{"record":{"affiliations":[{"polityId":"polity-3fcc9adb88012825729f2b2c","role":"U.S. under secretary of state","sourceIds":["b-welles-state"]}],"aliases":["Benjamin Sumner Welles"],"appointmentIds":[],"appointmentsDataset":"https://chanceries.org/diplomats.json","archivalSources":[],"canonicalUrl":"https://chanceries.org/diplopedia/people/person-f8d53a8a0a4d43ad2aec5e29-ecc9979479/","countrySlug":null,"countrySlugs":["cuba"],"documentedRoles":[{"assertionId":"assert-8cbed1207cd33513a10ce07c","associationBasis":"reviewed-context","evidenceClass":"contextual","note":"Telephoned Messersmith on 17 December 1941 during the negotiations surrounding the revised trade proposal; he is not listed at the Concheso meeting.","predicate":"context_for","role":"related telephone consultation with U.S. ambassador","sourceIds":["b-welles-frus177","b-welles-state"],"targetId":"event-51d6db016593c5e10f2ceef9","targetType":"event","title":"Concheso receives a revised proposal on sugar","url":"/research/history/concheso-revised-sugar-guarantee-1941/","validTime":{"attestations":[{"precision":"day","value":"1941-12-17"}],"continuity":"attestation","end":null,"endInclusive":true,"start":null}}],"entityId":"https://chanceries.org/diplopedia/people/person-f8d53a8a0a4d43ad2aec5e29-ecc9979479/#person","eventIds":[],"expandedParagraphs":["Sumner Welles took part in Washington's direction of trade negotiations with Cuba as under secretary of state. On December 17, 1941, he telephoned George Messersmith, the American ambassador in Havana, while officials were preparing a revised agreement. The following day, Messersmith referred to the call and promised to press the proposed exchange of notes with the Cuban government.","Welles had entered the Foreign Service in 1915 after attending Groton and Harvard. He specialized in Latin American affairs, rose to lead the department's division for the region, and left for banking in 1922. Franklin Roosevelt brought him back into government in 1933. That year, he served as the American ambassador in Cuba before returning to Washington.","As under secretary from 1937, Welles remained close to Roosevelt and helped draft the Atlantic Charter in 1941. He left the department in September 1943 after conflict with Secretary Cordell Hull. In retirement, he continued to publish on international affairs and the prospects for international cooperation. He died in 1961."],"id":"global:person-f8d53a8a0a4d43ad2aec5e29","identifiers":{},"identityScope":"global","legacyPersonIds":[],"legacyUrl":"https://chanceries.org/diplomat-ecc9979479d28af4a493.html","name":"Sumner Welles","notes":[],"paragraphSources":[["b-welles-frus177","b-welles-state"],["b-welles-gwu","b-welles-state"],["b-welles-gwu","b-welles-state"]],"profileUrl":"diplomat-ecc9979479d28af4a493.html","relatedEvents":[],"relatedPeople":[],"relationships":[],"researchStatus":"reviewed","reviewedOn":"2026-11-01","revision":"60bb6b5ff917dddf","sources":[{"accessedOn":"2026-11-01","date":"1941-12-18","id":"b-welles-frus177","locator":"FRUS 1941, volume VII, document 177, opening paragraph and note 32","publisher":"Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State","title":"Walmsley's memorandum of telephone conversation with Messersmith, 18 December 1941","type":"primary-record","url":"https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1941v07/d177"},{"accessedOn":"2026-11-01","date":"","id":"b-welles-state","locator":"Cuba appointment; assistant and under secretary terms","publisher":"Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State","title":"Benjamin Sumner Welles","type":"official-record","url":"https://history.state.gov/departmenthistory/people/welles-benjamin-sumner"},{"accessedOn":"2026-11-01","date":"","id":"b-welles-gwu","locator":"Complete biographical entry","publisher":"Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project, George Washington University","title":"Sumner Welles (1892–1961)","type":"institutional-biography","url":"https://erpapers.columbian.gwu.edu/sumner-welles-1892-1961"}],"topics":["United States–Cuba relations","Trade negotiations"]},"schemaVersion":1}