Richard Cunningham Patterson Jr.

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Richard Cunningham Patterson Jr. (1886–1966) was an American government official and diplomat. Patterson was born in Omaha, Nebraska, the son of Richard Cunningham Patterson, an attorney, and Martha Belle Neiswanger. After working as a laborer in the gold mines of South Dakota and a year at the University of Nebraska, he received an engineer of mines degree at Columbia University’s School of Mines in 1912.[1][2]

Assistant Commerce Secretary Patterson, May 1938.

Patterson was the U.S. ambassador to Yugoslavia (1944–1946), Guatemala (1948–1951), and U.S. Minister to Switzerland (1951–53). While ambassador to Guatemala, he popularized the term duck test.[3]

Amid charges in Guatemala that Patterson was intervening in Guatemala's internal affairs, and rumors that Patterson's life was in danger, Patterson hurriedly departed for the United States on March 28, 1950.[4] His mission in Guatemala was terminated on April 24, 1951, when a new ambassador, Rudolf E. Schoenfeld, presented his credentials.[5]

References[edit]

  1. ^ University, Columbia (1916). Officers and Graduates of Columbia University, Originally the College of the Province of New York Known as King's College: General Catalogue ...
  2. ^ "Columbia Daily Spectator 19 December 1938 — Columbia Spectator". spectatorarchive.library.columbia.edu. Retrieved 2021-06-29.
  3. ^ Rabe, Stephen G. (2005). U.S. intervention in British Guiana : a Cold War story ([Online-Ausg.] ed.). Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. p. 46. ISBN 0-8078-5639-8.
  4. ^ "Foreign Relations of the United States, 1950, The United Nations; The Western Hemisphere, Volume II - Office of the Historian". history.state.gov. Retrieved 22 February 2017.
  5. ^ "Foreign Relations of the United States, 1951, The United Nations; The Western Hemisphere, Volume II - Office of the Historian". history.state.gov. Note 5. Retrieved 11 March 2017.

External links[edit]

Diplomatic posts
Preceded by United States Ambassador to Yugoslavia
1944–1946
Succeeded by
Preceded by United States Ambassador to Guatemala
1948–1951
Succeeded by