Witness to History, 1929-1969

Charles E. “Chip” Bohlen witnessed the sweep of nearly thirty-five years of Soviet-American relations. He helped reopen the U.S. embassy in Moscow in 1934, attended the last of the great purge trials of the thirties and served as FDR's interpreter and advisor during the wartime meetings with Churchill and Stalin at Teheran and Yalta and again with Truman at Potsdam. Bohlen served as chief advisor on Soviet affairs to three secretaries of state during the early Cold War crises in Iran and Korea. He served four years as U.S. ambassador in Moscow and tells of the death of Stalin, Khrushchev's rise and the secret speech denouncing Stalin, the Hungarian uprising, and the Suez crisis. Bohlen later filled ambassadorial posts in Manila and Paris.
In his memoirs Chip Bohlen faced up to the issues, admitted errors, pointed fingers of blame, gave credit where due, appraised personalities, and offered his assessment of the future. He exemplified the nonpartisan foreign policy coalition active in Washington throughout the Cold War era.
Ambassador Bohlen died in 1974.