Charles Hartwell Bonesteel

Nationality

U.S.A.

Date of Birth

1900

Date of Death

1977

Political
Preference

Charles Hartwell Bonesteel was born in Plattsburgh, New York and grew up in a military family. As military commander, he served in the United States and Europe during World War II in a number of senior positions.

In the postwar era, Bonesteel served as special assistant to the Secretary of State George S. Marshall and supervised the progress on the Marshall Plan. In this role, he regularly visited Europe to meet with US ambassadors within the Economic Cooperation Administration (ECA). Bonesteel was in charge of a group of economic experts and joined Henry Labouisse in his work with the Organisation for European Economic Co-operation (OEEC) in Paris.

He was recruited by George F. Kennan, with whom he shared the same ideas about trade liberalization in Europe. To foster trade liberation, via financial and economic stabilization programs, they favoured a European organization with powers to review national programs, that could adjust these programs to European needs. They communicated and pushed these ideas to the 1947 Conference of European Economic Cooperation (CEEC).