V o L u m e I : a d

attention to their reports of human rights abuses. These groups became part

of a larger political and social movement that ultimately prefigured the end

of the Cold War.

The Helsinki Final Act marked the beginning of an ongoing process,

known as the Helsinki Process, in which CSCE states convened periodically

to review the implementation of the act and initiate further efforts to

decrease East-West tensions. In 1989, as the Berlin Wall came down and the

Czechoslovakian Velvet Revolution moved into high gear, many East Euro-

pean reformers, including Czechoslovakia’s Václav Havel, cited the Helsinki

Process as a key part of their success in throwing off the yoke of communist

totalitarianism.

Sarah B. Snyder

See also

Bonner, Yelena Georgievna; Détente; Europe, Eastern; Europe, Western; Havel,

Václav; Human Rights; Sakharov, Andrei; Security and Cooperation in Europe,

Conference on

References

Hanhimaki, Jussi. “‘They Can Write it in Swahili’: Kissinger, The Soviets, and the

Helsinki Accords, 1973–1975.” Journal of Transatlantic Studies 1(1) (2003): 37–58.

Maresca, John J. To Helsinki: The Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe,

1973–1975. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1985.

U.S. secretary of state (1959–1961). Born in Paris, France, on 28 March 1895,

the son of Boston Brahmin parents who were expatriate artists, Christian

Herter was educated at the Browning School in New York and at Harvard

University. He spent a year studying architecture at Columbia University

but left in 1916 to join the Foreign Service, serving on the U.S. delegation to

the 1919 Paris Peace Conference.

Herter next worked for Herbert Hoover in the American Relief Asso-

ciation. When Hoover became secretary of commerce in 1921, Herter spent

three years as his assistant before returning to Boston. In 1931 Herter began

twelve years—four as Speaker—in the Massachusetts House of Represen-

tatives, followed by five terms (1943–1953) as U.S. congressman for Mass-

achusetts and two terms (1953–1957) as governor of Massachusetts. An

internationalist Republican, Herter strongly supported the creation of the

United Nations (UN) and the Marshall Plan.

Named undersecretary of state in 1957 on the recommendation of Vice

President Richard M. Nixon, Herter worked well with the formidable secre-

tary, John Foster Dulles, who died of cancer in May 1959 and designated

Herter as his successor. Although Herter soon won President Dwight Eisen-

hower’s confidence, his influence never approached that of Dulles. As rela-

tions with Cuba deteriorated after Fidel Castro took power in 1959, Herter

908

Herter, Christian Archibald

Herter, Christian

Archibald

(1895–1966)

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counseled restraint but persuaded the Organization of

American States (OAS) to pass a censure resolution against

Castro.

Herter’s most crucial efforts involved Soviet-American

relations. Seeking to resolve the crisis that began in No-

vember 1958 when Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev de-

manded that Western forces leave West Berlin, at a summer

1959 Geneva conference Herter unsuccessfully put forward

proposals to unite both Berlin and eventually Germany

under democratically elected governments. Efforts in 1960

to negotiate a Soviet-American arms control and reduction

agreement proved equally fruitless, foundering on inspec-

tion provisions. When Soviet antiaircraft batteries downed

an American U-2 spy plane on 1 May 1960 and the Soviets

captured pilot Francis Gary Powers, Herter recommended

that Eisenhower accept responsibility for the flights and

publicly defended the missions. Khrushchev nonetheless

aborted the impending May 1960 summit meeting between

himself, Eisenhower, and British Prime Minister Harold

Macmillan.

When President John F. Kennedy took office in 1961,

Herter retired from public life. In November 1962 Ken-

nedy appointed Herter his chief foreign trade negotiator,

a post he retained until his death in Washington, D.C., on

30 December 1966.

Priscilla Roberts

See also

Arms Control; Berlin Crises; Castro, Fidel; Cuba; Dulles, John Foster; Eisenhower,

Dwight David; Geneva Conference (1959); Kennedy, John Fitzgerald; Khrush-

chev, Nikita; Nixon, Richard Milhous; Paris Conference; Powers, Francis Gary;

U-2 Incident

References

Fromkin, David. In the Time of the Americans: FDR, Truman, Eisenhower, Marshall,

MacArthur; The Generation That Changed the World. New York: Knopf, 1995.

Lemelin, Bernard. “An Internationalist Republican in a Time of Waning Bipartisan-

ship: Congressman Christian A. Herter of Massachusetts and the Point Four Pro-

gram, 1949–1950.” New England Journal of History 58(1) (Spring 2001): 61–90.

Noble, G. Bernard. Christian Herter. New York: Cooper Square, 1970.

British Conservative Party politician, cabinet secretary in various posts, and

deputy prime minister (1995–1997). Born in Swansea, Wales, on 21 March 1933,

Michael Heseltine graduated from Pembroke College, Oxford University,

Heseltine, Michael

909

Christian A. Herter was secretary of state in the Eisen-

hower administration during 1959–1961. (Dwight D.

Eisenhower Library)

Heseltine, Michael

(1933–)

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