Hugh H. Smythe
American author, sociologist, diplomat and professor
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Hugh Heyne Smythe (August 19, 1913 – June 22, 1977) was an American author, sociologist, diplomat and professor. He was an authority on African anthropology and East Asian studies. He received his PhD in anthropology from Northwestern University, under thesis advisor, Melville Herskovits, with funding from the Rosenwald Fund.[1]
Richard Nixon
Hugh H. Smythe | |
|---|---|
| |
| United States Ambassador to Malta | |
| In office December 29, 1967 – August 16, 1969 | |
| President | Lyndon Johnson Richard Nixon |
| Preceded by | George Joseph Feldman |
| Succeeded by | John C. Pritzlaff, Jr. |
| United States Ambassador to Syria | |
| In office October 28, 1965 – June 8, 1967 | |
| President | Lyndon Johnson |
| Preceded by | Ridgway Brewster Knight |
| Succeeded by | Thomas James Scotes |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Hugh Heyne Smythe August 19, 1913 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Died | June 22, 1977 (aged 63) |
| Spouse | |
| Alma mater | Virginia State University Atlanta University Northwestern University |
| Profession | Diplomat, professor, sociologist |
He served as the United States Ambassador to Syria from 1965 to 1967 and United States Ambassador to Malta from 1967 to 1969.[2]
Smythe taught sociology and anthropology at the university level at multiple schools, both in the United States and abroad. From 1951 to 1953, he taught at the Yamaguchi National University as a Visiting Professor of Sociology and Anthropology.[3] From 1962 to 1965, he taught sociology at Brooklyn College. At the same time, he worked as a Fulbright Professor at Chulalongkorn University.
From 1961 to 1962, Smythe was a senior adviser in economic and social affairs to the US Mission to the United Nations. He also served a tour as the US senior advisor to the National Research Council in Thailand.[3]
Smythe was the tenth African-American U.S. ambassador and the first to a Middle Eastern country. His tenure coincided with the Six-Day War and the severing of diplomatic ties with the United States. He later became notorious for the "Smythe Telegram" that he wrote during the increasing tensions before the war, where he demanded that the U.S. return to a pro-Arab foreign policy and said that the U.S. should ignore previous promises to Israel that Egypt would not be allowed to ban Israeli ships from transiting the Straits of Tiran.[4] He left the country on June 8, 1967 after Syria severed diplomatic ties with the US and became the ambassador to Malta.
Works
- Smythe, Hugh H; Weintraub, Sandra (1971). "Intergroup Relations in Israel". In Curtis, Michael (ed.). People and Politics in the Middle East. Transaction Publishers.
- Crow, Lester D.; Murray, Walter I.; Smythe, Hugh H. (1966). Educating the Culturally Disadvantaged Child: Principles and Programs. McKay.
- Smythe, Hugh; Smythe, Mabel M. (1960). The New Nigerian Elite. Stanford University Press.
- Smythe, Hugh H.; Smythe, Mabel M. (March 1952). "Report from Japan: Comments of the Race Question". The Crisis. Vol. 59, no. 3. pp. 159–64.
See also
Further reading
- Anderson, Mark (2008). "The Complicated Career of Hugh Smythe … Anthropologist and Ambassador: The Early Years, 1940–50". Transforming Anthropology. 16 (2): 128–146. doi:10.1111/j.1548-7466.2008.00021.x. ISSN 1051-0559.
- Krenn, Michael L. (1999). Black Diplomacy: African Americans and the State Department, 1945-1969. M.E. Sharpe. ISBN 978-0-7656-0380-7.
- Miller, Jake C. (1978). The Black Presence in American Foreign Affairs. University Press of America. ISBN 978-0-8191-0584-4.
- Plummer, Brenda Gayle (2012). In Search of Power: African Americans in the Era of Decolonization, 1956–1974. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-139-85174-9.
- ——————————— (1996). Rising Wind: Black Americans and U.S. Foreign Affairs, 1935-1960. University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 978-0-8078-2272-2.