Richard M. Bissell

Nationality

U.S.A.

Date of Birth

1909

Date of Death

1994

Political
Preference

After studying at Yale University and the London School of Economics (LSE), Bissell obtained his PhD in economics at Yale in 1939. He then went on to become a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), before Averell Harriman recruited him to serve as the executive secretary of the President’s Committee on Foreign Aid in 1947. As such, he had an important role in drafting the so-called Harriman Report. Moreover, through his work for the President’s Committee on Foreign Aid, Bissell got connected to men influential men like Paul G. Hoffman, who went on to head the Economic Cooperation Administration (ECA) in 1948.

After the Marshall Plan was signed into law in 1948, Bissell went on to serve as Deputy Administrator of ECA under Hoffman. His ideas on international economic clearing would be at the basis of the European Payments Union (EPU) in 1950.