Armin Henry Meyer (19 January 1914, in

Fort Wayne Fort Wayne is a city in and the county seat of Allen County, Indiana, United States. Located in northeastern Indiana, the city is west of the Ohio border and south of the Michigan border. The city's population was 263,886 as of the 2020 Censu ...

, Indiana – 13 August 2006) was an American

diplomat A diplomat (from grc, δίπλωμα; romanized ''diploma'') is a person appointed by a state or an intergovernmental institution such as the United Nations or the European Union to conduct diplomacy with one or more other states or internati ...

who served as

United States Ambassador to Lebanon This is a list of ambassadors of the United States and other Heads of Mission to Lebanon. * George Wadsworth (1942–1947) – Consul General, later promoted to Envoy. Also was head of mission to Syria but resident in Beirut. * Lowell C. Pinkert ...

(1961 to 1965),

United States Ambassador to Iran Prior to 1944, Iran was not served by a United States ambassador; instead, a diplomatic minister was sent. The first ambassador was named in 1944. After the Iran hostage crisis in 1979, the United States terminated diplomatic relations with the I ...

(1965–1969), and

United States Ambassador to Japan The is the ambassador from the United States of America to Japan. History Since the opening of Japan by Commodore Matthew C. Perry, in 1854, the U.S. has maintained diplomatic relations with Japan, except for the ten-year period between the at ...

(1969–1972). Meyer found his tenure in Japan to be "particularly challenging... because he faced the task of ‘easing the shock of President Nixon’s historic breakthrough to China.’". While in Japan, he led negotiations which ultimately let to the return of Japanese sovereignty in Japan.

Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...

creates a task force on international terrorism after Israeli athletes were killed at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich. Meyer returned to the State Department to head the task force. Meyer's parents were Armin P., a Lutheran minister, and Leona Buss Meyer. Leona died when Armin was three and then he was raised by three aunts in

Lincoln, Illinois Lincoln is a city in Logan County, Illinois, United States. First settled in the 1830s, it is the only town in the United States that was named for Abraham Lincoln before he became president; he practiced law there from 1847 to 1859. Lincoln is ho ...

. Meyer graduated from

Capital University Capital University (Capital, Cap, or CU) is a private university in Bexley, Ohio. Capital was founded as the Theological Seminary of the Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Ohio in 1830, and later was associated with that synod's successor, the Ame ...

in 1939. In 1941, he earned a master's degree in mathematics at

Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publ ...

. In 1943, Meyer joined the staff of the United States Office of War Information in Cairo.

Publications

''Assignment Tokyo: An Ambassador's Journal'' (1974)

References

External links

U.S.-Japan Relations and the Opening to China: Nancy Bernkopf Tucker
{{DEFAULTSORT:Meyer, Armin Ambassadors of the United States to Iran Ambassadors of the United States to Japan Ambassadors of the United States to Lebanon Capital University alumni Ohio State University Graduate School alumni 1914 births 2006 deaths 20th-century American diplomats