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Joseph E. Johnson (government official)

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For other people named Joseph Johnson, see Joseph Johnson (disambiguation).
Joseph E. Johnson
Born(1906-04-30)30 April 1906
Longdale, Virginia
Died24 October 1990(1990-10-24) (aged 84)[1]
Lynchburg, Virginia
NationalityAmerican
Alma materHarvard University
OccupationUS State Department official
Known forPresident of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Joseph Esrey Johnson III (April 30, 1906 – 1990) was an American government official who served with both the United States Department of State and the United Nations. He was a grandson of another Joseph Esrey Johnson, an officer in the Union Army and Virginian industrialist.

Early life and education

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Joseph E. Johnson III was born in Longdale, Virginia to mining and metallurgical engineer Joseph E. Johnson Jr. (himself a son of a director of the Longdale Iron Co.) who managed various iron and steel plants before turning to consultancy work in New York, and Margaret Hill (Hilles) Johnson, alumna of Bryn Mawr College[2] who married his father in 1902.[3] He had an older brother with the same name who died in infancy in 1903,[4] and his father was fatally run over by a car 48 years old in 1919.[5][6]

He grew up in Scarsdale, New York and later went on to study at Harvard University where he earned his bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees.[7]

Johnson joined the American Alpine Club in 1925, his climbing companions included Henry S. Hall Jr. and Sir Douglas Busk. He was a serious and devoted mountaineer climbing both in the Alps and the Canadian Rockies and his ascents include the first traverse of Mount Edith Cavell, the first ascents of Oldhorn, Erebus,[8] Keystone and Casemate but he gave up serious climbing after a long illness in the late 1920s.[9]

University career and US State Department

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His first teaching position was at Bowdoin College where he was professor of history (1934-1935). In 1936 he moved to Williams College, becoming Associate Professor in 1938 and a full professor from 1947-1950 after the period he spent in the US State Department.[9]

He took leave in 1942 to join the wartime State Department. He became Chief of the department's Division of International Security Affairs 1945-1947, having served as Acting Chief from 1944.[10]

Whilst at the State Department he was adviser for the U.S. delegation at the Dumbarton Oaks Conference (1944), which paved the way for postwar international cooperation, the creation of the United Nations and decided the basic structure of the UN. In 1945 he was adviser for the U.S. delegation at the Mexico City Inter-American Conference on Problems of War and Peace. He was a member of the U.S. delegation for the San Francisco United Nations Conference on International Organization in 1945, at which the United Nations effectively came into being. In the following years he was Adviser to the U.S. delegation at the First session of the United Nations General Assembly (London and New York, 1946) and also Adviser to the U.S. representative on the United Nations Security Council (London and New York, 1946).[11]

Career with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

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From 1950 to 1971 he was President of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace[12] and was a strong believer in making efforts towards international cooperation.[13] He was a member of the board of trustees of the World Peace Foundation in the early 1950s.

During 1952–53 he was one of five members of the State Department Panel of Consultants on Disarmament and played a significant role in the panel's stark report about the dangers of nuclear weapons and relations with the Soviet Union.[13]

From 1954, he was inaugural American secretary of the annual Bilderberg conference which discusses matters relating to European-American relations.[14]

He was Special Representative for the United Nations Conciliation Commission for Palestine (August 1961-February 1963)[15][16] and in that role he presented a plan to address the Palestinian refugee crisis.[17]

In 1969, he served as an alternate delegate on the US delegation to the United Nations, working under Ambassador Charles W. Yost.

Johnson was Vice President of the International Institute for Strategic Studies from 1965 to 1981.

References

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  1. ^ Smith, J.Y. (25 October 1990). "Joseph Johnson Dies: Headed Carnegie Peace Endowment". Washington Post. Retrieved 11 October 2024.
  2. ^ "Margaret Hilles (Johnson) scrapbook - Philadelphia Area Archives". findingaids.library.upenn.edu. Retrieved 2025-01-09.
  3. ^ Hilles, Samuel E. (Samuel Eli) (1928). Memorials of the Hilles family, more particularly of Samuel and Margaret Hill Hilles of Wilmington, Delaware, with some account of their ancestry and some data not before published; also extended references to the life of Richard Hilles or Hills, principal founder of the Merchant taylors school in London, 1561. The friend of Miles Coverdale, John Calvin, Archbishop Cranmer, Bishop Hooper and others, prominent in the early days of the reformation, together with a hitherto unpublished sonnet and portrait of John G. Whittier. Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center. Cincinnati, S.E. Hilles.
  4. ^ Bryn Mawr College. Alumnae Association (1901). Annual Report of the Alumnae Association of Bryn Mawr College, 1901-1905. Special Collections Bryn Mawr College Library. Wilmington, Del.,: The John M. Rogers Press.
  5. ^ "Joseph Esrey Johnson, Jr". OneMine. 1919-01-05. Retrieved 2025-01-08.
  6. ^ Transactions of the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical and Petroleum Engineers. 1920. 1871.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  7. ^ "Manuscript Collections - Joseph E. Johnson Papers". Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum. Retrieved 11 October 2024.
  8. ^ Lawrence Coolidge, 1905-1950 Americanalpineclub.org (1950)
  9. ^ a b "Joseph E. Johnson, 1906-1990". American Alpine Journal. #33 (65): 344. 1991. ISBN 978-0930410469. ISSN 0065-6925. Retrieved 10 October 2024.
  10. ^ The International Who' Who, 1984-85. International Publications Service. ISBN 0-905118-97-9.
  11. ^ McKinzie, Richard D. (29 June 1973). "Joseph E. Johnson Oral History Interview". Harry S. Truman Library. Retrieved 11 October 2024.
  12. ^ Powell, William (10 June 1985). "Interview with Joseph Johnson". United Nations Digital Library. Retrieved 11 October 2024.
  13. ^ a b Bundy, McGeorge (1988). Danger and Survival: Choices About the Bomb in the First Fifty Years. New York: Random House. pp. 288–289, 674n119. ISBN 978-0-394-52278-4. Retrieved 11 October 2024.
  14. ^ Hatch, Alden (1962). H.R.H.Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands: An authorized biography. London: Harrap. ISBN B0000CLLN4.
  15. ^ "The question of Palestine: Resignation of the Special Representative of UNCCP". United Nations. 1 February 1963. Retrieved 11 October 2024.
  16. ^ "UNCCP – Special Representative's resignation (Joseph E. Johnson) – 21st progress report". un.org. 1 November 1963. Retrieved 11 October 2024.
  17. ^ "Johnson Plan on Solving Arab Refugee Problem Reported in Washington". jta.org. 3 October 1962.
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