Joseph E. Davies

Joseph E. Davies was an American diplomat, lawyer, and businessman who served as the second United States Ambassador to the Soviet Union during a critical period preceding World War II. His tenure, marked by a notably uncritical view of Joseph Stalin's regime, generated significant controversy and was immortalized in his bestselling book and subsequent film, Mission to Moscow. A prominent Democratic supporter and confidant of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Davies later served as an advisor during the Yalta Conference and held ambassadorships to Belgium and Luxembourg.

Early life and education

Joseph Edward Davies was born in Watertown, Wisconsin, to Welsh immigrant parents. He attended the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he was a member of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity and earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1898. He remained at the university to study law, graduating from the University of Wisconsin Law School with a Bachelor of Laws in 1901. His early legal training in the Midwestern United States provided a foundation for his future career in both corporate law and public service.

Legal and business career

Admitted to the Wisconsin bar in 1902, Davies quickly established a successful practice in Milwaukee. His legal acumen attracted the attention of national figures, leading to his appointment as a commissioner for the newly formed Federal Trade Commission in 1915 by President Woodrow Wilson. He later served as a special assistant to the United States Attorney General during World War I, prosecuting cases under the Trading with the Enemy Act of 1917. Following the war, he built a lucrative corporate law practice in Washington, D.C., representing major clients and amassing considerable personal wealth, which was later augmented by his marriage to cereal heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post.

Diplomatic service

In 1936, President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed Davies to succeed William C. Bullitt as the United States Ambassador to the Soviet Union. His tenure in Moscow coincided with the height of Stalin's Great Purge, yet Davies filed largely optimistic reports to the State Department, expressing faith in Soviet industrial progress and the fairness of the Moscow Trials. This perspective, detailed in his 1941 book Mission to Moscow, was criticized by many contemporaries as naive or willfully blind. After leaving the USSR in 1938, he served concurrently as United States Ambassador to Belgium and United States Ambassador to Luxembourg until the outbreak of war in Europe. During World War II, he served as a special advisor to Roosevelt and attended the Yalta Conference in 1945.

Later life and death

After the war, Davies remained a public figure, defending his views on the Soviet Union as the Cold War intensified. He divorced Marjorie Merriweather Post in 1955. Davies spent his final years in Washington, D.C., where he died on May 9, 1958. He was interred at the Forest Hill Cemetery in Madison, Wisconsin.

Legacy and honors

Davies's legacy is inextricably linked to his controversial diplomatic reporting and its popularization in the pro-Soviet film Mission to Moscow, produced by Warner Bros. during the war. While some initially viewed his work as fostering Allied unity, historians later criticized it as a form of appeasement that whitewashed the atrocities of the NKVD. His extensive art collection, acquired during his time in the Soviet Union, was donated to the National Gallery of Art. He received the Order of the Red Banner from the Soviet government and was awarded an honorary doctorate from his alma mater, the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Category:American diplomats Category:United States ambassadors to the Soviet Union Category:1876 births Category:1958 deaths