Edward R. Stettinius Jr.

Edward R. Stettinius Jr. served as Secretary of State from December 1944 to June 1945 under Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman. A former General Motors and United States Steel executive, he entered government through wartime production and mobilization work. As administrator of Lend-Lease aid and then under secretary of state, he dealt with the material and diplomatic requirements of the Allied coalition. ¹

Stettinius accompanied Roosevelt to Yalta in February 1945. The conference addressed Germany’s defeat and occupation, the political future of Eastern Europe, Soviet participation in the war against Japan, and the organization of postwar security. Roosevelt’s death in April placed Stettinius at the center of the transfer of wartime diplomacy to Truman. ¹

He led the American delegation at the San Francisco conference that drafted the United Nations Charter in the spring of 1945. This assignment required turning wartime proposals for a new international organization into an agreement among fifty participating states. He resigned as secretary after the conference and became the first United States representative to the United Nations. He left that post in June 1946, dissatisfied with the use being made of the organization in handling growing Soviet-American tensions. His later work included development activity in Liberia and service at the University of Virginia. ¹