Herschel Johnson

Herschel Johnson
Born	Herschel Vespasian Johnson 3 5, 1894
Birthplace	Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.
Died	Template:Death date and age Charlotte, North Carolina, U.S.
Nationality	American
Occupation	Diplomat
Known for	U.S. Ambassador to Sweden, acting U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, U.S. Ambassador to Brazil, humanitarian efforts during World War II, advocacy for the 1947 Palestine Partition Plan
Education	University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Harvard University

Herschel Vespasian Johnson (May 3, 1894 – April 16, 1966) was an American diplomat from North Carolina who served in the United States Foreign Service for over three decades, from 1921 to 1953. Named after his great-grandfather, Governor Herschel Vespasian Johnson of Georgia, the younger Johnson carved out a distinguished career of his own in international affairs, serving in posts across Europe, Latin America, and the United Nations. His most prominent assignments included serving as Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Sweden during World War II, acting United States Ambassador to the United Nations during its formative years, and Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Brazil. During his wartime posting in Stockholm, Johnson was involved in humanitarian efforts to save civilian lives, including coordination with Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg. At the United Nations, he became a notable advocate for the 1947 Palestine Partition Plan, working across Cold War lines with Soviet representative Andrei Gromyko to ensure the General Assembly voted on the matter without delay.

Early Life

Herschel Vespasian Johnson was born on May 3, 1894, in Atlanta, Georgia. He was a descendant of a prominent Southern political family; his great-grandfather, also named Herschel Vespasian Johnson, had served as the Governor of Georgia from 1853 to 1857 and was the Democratic Party's vice-presidential nominee on the ticket with Stephen A. Douglas in the 1860 presidential election. The younger Johnson was raised with strong ties to the American South, particularly to North Carolina, which he would consider his home state throughout his life and career.

Details of Johnson's childhood and early family life remain sparsely documented in available sources. What is established is that he came from a family with deep roots in public service and the Democratic Party tradition, and that he would follow this heritage into a career dedicated to representing the United States abroad. His upbringing in the post-Reconstruction South, in a family that had experienced the highest levels of antebellum and Civil War–era politics, likely shaped his understanding of governance, compromise, and the complexities of national and international affairs.

Education

Johnson pursued his higher education at two of America's premier institutions. He attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, strengthening his connections to the state of North Carolina. He subsequently studied at Harvard University. These educational experiences prepared him for entry into the United States Foreign Service, which he joined in 1921.

Career

Early Diplomatic Career

Herschel Johnson entered the United States Foreign Service in 1921, beginning a diplomatic career that would span more than three decades. During the 1920s and 1930s, he held a variety of posts in Europe and Latin America, gaining extensive experience in international relations and the practices of American diplomacy abroad. The breadth of these early assignments exposed Johnson to a range of geopolitical contexts and helped establish his reputation as a capable and reliable diplomat within the State Department.

By the late 1930s, as tensions mounted across Europe and the world moved toward another global conflict, Johnson's experience and skills positioned him for increasingly senior assignments. His career trajectory reflected the broader evolution of American foreign policy during the interwar period, as the United States gradually moved away from isolationism toward a more active engagement in international affairs.

Minister to Sweden (1941–1946)

On December 12, 1941—just five days after the attack on Pearl Harbor—Johnson was appointed Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Sweden, succeeding Frederick A. Sterling. He served in this critical post throughout most of World War II and into the early postwar period, remaining in Stockholm until April 28, 1946. His appointment came under President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and he continued in the role under President Harry S. Truman following Roosevelt's death in April 1945.

Sweden maintained its neutrality during World War II, making Stockholm a uniquely important diplomatic hub. As the senior American representative in Sweden, Johnson played a significant role at the intersection of wartime intelligence, diplomacy, and humanitarian efforts. Neutral Sweden served as a conduit for information, negotiations, and rescue operations that could not easily be conducted through belligerent nations.

One of the most significant aspects of Johnson's tenure in Sweden was his involvement in humanitarian operations aimed at saving civilian lives, particularly those of Jews and other persecuted groups in Nazi-occupied Europe. Johnson was in contact with Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat who undertook extraordinary efforts to rescue Hungarian Jews in Budapest during 1944 and 1945.

Johnson's role in these humanitarian efforts is further documented through his communications with the War Refugee Board (WRB), the United States government agency created in January 1944 specifically to aid Jews and other victims of Nazi persecution. In one notable telegram, Johnson communicated regarding what was referred to as the "Goodyear Tire Plan," which involved the transfer of funds to Sweden to facilitate the escape of refugees into the country. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum preserves records of Johnson's telegrams related to these rescue operations, which illustrate the coordination between American diplomats in neutral countries and the WRB's efforts to save lives during the final years of the Holocaust.

The WRB had sent money to Sweden to help refugees escape into the country, and Johnson, as the American envoy in Stockholm, served as a critical link in this chain of communication and action. His position allowed him to facilitate the flow of information and resources between Washington and the various actors on the ground in Scandinavia who were engaged in rescue work. These efforts represented a significant chapter in American wartime diplomacy, as the United States government increasingly sought to respond to the humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in occupied Europe.

Johnson's tenure in Sweden also required him to navigate the complex dynamics of Swedish neutrality, managing relations with a country that maintained diplomatic and economic ties with both the Allied and Axis powers. Sweden's position as a neutral state made it a venue for back-channel communications, intelligence gathering, and various forms of covert operations, all of which fell within the purview of the American legation under Johnson's leadership.

He was succeeded as Minister to Sweden by Louis G. Dreyfus Jr.

Acting Ambassador to the United Nations (1946–1947)

Following his return from Sweden, Johnson was appointed as the acting United States Ambassador to the United Nations, serving from June 3, 1946, to January 14, 1947. He succeeded Edward Stettinius Jr., who had been the first U.S. representative to the newly established international body, and was in turn succeeded by Warren Austin. Johnson served in this capacity under President Harry S. Truman.

This was a formative period for the United Nations, which had been established in 1945 in the aftermath of World War II. Johnson represented the United States during a time when the foundational structures and norms of the organization were still being defined, and when the emerging Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union was beginning to shape international diplomacy.

Johnson's most notable contribution during his time at the United Nations was his role as a vocal advocate for the 1947 United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine, which proposed the division of the British Mandate territory of Palestine into separate Jewish and Arab states, with Jerusalem under international administration. The partition question was one of the most contentious issues before the General Assembly, involving deeply held national, religious, and geopolitical interests.

In an unusual display of Cold War–era cooperation, Johnson worked collaboratively with Andrei Gromyko, the Soviet representative to the United Nations and ordinarily Johnson's political adversary on most matters of international affairs. Despite their fundamental ideological differences and the broader superpower rivalry that defined the period, both Johnson and Gromyko stood together on the question of Palestine's partition. The two diplomats urged the United Nations General Assembly not to delay its decision on the matter but to proceed to a vote for partition at once.

This collaboration was particularly significant because it occurred in the face of last-minute efforts by Arab delegations to introduce a compromise that would have either delayed or altered the partition plan. The joint insistence of the American and Soviet representatives on an immediate vote helped ensure that the General Assembly proceeded to its historic decision. On November 29, 1947, the General Assembly adopted Resolution 181, approving the partition plan. While the vote and its aftermath remain subjects of extensive historical debate, Johnson's role in helping to bring the matter to a decisive vote is recorded as a notable episode in the early history of the United Nations and in the diplomatic history of the Middle East.

The collaboration between Johnson and Gromyko on this issue underscored the unusual political dynamics of the Palestine question, which cut across the normal Cold War alignments. It also demonstrated Johnson's capacity to work pragmatically with counterparts from rival powers when he believed that the objectives were in the interest of the United States and the broader international community.

Ambassador to Brazil (1948–1953)

In 1948, Johnson received his final major diplomatic assignment when President Truman appointed him as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Brazil. He officially assumed the post on July 22, 1948, succeeding William D. Pawley. Johnson served as ambassador to Brazil through the remainder of the Truman administration and into the early months of President Dwight D. Eisenhower's tenure, ending his service on May 27, 1953.

Brazil was one of the most significant diplomatic postings in Latin America, reflecting the country's size, economic importance, and strategic position in the Western Hemisphere. During the late 1940s and early 1950s, Brazil was undergoing a period of political and economic transformation. Johnson's role as ambassador required him to manage the complex bilateral relationship between the United States and Brazil during the early Cold War period, when Washington was actively seeking to consolidate alliances throughout the Americas and to counter the spread of communism in the region.

Johnson served under two presidents of different parties—Truman, a Democrat, and Eisenhower, a Republican—reflecting the nonpartisan nature of the senior Foreign Service and the continuity of American foreign policy interests in the region. His tenure in Brazil marked the culmination of a career that had taken him from junior Foreign Service posts in the 1920s to some of the most important ambassadorial assignments available to American diplomats.

He was succeeded as ambassador to Brazil by James S. Kemper.

Retirement

Johnson retired from the Foreign Service in 1953 after more than three decades of diplomatic service. His career had spanned some of the most consequential periods of twentieth-century history, including the interwar years, World War II, the founding of the United Nations, the early stages of the Arab-Israeli conflict, and the onset of the Cold War. After retirement, Johnson returned to North Carolina, where he had long maintained his roots.

Personal Life

Herschel Vespasian Johnson was a member of the Democratic Party. He maintained close ties to North Carolina throughout his life, and the state is frequently cited as his home in diplomatic records, despite his birth in Atlanta, Georgia.

Johnson died on April 16, 1966, in Charlotte, North Carolina, at the age of 71.

Legacy

Herschel Johnson's diplomatic career spanned a period of dramatic transformation in American foreign policy, from the relative isolationism of the early 1920s to the global engagement of the Cold War era. His service in Sweden during World War II placed him at the center of humanitarian efforts to rescue victims of the Holocaust, and his communications with the War Refugee Board and his contacts with Raoul Wallenberg represent a documented contribution to these rescue operations.

His role at the United Nations during the debate over the partition of Palestine illustrates the complexities of early Cold War diplomacy and the unusual alliances that the Palestine question produced. The collaboration between Johnson and Andrei Gromyko—representatives of the two emerging superpowers—to push the General Assembly toward a partition vote remains a noteworthy episode in the history of American diplomacy and the broader history of the Middle East conflict.

Johnson's career also reflects the evolution of the American Foreign Service as a professional institution during the twentieth century. Entering the service in 1921, he rose through the ranks to hold ambassadorial positions in three distinct and important contexts—wartime neutral Sweden, the nascent United Nations, and Cold War–era Brazil. His service under four presidents (Roosevelt, Truman, and Eisenhower in his ambassadorial roles) underscores the continuity and professionalism that characterized the best of the American diplomatic tradition during this period.

Records of Johnson's career and correspondence are preserved by the National Archives and Records Administration and the Library of Congress. His papers and diplomatic telegrams continue to serve as primary sources for historians studying American foreign policy during World War II, the founding of the United Nations, and the early Cold War period.