Robert Daniel Murphy

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Robert Daniel Murphy (1894 - 1978) was an American diplomat

Murphy had begun his diplomatic career in 1917 as a member of the American Legation in Bern, Switzerland. Among the several posts he held were Vice-Consul in Zurich and Munich, American Consul in Paris from 1930 to 1936, and chargé d’affaires to the Vichy government.

In 1941, at President Roosevelt’s request, Murphy had investigated conditions in French North Africa in preparation for the Allied landings -- Operation Torch, the first major Allied ground offensive during World War II. He was appointed the President’s personal representative with the rank of Minister to French North Africa. Murphy made contact with various French army officers in Algiers and recruited them to support the Allies when the invasion of North Africa came.

Ambassador Murphy also wrote in his memoirs that he met with little success in his effort to recruit French officers in North Africa, because they had given their word to stay out of further conflict after France had capitulated at the beginning of World War II. These same officers were then released by the Germans to go home free men. What was even more amazing was that they kept their word.

Murphy's Post-WWII Diplomatic Record

1949 Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, Belgium
1952 Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, Japan
1953 Assistant Secretary for United Nations Affairs
1953 Deputy Under Secretary for Political Affairs (Assistant Secretary)
1955 Deputy Under Secretary for Political Affairs
1956 Career Ambassador
1958 Personal representative of President Eisenhower during the Lebanon Crisis of 1958
1959 Under Secretary for Political Affairs

After his resignation from the U.S. State Department in December of 1959, Murphy went on to be an adviser to Presidents Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon.

In 2006, Murphy will be featured on a United States postage stamp, one of a block of six featuring prominent diplomats [1].