LLEWELLYN  E. THOMPSON, JR.
1904-1972

AMBASSADOR EXTRAORDINAIRE

Las Animas, Colorado was the home town of one of the most outstanding diplomats ever to serve the United States. Llewellyn E. Thompson, Jr. was born in Las Animas in 1904 to L. E. and Lulu Thompson who were wealthy sheep ranchers. "Wally" as Llewellyn was known to his friends, grew up in Bent County under the watchful eye of his Aunt Jenny Butcher and along with his three brothers and one sister, completed his entire education in the Bent County school system. He graduated from Bent County High School in 1922 and then went on to the University of Colorado, where he graduated in 1928.

Mr. Thompson joined the U.S. Foreign Service in 1929 to initiate what was to be one of the most fruitful careers any American diplomat ever experienced. He completed terms in Ceylon and Switzerland before being sent to the Soviet Union in 1940.

It is in U.S./U.S.S.R. relations that Mr. Thompson mark on the world and much of the foundation for the Russians' respect for him was established in the summer of 1941, when he remained in Moscow as it was being attacked by the Nazi army. The Soviet government and most of the diplomatic corps had abandoned the city for the safety of Kuibyshev on the Volga River. The Russian officials never forgot this and it helps, at least partly, to explain the unique relationship Ambassador Thompson enjoyed with Premier Khruschev and other Soviet leaders.

Thompson was a master of negotiation because of his patience and tenacity. He was a man of his word and preferred the quiet approach to settlements---one of the great "behind the scenes" men of our time.

Llewellyn Thompson negotiated the complicated Trieste Accord which split the port of Trieste between the Yugoslavs and the Italians who had been fighting over it for nine years. He, also, directed the Austrian Treaty which led to the withdrawal of all foreign troops after ten years of occupation by Allied forces and the establishment of Austria as a neutral country.

Mr. Thompson served as a valuable advisor on foreign affairs to Presidents Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy and Johnson, but his finest hour was his part in resolving the Cuban Missile Crisis of the Kennedy Administration. President Kennedy awarded him the President's Award for Distinguished Federal Civilian Service with the statement, "Tommy Thompson has brilliantly furthered our country's foreign policy objectives during a period of extreme international tension." U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, in his book, Thirteen Days writes that "Thompson's advice on the Russians and predictions as to what they would do were uncannily accurate and his advice and recommendations were surpassed by none." Llewellyn Thompson, always a man of peace, had successfully kept the two superpowers from destroying each other.

Noted historian George F. Kennan put it best when he said, "In the field of negotiation, particularly with the Soviet Union, the USA never had a wiser or more competent representative than Llewellyn Thompson. 

The above biography is an excerpt from the BENT COUNTY (COLORADO) HISTORY book published in 1986-1987, pages 567, 568

There is an Ambassador Thompson exhibit in the Kit Carson Museum, Las Animas, Colorado.

The following photographs are from that exhibit.

On one of his many trans-atlantic flights, he met Jane Monroe Goelet, an artist. They married Oct. 2, 1948.  Mrs. Thompson had a daughter from her first marriage. Together, the Thompson's had two daughters. The Thompson's shared the remainder of his career, and she became a diplomatic asset, often entertaining Soviet Officials with her 
gentle, intelligent wit.

Thompson died at the National Institute of Health, in Bethesda, Maryland. 
He is buried in the family plot in the Las Animas Cemetery, Las Animas, Colorado.

Additional web sites of interest pertaining to the career of Ambassador Thompson

http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Plains/4897/ambassador.html    (Another biography of the Ambassador)

http://www.floridamuseum.org/cmc%20timeline.html    (Good article if interested in timeline of Cuban missile crisis)

http://politicalgraveyard.com/bio/thompson6.html     (An excellent reference if interested in sites pertaining to birth record, tours of duty in Austria  and Russia, cause of death information, and information pertaining to burial location).