John Moors Cabot (December 11, 1901 – February 24, 1981) was an American diplomat and

U.S. Ambassador Ambassadors of the United States are persons nominated by the President of the United States, president to serve as the country's diplomat, diplomatic representatives to foreign nations, international organizations, and as Ambassador-at-large, ...

to five nations during the Truman,

Eisenhower Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; ; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was an American military officer and statesman who served as the 34th president of the United States from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, ...

, and

Kennedy administration John F. Kennedy's tenure as the 35th president of the United States, began with his inauguration on January 20, 1961, and ended with his assassination on November 22, 1963. A Democrat from Massachusetts, he took office following the 1960 p ...

s. He also served as

Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs The Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs is the head of the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs within the United States Department of State, the foreign affairs department of the United States federal government. The Ass ...

. He warned repeatedly of the dangers of Soviet communism toward American interests in Latin America.

Early life

Cabot was born in

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, ...

. His father was

Godfrey Lowell Cabot Godfrey Lowell Cabot (February 26, 1861 – November 2, 1962) was an American industrialist who founded the Cabot Corporation. Early life Godfrey Lowell Cabot was born in Boston, Massachusetts and attended Boston Latin School. His father was S ...

(1861–1962), founder of

Cabot Corporation Cabot Corporation is an American specialty chemicals and performance materials company headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. The company operates in over 20 countries with 36 manufacturing plants, eight research and development facilities and ...

and a philanthropist. His mother was Maria Moors Cabot. Two of his siblings were

Thomas Dudley Cabot Thomas Dudley Cabot (May 1, 1897 – June 8, 1995) was an American businessman. He also became U.S. Department of State's Director of Office of International Security Affairs. Early life Cabot was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. His father wa ...

(b. 1897), businessman and philanthropist, and Eleanor Cabot of the

Eleanor Cabot Bradley Estate The Eleanor Cabot Bradley Estate is a nonprofit country house and garden ground museum in Canton, Massachusetts. It is operated by The Trustees of Reservations. The grounds are open every day, sunrise to sunset, without charge. History In 1902, ...

. Cabot graduated from

Buckingham Browne & Nichols Buckingham Browne & Nichols School, often referred to as BB&N, is an independent co-educational day school in Cambridge, Massachusetts, educating students from pre-kindergarten (called Beginners) through twelfth grade. BB&N is regularly ranked am ...

in 1919. He would go on to graduate magna cum laude from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

in 1923, and from

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

with a degree in Modern History.

Career

Cabot joined the US Foreign Service in 1926. Much of his early career was spent in Latin America. His first Foreign Service assignment was as a consul in Callao-Lima, Peru, in 1927. For the next eight years, he served in the Dominican Republic, Mexico and Brazil. From 1935 to 1939, he served first in the Netherlands and then in Sweden. From 1939 to 1941, he was in Guatemala.Washington Post, Obituary, 25 February 1981
/ref> During much of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, Cabot worked in the State Department as assistant chief of the division of American Republics and then as chief of the division of Caribbean and Central American affairs. John M Cabot, KC Wu, Y

He was posted to

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

after the war and, then, in 1947, he was appointed counsellor of the US Embassy in

Belgrade Belgrade ( , ;, ; Names of European cities in different languages: B, names in other languages) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers a ...

, Yugoslavia. He was then appointed US

Consul General A consul is an official representative of the government of one state in the territory of another, normally acting to assist and protect the citizens of the consul's own country, as well as to facilitate trade and friendship between the people ...

in Shanghai between 1948 and 1949 and was in post when the Communist troops took over the city in May, 1949. Cabot served a

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

from 1954 to 1957,

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

from 1957 to 1959,

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

from 1959 to 1961, and

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

from 1962 to 1965, during the

and

. He was also commissioned to Pakistan during a recess of the Senate, but did not serve under this appointment. From 1953 to 1954, he also served as

. There is a 27 page transcript from an interview of Cabot, discussing the

Alliance for Progress The Alliance for Progress ( es, Alianza para el Progreso, links=no), initiated by U.S. President John F. Kennedy on March 13, 1961, ostensibly aimed to establish economic cooperation between the U.S. and Latin America. Governor Luis Muñoz Marín ...

Bay of Pigs invasion The Bay of Pigs Invasion (, sometimes called ''Invasión de Playa Girón'' or ''Batalla de Playa Girón'' after the Playa Girón) was a failed military landing operation on the southwestern coast of Cuba in 1961 by Cuban exiles, covertly fina ...

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...

foreign policy A State (polity), state's foreign policy or external policy (as opposed to internal or domestic policy) is its objectives and activities in relation to its interactions with other states, unions, and other political entities, whether bilaterall ...

, and

international relations International relations (IR), sometimes referred to as international studies and international affairs, is the scientific study of interactions between sovereign states. In a broader sense, it concerns all activities between states—such as ...

during the Kennedy administration, archived in the

John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum is the presidential library and museum of John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917–1963), the 35th president of the United States (1961–1963). It is located on Columbia Point in the Dorchester neighb ...

. As ambassador to Brazil, 1959-61 his public relations campaigns on behalf of American business angered nationalist politicians and journalists. President

Jânio Quadros Jânio da Silva Quadros (; January 25, 1917 – February 16, 1992) was a Brazilian lawyer and politician who served as the 22nd president of Brazil The president of Brazil ( pt, Presidente do Brasil), officially the president of the Fe ...

of Brazil publicly rebuked Cabot for questioning Brazil's foreign policy and tolerance of the Cuban revolution. President John Kennedy recalled Cabot early in 1961. In December 1954, Cabot, in his role as U.S. ambassador to Sweden, attended the

Nobel banquet The Nobel Banquet ( sv, Nobelfesten) is an annual banquet held on 10 December in the Blue Hall of Stockholm City Hall, after the Nobel Prize ceremony. At the banquet, for which a formal dress code exists, a multi-course dinner is served and en ...

and read the acceptance speech for the

Nobel Prize in Literature ) , image = Nobel Prize.png , caption = , awarded_for = Outstanding contributions in literature , presenter = Swedish Academy , holder = Annie Ernaux (2022) , location = Stockholm, Sweden , year = 1901 , ...

awarded that year to

Ernest Hemingway Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. His economical and understated style—which he termed the iceberg theory—had a strong influence on 20th-century fic ...

who was not present due to ill health. Following his retirement from the

U.S. Department of State The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the Federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government responsible for the country's fore ...

, he taught at

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georg ...

Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service Edmund is a masculine given name or surname in the English language. The name is derived from the Old English elements ''ēad'', meaning "prosperity" or "riches", and ''mund'', meaning "protector". Persons named Edmund include: People Kings ...

and

Tufts Tufts University is a private research university on the border of Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1852 as Tufts College by Christian universalists who sought to provide a nonsectarian institution of higher learning. ...

Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy is the graduate school of international affairs of Tufts University, in Medford, Massachusetts. The School is one of America's oldest graduate schools of international relations and is well-ranked in it ...

. In 1981, Tuft's John M. and Elizabeth L. Cabot Intercultural Center was named in honor of Cabot and his wife.

Personal life

In 1932, he married

Vassar College Vassar College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York, United States. Founded in 1861 by Matthew Vassar, it was the second degree-granting institution of higher education for women in the United States, closely follo ...

graduate Elizabeth Lewis (d. 1992). Together, they were the parents of four children: * John G.L. Cabot (b. 1934) * Lewis P. Cabot (d. 2020), owner of the

Portland, Maine Portland is the largest city in the U.S. state of Maine and the seat of Cumberland County. Portland's population was 68,408 in April 2020. The Greater Portland metropolitan area is home to over half a million people, the 104th-largest metropol ...

-based Southworth Machine Company * Marjorie Cabot, who married Antonio Enríquez Savignac (1931–2007) in 1957. * Elizabeth T. Cabot, who married Bogislav von Wentzel. Cabot died at

Georgetown University Hospital MedStar Georgetown University Hospital is one of the Washington, D.C. area's oldest academic teaching hospitals. It is a not-for-profit, acute care teaching and research facility located in the Georgetown neighborhood of the Northwest Quadrant ...

in Washington, D.C. on February 24, 1981.

Published works

* ''The Racial Conflict in Transylvania: A Discussion of the Conflicting Claims of Rumania and Hungary to Transylvania, the Banat, and the Eastern Section of the Hungarian Plain'', 1926 * ''Toward Our Common American Destiny: Speeches and Interviews on Latin American Problems'', 1954 * ''First line of defense: forty years' experiences of a career diplomat'' (Georgetown University, School of Foreign Service, 1979).

References

External links

John Moors Cabot
at