The exhibition features papers, letters, and photographs from influential diplomats and foreign policy makers, focusing on the most significant issues during their careers. The documents used in the exhibit come from the collections of the Hoover Institution Archives. Some of the diplomats in the exhibit are Hugh Gibson, Stanley Hornbeck, Robert Murphy, Edward Lansdale, Robert Hill, Henry Kissinger, and George Shultz.
Image: Robert Murphy, Roosevelt's personal envoy and Eisenhower's political advisor, pinned the distinguished service medal on Ike during the North African campaign.
Secretary of State George Shultz made human rights an issue of discussion when he negotiated with the Soviets. He is shown with Soviet dissident Ida Nudel, who was finally allowed to emigrate to Israel.
Edward Lansdale's mission to South Vietnam, 19541956, included training the South Vietnamese army in techniques of psychological warfare.
Secretary of state George P. Shultz shakes hands with Soviet foreign minister Eduard Shevardnadze during negotiations in Moscow, April, 1987.
Henry Kissinger secretly flew to China to meet with Chou En-lai in order to plan Nixon's forthcoming trip.
Far East foreign policy advisor Stanley Hornbeck advised the secretary of state not to condemn Japan for its take-over of Manchuria in 1931. He believed that the U.S. was unprepared to fight a war with Japan at that time. The posters show two points of view of the Japanese actions: the Chinese (left) and the Japanese (right).
The horrors of World War I prompted over sixty countries including the United States to sign a pact outlawing war. Ambassador Hugh Gibson headed several American delegations meeting with the League of Nations to promote lasting peace through disarmament. With the rise of fascist states in the 1930s the 1932 Geneva Disarmament Conference recessed, never to reconvene.
