David Ormsby-Gore

David Ormsby-Gore combined Conservative politics with diplomacy. Educated at Eton and New College, Oxford, he served in the army during the Second World War and represented Oswestry in Parliament from 1950 to 1961. He became minister of state at the Foreign Office under Harold Macmillan. His friendship with John F. Kennedy had begun in London in 1938, long before either held the offices that made it diplomatically important. ¹

Appointed ambassador in 1961, Ormsby-Gore had unusual access to the president during the Cuban Missile Crisis. According to his report to London, at their private meeting on 21 October 1962 Kennedy asked him to choose between an air strike and a blockade, and he favoured the blockade. Kennedy then said that his advisers had reached the same conclusion. ²

In his 1965 oral history, Ormsby-Gore described further discussions about how to signal American determination while leaving the Soviet leadership room to retreat. He recalled urging the release of missile site photographs to counter European doubts and arguing that interception of Soviet ships nearer Cuba could allow more time for new orders from Moscow. ³

Arms control had occupied him before the ambassadorship. In October 1959, while minister of state, he pressed American officials for a phased nuclear test agreement and joint research into detecting underground explosions. In Washington he later worked on the Polaris settlement following Skybolt’s cancellation and on efforts toward a test ban treaty. His close personal relationship with Kennedy did not survive as an equivalent channel under Lyndon Johnson. ^{4, 1}

Ormsby-Gore inherited the title Lord Harlech in 1964 and left Washington the following year. He became president of the British Board of Film Censors and chaired the consortium that launched Harlech Television, later HTV, serving Wales and western England. He also chaired the European Movement and served on the Pearce Commission concerning Rhodesia. He died following a car accident in January 1985. ¹