Bernard Gufler

Bernard Anthony Gufler (1 June 1903 – 6 September 1973) was a distinguished American diplomat and member of the United States Foreign Service. In a long career he served in many postings abroad, including Ambassador to Ceylon and Ambassador to Finland.[1]

Gufler (second from left) with President Kennedy and other ambassadors in March 1961

Early life

He was born on 1 June 1903, in Lawrence city, Douglas County, Kansas, United States[2] to a Catholic family.[3] He obtained his early education from schools in Topeka and higher education from the University of Kansas, and later on from Princeton University.[4] He was married to the former Dorothy 'Gretchen' Van Ness in December 1937.[5]

Career

He joined the United States Foreign Service in 1929 and served in postings in Canada, Latvia, Poland and Lithuania during the years before and during World War II[6] and was US chief of mission in Berlin, East Germany, during 1955–58.[7] He was US consul in Colombo, Ceylon, c. 1951 to 1953.[8]

He was US ambassador to Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) from 1959 to 1961 and ambassador to Finland from 1961 to 1963.[9] He retired from service in 1968 and died of a sudden heart attack, while visiting Bonn, Germany, on 6 September 1973.[10]

Gufler's role as a diplomat acting in the U.S. interests, at many levels, cannot be underestimated. In the later years of World War II and early Cold War, he was instrumental in recommending that ex-Nazi POW generals and senior military officers be 'won over' to serve American (and Allied) intelligence interests in Europe, especially East Germany.[11] Later, during the peak of the Cold War in Berlin, he is remembered by other senior diplomats as the 'de facto ambassador' , in fact running the United States mission effectively, in 'counterpoise' to Soviet actions and intentions.[12][13] About his role in South Asia[14] a Pakistani senior diplomat commented that his services were 'invaluable' in promoting the United States' positive image and winning people 'towards realizing the Cold War imperatives' as espoused by the Americans.[15]

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See also

References
  1. "Bernard Anthony Gufler (1903–1973)". state.gov. Retrieved May 3, 2019.
  2. Obituary, the 'Topeka Daily Capital' , Monday, 10 September 1973
  3. 'Topeka Daily Capital', aa
  4. 'Topeka Daily Capital, aa
  5. Dorothy Blanche "Gretchen" Van Ness/Gufler Pihl at Find a Grave
  6. 'Topeka Daily Capital', aa
  7. US Foreign Service Records
  8. Correspondence between Bernard A Gufler and Begum Mahmooda Salim Khan, September 1962; in the Begum Mahmooda Salim Khan (BMSK) Collection of papers/documents at the National Archives of Pakistan, Islamabad. Ambassador Gufler had been a close friend of the Begum's late husband, HE Ambassador Abdus Salim Khan, a senior Pakistani diplomat, and wrote an update of his various postings and transfers etc., to the Begum in 1962
  9. US State Department Record
  10. 'Topeka Daily Capital', aa
  11. Derek R Mallet, Hitler's Generals: Nazi POWs and Allied Military Intelligence , U of Kentucky Press, 2013. ISBN 9780813142517
  12. Kempton Jenkins, Cold War Saga pub Michigan: Nimble Books LLC, 2010, p 105. Kempton, himself a senior Cold War diplomat, served under Gufler and also remembers him as an 'expert' on Eastern Europe and Russia/the Soviet Union
  13. Hope M. Harrison, in Driving the Soviets up the Wall: Soviet-East German Relations, 1953-1961 (pub Princeton, NJ:Princeton UP, 2013) also mentions Gufler as a key person in the U.S. mission in Berlin at the time of the start of 'Berlin crisis' of 1958, see p 120 et aa. He was in fact later removed from his post in 1958 for espousing an overly-strong anti-Soviet response
  14. Specifically in Ceylon/Sri Lanka
  15. See S. Irtiza Husain Gher Kinaro Pe (Urdu: On Alien Shores, Memoirs of an early Pakistani diplomat, 1947-1967) pub Lahore:Savan Publishers Ltd, 1972, p. 163 and p. 178. Husain mentions Gufler by name, and makes much of his promoting a positive US image among people in the non-aligned Ceylon/Sri Lanka, and in also covertly promoting US relations with Pakistan, via his connections to senior Pakistani diplomats such as HE Mr Salim Khan, aa, and others. Husain also claims that Gufler and Salim Khan played a special role in convincing the Pakistani military commander-in-chief and later dictator, General Ayub Khan to visit the USA and to eventually develop a strong pro-USA and anti-Soviet policy in Pakistan.
Diplomatic posts
Preceded by
Edson O. Sessions		 United States Ambassador to Finland
1961–1963		 Succeeded by
Carl T. Rowan
Preceded by
Lampton Berry		 United States Ambassador to Sri Lanka
1959–1961		 Succeeded by
Frances E. Willis
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