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Collection Overview

Creator:
Yost, Charles Woodruff
Title:
Charles W. Yost Papers
Repository:
Public Policy Papers
Permanent URL:
http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/z890rt25v
Dates:
circa 1790-2015 (mostly 1930-1980)
Size:
25 boxes
Storage Note:
  • Mudd Manuscript Library (scamudd): Boxes 1-25; S-000533
Language:
English

Abstract

Charles W. Yost (1907-1981) led a varied career as a diplomat, United Nations representative, writer, and scholar. He was a member of the foreign service intermittently between 1930 and 1971, after which time he devoted himself full-time to writing and teaching. Yost's papers document his professional life in the Foreign Service, as well as his time in academia, and include his correspondence, writings, and photographs.

Collection Description & Creator Information

Scope and Contents

Yost's papers document his professional life in the Foreign Service, as well as his time in academia, and include his correspondence, writings, and photographs. The papers document Yost's service as ambassador to the United Nations, as well as his work in Europe and Asia in several diplomatic posts, notably in Laos and the Middle East.

Please see the series descriptions in the contents list for additional information about individual series.

Collection Creator Biography:

Yost, Charles Woodruff

Charles W. Yost (1907-1981) led a varied career as a diplomat, United Nations representative, writer, and scholar. He was a member of the foreign service intermittently between 1930 and 1971, after which time he devoted himself full-time to writing and teaching. Yost served in Egypt, Poland, Thailand, Czechoslovakia, Austria, Greece, France, Laos, Syria, and Morocco.

Charles Woodruff Yost was born in Watertown, New York, on November 6, 1907. Prior to attending Princeton University, he traveled throughout Europe and was interviewed by his local newspaper, The Watertown Daily Times. After graduating from Princeton University in 1928, he traveled to Paris to complete post-graduate work.

Yost joined the Foreign Service in 1930, serving first in Alexandria, Egypt as a consular officer and then in Poland. He left the Foreign Service in 1933 to pursue a career as a freelance foreign correspondent in Europe. In 1935, he rejoined the State Department in Washington, D.C., becoming assistant chief of the Division of Arms and Munitions Control. In 1941, he represented the State Department on the Policy Committee of the Board of Economic Warfare. Yost was appointed Assistant Chief of Special Research in 1942 and assistant chief of the Division of Foreign Activity Correlation in 1943. In February 1944, he became executive secretary of the Department of State Policy Committee. He attended the Dumbarton Oaks Conference from August to October 1944, the United Nations Organization Conference in San Francisco in April 1945, and the Potsdam Conference in July 1945.

In late 1945, Yost was named chargè d'affaires to Thailand. Throughout the late 1940s and 1950s, he served in Czechoslovakia, Austria and Greece, all countries under political pressure from the Soviet Union. In 1954, he was named minister to Laos and became the first United States ambassador to that nation. In 1957, he was the minister counselor, or second-in-command, of the American Embassy in Paris. At the end of that year, he was named ambassador to Syria. Shortly after his appointment, Syria and Egypt formed the United Arab Republic. Yost was named ambassador to Morocco in 1958.

In 1961, he began his first assignment at the United Nations as the deputy to Ambassador Adlai E. Stevenson. Following Stevenson's death in 1965, Yost stayed on as Arthur Goldberg's deputy. Yost obtained the rank of career ambassador, the highest professional Foreign Service rank, before resigning from the Foreign Service in 1966 to begin his career as a writer and teacher on foreign affairs.

In 1969, President Richard Nixon nominated Yost as the permanent United States Representative to the United Nations. He advised the President and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger on relationships with the Middle East, the Soviet Union, Southern Africa, and arms control. He resigned in 1971 and returned to writing and teaching.

Yost set forth his views in a syndicated newspaper column and in four books: The Age Of Triumph And Frustration: Modern Dialogues (New York: R. Speller, 1964), The Insecurity of Nations (New York: Published for the Council on Foreign Relations [by] Praeger, 1968), The Conduct and Misconduct of Foreign Relations (New York: Random House, 1972), and History and Memory (New York: Norton, 1980). He also taught at the Columbia University School of International Affairs and Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service. He gave speeches throughout his career, offering his perspective on the Middle East, Southern Africa, China, and the Soviet Union.

In 1979, Yost was co-chairman of Americans for SALT II, a group that lobbied the Senate for passage of the second Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty. He was a trustee of the American University in Cairo, Egypt and director of the Aspen Institute for cultural exchanges with Iran. He also took part in several unofficial conferences between the United States and Soviet scholars. In 1973, he was named head of the National Committee on United States-China Relations and visited the People's Republic of China in 1973 and 1977.

Yost died of cancer in May 1981 at Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, D.C.

Collection History

Acquisition:

The collection was a gift from Yost's son, Nicholas C. Yost in 2002 (Accession ML2002-11). Additional gifts were received from Yost's daughter, Felicity Yost, from 2005 through 2022 (Accessions ML.2005.007, ML.2006.012, ML.2007.028, ML.2008.015, ML.2009.001, ML.2014.001, ML.2014.014, ML.2014.021, ML.2015.012, and ML.2018.021, ML.2022.001).

Appraisal

No appraisal information is available.

Processing Information

This collection was processed by Laura J. Szymanski in 2003. Finding aid written by Laura J. Szymanski in 2003. Material was arranged into series at this time. Additions were integrated into the collection, and finding aid revised, by Adriane Hanson in 2008. Subsequent accession was added to the collection and a file list added to the finding aid by Regine Heberlein in January 22, 2010. Series 6 and Series 7 were added by Rachel Van Unen in 2014-2015. Series 8 was added by Phoebe Nobles in 2018. The finding aid was partially rewritten by Will Clements in 2023 to incorporate the most recent series into a more cohesive series structure, with the 2022 addition to the collection incorporated at the same time.

Access & Use

Conditions Governing Access

Collection is open for research use, with the exception of the draft biography by Felicity Yost, which is restricted until publication of the biography.

Conditions Governing Use

Single copies may be made for research purposes. To cite or publish quotations that fall within Fair Use, as defined under U. S. Copyright Law, no permission is required. For instances beyond Fair Use, it is the responsibility of the researcher to determine whether any permissions related to copyright, privacy, publicity, or any other rights are necessary for their intended use of the Library's materials, and to obtain all required permissions from any existing rights holders, if they have not already done so. Princeton University Library's Special Collections does not charge any permission or use fees for the publication of images of materials from our collections, nor does it require researchers to obtain its permission for said use. The department does request that its collections be properly cited and images credited. More detailed information can be found on the Copyright, Credit and Citations Guidelines page on our website. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us through the Ask Us! form.

Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements

For preservation reasons, original analog and digital media may not be read or played back in the reading room. Users may visually inspect physical media but may not remove it from its enclosure. All analog audiovisual media must be digitized to preservation-quality standards prior to use. Audiovisual digitization requests are processed by an approved third-party vendor. Please note, the transfer time required can be as little as several weeks to as long as several months and there may be financial costs associated with the process. Requests should be directed through the Ask Us Form.

There are audiocassettes, CDs, DVDs, a VHS tape, and a film reel located throughout the collection.

Credit this material:

Charles W. Yost Papers; Public Policy Papers, Department of Special Collections, Princeton University Library

Permanent URL:
http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/z890rt25v
Location:
Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library
65 Olden Street
Princeton, NJ 08540, USA
(609) 258-6345
Storage Note:
  • Mudd Manuscript Library (scamudd): Boxes 1-25; S-000533

Find More

Related Materials

The Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library holds many collections related to the Charles W. Yost Papers which may be located by browsing or searching for "diplomacy" on the Princeton University Library Finding Aids website. Collections of particular relevance are the papers of career diplomats Jacob D. Beam, James Hugh Keeley, Jr., Lincoln MacVeagh, Livingston T. Merchant, Karl L. Rankin, William Cattell Trimble, Marten Van Heuven and Joshua Butler Wright.

The following items can be found in the Princeton University Library catalog.

"What Future for the UN? An Atlantic Dialogue: The Reactions of Western Europeans and Others to the Report of the Atlantic Council's Working Group on the United Nations"

"Toward a Search for Consensus in the United Nations" (Sound Recording)

Subject Terms:
Diplomatic and consular service, American -- Austria.
Diplomatic and consular service, American -- Czechoslovakia.
Diplomatic and consular service, American -- Egypt.
Diplomatic and consular service, American -- France.
Diplomatic and consular service, American -- Greece.
Diplomatic and consular service, American -- Laos.
Diplomatic and consular service, American -- Morocco.
Diplomatic and consular service, American -- Poland.
Diplomatic and consular service, American -- Siam.
Diplomatic and consular service, American -- Syria.
Diplomatic and consular service, American.
International relations.
United States -- Foreign relations -- Soviet Union.
Genre Terms:
Correspondence
Journals.
Notes.
Writings.
Names:
United States. Foreign Service
Yost, Charles Woodruff
Places:
United States -- Foreign relations -- China.
United States -- Foreign Relations -- Middle East.