Arthur Bliss Lane (16 June 1894 – 12 August 1956) was a

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

diplomat who served in Latin America and Europe. During his diplomatic career he dealt with the rise of a dictatorship in

Nicaragua Nicaragua (; ), officially the Republic of Nicaragua (), is the largest country in Central America, bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Managua is the coun ...

in the 1930s,

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

and its aftermath in Europe, and the rise of the

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

-installed communist regime in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

Biography

Lane was born in Bay Ridge,

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

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on June 16, 1894, and attended Yale University. After graduating in 1916, he became private secretary to the U.S. Ambassador to Italy in Rome. In 1919-1920 he was 2nd secretary in the U.S. embassy to Poland. In 1921-1922, he was 2nd secretary in London. During this time he was secretary to the U.S. delegation to the 1921 Conference of Ambassadors in Paris. He then went to Berne, Switzerland in 1922. From 1923 to 1925 he worked at the

U.S. State Department The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other n ...

in Washington, D.C. Lane then worked in the embassy in

Mexico Mexico (Spanish language, Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a List of sovereign states, country in the southern portion of North America. It is borders of Mexico, bordered to the north by the United States; to the so ...

from 1925 to 1933. He was appointed U.S. Minister to

(1933–1936). While serving there he met with General Somoza while the President of Nicaragua Sacasa held talks with rebel leader Augusto César Sandino. Sandino called for the National Guard run by Somoza to be disbanded, as it had been founded by the U.S. as they withdrew their Marines from the country. Sandino was murdered by Guardsmen after the talks. The U.S. claimed that Lane had counseled Somoza to be patient, but Somoza (and later the

Sandinistas The Sandinista National Liberation Front ( es, Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional, FSLN) is a socialist political party in Nicaragua. Its members are called Sandinistas () in both English and Spanish. The party is named after Augusto ...

) claimed that Lane gave Somoza permission for the assassination. Lane spent the next two years trying to reconcile Somoza and Sacasa, leaving the country before the next election as the U.S. adopted a more non-interventionist policy. He was next U.S. minister to

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, an ...

Latvia Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...

, and

Lithuania Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...

from 1936 to 1937; the

Kingdom of Yugoslavia The Kingdom of Yugoslavia ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Kraljevina Jugoslavija, Краљевина Југославија; sl, Kraljevina Jugoslavija) was a state in Southeast and Central Europe that existed from 1918 until 1941. From 191 ...

(from 1937 to 1941, until the German invasion); and

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in 1941–1942. He was then appointed

Ambassador An ambassador is an official envoy, especially a high-ranking diplomat who represents a state and is usually accredited to another sovereign state or to an international organization as the resident representative of their own government or s ...

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(1942–1944), and subsequently to Poland from 1944 to 1947, first to the Polish government in exile in London and later in Warsaw to the post-war government. Lane in Warsaw

While in Poland, Lane resigned his post on February 24, 1947, in protest of the takeover of the country by the Communist puppet regime, and wrote a book detailing what he considered to be the failure of the United States and Britain to keep their promise that the Poles would have a free election after the war. In that book he described what he considered the betrayal of Poland by the Western Allies, hence the title, ''

I Saw Poland Betrayed ''I Saw Poland Betrayed: An American Ambassador Reports to the American People'' (1948) is a book written by former United States ambassador to Poland, Arthur Bliss Lane, who observed what he considered to be the betrayal of Poland by the Western ...

''. The book was translated into Polish and published in the United States, and later disseminated by an underground samizdat publishing house in Poland in the 1980s. According to Lane, the U.S. and Britain at the

Tehran Conference The Tehran Conference ( codenamed Eureka) was a strategy meeting of Joseph Stalin, Franklin Roosevelt, and Winston Churchill from 28 November to 1 December 1943, after the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran. It was held in the Soviet Union's embass ...

agreed to the dismemberment of eastern Poland. He considered this act a treacherous breach of the

United States Constitution The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, in 1789. Originally comprising seven articles, it delineates the natio ...

, since Roosevelt never reported his decision to the

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. The

Yalta Conference The Yalta Conference (codenamed Argonaut), also known as the Crimea Conference, held 4–11 February 1945, was the World War II meeting of the heads of government of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union to discuss the post ...

was the final death blow to Poland's hopes for independence and for a democratic form of government, according to Lane. Following his career at the State Department, Lane was active in investigating the

Katyn Massacre The Katyn massacre, "Katyń crime"; russian: link=yes, Катынская резня ''Katynskaya reznya'', "Katyn massacre", or russian: link=no, Катынский расстрел, ''Katynsky rasstrel'', "Katyn execution" was a series of m ...

and also active in several anti-Communist organizations, such as the

National Committee for a Free Europe The National Committee for a Free Europe, later known as Free Europe Committee, was an anti-communist Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) front organization, founded on June 1, 1949, in New York City, which worked for the spreading of American infl ...

. He would also later campaign for Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower in the 1952 presidential election, in opposition to his former boss, Democrat Harry Truman. After his death, Lane's papers were archived in

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the w ...

's Sterling Memorial Library.Guide to the Arthur Bliss Lane Papers MS 5
Yale University Library

References

External links

* * Arthur Bliss Lane papers (MS 5). Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library. {{DEFAULTSORT:Lane, Arthur Bliss 1894 births 1956 deaths People from Bay Ridge, Brooklyn Ambassadors of the United States to Nicaragua Cold War diplomats Ambassadors of the United States to Poland Ambassadors of the United States to Estonia Ambassadors of the United States to Latvia Ambassadors of the United States to Yugoslavia 20th-century American diplomats Ambassadors of the United States to Costa Rica Ambassadors of the United States to Colombia New York (state) Republicans