Sumner Welles ( New York , 14 of October of 1892 – State of New Jersey , 24 of September of 1961 ) was an American diplomat. In 1933 he briefly served as the United States ambassador to Cuba, but his public views and controversial attempts to undermine the liberal regime there led to his removal. In 1937 he was promoted to undersecretary of state and was one of the most trusted diplomatic advisers to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt .
A friend of Roosevelt since his university days at Harvard University , in 1933 he was appointed his special envoy in Cuba with the mission of mediating between President Gerardo Machado and the opposition to stop the revolution. After the failure of his mission, he was replaced in December and returned to the State Department where he held the position of undersecretary in charge of Latin American Affairs, until March 1943. Later, he carried out various missions at the request of President Roosevelt.
Summary
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- 1 Biographical synthesis
- 1 Political career
- 2 Mediation in Cuba
- 3 Official of the Department of State
- 4 Death
- 2 Sources
Biographical synthesis
Descendant of old families from Boston , Massachusetts and New York . He was born in New York to Benjamin J. Welles and Frances Wyeth’s Swan. His sister was Emily Frances Welles. He was christened Sumner in honor of his second uncle Charles Sumner, a senator from Massachusetts .
He entered the United States Foreign Service at a young age as secretary of the United States Embassy in Tokyo . He quickly built a career and was promoted to Division Chief for Latin America at the State Department.
He lived in abundance and privilege, with a prominent family in society. At the age of 10 he was enrolled in Miss Kearny’s day school for boys. In September 1904, a month before his 12th birthday, he entered the Groton School in Massachusetts , where he remained for six years. In Groton, Welles shared the same room as Eleanor Roosevelt’s brother . He then enrolled at Harvard University , graduating from higher education in 1914.
Political career
On the advice of his friend Franklin Delano Roosevelt , he entered the United States Foreign Service and won a scholarship for an assignment to Tokyo, Japan. Later he was transferred to Buenos Aires (Argentina), where he perfected his Spanish .
He was concerned with studying Latin American idiosyncrasies and customs. Back in his country, despite belonging to the Democratic Party, Secretary of State Charles Hughes, a prominent statesman of the Republican Party , in just appreciation of his preparation made him appoint head of the Latin American Division of the State Department in 1921, a high position which Welles resigned the following year. In the same year, 1922, President Warren Harding commissioned him with the rank of Minister Plenipotentiary, to direct the negotiations that resulted in the termination of the military government of American occupation in the Dominican Republic.
Upon his return to the United States, he wrote La Viña de Naboth , a work on the history of the Dominican Republic from its foundation in 1844 to 1924.
Mediation in Cuba
Main article: Sumner Welles Mediation .
In 1933, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt appointed him his special envoy in Cuba with the mission of mediating between President Gerardo Machado and the opposition to stop the revolution.
On May 7, he arrived in Cuba on the ship Petén. His efforts from the ambassador began immediately. He approached the owners of the press and also prestigious figures of the Liberation Army such as Colonel Cosme de la Torriente . At his request, a part of the opposition joined the Mediation . At first, President Machado was willing to accept some transformations in the Constitution in the hope of staying in power until mid-1935.
In April 1933, Franklin Delano Roosevelt appointed Welles as “assistant secretary of state for Latin American affairs,” [1] but when a revolution in Cuba against President Gerardo Machado left his government divided and uncertain, he became the special envoy from the president to Cuba. Welles arrived in Havana in May 1933. [1] His mission was to negotiate an agreement so that the United States could avoid intervening on the island, as required by US law – that is, the Platt Amendment of 1901. [1]
His instructions were to mediate “in the most appropriate way” to put an end to the Cuban situation. [2]
Welles promised Machado a new trade agreement to cover the economic embezzlement that Machado had perpetrated, and if he reached a political agreement with his opponents. According to Welles, the corrupt Machado believed that the United States would help him survive politically.
Behind Machado’s back, Welles promised opponents of the tyranny a change of government and participation in the subsequent administration, if they would join the mediation process and support an orderly transfer of power. A crucial step was persuading Machado to issue an amnesty for political prisoners so that opposition leaders could appear in public. [1]
Machado soon lost faith in Welles and denounced American interference as a colonial adventure. Welles’s mediation process conferred political legitimacy on participating opposition sectors and allowed the United States to assess their viability as long-term political allies. [3]
Unable to influence Machado, Welles met with Rafael Guas Inclán , Speaker of the House of Representatives, at the home of newspaper editor Alfredo Hornedo, and asked him to initiate a political trial against the president. When Guas severely refuted him, Wells later negotiated the end of his House presidency. [4]
In August 1933 the revolution against Machado broke out. The general strike, organized by the CNOC and the Communist Party, left Mediation and Sumner Welles behind, absorbed by events. The popular battle of those who did not accept the conspiracy of the United States embassy came to the fore and was not satisfied with another solution than the fall of Machado.
Immediately the ambassador maneuvered to replace Machado with a figure close to mediation. This was Carlos Manuel de Céspedes , who was immediately recognized by the United States government. However, the situation got out of their control when on September 4 , army soldiers staged a coup and deposed Céspedes.
José Miguel Irisarri (1895-1968) mentions about that moment:
I was one of the members of the Pentarchy that ruled Cuba for five days after the fall of Gerardo Machado in August 1933. The situation was handled by the US ambassador Sumner Welles. The United States Navy maintained 30 warships anchored off Havana. The United States Government always did what it wanted in our country. They were the ones who ruled. They removed and put presidents. It’s disgusting to talk about that time. That is why Cuba always needed a Revolution and men like Fidel Castro who had his pants on well and did not render an account to the Americans.
José Miguel Irrisari [5]
From that moment Welles set out to reverse the situation. He began by allying himself with the officers who had been deposed by the enlisted men and who locked themselves in open rebellion in the National Hotel carrying their weapons. When they were evicted by the army and civilian elements that supported the government of Ramón Grau San Martín, Welles began to conspire with the ABC . He also met with the recently promoted Colonel Fulgencio Batista , head of the army, whom he immediately identified as the strong man capable of defending the interests of the US monopolies and reaction [6] [7]
In the midst of the crisis caused by the uprising of the alphabet books on November 8 and the increasingly treacherous position of the Army chief, President Ramón Grau San Martín asked the United States government to remove his ambassador Sumner Welles, who intervened openly in the internal affairs of Cuba and demanded:
Put an end to the disturbing action of Ambassador Welles, who maintains relations and negotiations with the enemies of the government. [8]
Ramón Grau San Martín
The president of the United States, Franklin Delano Roosevelt , responded with a threatening statement, in which he threatened Grau San Martín with economic sanctions; but eventually he decided to replace Welles with Jeffersson Caffery . [8] [9] To do this, he requested the help of General Alberto Herrera, Colonels Julio Sanguily , Rafael del Castillo, and Erasmo Delgado , after threatening the intervention of the United States under the Platt Amendment and the restructuring of the army’s high command. Cuban. [10]
State Department official
After the failure of his mission, he was replaced in December and returned to the State Department where he held the position of undersecretary in charge of Latin American affairs, until March 1943.
In 1937, Franklin Delano Roosevelt promoted Welles to undersecretary and the Senate immediately confirmed the appointment.
Indicative of ongoing rivalries within the State Department, Robert Walton Moore, an ally of Secretary of State Hull, was appointed a counselor to the department at the same time, a position equal in rank to that of undersecretary. [eleven]
Later he fulfilled various missions at the request of President Roosevelt.
At the beginning of World War II (1939-1945) , Welles was the natural choice to succeed the ailing Secretary of State Cordell Hull (1871-1955). After a homosexual episode that starred in a train Sumner in 1940, [12] the director of the FBI , J. Edgar Hoover , he said a homosexual as Welles would be considered a security risk. Welles’ political enemies used this complaint against him. and – threatening a Senate investigation – forced Roosevelt to accept his resignation in 1943. Roosevelt had no choice but to accept Sumner Welles’ resignation.
Formally and informally barred from the foreign policy establishment for life, Welles’ resignation removed the United States from its likely secretary of state in the middle of World War II. Even today the damage homophobia did to midcentury US foreign policy is underscored. [13]
Death
Welles continued to write and post commentary on international affairs, articulating his vision for a multilateral global community.
He died at the age of 68 in the city of Bernardsville ( New Jersey ).
He was buried in the Cala de la Roca Cemetery, Washington , DC.
