Henry Heyward Isham (4 November 1926 – 18 June 2009), was an American diplomat, Foreign Service Officer and editor. He was the negotiator who played an important role in the talks with

North Vietnam North Vietnam, officially the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV; vi, Việt Nam Dân chủ Cộng hòa), was a socialist state supported by the Soviet Union (USSR) and the People's Republic of China (PRC) in Southeast Asia that existed f ...

that led to the Peace accord of 1973.Martin Weil, "Deft peace negotiator whose other side did not spare the rod" ''The Age'' (16 July 2009): 19.

Biography

Heyward Isham was born in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

on 4 November 1926. His father Ralph Heyward Isham, a noted retired British Army officer and collector of rare books. He graduated from Phillips Academy. Isham studied International Relations at

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

, graduating in 1947 before being posted to the American Embassy in Berlin during the Cold War. From 1955 through 1957, he was chief of the consular section and political office at the United States Embassy in Moscow. From 1974 to 1977, after a posting in

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

, Isham was the American ambassador to Haiti. After his retirement from the diplomatic service he worked as an editor with Doubleday publishers. During this period he supervised the publication of the memoirs of Andrei A. Gromyko, the Soviet foreign minister from 1957 to 1985, and other books by Russians.

Personal life

He was married to the artist Sheila (née Eaton) with whom he had three children. Son

Christopher Isham Christopher Isham (; born 28 April 1944), usually cited as Chris J. Isham, is a theoretical physicist at Imperial College London. Research Isham's main research interests are quantum gravity and foundational studies in quantum theory. He wa ...

was named Vice President and Washington Bureau Chief for CBS News in July 2007. Son Ralph Heyward Isham is the founder and managing director of GH Venture Partners LLC and is a former

Fellow A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context. In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements. Within the context of higher education ...

with the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee during the

SALT II The Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) were two rounds of bilateral conferences and corresponding international treaties involving the United States and the Soviet Union. The Cold War superpowers dealt with arms control in two rounds o ...

treaty hearings, who served on the staffs of Congressman James W. Symington and Senator

Edward Brooke Edward William Brooke III (October 26, 1919 – January 3, 2015) was an American politician of the Republican Party, who represented Massachusetts in the United States Senate from 1967 until 1979. Prior to serving in the Senate, he served as th ...

, and is married to designer and artist Ala von Auersperg, daughter of

Sunny von Bülow Martha Sharp "Sunny" von Bülow (; September 1, 1932 − December 6, 2008) was an American heiress and socialite. Her second husband, Claus von Bülow (1926−2019), was convicted in 1982 of attempting to murder her by insulin overdose, but the ...

and co-founder of the

National Center for Victims of Crime The National Center for Victims of Crime (NCVC) is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to providing information, resources and advocacy for victims of all types of crime, as well as the people who serve them. The staff oversees ...

. Daughter Sandra Isham Vreeland was a poet and the director of an AIDS poetry project for youth; she died in 1996.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Isham, Heyward Ambassadors of the United States to Haiti Yale University alumni 1926 births 2009 deaths Phillips Academy alumni United States Foreign Service personnel 20th-century American diplomats