Lincoln Gordon

Abraham Lincoln Gordon (September 10, 1913 – December 19, 2009) was a United States Ambassador to Brazil (1961–1966) and the 9th President of the Johns Hopkins University (1967–1971). Gordon had a career both in government and in academia, becoming a Professor of International Economic Relations at Harvard University in the 1950s, before turning his attention to foreign affairs. Gordon had a career in business after his resignation as president of the Johns Hopkins University,^[2] but remained active at institutions such as the Brookings Institution until his death.

Early life

Born in in 1913 in New York City,^[2] Gordon attended the Ethical Culture Fieldston School in Riverdale,^[3] and later attended Harvard University.^[1] As an undergraduate at Harvard, Gordon was involved with the university’s Glee Club; because Prohibition was still in place, wine was usually served at the Club’s parties.^[4]

While he was a student at Harvard, Gordon met his future wife, Allison Wright, at a film exhibition in Dunster House.^[4] They married in 1937.^[1]

He received a BA from Harvard in 1933. He received a DPhil from Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar^[2] in 1936.^[5]

Career in government (1944 - 67)

Gordon was program vice-chairman of the War Production Board from 1944 to 1945. He started in the Bureau of Research and Statistics of the War Production Board before joining the staff of the Requirements Committee, helping design the Controlled Materials Plan.^[6] This Plan regulated the conservation and allocation of critical materials such as steel, copper, zinc, and aluminum--materials that were scarce or were in danger of becoming so during World War II.^[6]

Gordon then worked for the US State Department as Director of the Marshall Plan Mission and Minister for Economic Affairs and at the United States embassy in London (1952–55).^[5] "To let Western Europe collapse for want of some dollars," Gordon has stated in regards to his role in the Marshall Plan, “would have been a tragedy. It would have been repeating the terrible mistake after World War I.” ^[7]

Brazil and Latin America (1960 - 67)

In 1960, Gordon helped develop the Alliance for Progress, an aid program designed to prevent Latin America from turning to revolution and socialism for economic progress.^[1] To many experts, the foreign aid program was a sham since five times more dollars were leaving Brazil in the form of earnings, dividends and royalties paid to American companies than entering the country as direct investments. In his book Hidden Terrors (Pantheon Books, 1978, p. 66), A. J. Langguth notes the way Brazilians sarcastically referred to the program as being one in which it was Brazil that was giving foreign aid to the United States -- after tax credits, assistance in locating and other privileges given to foreign firms were taken into account.^[8] In 1961, Time reported that Gordon has "become Kennedy's leading expert on Latin American economics. Gordon drew up the U.S. agenda for the July inter-American economic meeting approved last week by the Organization of American States." ^[9]

Gordon served as U.S. Ambassador to Brazil (1961–66), where he played a major role for the support of the opposition against the government of President João Goulart and during the 1964 Brazilian coup d'état.^[10] On March 27, 1964, he wrote a top secret cable to the US government, urging it to support the coup of Humberto de Alencar Castello Branco with a “clandestine delivery of arms" and shipments of gas and oil, to possibly be supplemented by CIA covert operations.^[11] Gordon believed that Goulart, wanting to "seize dictatorial power," was working with the Brazilian Communist Party.^[11] Gordon wrote: "If our influence is to be brought to bear to help avert a major disaster here--which might make Brazil the China of the 1960s--this is where both I and all my senior advisors believe our support should be placed.”^[11]

Noam Chomsky has been critical of the coup, as well as Gordon's role in it. At an address delivered at Harvard University on March 19, 1985, he stated:

So, in one case, Brazil, the most important Latin American country, there has been what was called an "economic miracle" in the last couple of decades, ever since we destroyed Brazilian democracy by supporting a military coup in 1964. The support for the coup was initiated by Kennedy but finally carried to a conclusion by Johnson. The coup was called by Kennedy's ambassador, Lincoln Gordon, "the single most decisive victory for freedom in the mid-twentieth century." We installed the first really major national security state, Nazi-like state, in Latin America, with high-technology torture and so on. Gordon called it "totally democratic," "the best government Brazil ever had."... Well, there was an economic miracle and there was an increase in the GNP. There was also an increase in suffering for much of the population.

—Noam Chomsky, ^[12]

In the years after the coup, Gordon, Gordon’s staff, and the CIA repeatedly denied that that they had been involved^[1] and President Lyndon B. Johnson praised Gordon's service in Brazil as “a rare combination of experience and scholarship, idealism and practical judgment.”^[1] However, in 1976, Gordon stated that American military intervention in Brazil had been planned by the Johnson Administration in order to prevent a leftist coup there.^[1] Circa 2004 many documents were declassified and placed online at the GWU National Security Archive, indicating the involvement of Johnson, McNamara, Gordon, and others. In 2005 Stansfield Turner's book described the involvement of ITT corporation president Harold Geneen and CIA director John McCone.^[13]

Afterward, Gordon became Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs (1966–68) in Washington DC^[2] and worked for the Alliance for Progress, which coordinated aid to Latin America.^[1]

Career in academia

Gordon was a Professor of International Economic Relations at Harvard University in the 1950s, before turning his attention to foreign affairs.

Johns Hopkins University (1967 - 71)

He then served as president of the Johns Hopkins University between 1967 and 1971.^[5] In 1970, he introduced coeducation in Johns Hopkins' undergraduate program.^[3][14]

During his tenure, students and faculty briefly occupied the university's executive offices to protest against the Vietnam War^[14] despite the fact that Gordon had expressed opposition to the Vietnam War.^[3] During his tenure, the university was suffering a financial crisis, with an operating deficit of more than $4 million.^[3] The crisis caused Gordon to order budget cuts, which in turn caused faculty protests.^[3]

Gordon resigned in March 1971, attributing his resignation to growing criticism from the university’s faculty.^[14] The New York Times states that "Dr. Gordon's four years at Johns Hopkins were dogged by deteriorating finances, faculty complaints over pay and academic priorities, and students rebellious over the 'relevance' of their educations."^[1]

Later career

Gordon was a fellow of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars at the Smithsonian Institution from 1972 to 1975.^[1]

In 1984, he became a scholar at the Brookings Institution (he was an active associate there until his death^[1]) and also became director at the Atlantic Council of the United States.^[5]

Gordon died at the age of 96 at Collington Episcopal Life Care, an assisted-living home, in Mitchellville, Maryland.^[1] He was survived by two sons, Robert and Hugh, and two daughters, Sally and Amy^[1] and seven grandchildren^[1] (Laura Dickinson, Emily Gordon, Kate Gordon, Nick Lawson, Hugh Lawson, George Gordon, Jane Gordon); and two great-grandchildren^[1] (Julien Berman and Julia Segrè).

Books^[1]

• A New Deal for Latin America (1963)
• Growth Policies and the International Order (1979)
• Energy Strategies for Developing Nations (1981)
• Eroding Empire: Western Relations with Eastern Europe (1987)
• Brazil's Second Chance: En Route toward the First World (Brookings Institution Press, 2001).

References

External links

• The American elite, William Blum
• Oral History Interview with Lincoln Gordon, from the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library