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| Birth Name(s) : Norman Armour |
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Full Norman Armour Biography
Norman Armour (October 14, 1887–1982) was a career United States diplomat who The New York Times once called "the perfect diplomat". In his long career spanning both World Wars, he served as Chief of Mission in eight countries, as Assistant Secretary of State for Political Affairs, and married into Russian nobility.
Armour was born in Brighton, England while his parents were vacationing there. He grew up in Princeton, New Jersey and graduated from Princeton University in 1909. In 1913, he graduated from Harvard Law School before returning to Princeton to study diplomacy. His first posts were to Austria in 1912 and France from 1915-1916 before formally entering the Foreign Service.
One of his first assignments in the foreign service was as Second Secretary in the United States embassy in Petrograd in the Russian Empire, beginning in 1916 (during World War I). After the collapse of Czarist Russia, the Bolsheviks seized control of the government and signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with the Central Powers which marked their exit from World War I. (These events precipitated the Russian Civil War which would lead to the formation of the Soviet Union in 1922.) Prior to the formal signing of the treaty, the United States partially evacuated their embassy, but Armour remained as part of the limited staff. On July 25, the Russian authorities ordered the diplomats out of Petrograd and a new legation was set up in Vologda. The North Russia Campaign, an Allied Intervention in the Russian Civil War, further destabilized the situation and resulted in the legation becoming essentially under siege. (The Russian army had already attacked the British consulate and killed its Attache.) At this point, the order of events for Armour becomes somewhat unclear. According to news reports of the time, Armour was arrested and brought back to Moscow, where he and other Americans (diplomats and otherwise) were allowed to flee the country on August 26, by train to Sweden, arriving on September 5. Later, it was revealed that Armour had during this period used a fake Norwegian passport and, disguised as a courier, snuck back into Petrograd and arranged for Princess Myra Koudacheff of Petrograd to escape the country. (Contrary to the contemporary reports, his obituary in the New York Times also says that he did not travel in the refugee train from Moscow, but rather escaped himself to Finland, still disguised as a courier, where he caught up with them.) On November 2, shortly after they arrived back in the United States, they announced their engagement. They were married February 2, 1919 in Brussels, Belgium.
Over the following years, Armour would serve in a number of embassies and consulates, including those in Belgium, The Netherlands, Uruguay, Italy, the Department of State (1922-1924), Japan (1925-1928), and France (1928-1932).
In 1932, Armour would be elevated to Envoy and assigned as Minister to Haiti. His primary responsibility in Haiti was to work toward returning the government of the country back to native hands at the conclusion of the United States occupation of Haiti which had been in effect since prior to World War I. He was selected to the position due to his fluency in French, but also as a sign to the Haitians that the United States would put a well-respected diplomat in their country. On August 7, 1933, Armour signed a treaty with Haiti to return government functions to the Haitians by October of 1944 and to withdraw the United States Marines stationed there by November of 1944. (The plan would actually succeed ahead of schedule as Marines left the country on August 14, 1934.)
After the death in office of Warren Delano Robbins, Armour was made Minister to Canada. His appointment to Canada so soon after his success in Haiti was meant to underscore Canada's importance to the United States, according to the New York Times.
In 1941, Armour was made honorary director of the 1st Pan-American Games which were to be held in 1942. Unfortunately, the games were called off due to the war.
After his recall, Armour was made acting-Chief of the Department of Latin American Affairs in the State Department, until his appointment the following year to Spain.
In 1947, Armour came out of retirement to serve as an Assistant Secretary of State of Political Affairs under George C. Marshall. On July 15, 1948, he retired for a second time. Three years later, in 1950, Armour was asked out of retirement again to serve as Ambassador to Venezuela. In 1954, he came out of retirement for a third time to serve as Ambassador to Guatemala, a post he only served in for seven months.
- Cortesi, Arnaldo. "Argentina Sells U.S. All Tungsten", The New York Times, 1941-11-28, p. 1.
- "U.S. to Hold Up Recognition of Argentina Chief", Los Angeles Times, 1944-03-05, p. 1.
- "Recall Armour in New Blow at Argentine Rule", Chicago Daily Tribune, 1944-06-28, p. 8.
- "Armour New Head of U.S. Latin Bureau", The New York Times, 1944-07-19, p. 10.
- "Armour Quits Post Today", The New York Times, 1945-12-01, p. 2.
- "Norman Armour Named Assistant Secretary of State", Chicago Daily Tribune, 1947-06-10, p. 33.
- "Norman Armour Retires Again", The New York Times, 1948-07-16, p. 8.
- Krebs, Alvin. "Norman Armour, 94, Dies", The New York Times, 1982-09-29, p. D26. |
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