David K. E. Bruce

David Kirkpatrick Este Bruce (February 12, 1898 – December 5, 1977) was an American diplomat, intelligence officer and politician. He served as Ambassador to France, the Federal Republic of Germany, and the United Kingdom, the only American to be all three.

His Excellency David K. E. Bruce
Bruce in 1962
10th United States Ambassador to NATO
In office October 17, 1974 – February 12, 1976
Appointed by	Gerald Ford
Preceded by	Donald Rumsfeld
Succeeded by	Robert Strausz-Hupé
Chief of the U.S. Liaison Office to the People's Republic of China
In office May 14, 1973 – September 25, 1974
President	Richard Nixon Gerald Ford
Preceded by	Diplomatic relations established
Succeeded by	George H. W. Bush
United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom
In office March 17, 1961 – March 20, 1969
President	John F. Kennedy Lyndon B. Johnson Richard Nixon
Preceded by	John Hay Whitney
Succeeded by	Walter Annenberg
United States Ambassador to Germany
In office April 17, 1957 – October 29, 1959
President	Dwight D. Eisenhower
Preceded by	James B. Conant
Succeeded by	Walter C. Dowling
United States Ambassador to France
In office May 17, 1949 – March 10, 1952
President	Harry S. Truman
Preceded by	Jefferson Caffery
Succeeded by	James Clement Dunn
Under Secretary of State
In office April 1, 1952 – January 20, 1953
Preceded by	James E. Webb
Succeeded by	Walter B. Smith
Personal details
Born	David Kirkpatrick Este Bruce (1898-02-12)February 12, 1898 Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.
Died	December 5, 1977(1977-12-05) (aged 79) Washington, D.C., U.S.
Political party	Democratic[1]
Spouse(s)	Ailsa Mellon ​ ( m. 1926; div. 1945) Evangeline Bell ​ ( m. 1945; his death 1977)
Children	4
Education	University of Maryland Law School

Background

Bruce was born in Baltimore, Maryland, to William Cabell Bruce and Louise Este (Fisher) Bruce (1864–1945). One of his three brothers was James Cabell Bruce. He studied for a year and a half at Princeton University. He dropped out to serve in the United States Army during World War I. At parental insistence, he then attended the University of Virginia School of Law (1919–1920) and the University of Maryland School of Law (1920–1921) without taking a degree before being admitted to the Maryland bar in November 1921.[2]

Career

State service

Bruce served in the Maryland House of Delegates (1924–1926) and the Virginia House of Delegates (1939–1942).[3][4]

Federal service

During World War II, Bruce headed the Europe branch of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), a precursor to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), which was based in London and coordinated espionage activities behind enemy lines for the United States Armed Forces branches. Other OSS functions included the use of propaganda, subversion, and post-war planning. He observed the invasion of Normandy landing there the day after the initial invasion.[5]

After leaving the OSS at the end of World War II, and before entering the diplomatic field, in 1948–1949 David Bruce was with the Economic Cooperation Administration which administered the Marshall Plan. It was during this time that David Bruce and his new 2nd wife became an early member of the informal Georgetown Set within D.C.

Bruce, as a member of the new President's Board of Consultants on Foreign Intelligence Activities, wrote a secret report on the CIA's covert operations for President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1956 that was highly critical of its operation under Allen Dulles's leadership.[6]

Diplomatic service

He served as the United States Ambassador to France from 1949 to 1952, United States Ambassador to West Germany from 1957 to 1959, and United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom from 1961 to 1969. He was an American envoy at the Paris peace talks between the United States and North Vietnam in 1970 and 1971. Bruce also served as the first United States emissary to the People's Republic of China from 1973 to 1974.[7] He was the ambassador to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization from late 1974 to 1976.

Bruce served as the Honorary Chair on the Board of Trustees of the American School in London during his diplomatic career in the United Kingdom.[8]

President John F. Kennedy (1961–1963) appointed Bruce as ambassador to the Court of St James (i.e. Great Britain). After Kennedy's death President Lyndon B. Johnson (1963–1969) kept Bruce but ignored all his recommendations. Bruce sought closer ties with Britain and greater European unity. Bruce's reports regarding Britain's financial condition were pessimistic and alarmist. With regard to Vietnam, Bruce privately questioned US involvement and constantly urged the Johnson administration to allow Britain more of a role in bringing the conflict to an end.[9]

Personal life and death

On May 29, 1926, Bruce married Ailsa Mellon, the daughter of the banker and diplomat Andrew W. Mellon.[10] They divorced on April 20, 1945. Their only daughter, Audrey, and her husband, Stephen Currier, were presumed dead when a plane in which they were flying in the Caribbean disappeared on January 17, 1967, after requesting permission to fly over Culebra, a U. S. Navy installation. No trace of the plane, pilot, or passengers was ever found. Audrey and Stephen Currier left three children: Andrea, Lavinia, and Michael.

He married Evangeline Bell (1914–1995)[11] on April 23, 1945, three days after his divorce.[10][12] She was a granddaughter of Sir Herbert Conyers Surtees, a niece of Sir Patrick Ramsay, a stepdaughter of Ambassador Sir James Leishman Dodds, and the elder sister of Virginia Surtees (who married, and divorced, Sir Henry Ashley Clarke, the British Ambassador to Italy).[13] They had two sons and one daughter, Alexandra (called Sasha). Alexandra died under mysterious circumstances (possibly murder or suicide) in 1975 at age 29 at the Bruce family home in Virginia.[14][15]

Bruce purchased and restored Staunton Hill, his family's former estate in Charlotte County, Virginia.

He died on December 5, 1977 of a heart attack at Georgetown University Medical Center.[16]

Awards

Bruce received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, with Distinction, in 1976.

Legacy

The David K.E. Bruce Award was established in 2007 at the American School in London.[8]

Publications

Bruce wrote a book of biographical essays on the American presidents originally published as Seven Pillars of the Republic (1936). He later expanded it as Revolution to Reconstruction (1939) and again revised it as Sixteen American Presidents (1962).

See also

• William Cabell Bruce
• James Cabell Bruce
• List of people who disappeared mysteriously at sea

References

1. http://politicalgraveyard.com/bio/bruce.html
2. "Bruce, David Kirkpatrick Este | Encyclopedia.com". www.encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 2019-08-22.
3. Harry S. Truman Library-Oral History of David K.E. Bruce
4. Bio data
5. David Kirkpatrick Este Bruce; Nelson D. Lankford (January 1991). OSS Against the Reich: The World War II Diaries of Colonel David K.E. Bruce. Kent State University Press. p. 35. ISBN 978-0-87338-427-8.
6. Tim Weiner, The Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA (London: Allen Lane, 2007), p. 133.
7. "David Bruce, 75, Selected To Head Office in Peking". The New York Times. March 16, 1973. Retrieved 2009-12-08. President Nixon announced today that he had recalled Ambassador David K. E. Bruce from retirement to head a United States liaison office in Peking.
8. School Web site Archived 2010-12-06 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 2010-02-20.
9. Jonathan Colman, "The London Ambassadorship of David KE Bruce During the Wilson-Johnson Years, 1964–68." Diplomacy and Statecraft 15.2 (2004): 327-352. online
10. Pitz, Marylynne (November 15, 2009). "Ailsa Mellon Bruce's artworks part of Carnegie collection". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved 2009-12-08. In 1926, the beautiful, reserved and stubborn young woman married David K. E. Bruce, a talented lawyer and the son of Maryland Sen. William C. Bruce. For wedding presents, A.W. Mellon gave his daughter a pearl necklace valued at $100,000 and a 200-acre estate in Syosset, Long Island.
11. Barron, James (14 December 1995). "Evangeline Bruce, 77, Hostess Known for Washington Soirees". The New York Times. Retrieved 7 April 2020.
12. Owens, Mitchell (16 March 1995). "AT HOME WITH: Evangeline Bruce; The Improbable Author". The New York Times. Retrieved 7 April 2020.
13. "Virginia Surtees, scholar of Pre-Raphaelite art – obituary". 25 October 2017 – via www.telegraph.co.uk.
14. Nation: A Gothic Romance in Old Virginia
15. Public Service and Private Pain
16. "U.S. envoy David Bruce is dead at 79". Chicago Tribune. December 6, 1977. Retrieved 2009-12-08. David K. E. Bruce, a veteran American diplomat who served in a variety of posts including mainland China, died of a heart attack Monday at Georgetown University Medical Center. He was 79.

Further reading

External video
Presentation by Nelson Lankford on The Last American Aristocrat, August 23, 1996, C-SPAN

• Colman, Jonathan. "The London Ambassadorship of David KE Bruce During the Wilson-Johnson Years, 1964–68." Diplomacy and Statecraft 15.2 (2004): 327-352. online
• Lankford, Nelson D. The Last American Aristocrat: The Biography of David K. E. Bruce, 1898–1977 (1996).
• Lankford, Nelson D., ed. OSS against the Reich: The World War II Diaries of Colonel David K. E. Bruce (1991).
• Young, John W. "David K. E. Bruce, 1961–69." in The Embassy in Grosvenor Square (Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2012), 153-170.

External links

• First Chapter of 'The Last American Aristocrat' published by the Washington Post with permission of the author
• Review of the book, "The Last American Aristocrat" from The Washington Monthly magazine
• Oral history interview with David K. E. Bruce, 1 March 1972, at the Truman Presidential Museum and Library
• David K. E. Bruce's archives at the "Fondation Jean Monnet"

Diplomatic posts
Preceded by Jefferson Caffery	U.S. Ambassador to France May 17, 1949 – March 10, 1952	Succeeded by James Clement Dunn
Preceded by James E. Webb	Under Secretary of State April 1, 1952 – January 20, 1953	Succeeded by Walter B. Smith
Preceded by James B. Conant	U.S. Ambassador to Germany April 17, 1957 – October 29, 1959	Succeeded by Walter C. Dowling
Preceded by John Hay Whitney	U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom March 17, 1961 – March 20, 1969	Succeeded by Walter H. Annenberg
Preceded by none	Chief of the U.S. Liaison Office in Beijing May 14, 1973 – September 25, 1974	Succeeded by George H. W. Bush
Preceded by Donald Rumsfeld	U.S. Permanent Representative to NATO October 17, 1974 – February 12, 1976	Succeeded by Robert Strausz-Hupe