Winston Lord (born August 14, 1937) is a retired American diplomat. As Special Assistant to the National Security Advisor and then as Director of Policy Planning at the United States Department of State, Lord was a close adviser to Henry Kissinger and was instrumental in bringing about the renormalization of U.S.-China relations in the 1970s.

He later served as President of the Council on Foreign Relations from 1977 to 1985, United States Ambassador to China from 1985 to 1989, and Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs from 1993 to 1997.{{Cite web |title=Winston Lord, Office of the Historian, Department of State |url=https://history.state.gov/departmenthistory/people/lord-winston}}

Early life and education

Lord was born in New York City on August 14, 1937, as the youngest of three sons born to Oswald Bates Lord, a textile executive for Galey and Lord, which later became a division of Burlington Industries, and Mary Pillsbury Lord, a granddaughter of the Pillsbury Company co-founder Charles Alfred Pillsbury.{{Cite web |date=28 April 1998 |title=Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project AMBASSADOR WINSTON LORD |url=https://adst.org/OH%20TOCs/Lord.Winston.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240627032559/https://adst.org/OH%20TOCs/Lord.Winston.pdf |archive-date=27 June 2024 |access-date=25 July 2024 |website=Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training}}{{Cite news |last=Bachrach |first=Special to The New York TimesBradford |date=1963-05-05 |title=Father Escorts Miss Bette Bao At Her Nuptials; Jackson Alumna Wed to Winston Lord-- Four Attend Bride |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1963/05/05/archives/father-escorts-miss-bette-bao-at-her-nuptials-jackson-alumna-wed-to.html |access-date=2024-05-06 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}

His oldest brother, Charles Pillsbury Lord, was a graduate of Yale University, served in the U.S. Air Force, and had a career in business and education.{{Cite web |title=Charles Pillsbury Lord {{!}} Yale Class of 1956 |url=https://yale56.org/charles-pillsbury-lord/ |access-date=2024-05-06 |website=yale56.org}} His older brother, Richard, died three months after he was born in 1935 with severe deformities as a result of Mary Lord's exposure to icy waters while pregnant during the sinking of SS Mohawk on January 24th, 1935.

Winston Lord's mother, Mary Pillsbury Lord, was a civic leader, activist, and political ally of Dwight D. Eisenhower, having met him while visiting Europe as the chair of Civilian Advisory Committee of the Women's Army Corps. She later worked as a campaign leader for Eisenhower's bid for presidency in 1952, organizing women's votes for Eisenhower. After Eisenhower's victory in 1953, he named Lord as the United States Representative to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, succeeding Eleanor Roosevelt.{{Cite news |last=Goodman |first=George |date=1978-07-23 |title=MARY LORD, 73, DIES; HELD POST AT U.N. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1978/07/23/archives/mary-lord-73-dies-held-post-at-un-succeeded-eleanor-roosevelt-as.html |access-date=2024-05-07 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}{{Cite news |date=2023-12-21 |title=Mary Lord Dies at 73, Served as U.N. Delegate |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1978/07/23/mary-lord-dies-at-73-served-as-un-delegate/b8af6a72-0046-4451-aaf3-ba9110bf4a9e/ |access-date=2024-05-07 |newspaper=Washington Post |language=en-US |issn=0190-8286}} Winston Lord later credited her mother's career as one of the factors that steered him towards a career in public service and international affairs.

After attending The Buckley School and the Hotchkiss School, Lord graduated magna cum laude from Yale University with a B.A. in English in 1959. He is a member of the Yale secret society Skull and Bones.Alexandra Robbins, Secrets of the Tomb: Skull and Bones, the Ivy League, and the Hidden Paths of Power, Little, Brown and Company, 2002, page 174-5, 189David W. Dunlap, "Yale Society Resists Peeks Into Its Crypt", New York Times, November 4, 1988. After graduating from Yale, Lord studied at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, where he graduated first in his class with an M.A. in 1960.Box 682, Folder 7, Council on Foreign Relations Records, Council on Foreign Relations Records. Public Policy Papers, Department of Special Collections, Princeton University Library.

Career

Lord played a role in the restoration of relations between the United States and China in the early 1970s, and he has been a key figure in US-China relations ever since. From 1969–73, as a member of the United States National Security Council's planning staff, he was the special assistant to National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger, accompanying him on his secret trip to Beijing in 1971. The following year, he was part of the U.S. delegation during President Richard Nixon's historic visit to China, was on President Ford's visit in 1975 and many other Kissinger trips. Lord was in every Nixon, Ford, and Kissinger meeting with Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, and Deng Xiaoping during the 1970s.{{citation needed|date=July 2019}}

Lord was also the top assistant on Vietnam negotiations, in every Kissinger meeting with North Vietnam from 1970–1973. Lord was a principal drafter of both the 1972 Shanghai Communiqué, which opened relations with China, and the 1973 Paris Peace Accords, which ended the Vietnam War.{{Cite book|title = White House Years|last = Kissinger|first = Henry|year = 1979}}

Lord became the State Department's Director of Policy Planning and top policy adviser on China (1973–77), United States Ambassador to China (1985–1989) under President Reagan, and Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs (1993–1997) under President Clinton. Early in his career he served in the Foreign Service and the Defense Department.{{Citation needed|date=March 2012}} He was a senior counselor for the President's National Bi-partisan Commission on Central America (1983–1984).{{citation needed|date=July 2019}}

Between governmental posts{{When|date=March 2012}}{{Clarify|date=March 2012}} Ambassador Lord has headed and helped direct many private organizations related to international affairs. He served as President of the Council on Foreign Relations (1977–1985).{{Cite web|url=https://www.cfr.org/historical-roster-directors-and-officers|title=Historical Roster of Directors and Officers}} He was co-Chairman of the International Rescue Committee Board and Overseers, Chairman of the National Endowment for Democracy, and Chairman of the Carnegie Endowment National Commission on America and the New World (1992). He is currently a director of the U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea.{{cite web|title=The Board of Directors|url=http://hrnk.org/sample-page/the-board-of-directors/|publisher=U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea|access-date=24 June 2012}} {{dead link|date=December 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} {{Citation needed|date=March 2012}}, a global advisor to the Women's Tennis Association, Chair Emeritus of the International Rescue Committee, trustee of the Trilateral Commission, Vice Chair of the NCAFP Northeast Asia Security Forum, and member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He is a former member of the Steering Committee of the Bilderberg Group.{{Cite web|url=http://www.bilderbergmeetings.org/former-steering-committee-members.html|title=Former Steering Committee Members|work=bilderbergmeetings.org|publisher=Bilderberg Group|access-date=2014-02-08}}

Lord has also previously served{{when|date=July 2019}} on the Boards or as a member of the America-China Forum, The Fletcher School, National Committee on US-China Relations, US-Japan Foundation, American Academy of Diplomacy, Asia Society, and Aspen Institute Distinguished Fellows.{{citation needed|date=July 2019}}

Lord has written articles in The New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, Time, and Foreign Affairs. In 2019, he published Kissinger on Kissinger: Reflections on Diplomacy, Grand Strategy, and Leadership, a book of interviews that Lord conducted with the former National Security Advisor.{{Cite web|url=https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250219442|title=Kissinger on Kissinger|last=Lord|first=Winston|website=Macmillan Publishers|access-date=3 April 2019}}

In 2020, Lord, along with over 130 other former Republican national security officials, signed a statement that asserted that President Trump was unfit to serve another term, and "To that end, we are firmly convinced that it is in the best interest of our nation that Vice President Joe Biden be elected as the next President of the United States, and we will vote for him."{{cite web |url=https://www.defendingdemocracytogether.org/national-security/ |title=Former Republican National Security Officials for Biden |date=20 August 2020 |website=Defending Democracy Together |access-date=26 August 2021}}

Lord is a participant of the Task Force on U.S.-China Policy convened by Asia Society's Center on US-China Relations.{{Cite web |title=The Task Force on U.S.-China Policy |url=https://asiasociety.org/center-us-china-relations/task-force-us-china-policy |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240108205426/https://asiasociety.org/center-us-china-relations/task-force-us-china-policy |archive-date=January 8, 2024 |access-date=2024-01-29 |website=Asia Society |date=August 2023 |language=en}}

Personal life

Lord has been married since 1963 to author and human rights activist Bette Bao Lord and has two children, Elizabeth Pillsbury and Winston Bao.{{citation needed|date=July 2019}}

References

External links

[http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/mfdip.2004lor02 Interview with Winston Lord] as part of [http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/diplomacy/index.html Frontline Diplomacy: The Foreign Affairs Oral History Collection of the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training], a site at the [https://www.loc.gov/ Library of Congress]. Complete oral history at ADST.org
{{C-SPAN|13818}}

{{Succession box| before=Arthur W. Hummel Jr.| title=United States Ambassador to China| years=1985–1989 | after=James R. Lilley}}

{{Succession box|

before=William Clark Jr.|

title=Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs|

after=Stanley O. Roth|

years=April 23, 1993–February 18, 1997

}}

Category:Presidents of the Council on Foreign Relations

Category:1937 births

Category:Living people

Category:Directors of policy planning

Category:Hotchkiss School alumni