Chester Bowles promoted liberal programs in education and housing, but was defeated for reelection by conservative backlash.
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Chester Bowles promoted liberal programs in education and housing, but was defeated for reelection by conservative backlash.
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Chester Bowles promoted rapid economic industrialization in India, and repeatedly called on Washington to help finance it.
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Chester Bowles's reward was Under Secretary of State, which enabled him to staff American embassies with liberal intellectuals and activists.
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Chester Bowles was born in Springfield, Massachusetts, to Charles Allen Bowles and Nellie Seaver.
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Chester Bowles's grandfather Samuel Bowles was a leading Republican spokesman as editor of the Springfield Republican.
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Chester Bowles's father made a middle-class living as a salesmen for the wood pulp industry.
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Chester Bowles's parents were arch-conservative Republicans who hated and feared big government.
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However, Chester Bowles's political views were shaped more by his aunt Ruth Standish Baldwin, who was a socialist, pacifist, friend of Norman Thomas, and leader in the early civil rights movements for Blacks.
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Chester Bowles inspired him to read deeply in politics, civil rights, and international affairs.
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Chester Bowles attended elite private schools – The Choate School in Wallingford, Connecticut, graduating in 1919.
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Chester Bowles matriculated at the Sheffield Scientific School at Yale University, earning a Bachelor of Science degree in 1924.
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Chester Bowles became a copywriter for $25 per week at the Batten Company, an advertising agency in New York City that later became BBDO, the third-largest agency in the US.
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Chester Bowles became a multi-millionaire and fulfilled his dream by quitting the business world at age 40.
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Chester Bowles did not much enjoy the day-to-day job, saying in his autobiography:.
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Chester Bowles then took a job as the state of Connecticut's rationing administrator in 1942.
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Chester Bowles becoming state director of price administration later that year, and then general manager.
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Chester Bowles was appointed by President Roosevelt in 1943 as administrator of the Office of Price Administration and served in that position until 1946.
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Chester Bowles played the major role in rationing consumer goods and setting prices in an effort to hold down inflation and guarantee that poor families were not outbid for the necessities of life.
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Chester Bowles served as a member of the War Production Board and the Petroleum Board for War.
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Chester Bowles ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in Connecticut that year.
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Chester Bowles served as special assistant to UN Secretary General Trygve Lie in 1947 and 1948.
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Chester Bowles lost a bitter re-election campaign to John Davis Lodge, during which his opponent painted him as an extreme liberal.
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Chester Bowles developed a close relationship with Prime Minister Nehru, who otherwise distrusted Americans.
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Indeed Chester Bowles Highly appreciated Nehru's positions, which caused him friction with the State Department.
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Chester Bowles won a seat in the House of Representatives for Connecticut's second district and served one term, from January 3,1959, to January 3,1961.
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Chester Bowles served as chairman of the platform committee for the Democratic National Convention that year in Los Angeles, California.
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Chester Bowles's removal was made part of a broader bureaucratic reshuffle, which became known as the "Thanksgiving Day Massacre".
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In December 1961, Chester Bowles was named President Kennedy's Special Representative and Adviser on African, Asian, and Latin American Affairs, and Ambassador at Large.
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Chester Bowles was made Ambassador to India for the second time on July 19,1963.
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Chester Bowles continued in this position through the remainder of Kennedy's Presidency, and for the duration of Lyndon B Johnson's Administration.
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Chester Bowles was a passionate advocate for stronger relations between the United States and India.
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Chester Bowles enjoyed good relations with India's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru.
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Chester Bowles strongly believed that the United States and India shared fundamental democratic values.
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In March 1967, Chester Bowles was formally petitioned for political asylum by Svetlana Alliluyeva, a writer and the only daughter of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, which was granted.
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Chester Bowles traveled to Switzerland and eventually on to the US, where she died in 2011.
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Chester Bowles completed his service as Ambassador to India on April 21,1969, during the early days of the presidency of Richard Nixon.
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Chester Bowles showed expertise in stagecraft, public relations and promotion, both during his career in advertising, and throughout his work as a diplomat, elected official and appointed official.
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Chester Bowles understood that the Nazi regime of Germany—and others in Axis alliance—needed to be defeated.
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Shortly after the war, Chester Bowles saw the hampered abilities of the countries to produce food, clothe their people, provide education, sanitation and health care.
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Chester Bowles wrote articles and books that promoted civil rights and agitation for change and improvement, including in a book entitled "What Negroes Can Learn from Gandhi" published in 1958.
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Chester Bowles had three children with his second wife, the former Dorothy Stebbens.
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Chester Bowles died at the age of 85, on May 25,1986, in Essex, Connecticut.
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Chester Bowles had a cerebrovascular accident the week prior to his death.
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