David K.E. Bruce

Nationality

U.S.A.

Date of Birth

1898

Date of Death

1977

Political
Preference

David Bruce was born in Baltimore, Maryland and studied at Princeton University, University of Virginia School of Law and University of Maryland School of Law. Bruce was an American diplomat, intelligence officer and politician with an Anglophile outlook. He served as Ambassador to France, the Federal Republic of Germany, and the United Kingdom.

During World War II, Bruce was head of the Europe branch of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), a precursor to the CIA, which was based in London and coordinated espionage activities behind enemy lines.

After leaving the OSS at the end of World War II, and before entering the diplomatic field, in 1948, Bruce became head of the Economic Cooperation Administration’s (ECA) mission to France in Paris. Later, as U.S. ambassador to France (1949–1952), he was heavily involved in Europe’s postwar reconstruction, subsequently serving as U.S. representative to the nascent European Coal and Steel Community (1953–1954).

Bruce had an intimate friendship with Jean Monnet, with whom he shared his advocacy of post-war European integration.