Lyle Franklin Lane (September 19, 1926 – December 26, 2013) was a

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

diplomat A diplomat (from ; romanization, romanized ''diploma'') is a person appointed by a state (polity), state, International organization, intergovernmental, or Non-governmental organization, nongovernmental institution to conduct diplomacy with one ...

. Among his overseas posts Ambassador Lane served as the first Chief of Mission of the

United States Interests Section in Havana The United States Interests Section of the Embassy of Switzerland in Havana, Cuba ("USINT Havana" in the State Department telegraphic address) represented United States interests in Cuba from September 1, 1977 to July 20, 2015. It was staffed b ...

(heading the return of U.S. diplomats to Cuba in 1977), United States Ambassador to Uruguay, and United States Ambassador to Paraguay. Ambassador Lane was married to D. Jaclyn Fuller (birth_date = , a diplomat and advocate of women's and civil rights).

Biography

A career

, Lyle Lane joined the

United States Foreign Service The United States Foreign Service is the primary personnel system used by the diplomatic service of the United States federal government, under the aegis of the United States Department of State. It consists of over 13,000 professionals carr ...

in 1952. His overseas postings include: * International Affairs Adviser. In Ambassador Lane's final post he served as International Affairs Adviser to the Commander-in-Chief of U.S. Atlantic Command ( CINCLANT) and NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Atlantic ( SACLANT) Admiral Wesley L. McDonald (1982-1985) * United States Ambassador to Paraguay (1980–82) * United States Ambassador to Uruguay (1979–80) * First

Head of Mission In diplomatic usage, head of mission (HOM) or chief of mission (COM) from the French "chef de mission diplomatique" (CMD) is the head of a diplomatic representation, such as an ambassador, high commissioner, nuncio, chargé d'affaires, perma ...

(1977–79) * United States

Deputy Chief of Mission A deputy chief of mission (DCM, in Europe the term deputy head of mission – DHoM or DHM is used instead) is the number-two diplomat assigned to an embassy or other diplomatic mission. The deputy chief of mission is usually considered the second ...

to Peru (1976–77) * United States

Chargé d'affaires A (), plural ''chargés d'affaires'', often shortened to ''chargé'' (French) and sometimes in colloquial English to ''charge-D'', is a diplomat who serves as an embassy's chief of mission in the absence of the ambassador. The term is Frenc ...

to Costa Rica (1972–76) * Regional Office of Central American Projects (ROCAP)

Guatemala Guatemala, officially the Republic of Guatemala, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico, to the northeast by Belize, to the east by Honduras, and to the southeast by El Salvador. It is hydrologically b ...

(1966–68) * United States Principal Officer of Consulate,

Cebu Cebu ( ; ), officially the Province of Cebu (; ), is a province of the Philippines located in the Central Visayas region, and consists of a main island and 167 surrounding islands and islets. The coastal zone of Cebu is identified as a ...

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

(1962–66) * United States Diplomatic Political Officer and Aid to Ambassador

John Davis Lodge John Davis Lodge (October 20, 1903 – October 29, 1985) was an American film actor, lawyer, politician, and diplomat. He was the 79th governor of Connecticut from 1951 to 1955, and later served as U.S. ambassador to Spain, Argentina, and Swit ...

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

(1955–59) * United States Consul,

Guayaquil Guayaquil (), officially Santiago de Guayaquil, is the largest city in Ecuador and also the nation's economic capital and main port. The city is the capital (political), capital of Guayas Province and the seat of Guayaquil Canton. The city is ...

Ecuador Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...

(1953–55) Ambassador Lane received degrees from

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW and informally U-Dub or U Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington, United States. Founded in 1861, the University of Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast of the Uni ...

(B.S. 1950),

University of California at Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after the Anglo-Irish philosopher George Berkele ...

(1962) and

George Washington University The George Washington University (GW or GWU) is a Private university, private University charter#Federal, federally-chartered research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Originally named Columbian College, it was chartered in 1821 by ...

(M.S. 1969). At U.W. he was a member of

Chi Phi Chi Phi () is considered by some as the oldest American men's college social fraternity that was established as the result of the merger of three separate organizations that were each known as Chi Phi. The earliest of these organizations was forme ...

fraternity.

Havana

The US broke diplomatic relations with Cuba on January 3, 1961, formally due to a disagreement about staffing levels at the respective Embassies. U.S. President

Dwight D. Eisenhower Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was the 34th president of the United States, serving from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, he was Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionar ...

stated at the time, "There is a limit to what the United States in self-respect can endure. That limit has now been reached". Protective powers were appointed to represent each country in the capital of the other. The US was represented by Switzerland in Havana, and the Cubans by

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

in Washington. These offices, sections of the respective embassies, were staffed by Swiss and Czechoslovak diplomats. US and Cuban Interests Sections staffed by actual US and Cuban diplomats were mutually agreed upon in 1977 after the

Carter Administration Jimmy Carter's tenure as the List of presidents of the United States, 39th president of the United States began with Inauguration of Jimmy Carter, his inauguration on January 20, 1977, and ended on January 20, 1981. Carter, a Democratic Party ...

took office and decided to seek normalization of relations with Cuba. US officials replaced the Swiss in the US Interests Section in Havana on September 1, 1977. Both under the Swiss and later with US staff, the Section has occupied the former United States Embassy building on Havana's Malecon which was designed by

Harrison & Abramovitz Harrison & Abramovitz (also known as Harrison, Fouilhoux & Abramovitz; Harrison, Abramovitz, & Abbe; and Harrison, Abramovitz, & Harris) was an American architectural firm based in New York and active from 1941 through 1976. The firm was a partner ...

architects and originally entered into service in 1953. When relations were broken in 1961, the building was occupied, and its contents safeguarded, by the Swiss Embassy personnel who handled US Interests in Cuba on behalf of the US Government as the

protecting power A protecting power is a country that represents another sovereign state—the protected power—in a third country where the protected power lacks its own formal diplomatic representation (e.g., lacks an embassy or consulate). It is common fo ...

until the arrival of the US staff in 1977. The Swiss staff included some of the Foreign Service national employees (Cuban citizens) who were working at the US Embassy when relations were broken. Sixteen years later, when the US Government resumed its presence, many of them remained and resumed their direct employment. Most of the local hires employed by the Swiss also continued their employment. New hires were obtained through CUBALSE, the Cuban Government enterprise that serviced diplomatic missions. The initial American staffing of the Section consisted of ten State Department Officials and a plain clothes

US Marine The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines or simply the Marines, is the Marines, maritime land force service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is responsible for conducting expedi ...

guard detachment. By mutual agreement, the Cubans had an equal number of staff in Washington. Lyle Franklin Lane was the first Chief of the Interests Section in Havana.

References

External links

United States Department of State: Chiefs of Mission by Country, 1778-2005

at

The Political Graveyard The Political Graveyard is a website and database that catalogues information on more than 277,000 Politics of the United States, American political figures and List of United States political families, political families, along with other informa ...

Lyle Lane discusses mutual exchange program between United States and Cuba

at Namebase.org
Lyle Franklin Lane at The American Presidency Project (United States Ambassador to Uruguay Nomination)

Lyle Franklin Lane at The American Presidency Project (United States Ambassador to Paraguay Nomination)

Lyle Franklin Lane in the Philippine Star

Citations

Cuba and the United States: A Chronological History By Jane Franklin

The Destruction of a Nation: United States' Policy Towards Angola Since 1945 By George Wright

Imperial State and Revolution: The United States and Cuba, 1952-1986 By Morris H. Morley

Reversing Relations with Former Adversaries: U.S. Foreign Policy After the Cold War By C. Richard Nelson, Kenneth Weisbrode

United Nations Treaty Collention

United Nations Treaty Collention
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lane, Lyle Ambassadors of the United States to Paraguay Ambassadors of the United States to Uruguay 1926 births People from Tacoma, Washington University of Washington alumni Elliott School of International Affairs alumni George Washington University alumni 2013 deaths United States Foreign Service personnel