Thomas Knight Finletter

Nationality

U.S.A.

Date of Birth

1893

Date of Death

1980

Political
Preference

Democrat

Thomas Knight Finletter was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and graduated both with a Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws at the University of Pennsylvania. Finletter was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman and was appointed American Ambassador to NATO under the Jonn F. Kennedy Administration.

In World War I, he served in the military as captain. Afterwards, Finletter practiced law in New York until he began his career in government service in 1941 as a special assistant to Secretary of State on international economic affairs.

In 1945, Finletter acted as consultant at the United Nations Conference on International Organization at San Francisco. He was in favour of a world federal government. In 1949, Finletter was appointed chief of the Economic Cooperation Administration’s (ECA) mission to the United Kingdom, seated in London. From this position, he oversaw British implementation of the Marshall Plan. Finletter had to deal with British reluctance to strengthen the OEEC and was mainly tasked to get the U.K more committed to the integration of Europe, as well as programs of trade liberalization. Personally, however, Finletter preferred to link Western Europe to the United States within the framework of a North Atlantic community.