Jacob Dyneley Beam (March 24, 1908 – August 16, 1993) was an American diplomat.
Jacob D. Beam | |
|---|---|
 | |
| United States Ambassador to Poland | |
| In office August 9, 1957 – November 30, 1961 | |
| President | Dwight D. Eisenhower John F. Kennedy |
| Preceded by | Joseph E. Jacobs |
| Succeeded by | John Moors Cabot |
| United States Ambassador to Czechoslovakia | |
| In office August 31, 1966 – March 5, 1969 | |
| President | Lyndon Johnson Richard Nixon |
| Preceded by | Outerbridge Horsey |
| Succeeded by | Malcolm Toon |
| United States Ambassador to the Soviet Union | |
| In office April 18, 1969 – January 24, 1973 | |
| President | Richard Nixon |
| Preceded by | Llewellyn Thompson |
| Succeeded by | Walter J. Stoessel, Jr. |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Jacob Dyneley Beam March 24, 1908 Princeton, New Jersey |
| Died | August 16, 1993 (aged 85) Rockville, Maryland |
Life and career
editBeam was born in Princeton, New Jersey. His father was a German professor at Princeton University, and the younger Beam earned a bachelor's degree in 1929 from Princeton before he joined the US Foreign Service.
His first assignment was in Geneva, where he monitored the League of Nations and served as vice counsel in Geneva from 1931 to 1934. He then moved to Berlin and served as third secretary to the US embassy from 1934 to 1940. During World War II, he served as second secretary of the embassy in London. He returned to Germany after the war.
Beam was counselor to the US embassy in Indonesia from 1949 to 1951 and to Yugoslavia from 1951 to 1952. He became the ambassador to Poland from 1957 to 1961. From 1966 to 1969 he served as Ambassador to Czechoslovakia, where he was present at the Prague Spring. He was ambassador to the Soviet Union from 1969 to 1973.
Beam's support of Senator Edmund Muskie's visit to Moscow in January 1971 caused President Richard Nixon to remark at a meeting with Henry Kissinger and HR Haldeman to give Beam three more months in the role as ambassador to Moscow and then fire him. [1]
Beam died in Rockville, Maryland, of a stroke.[2] His son is journalist Alex Beam.
References
edit- ^ "Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969–1976, Volume XIII, Soviet Union, October 1970–October 1971 - Office of the Historian".
- ^ Lambert, Bruce (August 18, 1993). Jacob D. Beam, Envoy to Soviets At Start of Detente, Is Dead at 85. New York Times
External links
edit- Jacob Dyneley Beam (1908–1993), Office of the Historian
- Jacob D. Beam paper at the Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library, Princeton University
- Oral History Interview with Jacob D. Beam via Truman Library
- JACOB BEAM: OUR MAN IN MOSCOW by Central Intelligence Agency
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