John E. Reinhardt

Template:Short description Template:For Template:Infobox ambassador John Edward Reinhardt (March 8, 1920 Template:En dash February 18, 2016) was an American ambassador and diplomat. He was the first career diplomat to head the U.S. Information Agency (USIA) and the first Black Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite news</ref>

Early life and army service

Reinhardt was born in Glade Spring, Virginia and raised in Knoxville, Tennessee.<ref name=":1" /> He attended segregated schools growing up.<ref name=":2">Template:Cite news</ref> After graduating from Knoxville College in 1939, he attended the University of Chicago, initially pursuing a graduate degree in English, but did not finish on account to serving in World War II.<ref name=":3">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He taught at Fayetteville State University from 1941 until he was drafted in 1942.<ref name=":1" />

The army was segregated when Reinhardt served so he was assigned to a Black regiment. He was assigned domestically to protect from terrorist attacks.<ref name=":1" /> His regiment was sent to Italy with the 92nd Infantry Division, but Reinhardt was selected to attend Officer Candidate School instead.<ref name=":1" /> He was sent to the Dutch East Indies to prepare for a projected invasion of Japan, but the war was largely over by this time.<ref name=":2" /> He left the Army with the rank of Staff Sargent.<ref name=":1" />

Reinhardt received his master's in 1947 and his doctorate in English in 1950 from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.<ref name=":4">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He then became a faculty member at Virginia State University.<ref name=":2" />

Career

Reinhardt became a Foreign Service Officer in 1956, joining the USIA. His early positions included tours in Japan, the Philippines, and Iran.<ref name=":2" /> In 1966, he was promoted to the USIA Assistant Director for Africa and the Far East.<ref name=":4" />

He was the U.S. ambassador to Nigeria from 1971 to 1975.<ref name=":1">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He was the first African American in this position.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Reinhardt said that the hardest part of his tour in Nigeria was justifying the U.S. import of chrome from the white separatist state of Rhodesia.<ref name=":2" />

In 1975, Reinhardt became the Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He was part of the team that helped Rhodesia shift from white-minority to Black-majority rule.<ref name=":2" /> President Jimmy Carter appointed Reinhardt to become the director of the USIA in 1977. During his tenure, the agency was renamed the International Communication Agency and grew to include the Voice of America and the State Department's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Reinhardt retired from the State Department in 1980.<ref name=":2" />

Reinhardt was a part of many different boards following his retirement, including the American Academy of Diplomacy, Georgetown University’s Institute for the Study of Diplomacy, the Population Council of America, and the Middle East Institute.<ref name=":4" /> He was also a member of the Peabody Awards Board of Jurors from 1980 to 1987.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Reinhardt later was a professor of political science at the University of Vermont from 1987 to 1991.<ref name=":3" /> In 1988, Reinhardt was honored as a U.S. Institute of Peace Distinguished Fellow.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> On June 16, 2004 he joined a group of twenty-seven called Diplomats and Military Commanders for Change opposing the Iraq War.<ref name=":4" />

Legacy and death

Richard T. Arndt, in his book The First Resort of Kings: American Cultural Diplomacy in the Twentieth Century, wrote that Reinhardt was, "the real thing, a genuine practicing cultural diplomat."<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Reinhardt died on February 18, 2016 at the age of 95.<ref name=":0" />