Edward Reilly Stettinius Jr

Edward Reilly Stettinius, Jr. , 1900-1949, American statesman and industrialist, b. Chicago. He held (1926-34) several executive posts in the General Motors Corp., and in 1938 he became chairman of the board of the U.S. Steel Corp. He resigned (1940) as a business executive to join the National Defense Advisory Commission. After serving as priorities director in the Office of Production Management and as lend-lease administrator (1941-43), he was (1943-44) Undersecretary of State and presided at the Dumbarton Oaks Conference (1944). Succeeding (Nov., 1944) Cordell Hull as Secretary of State, Stettinius attended the Yalta Conference and was chairman of the U.S. delegation to the San Francisco Conference. He resigned (June, 1945) his cabinet post and served (1945-46) as U.S. representative to the United Nations. He wrote Roosevelt and the Russians (1949).

Stettinius, Edward R. Jr. (1900–49),wealthy US industrialist who became chairman of the War Resources Board in 1939 and in May 1940 a member of the Advisory Commission to the Council of National Defense. In January 1941 he became director of the Office of Production Management and that August he was appointed administrator of the Lend-Lease programme, a task he performed with great distinction. He succeeded Sumner Welles as under-secretary of state in September 1943 and played a leading role at the Dumbarton Oaks conference the following year. In November 1944 he succeeded Cordell Hull as secretary of state, a position he held until June 1945 when he attended the San Francisco conference as the first US ambassador to the United Nations. See also USA, 3.

Bibliography

Campbell, T., and Herring, G. (eds.), The Diaries of Edward Stettinius Jr, 1943–46 (New York, 1975).