Born: 6 November, 1907 , Watertown, NY. Graduated: Princeton University Died: May 1981, Washington, D.C. Cancer

Diplomatic Career

Joined the Foreign Service in 1930 and served in Alexandria, Egypt as a consular officer. Left the Foreign Service in 1933 to pursue a career as a freelance foreign correspondent in Europe. In 1935, he rejoined the State Department in Washington, D.C, becoming assistant chief of the Division of Arms and Munitions Control. In 1941, he represented the State Department on the Policy Committee of the Board of Economic Warfare. Yost was appointed Assistant Chief of Special Research in 1942. His next appointment came in 1943 when he was made assistant chief of the Division of Foreign Activity Correlation. In February 1944, he became executive secretary of the Department of State Policy Committee.

Yost had the honor of attending the Potsdam Conference in 1945 where the outcome of World War II was negotiated between the United States, Soviet Union and United Kingdom.

In late 1945, he was named chargé d'affaires to Thailand. Throughout the late 1940s and 1950s, he served in Czechoslovakia, Austria, and Greece-all countries under political pressure from the Soviet Union. In 1954, he was named minister to Laos and became the first United States ambassador to that nation. In 1957, he was the minister counselor, or second-in-command, of the American Embassy in Paris. At the end of that year, he was named ambassador to Syria. Shortly after his appointment, Syria and Egypt formed the United Arab Republic. Yost was named ambassador to Morocco in 1958.

In 1961, he began his first assignment at the United Nations as the deputy to Ambassador Adlai E. Stevenson. Following Stevenson's death in 1965, Yost stayed on as Arthur Goldberg's deputy. Yost obtained the rank of career ambassador, the highest professional Foreign Service rank, before resigning from the Foreign Service in 1966 to begin his career as a writer and teacher on foreign affairs.

In 1965 Yost wsa featured as an honored speaker at the 15th session of the Model United Nations Far West, an educational simulation where college students participate in a model United Nations.

In 1969, President Richard Nixon nominated Yost as the permanent United States Representative to the United Nations. He advised the President and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger on relationships with the Middle East, the Soviet Union, Southern Africa, and arms control. He resigned in 1971 and returned to writing and teaching.

In 1979, Yost was co-chairman of Americans for SALT II, a group that lobbied the Senate for passage of the second Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty. He was a trustee of the American University in Cairo, Egypt and director of the Aspen Institute for cultural exchanges with Iran. In 1973, he was named head of the National Committee on United States-China Relations and is a Chairman Emeriti of that organization. He visited the People's Republic of China in 1973 and 1977.

Yost is a past Chairman of International House, a community of international students intended to foster understanding and peaceful dispute resolution between people of different countries and cultures.

Writing

Yost authored four books:

• The Age Of Triumph And Frustration: Modern Dialogues (1964)
• The Insecurity of Nations (1968)
• The Conduct and Misconduct of Foreign Relations (1972)
• History and Memory (1980).

Yost also taught at the Columbia University School of International Affairs and Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service. He gave speeches throughout his career, offering his perspective on the Middle East, Southern Africa, China, and the Soviet Union.

References

• Princeton University Library biography of Charles W. Yost
• International House
• National Committee on US-China Relations