View source for Robert Daniel Murphy

{{Short description|American diplomat}}
{{Other people|Robert Murphy}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name                = Robert Murphy
| image               = Col. Maurry Jones, Commanding Officer of American Operations at Gatow Airport, Berlin, Germany, greets Mr. Robert... - NARA - 199005 (cropped).jpg
| office              = Chair of the [[Intelligence Oversight Board]]
| president           = [[Gerald Ford]]<br>[[Jimmy Carter]]
| term_start          = March 11, 1976
| term_end            = May 5, 1977
| predecessor         = Position established
| successor           = Thomas L. Farmer
| office1             = 1st [[Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs]]
| president1          = [[Dwight Eisenhower]]
| term_start1         = August 14, 1959
| term_end1           = December 3, 1959
| predecessor1        = Position established
| successor1          = [[Livingston T. Merchant|Livingston Merchant]]
| office2             = 3rd [[Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs]]
| president2          = Dwight Eisenhower
| term_start2         = July 28, 1953
| term_end2           = November 30, 1953
| predecessor2        = [[John D. Hickerson|John Hickerson]]
| successor2          = [[David McK. Key|David Key]]
| office3             = [[United States Ambassador to Japan]]
| president3          = [[Harry Truman]]<br>Dwight Eisenhower
| term_start3         = May 9, 1952
| term_end3           = April 28, 1953
| predecessor3        = [[Joseph Grew]]
| successor3          = [[John Moore Allison|John Allison]]
| office4             = [[United States Ambassador to Belgium]]
| president4          = Harry Truman
| term_start4         = November 29, 1949
| term_end4           = March 19, 1952
| predecessor4        = [[Alan Goodrich Kirk|Alan Kirk]]
| successor4          = [[Myron Melvin Cowen|Myron Cowen]]
| birth_date          = {{birth date|1894|10|28}}
| birth_place         = [[Milwaukee]], [[Wisconsin]], U.S.
| death_date          = {{death date and age|1978|1|9|1894|10|28}}
| death_place         = {{nowrap|[[New York City]], [[New York (state)|New York]], U.S.}}
| spouse              = Mildred Claire Taylor<br>{{small|(m. 1921; d. 1974)}}
| children            = 3, including [[Rosemary Murphy|Rosemary]]
| education           = [[Marquette University]] {{small|([[Bachelor of Arts|BA]])}}<br>[[George Washington University]] {{small|([[Bachelor of Laws|LLB]], [[Master of Laws|LLM]])}}
| awards              = [[File:President's Award for Distinguished Federal Civilian Service.png|24px]] [[President's Award for Distinguished Federal Civilian Service]] (1959)<br>[[Distinguished Service Medal (U.S. Army)|Distinguished Service Medal]]<br>[[Croix de Guerre]]<br>[[Order of the Rising Sun]]<br>[[Order of Leopold (Belgium)]]<br>[[Order of Isabella the Catholic]]<br>[[National Security Medal]]
| footnotes           = <ref>{{cite news |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=January 11, 1978 |page=B9 |title=Robert D. Murphy, Diplomat, Dies at 83; Planned Allied Invasion of North Africa; Breath-Taking Moment De Gaulle Not Informed Studied Law While Working Envoy to Belgium Ranking "Old Pro" |access-date=2014-08-23 |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9803E6DE103EE632A25752C1A9679C946990D6CF |id={{ProQuest|123854229}} }} {{subscription required}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |newspaper=The New York Times |author-link=Margalit Fox |first=Margalit |last=Fox |date=July 10, 2014 |access-date=2014-08-23 |title=Rosemary Murphy, 89, Emmy Winner Familiar to Broadway, Dies |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/10/arts/television/rosemary-murphy-89-emmy-winner-dies.html?_r=0}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Vaughan |first=Hal |author-link=Hal Vaughan |title=FDR's 12 apostles : the spies who paved the way for the invasion of North Africa |location=Guilford, Conn. |publisher=[[Lyons Press]] |year=2006 |isbn=9781592289165 |lccn=2006022143 |access-date=2014-08-23 |url=https://archive.org/details/fdrs12apostlessp0000vaug|url-access=registration |quote=FDR's 12 apostles : the spies who paved the way for the invasion of North Africa. }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Office of Strategic Services Society |location=Falls Church, VA |access-date=2014-08-23 |url=http://www.osssociety.org/award.html}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Robert D. Murphy |publisher=U.S. Department of State |access-date=2014-08-23 |url=http://2001-2009.state.gov/r/pa/ei/rls/stamps/67016.htm}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |chapter=Robert Daniel Murphy |title=Dictionary of American Biography  |id=GALE<nowiki>|</nowiki>BT2310006918 |location=New York |publisher=[[Charles Scribner's Sons]] |year=1995 |access-date=2014-08-22 |chapter-url=http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/bic1/ReferenceDetailsPage/ReferenceDetailsWindow?failOverType=&query=&prodId=BIC1&windowstate=normal&contentModules=&display-query=&mode=view&displayGroupName=Reference&limiter=&currPage=&disableHighlighting=false&displayGroups=&sortBy=&search_within_results=&p=BIC1&action=e&catId=&activityType=&scanId=&documentId=GALE%7CBT2310006918&source=Bookmark&u=fairfax_main&jsid=1927aae65930fad62b863bff76497230|title-link=Dictionary of American Biography }} Biography in Context.</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Robert Daniel Murphy Papers, Biographical Note |publisher=[[Hoover Institution Archives]] |location=Stanford, California |access-date=2014-08-22 |url=http://findingaids.stanford.edu/xtf/view?docId=ead/hoover/reg_125.xml;chunk.id=bioghist-1.7.5;brand=default}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |newspaper=The Washington Post |first=Martin |last=Weil |date=January 10, 1978 |page=C6 |title=Robert D. Murphy Dies; Longtime U.S. Diplomat Played Key Role in WWII |id={{ProQuest|146964448}} }}</ref>
}}
'''Robert Daniel Murphy''' (October 28, 1894 – January 9, 1978) was an American [[diplomat]]. He served as the first United States [[Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs]] when the position was established during the [[Presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower|Eisenhower administration]].

==Early life and career==
Born in [[Milwaukee, Wisconsin]], Murphy began his federal career at the [[United States Post Office]] (1916) and moved to be cipher clerk at the [[American Legation]] in [[Bern]], [[Switzerland]] (1917). He was admitted to the [[US Foreign Service]] in 1921. Among the several posts that he held were [[Vice-Consul]] in [[Zürich]] and [[Munich]], [[consul (representative)|consul]] in [[Seville]], consul in [[Paris]] from 1930 to 1936, and [[chargé d'affaires]] to the [[Vichy France|Vichy government]]. He was also the one-time [[State Department]] specialist on [[France]].

==World War II==
In February 1941, Murphy negotiated the Murphy-[[Maxime Weygand|Weygand]] Agreement, which allowed the United States to export to [[French North Africa]] in spite of the British blockade and trade restrictions against the Vichy-governed area.<ref name=Kolko>[[Gabriel Kolko]] (1968; 1990 edition with new afterword), ''The Politics of War: The World and United States Foreign Policy, 1943-1945'', ASIN B0007EOISO. Chapter 4.</ref>

In autumn of 1942, at President [[Franklin Roosevelt]]'s behest, Murphy investigated conditions in French North Africa in preparation for the [[Allies of World War II|Allied]] landings, [[Operation Torch]], the first major Western Allied ground offensive during [[World War II]]. He was appointed the President's personal representative with the rank of Minister to French North Africa. Murphy made contact with various French army officers in Algiers and recruited them to support the Allies when the invasion of French North Africa came.<ref>{{cite book
 |location=New York, NY |publisher=[[Henry Holt & Co.]] |year=2002 |edition=First
 |title=An army at dawn : the war in North Africa, 1942-1943
 |author-link=Rick Atkinson |first=Rick |last=Atkinson |isbn=0805062882 |lccn=2002024130
 |pages=45–46, 48–91, 61, 72, 89, 93–96, 107, 115, 118–119, 121–123, 158, 251, 252
 |access-date=2014-08-23
 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=J4FDFgWB3aYC&q=an+army+at+dawn}}</ref> During this time, [[Kenneth Pendar]] served as his second.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1972/12/08/archives/kenneth-pehdar-i-exnige-gonsul-aide-in-north-africa-dies-wrote-book.html|title=KENNETH PENDAR, EX-VICE CONSUL|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=8 December 1972 |access-date=23 July 2019}}</ref>

Prior to the November 8 invasion, Murphy, along with [[General (United States)|U.S. General]] [[Mark W. Clark]], had worked to gain the cooperation of French General [[Henri Giraud]] for the attack. The Americans and British hoped to place Giraud in charge of all French forces in North Africa and command them for the Allied cause. Giraud, however, mistakenly believed that he was to assume command of all Allied forces in North Africa, which put Murphy's diplomatic skills to the test to keep Giraud on board.

Murphy and Clark jointly convinced the French in North Africa to accept Admiral [[François Darlan]], the commander of all French military Forces loyal to the Vichy regime and coincidentally in [[Algiers]], as the highest authority in French North Africa and Giraud as Commander of all French military in North Africa. Murphy used his friendly contacts with the French in North Africa to gain their co-operation in re-entering the war against the Axis. He also needed all his diplomatic skills to steer Clark away from confrontation with the French, especially Darlan. When Darlan was assassinated in late December, an irritant to good relations was removed.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Murphy|first1=Robert|title=Diplomat among Warriors|pages=129–131, 136–139}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Pendar|first1=Kenneth|title=Adventures in Diplomacy|pages=105–09, 117–120}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Juin|first1=Alphonse|title=Memoire|page=vol. 1, 78–88, 107}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Giraud|first1=Henri|title=Un Seul But: La Victoire, Algerie 1942-1944|date=1949|publisher=R. Julliard|location=Paris|pages=29–33, 38–40}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Clark|first1=Mark|title=Calculated Risk|url=https://archive.org/details/calculatedrisk0000clar|url-access=registration|date=1950|publisher=Harper and Row|location=New York|pages=[https://archive.org/details/calculatedrisk0000clar/page/105 105]–116–18, 121}}</ref>

Keeping the French united and aligned with the Allies into 1943 taxed Murphy's skills to their limit. He gained a powerful ally in British politician (and future Prime Minister) [[Harold Macmillan]], also posted to Algiers in January 1943. The two diplomats worked together amiably to ensure that the [[Casablanca Conference]] went smoothly in January 1943 and that Giraud and [[de Gaulle]] would join forces to unite the French among the Allies. Keeping the quarrelsome French united and working with the Americans and British exasperated and exhausted Murphy. When Eisenhower needed a civilian from the State Department to assume a similar role in Italy in 1943, Murphy gladly accepted it and left Algiers behind.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Murphy|first1=Robert|title=Diplomat among Warriers|pages=163–76, 183–85}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=MacMillan|first1=Harold|title=The Blast of War, 1939-1945|url=https://archive.org/details/blastofwar1939190000macm|url-access=registration|date=1967|publisher=MacMillan|location=London|pages=[https://archive.org/details/blastofwar1939190000macm/page/244 244]–47, 251–54}}</ref>

==Later career==
*1948 advisor for General [[Lucius D. Clay]], American military governor of American-occupied Germany, during the Soviet Russian Blockade of Berlin, and the Berlin Airlift, "Operation Vittles" 
*1949 Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, [[Belgium]]
*1952 Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, [[Japan]] (first American ambassador to Japan after World War II<ref>"Japanese Assume New Sovereignty: Little Fanfare Marks Shift From Occupied Status -- Murphy Arrives as U. S. Envoy". ''The New York Times''. 29 April 1952. p. 3.</ref>)
*1953 Assistant Secretary for United Nations Affairs
*1953 Deputy Under Secretary for Political Affairs (Assistant Secretary)
*1955 Deputy Under Secretary for Political Affairs
*1956 [[Senior Foreign Service|Career Ambassador]]
*1958 Personal representative of President [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]] during the [[1958 Lebanon crisis]]
*1959 [[Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs]]
*1959 Head of International Operations, Corning Glass Works

==Later life==
Murphy retired from the State Department in December 1959 but became an adviser to Presidents [[John F. Kennedy]], [[Lyndon B. Johnson]], and [[Richard Nixon]]. He served on President [[Gerald Ford]]'s [[Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board]].

He was a member of the Steering Committee of the [[Bilderberg Group]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.bilderbergmeetings.org/former-steering-committee-members.html|title=Former Steering Committee Members|work=bilderbergmeetings.org|publisher=[[Bilderberg Group]]|access-date=2014-02-08|archive-date=2014-02-02|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140202095633/http://www.bilderbergmeetings.org/former-steering-committee-members.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>

In 2006, Murphy was featured on a United States [[postage stamp]], one of a block of six featuring prominent diplomats.<ref>
  {{cite web
    |date=May 30, 2006 |title=USPS Stamp News: SIX DISTINGUISHED DIPLOMATS HONORED ON U.S. POSTAGE STAMPS
    |publisher=[[U.S. Postal Service]] |url=http://www.usps.com/communications/news/stamps/2006/sr06_036.htm
    |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061027222613/http://www.usps.com/communications/news/stamps/2006/sr06_036.htm
    |access-date=2014-08-23 |archive-date=2006-10-27}}
</ref>

== Works ==
* ''The Bases of Peace'', [Washington] [[United States Department of State]], 1958
* ''Diplomat among Warriors'', [1st ed.], Garden City, N.Y., Doubleday, 1964.           
*  Murphy e l'operazione torch,Salvatore Trovato Gangemi, Edizioni Nuova Cultura,Roma 2023.

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Sources==
*{{cite book |author-link=William L. Langer |first=William L. |last=Langer |title=Our Vichy Gamble |year=1947}}
*{{cite book |author-link=H. W. Brands |first=H. W. |last=Brands |year=1988
  |title=Cold Warriors: Eisenhower's Generation and American Foreign Policy}}
*{{cite news |title=Editorial, "Gentleman and Diplomat" |work=[[Foreign Service Journal]]
  |date=January 1960  |access-date=2014-08-22 |url=http://www.usdiplomacy.org/downloads/pdf/excellence/Murphy-Editorial1960.pdf}}
*{{cite news |title=Remarks of The Honorable Robert Murphy
  |work=Foreign Service Journal |date=March 1954 |author-link=Robert Daniel Murphy |first=Robert |last=Murphy
  |access-date=2014-08-22 |url=http://www.usdiplomacy.org/downloads/pdf/excellence/Murphy-Remarks1954.pdf}}
*{{cite news |title=The Soldier and the Diplomat |work=Foreign Service Journal
  |author-link=Robert Daniel Murphy |first=Robert |last=Murphy |date=May 1952
  |access-date=2014-08-22 |url=http://www.usdiplomacy.org/downloads/pdf/excellence/Murphy1952.pdf}}
*{{cite book|last1=Pendar|first1=Kenneth|title=Adventure in Diplomacy: Our French Dilemma|date=1976|publisher=Da Capo Press|location=New York}}
*{{cite book|last1=Mast|first1=Général Charles|title=Histoire d'une Rébellion, Alger, 8 novembre 1942|date=1969|publisher=Plon|location=Paris}}
*{{cite book|last1=Juin|first1=Alphonse|title=Mémoires|date=1959|publisher=A. Fayard|location=Paris}}

==External links==
*{{find a Grave|125074860}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20101216160410/http://eisenhowermemorial.org/presidential-papers/second-term/documents/1356.cfm The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, Volume XX]
*{{Internet Archive film clip|id=gov.archives.arc.95848|description="Longines Chronoscope with Robert Murphy"}}
*[http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf3b69n64w/ Register of the Robert Daniel Murphy Papers, 1913-1978] and [https://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/61774 selected documents online] at the Hoover Institution Archives, Stanford University. 

{{s-start}}
{{s-dip}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Alan Goodrich Kirk|Alan Kirk]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[United States Ambassador to Belgium]]|years=1949–1952}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Myron Melvin Cowen|Myron Cowen]]}}
|-
{{s-bef|before=[[Joseph Grew]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[United States Ambassador to Japan]]|years=1952–1953}}
{{s-aft|after=[[John Moore Allison|John Allison]]}}
|-
{{s-off}}
{{s-bef|before=[[John D. Hickerson|John Hickerson]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs]]|years=1953}}
{{s-aft|after=[[David McK. Key|David Key]]}}
|-
{{s-new|office}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs]]|years=1959}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Livingston T. Merchant|Livingston Merchant]]}}
|-
{{s-ach|aw}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Omar Bradley]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=Recipient of the [[Sylvanus Thayer Award]]|years=1974}}
{{s-aft|after=[[W. Averell Harriman|Averell Harriman]]}}
|-
{{s-gov}}
{{s-new|office}}
{{s-ttl|title=Chair of the [[Intelligence Oversight Board]]|years=1976–1976}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Thomas L. Farmer|Thomas Farmer]]}}
{{s-end}}

{{US Ambassadors to Belgium}}
{{US Ambassadors to Japan}}
{{Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs}}
{{Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Murphy, Robert Daniel}}
[[Category:1894 births]]
[[Category:1978 deaths]]
[[Category:Ambassadors of the United States to Belgium]]
[[Category:Ambassadors of the United States to Japan]]
[[Category:American expatriates in Switzerland]]
[[Category:George Washington University Law School alumni]]
[[Category:Laetare Medal recipients]]
[[Category:Marquette University alumni]]
[[Category:Members of the Steering Committee of the Bilderberg Group]]
[[Category:Politicians from Milwaukee]]
[[Category:Under secretaries of state for political affairs]]
[[Category:United States assistant secretaries of state]]
[[Category:United States career ambassadors]]
[[Category:United States Foreign Service personnel]]
[[Category:American expatriates in Germany]]
[[Category:Recipients of the President's Award for Distinguished Federal Civilian Service]]
[[Category:20th-century American diplomats]]