23 Facts About Philip Bonsal

Philip Wilson Bonsal was an American career diplomat with the US Department of State.

Philip Bonsal's father was Stephen Bonsal, a well-known journalist who served several years in the US diplomatic corps, wrote several books, and won a Pulitzer Prize.

Philip Bonsal's mother was Henrietta Morris, a descendant of Gouverneur Morris, a leader in the American Revolution.

Philip Bonsal had three brothers, including New York judge Dudley Baldwin Bonsal.

Philip Bonsal then entered government service as a specialist in telephone services with the Federal Communications Commission, where he remained from 1935 to 1937.

Philip Bonsal was Vice Consul and Third Secretary in the US embassy in Havana in 1938 and 1939, followed by a year in Washington as Cuban desk officer at the State Department.

Philip Bonsal served as an adviser at the 1954 Geneva Conference on Korea and Indochina.

Eisenhower nominated Philip Bonsal as United States Ambassador to Colombia in February 1955.

Philip Bonsal maintained friendly relations with opposition politicians, angering Colombian dictator General Gustavo Rojas Pinilla, who persuaded the State Department to reassign him.

Philip Bonsal concluded his service in Colombia on April 24,1957.

Philip Bonsal served as United States Ambassador to Bolivia from 1957 to 1959.

Philip Bonsal wholeheartedly supported the US economic assistance program under way there, which he later described as a "pioneer" and "solitary example" of what was required of the US in Latin America.

In January 1959, Eisenhower named Philip Bonsal United States Ambassador to Cuba just days after Fidel Castro came to power.

Philip Bonsal attempted to find a working arrangement with the leader of the new government.

On September 3,1959, Philip Bonsal met with Castro and express concern that American businesses, which had complied fully with the Land Reform Law, were concerned that government agents were acting arbitrarily and without legal sanction.

Philip Bonsal complained of anti-American comments by Guevara, who was then on a world tour.

Philip Bonsal thought the Eisenhower administration was over-reacting and forcing Castro into an alliance with the Soviets.

Philip Bonsal was United States Ambassador to Morocco from 1961 to 1962.

Philip Bonsal hoped that all the major powers would nevertheless recognize that "big-power confrontation by proxy is so repulsively destructive of the welfare of the proxies as to render its repetition elsewhere inconceivable".

Philip Bonsal described the Pentagon Papers as "stolen property" and objected to those who ignored the violation of government secrecy standards because the revelations supported their political judgment.

Philip Bonsal published a memoir, "Cuba, Castro and the United States," in 1971.

Philip Bonsal died of pneumonia on June 28,1995, at the age of 92.

Philip Bonsal's papers are held by the Library of Congress.