Harriman, W Averell

Harriman, W(illiam) Averell

(born Nov. 15, 1891, New York, N.Y., U.S.—died July 26, 1986, Yorktown Heights, N.Y.) U.S. diplomat. The son of Edward H. Harriman, he worked for the Union Pacific Railroad Co. from 1915, serving as chairman of the board from 1932 to 1946. In 1934 Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed him to the National Recovery Administration. In 1941 he went to Britain to expedite lend-lease aid; he later served as ambassador to the Soviet Union (1943–46) and to Britain (1946), as secretary of commerce (1947–48), and as special U.S. representative to supervise the Marshall Plan (1948–50). He was governor of New York from 1954 to 1958. In 1961 he was appointed assistant secretary of state for Far Eastern affairs by Pres. John F. Kennedy, for whom he helped negotiate the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. As ambassador-at-large for Pres. Lyndon B. Johnson, Harriman led the U.S. delegation to the Paris peace talks with North Vietnam (1968–69).