Treaties, alliances and back-channel dinners: the people who talked America out of trouble.
1Benjamin FranklinTalked France into an alliance in 1778 and signed the Treaty of Paris that ended the war.
2Henry KissingerSecretary of State who opened relations with China and negotiated the Vietnam withdrawal.
3George C. MarshallArchitect of the Marshall Plan that rebuilt post-war Europe, and a Nobel laureate.
4John Quincy AdamsNegotiated the Treaty of Ghent and drafted the Monroe Doctrine before becoming President.
5Ralph BuncheMediated the 1949 Arab-Israeli armistice and became the first Black Nobel Peace laureate.
6Dean AchesonSecretary of State who built the NATO alliance and the post-war containment strategy.
7Madeleine AlbrightFirst woman to serve as Secretary of State, and a driving force behind NATO's expansion.
8John JayNegotiated the treaty that kept the young republic out of a second war with Britain.
9Averell HarrimanWartime ambassador to Moscow and London, and a fixture of American diplomacy for fifty years.
10Richard HolbrookeForced the Dayton Accords through and ended the war in Bosnia.
11Eleanor RooseveltChaired the commission that produced the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
12George F. KennanDiplomat and historian whose Long Telegram defined American strategy for forty years.
13Thomas JeffersonMinister to France before Franklin's successor, and the first Secretary of State.
14Colin PowellCareer soldier who became the first Black Secretary of State.
Comments 1
On 6 February 1778 Franklin signed the French alliance for a country that did not yet exist. Fourteen diplomats, and one had no state behind him: https://youpick.best/articles/benjamin-franklin-ranked-many-ways
YP
ypb-teamAug 21
