Honorable
Paul Trauger Culbertson Sr.
United States Ambassador to Spain
In office
June 1947 – December 1950
PresidentHarry S. Truman
Preceded byPhilip W. Bonsal
Succeeded byStanton Griffis
Personal details
Born
Paul Trauger Culbertson

(1897-04-11)April 11, 1897
Greensburg, Pennsylvania, US
DiedDecember 18, 1968(1968-12-18) (aged 71)
Resting placeDarnestown, Maryland, US
SpouseMaria Bisset Culbertson
Relations
ChildrenPaul Trauger Culbertson Jr.
Alma materYale University
AwardsCroix de Guerre
Military service
AllegianceUnited States
Branch/serviceUnited States Army Ambulance Service
RankPrivate
Battles/warsWorld War I

Paul Trauger Culbertson Sr. (April 11, 1897 – December 18, 1968) was an American diplomat and soldier.

Biography

Early life

Culbertson was born on April 11, 1897, in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, to George Culbertson, alongside three other sons.[1][2] He studied at Western High School, before enlisting as a private on November 1, 1917, during World War I in the United States Army Ambulance Service, where he participated in the Second Battle of the Somme, during which he was awarded the Croix de Guerre.[3][4] Following two of his brothers into the university, Culbertson graduated from Yale University in 1923; while there he joined Alpha Chi Rho and the Yale Glee Club. After graduating he moved to Emporia, Kansas.[5]

Culbertson had a son, Paul Trauger Culbertson Jr., with his wife Maria Bisset Culbertson, on February 2, 1929. Shortly after, in the 1930s, the family moved to Darnestown, Maryland.[6][7]

Diplomatic career

Culbertson was nominated to serve as a Consul for the United States in 1932.[8] He then went on to serve as Assistant Chief of the Office of Western European Affairs.[9][10][11] While serving in this role he at times worked alongside his brother, William Smith Culbertson, who had already served as an Ambassador to Chile and continued to represent the United States abroad.[12][13] He also worked to ensure U.S. access to military bases and airfields in the French controlled territories of Northern and Western Africa.[11]

Culbertson began serving as Chargé d’Affaires of the United States to Spain in June 1947.[1][14][15] During his tenure, he faced the challenge of negotiating with Francisco Franco's government in the aftermath of World War II.[16] Despite pressure from European allies and Spanish exiles who had stood against the fascist powers during WWII, he was instructed that the U.S. would not be seeking to remove Franco from power beginning in 1948.[17][18] This change in policy, along with 'friendly' relations by certain members of congress, made it difficult to achieve concessions from Spain in negotiations; this resulted in negotiations between the two countries seeing much debate over numerous issues.[19][20][21]

Early on one such issue was the battle between extradition and repatriation of German Nazis in the aftermath of the war. Despite domestic pressure, Culbertson did not see the affair as integral to security, instead believing the people remaining within West Germany were a larger security threat.[22] Another was negotiating with Franco's regime over the allocation of foreign aid, the government did not want to be included under the Marshal Plan and would push back against Culbertson's attempts to liberalize the economy of the country and expand personal liberties.[23][24][25][26] One of the liberties that he criticized Franco over was the lack of religious liberty within the state.[27] He would occasionally join, then Spanish Foreign Minister, Alberto Martín-Artajo for hunting trips.[28][29]

By June 1949 Culbertson's tone shifted. He began writing back to the United States that he was skeptical of the need to export democratic values to other countries and that the Spanish people were culturally incompatible with democratic beliefs.[30] This change also became evident in his opinion on the U.S. tolerating the Franco regime, as he stated that, in his opinion, economic sanctions would be foolish and that after the fall of Franco "all hell would break loose" in Spain.[31][32][33][34] He left this position in December 1950.[1][35]

Culbertson died on December 18, 1968.[1]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Paul Trauger Culbertson". history.state.gov. Office of the Historian. Retrieved 2021-06-22.
  2. ↑ State, United States Department of (1922). Register of the Department of State. U.S. Department of State.
  3. ↑ Culbertson, Lewis R. (1923-01-01). Genealogy of the Culbertson and Culberson families. Dalcassian Publishing Company.
  4. ↑ Nettleton, George Henry; Bishop, Lottie Genevieve (1925). Yale in the World War. Yale University Press.
  5. ↑ History of the Class of Nineteen Hundred Twenty-three, Yale College: Yale University Class of 1923. New Haven: Class Secretaries Bureau. 1923.
  6. ↑ "Paul Trauger Culbertson Jr. - View Obituary & Service Information". Paul Trauger Culbertson Jr. Obituary. Retrieved 2021-06-24.
  7. ↑ "Paul Trauger Culbertson Jr. Obituary (2021) Courier-Journal". Legacy.com. Retrieved 2021-06-24.
  8. ↑ "Congressional Record: Senate" (PDF). govinfo.gov. April 8, 1932. Retrieved June 22, 2021.
  9. ↑ Foreign Relations of the United States. United States Department of State: U.S. Government Printing Office. 1953.
  10. ↑ Official Congressional Directory. U.S. Government Printing Office. 1937.
  11. 1 2 Schmidt, Sebastian (2020-10-01). Armed Guests: Territorial Sovereignty and Foreign Military Basing. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-009776-9.
  12. ↑ Hadden, Briton; Luce, Henry Robinson (1938). Taxes, Spices, and Frankfurters. Vol. 32. Time Incorporated. p. 13.
  13. ↑ Departments of State and Justice, the Judiciary, and Related Agencies Appropriations: Department of State. Hearings Before the Subcommittee. U.S. Government Printing Office: United States Congress House Committee on Appropriations. 1948.
  14. ↑ Derby, John Barlow, ed. (1948). Single File, the Men of Yale '23: A Quarter-century Chronicle of the Combined Class of Yale College and Sheffield Scientific School. Harvard University. p. 160.
  15. ↑ "NEW U.S. CHARGE IN SPAIN; Paul T. Culbertson Arrives to Head Embassy in Madrid". The New York Times. 1947-05-28. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-06-23.
  16. ↑ Rubottom, R. Richard; Murphy, J. Carter (1984). Spain and the United States: Since World War II. University of Michigan: Praeger. p. 16. ISBN 978-0-03-069618-3.
  17. ↑ Leitz, Christian; Dunthorn, David (1999-09-01). Spain in International Context, 1936-1959. Berghahn Books. ISBN 978-1-78920-585-5.
  18. ↑ Fusi, J. P.; Aizpurúa, Juan Pablo Fusi (1987). Franco: A Biography. Harper & Row. ISBN 978-0-06-433127-2.
  19. ↑ Rourke, John T. (1983). Congress And The Presidency In U.s. Foreign Policymaking: A Study Of Interaction And Influence, 1945-1982. Avalon Publishing. ISBN 978-0-86531-989-9.
  20. ↑ Lowi, Theodore J. (1963). Bases in Spain. Columbia University: ICP. pp. 4–12.
  21. ↑ Byrnes, Mark S. (1999). ""Overruled and Worn Down": Truman Sends an Ambassador to Spain". Presidential Studies Quarterly. 29 (2): 263–279. doi:10.1111/1741-5705.00032. ISSN 0360-4918. JSTOR 27551987.
  22. ↑ Messenger, David A. (2014-05-12). Hunting Nazis in Franco's Spain. LSU Press. ISBN 978-0-8071-5565-3.
  23. ↑ Dulphy, Anne (2002). La politique de la France à l'égard de l'Espagne de 1945 à 1955: entre idéologie et réalisme (in French). Direction des Archives et de la documentation, Ministère des affaires étrangères. ISBN 978-2-11-089153-2.
  24. ↑ Foreign Relations of the United States, 1948: Western Europe. U.S. Government Printing Office. 1976.
  25. ↑ Congressional Record: Proceedings and Debates of the ... Congress. Vol. 95. U.S. Government Printing Office. 1949.
  26. ↑ Liedtke, Boris N. (1998). Embracing a Dictatorship: US Relations with Spain, 1945–53. Palgrave Macmillan UK. ISBN 978-0-333-71077-7.
  27. ↑ Wolffsohn, Michael (1991). Spanien, Deutschland und die "jüdische Weltmacht": über Moral, Realpolitik und Vergangenheitsbewältigung (in German). C. Bertelsmann. ISBN 978-3-570-00355-8.
  28. ↑ Liedtke, Boris N. (1998). Embracing a Dictatorship: US Relations with Spain, 1945–53. Palgrave Macmillan UK. ISBN 978-0-333-71077-7.
  29. ↑ Newsweek. Newsweek. 1948.
  30. ↑ Cazorla-Sanchez, Antonio (2013-07-18). Franco: The Biography of the Myth. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-134-44956-9.
  31. ↑ Whealey, Robert H. (1999). "Review of Embracing a Dictatorship: US Relations with Spain, 1945-53". The International History Review. 21 (3): 813–815. ISSN 0707-5332. JSTOR 40109142.
  32. ↑ Kendrick, Charles (1972). Memoirs of Charles Kendrick. p. 136.
  33. ↑ Grimaldos, Alfredo (2017-01-24). La CIA en España: Espionaje, intrigas y política al servicio de Washington (in Spanish). Grupo Planeta. ISBN 978-84-9942-575-7.
  34. ↑ Calvo-Gonzalez, Oscar (2006-06-01). "Neither a Carrot Nor a Stick: American Foreign Aid and Economic Policymaking in Spain during the 1950s*". Diplomatic History. 30 (3): 409–438. doi:10.1111/j.1467-7709.2006.00561.x. ISSN 0145-2096.
  35. ↑ Pereira, José Pedro Cantinho (2004). Le Portugal et l'Europe, 1947-1953 (in French). Vol. 1. Atelier national de reproduction des thèses. p. 131. ISBN 978-2-284-04120-7.
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