Herter, Christian Archibald

Herter, Christian Archibald, 1895–1966, U.S. Secretary of State (1959–61), b. Paris. After holding minor positions in the Dept. of State (1916–19) and the Dept. of Commerce (1921–24), he became editor of a Boston newspaper and later served (1931–43) in the Massachusetts state assembly, acting (1939–43) as its speaker. As a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives (1943–52), Herter gained a reputation as an internationalist and helped win passage of the Marshall Plan. He served as governor of Massachusetts (1953–57) and Undersecretary of State (1957–59) and in 1959 succeeded John Foster Dulles as Secretary of State. He wrote Toward an Atlantic Community (1963).

See biography by G. B. Noble (1970).

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