Arthur Gardner

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Arthur Gardner (1889-1967) was a United States foreign diplomat and American ambassador to Cuba 1953-1957. Gardner was a close confident of President Eisenhower and was also strongly pro-Batista.^[1]

Gardner fought in World War One, and worked for the War Production Board during World War Two. Following the war Gardner became an assistant to the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, John Snyder. Following the Cuban revolution of 1959, Gardner testified that he felt that Washington had "pulled the rug out" from under Batista. He added

"Batista had always leaned toward the United States. I don't think we ever had a better friend. It was regrettable, like all South Americans, that he was known-although I had no absolute knowledge of it-to be getting a cut, I think is the word for it, in almost all the, things that were done. But, on the other hand, he was doing an amazing job." ^[2]

In the early days of the second Eisenhower administration Gardner was pressured to resign his position as ambassador to Cuba, even though Gardner had gone directly to President Eisenhower to ask to stay on. Pressure also came to bear that Gardner's closeness to Batista, blinded him to the perceived atrocities taking place all over the island. Gardner's position came to be viewed as a liability, and his continuing as ambassador was portrayed as an obstacle to improving relations between the countries during the predicted transition from Batista to a new regime.^[3]

On Jun 16, 1957, Gardner was forced to resign. In his place, Eisenhower named Earl E.T. Smith as Gardner's successor.