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David K. E. Bruce

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
17th United States 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.
Resting place	Oak Hill Cemetery Washington, D.C., U.S.
Political party	Democratic[1]
Spouses	Ailsa Mellon ​ ​ (m. 1926; div. 1945)​ Evangeline Bell ​ ​ (m. 1945)​
Children	4
Education	University of Maryland Law School

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.

Background[edit]

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[edit]

State service[edit]

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

Federal service[edit]

Prior to the United States entry into World War II, Bruce had already been working for the Military Intelligence Division, and had been recruited by William Donovan into the Office of the Coordinator of Information (COI). ^[5]

Bruce was appointed Chief of a unit at COI called Special Activities/Bruce (SA/B), which would later become the Secret Intelligence Branch of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), a precursor to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). ^[6][5] Another unit of the COI called Special Activities/Goodfellow (SA/G) was managed by Millard Preston Goodfellow, which became the Special Operations Branch (SO). ^{[7] [6]}

During World War II, Bruce headed the London Field Office of the OSS 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.^[8]

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.^[9]

Diplomatic service[edit]

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.^[10] 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.^[11]

President John F. Kennedy (1961–1963) appointed Bruce as ambassador to the Court of St James's (i.e. the United Kingdom). 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 U.S. involvement and constantly urged the Johnson administration to allow Britain more of a role in bringing the conflict to an end.^[12]

Personal life and death[edit]

On May 29, 1926, Bruce married Ailsa Mellon, the daughter of the banker and diplomat Andrew W. Mellon.^[13] 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)^[14] on April 23, 1945, three days after his divorce.^[13][15] 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).^[16] 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.^[17][18]

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.^[19] He was buried at Oak Hill Cemetery in Washington, D.C.^[20]

Awards[edit]

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

Legacy[edit]

The David K.E. Bruce Award was established in 2007 at the American School in London.^[11]

Publications[edit]

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[edit]

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

References[edit]

Further reading[edit]

External videos
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[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to David K. E. Bruce.

• 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"