National Affairs: Exceptional Service

In 37 years of sensitive diplomatic assignments—Rome, Paris, Moscow, Madrid, London, Rio de Janeiro—U.S. Career Diplomat James Clement Dunn won wide respect as an urbane, wise, influential foreign-service officer. As U.S. Ambassador to Italy (1946-52), he merited the State Department's Distinguished Service Award for helping defeat the Communists in the critical 1948 elections (partially by dramatizing U.S. aid). As Ambassador to Spain (1953-55), he helped develop the new U.S. policy of good relations with Franco. Moving on to booming Brazil in February 1955, he concentrated on touring remote jungles and backwaters by jeep, plane and dugout canoe, impressed Brazilians by...