James Clement Dunn

File:James Clement Dunn 1921.jpg

James Clement Dunn in 1921

James Clement Dunn (December 27, 1890, Newark, New Jersey – April 10, 1979, West Palm Beach, Florida) was an American diplomat and a career employee of the United States Department of State. He served as the Ambassador of the United States to Italy, France, Spain, and Brazil. He had lived in Rome since his retirement in 1956. Born in Newark, on December 27 of 1890, and privately educated, Dunn at first wanted to become an architect, an interest that remained with him all his life.

In 1917 he became assistant naval attaché to Haiti. In 1920, he was made a third secretary at the embassy in Spain, a post he held for two years. He was chargé d'affaires in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, in 1922-24. After other assignments, he became a first secretary at the American Embassy in London. From 1928-1930 he served as the first person to hold the office of Chief of Protocol of the United States. In 1930-35, served as counsel to the Commission for the Study of Haiti. Dunn was chief political adviser to the Berlin Conference in 1945; deputy at the American meetings of the Council of Foreign Ministers in London, Paris and New York in 1945-46.

When representatives from 50 nations convened in San Francisco in April to June 1945 to form the United Nations Dunn 'worked hard behind the scenes to create a pro-French consensus' and to protect France's colonial interests in French Indochina. He was once called a 'fascist' by Eleanor Roosevelt for his views on colonial matters.

In 1946 he was a member of the delegation at the Paris Peace Conference . He was a governor of the Metropolitan Club and a member of the Knickerbocker Club, the River Club, the Regency Club and the Whist Club in New York, and of the Alibi Club in Chevy Chase, Md. He is survived by his wife, the former Mary Augusta Armour; two daughters Marianna Dunn of Manhattan and Cynthia Esterlechner of West Germany; three grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.

References

• The Political Graveyard: Brief biography
• United States Department of State: Chiefs of Mission by Country, 1778-2005

Diplomatic posts
Preceded by Alexander C. Kirk	United States Ambassador to Italy 1946–1952	Succeeded by Ellsworth Bunker
Preceded by David K. E. Bruce	United States Ambassador to France 1952–1953	Succeeded by C. Douglas Dillon
Preceded by Lincoln MacVeagh	United States Ambassador to Spain 1953–1955	Succeeded by John Lodge
Preceded by James S. Kemper	United States Ambassador to Brazil 11 March 1955–4 July 1956	Succeeded by Ellis O. Briggs