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Charles W. Yost Papers
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Held at: Princeton University Library: Public Policy Papers [Contact Us]
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the Princeton University Library: Public Policy Papers. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.
Overview and metadata sections
Charles W. Yost (1907-1981) led a varied career as a diplomat, United Nations representative, writer, and scholar. He was a member of the foreign service intermittently between 1930 and 1971, after which time he devoted himself full-time to writing and teaching. Yost served in Egypt, Poland, Thailand, Czechoslovakia, Austria, Greece, France, Laos, Syria, and Morocco.
Charles Woodruff Yost was born in Watertown, New York, on November 6, 1907. Prior to attending Princeton University, he traveled throughout Europe and was interviewed by his local newspaper, The Watertown Daily Times. After graduating from Princeton University in 1928, he traveled to Paris to complete post-graduate work.
Yost joined the Foreign Service in 1930, serving first in Alexandria, Egypt as a consular officer and then in Poland. He 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 and assistant chief of the Division of Foreign Activity Correlation in 1943. In February 1944, he became executive secretary of the Department of State Policy Committee. He attended the Dumbarton Oaks Conference from August to October 1944, the United Nations Organization Conference in San Francisco in April 1945, and the Potsdam Conference in July 1945.
In late 1945, Yost was named chargè 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 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.
Yost set forth his views in a syndicated newspaper column and in four books: The Age Of Triumph And Frustration: Modern Dialogues (New York: R. Speller, 1964), The Insecurity of Nations (New York: Published for the Council on Foreign Relations [by] Praeger, 1968), The Conduct and Misconduct of Foreign Relations (New York: Random House, 1972), and History and Memory (New York: Norton, 1980). He 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.
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. He also took part in several unofficial conferences between the United States and Soviet scholars. In 1973, he was named head of the National Committee on United States-China Relations and visited the People's Republic of China in 1973 and 1977.
Yost died of cancer in May 1981 at Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, D.C.
Yost's papers document his professional life in the Foreign Service, as well as his time in academia, and include his correspondence, writings, and photographs. The papers document Yost's service as ambassador to the United Nations, as well as his work in Europe and Asia in several diplomatic posts, notably in Laos and the Middle East.
Please see the series descriptions in the contents list for additional information about individual series.
The collection was a gift from Yost's son, Nicholas C. Yost in 2002 (Accession ML2002-11). Additional gifts were received from Yost's daughter, Felicity Yost, from 2005 through 2022 (Accessions ML.2005.007, ML.2006.012, ML.2007.028, ML.2008.015, ML.2009.001, ML.2014.001, ML.2014.014, ML.2014.021, ML.2015.012, and ML.2018.021, ML.2022.001).
For preservation reasons, original analog and digital media may not be read or played back in the reading room. Users may visually inspect physical media but may not remove it from its enclosure. All analog audiovisual media must be digitized to preservation-quality standards prior to use. Audiovisual digitization requests are processed by an approved third-party vendor. Please note, the transfer time required can be as little as several weeks to as long as several months and there may be financial costs associated with the process. Requests should be directed through the Ask Us Form.
There are audiocassettes, CDs, DVDs, a VHS tape, and a film reel located throughout the collection.
This collection was processed by Laura J. Szymanski in 2003. Finding aid written by Laura J. Szymanski in 2003. Material was arranged into series at this time. Additions were integrated into the collection, and finding aid revised, by Adriane Hanson in 2008. Subsequent accession was added to the collection and a file list added to the finding aid by Regine Heberlein in January 22, 2010. Series 6 and Series 7 were added by Rachel Van Unen in 2014-2015. Series 8 was added by Phoebe Nobles in 2018. The finding aid was partially rewritten by Will Clements in 2023 to incorporate the most recent series into a more cohesive series structure, with the 2022 addition to the collection incorporated at the same time.
No appraisal information is available.
People
Organization
Subject
- Diplomatic and consular service, American
- Diplomatic and consular service, American -- Austria
- Diplomatic and consular service, American -- Czechoslovakia
- Diplomatic and consular service, American -- Egypt
- Diplomatic and consular service, American -- France
- Diplomatic and consular service, American -- Greece
- Diplomatic and consular service, American -- Laos
- Diplomatic and consular service, American -- Morocco
- Diplomatic and consular service, American -- Poland
- Diplomatic and consular service, American -- Siam
- Diplomatic and consular service, American -- Syria
- International relations
- United States -- Foreign relations -- Soviet Union
Place
- Publisher
- Public Policy Papers
- Finding Aid Author
- Laura J. Szymanski
- Finding Aid Date
- 2003
- Access Restrictions
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Collection is open for research use, with the exception of the draft biography by Felicity Yost, which is restricted until publication of the biography.
- Use Restrictions
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Single copies may be made for research purposes. To cite or publish quotations that fall within Fair Use, as defined under U. S. Copyright Law, no permission is required. For instances beyond Fair Use, it is the responsibility of the researcher to determine whether any permissions related to copyright, privacy, publicity, or any other rights are necessary for their intended use of the Library's materials, and to obtain all required permissions from any existing rights holders, if they have not already done so. Princeton University Library's Special Collections does not charge any permission or use fees for the publication of images of materials from our collections, nor does it require researchers to obtain its permission for said use. The department does request that its collections be properly cited and images credited. More detailed information can be found on the Copyright, Credit and Citations Guidelines page on our website. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us through the Ask Us! form.
Collection Inventory
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Includes Partial transcripts of Yost diary from 1945 Potsdam conference, articles and clippings, Letter from Charles Yost to Henry Kissinger, small amount of family materials, etc.
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