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Breckinridge Long (1881-1958)
An affluent Democrat from Missouri whom FDR appointed ambassador
to Italy in 1933, Breckenridge Long was born in St.
Louis
in 1881 and studied at Princeton University and Washington
University Law School. After receiving his law degree,
Long
deepened his involvement in Democratic politics, both in
Missouri and elsewhere, and in 1917 he was rewarded
with
an appointment to the position of third assistant secretary
of state. Long remained with the State Department until
1920 when he resigned his position to run for the U.S.
Senate from Missouri. Losing the election, Long was
also defeated
in a second bid for the Senate in 1922. Notwithstanding
his electoral setbacks, Long remained an avid supporter
of Democratic candidates and contributed generously to FDR's
1932 campaign, earning himself the Italian ambassadorship
in the process. Long returned to private life after three
years at the embassy in Rome, only to rejoin the State
Department in 1940 at which time he assumed supervision
over the Department's Immigrant Visa Section — a
position Long would use to impede the ability of Jews and
other
victims
of Nazi persecution to seek refuge in the United States.
ER, who received an avalanche of petitions from Europeans
desperate to flee German occupation, had a tense relationship
with Long. ER found him not only unsympathetic but also
opposed to the policies she supported and, as much as possible,
she tried to work around Long (through working with Sumner
Welles or appealing to FDR directly) to respond to the
petitioners.
Long left the State Department in 1944 and died in 1958. Sources:The Concise Dictionary of American Biography. 5th ed. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1997, 745. Dallek, Robert. Franklin Roosevelt and American Foreign Policy, 1932-1945. New York: Oxford University Press, 1980, 66-67, 125-126, 446-448. Lash, Joseph. Eleanor and Franklin. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1971, 667. |