id="Bibliography">Bibliography</span></h2>