W. Averell Harriman Biography Quotes 24 Report mistakes

Early Life and Family
William Averell Harriman was born in 1891 into one of the most prominent American families of the early twentieth century. His father, Edward H. Harriman, was a leading railroad magnate, and his mother, Mary Williamson Averell, brought a tradition of philanthropy and civic-mindedness to the household. Raised alongside his sister Mary Harriman (who founded the Junior League and later married sculptor Charles Cary Rumsey) and his brother E. Roland Harriman, he grew up amid expectations of enterprise and public service. The family fortune, anchored in railroads such as the Union Pacific, provided access to education and influence, but also a duty to steward large industrial enterprises responsibly during an era of rapid economic change.

Education and Business Career
Harriman attended the Groton School and Yale University, where he developed friendships that later connected industry, finance, and public life. After Yale, he entered the family business world, serving in senior roles in the railroads associated with his father's legacy and learning the complexities of transportation finance, labor relations, and regulation. In 1931 he helped form Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. through the merger of Harriman Brothers with Brown Brothers, working closely with his brother E. Roland Harriman and partners such as Prescott Bush. The firm navigated Depression-era turbulence and the tightening web of international finance, experiences that sharpened his instincts for economic diplomacy.

From New Deal Collaboration to Wartime Envoy
Harriman's skills brought him into President Franklin D. Roosevelt's orbit. As the United States expanded the Lend-Lease program, Roosevelt relied on Harriman's grasp of production, logistics, and European politics to serve as a special representative coordinating aid to the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union. He worked with British leaders including Winston Churchill and, as the war broadened, with Soviet officials such as Joseph Stalin and foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov. Harriman's practical manner and business background made him a credible interlocutor in difficult settings where military needs, shipping tonnage, and political trust all had to be balanced.

Ambassador to the Soviet Union and the United Kingdom
In 1943 Roosevelt appointed Harriman U.S. ambassador to the Soviet Union. From Moscow he navigated a relationship defined by battlefield necessity and ideological suspicion, conferring with Stalin, Molotov, and diplomats like Andrei Gromyko. He coordinated closely with American military leaders and with allied figures who were shaping the endgame of the war. After Germany's surrender, he briefly served as ambassador to the United Kingdom, working with Prime Minister Clement Attlee and foreign secretary Ernest Bevin as the contours of the postwar order emerged. These assignments affirmed his reputation as a results-oriented negotiator who could represent Washington's interests without theatrics.

Commerce Secretary and the Marshall Plan
President Harry S. Truman brought Harriman into the cabinet as Secretary of Commerce after the dismissal of Henry A. Wallace in 1946, a transition that signaled the administration's sharpening approach to the early Cold War. Harriman moved from domestic industrial policy to European recovery, becoming a key figure in implementing the European Recovery Program. Collaborating with Secretary of State George C. Marshall, Dean Acheson, and administrator Paul G. Hoffman, he worked with European statesmen such as Jean Monnet and Robert Schuman, helping to translate American resources into a framework for revival that fostered both prosperity and cohesion among Western allies.

Governor of New York and National Politics
Harriman turned to elective office in the 1950s, winning election as governor of New York in 1954. He succeeded Thomas E. Dewey and governed through a period of economic adjustment and demographic growth. His administration emphasized fiscal stewardship, investments in transportation and education, and a pragmatic respect for labor, while maintaining a moderate approach that fit New York's diverse electorate. He sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 1952 and again in 1956, attracting the support of Eleanor Roosevelt and other liberal leaders, but the party turned to Adlai Stevenson. In 1958, after one term in Albany, Harriman lost to Nelson A. Rockefeller, whose victory marked the rise of a new generation of Republican moderates.

Cold War Negotiator and Elder Statesman
Returning to diplomacy under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, Harriman served as an ambassador-at-large and as Assistant Secretary of State for Far Eastern Affairs. He played a central role in negotiating the 1963 Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, working with Secretary of State Dean Rusk and Soviet counterparts including Andrei Gromyko to halt atmospheric, outer space, and underwater tests. He also engaged in the intricate diplomacy that produced a neutrality settlement for Laos, coordinating with advisers such as McGeorge Bundy and veteran Russia hands like George F. Kennan. As the war in Vietnam deepened, Johnson tapped Harriman to lead the initial U.S. delegation to the Paris peace talks in 1968, where he met North Vietnamese representatives including Xuan Thuy. Later that year he joined the group of senior advisers sometimes called the Wise Men, alongside Dean Acheson and others, offering hard-earned counsel on de-escalation.

Personal Life
Harriman's personal life intersected with his public career. He married three times: first to Kitty Lanier Lawrence, with whom he had two daughters; then to Marie Norton Whitney, an influential presence in New York's cultural world; and later to Pamela Digby Churchill Hayward, whose later public role as a leading Democratic fundraiser and U.S. ambassador underscored the couple's enduring ties to civic life. Harriman balanced business responsibilities, philanthropy, and the demands of diplomacy with a reserved manner shaped by his upbringing and education. He remained connected to his siblings' legacies as well, notably the civic activism of Mary Harriman and the financial leadership of E. Roland Harriman.

Legacy
W. Averell Harriman's career traced the arc of American power from the age of railroads through the forging of the postwar order. He combined the leverage of private enterprise with a conviction that the United States had obligations beyond its shores, and he adapted those beliefs to the practical tasks of negotiation, reconstruction, and alliance management. His presence alongside Roosevelt and Truman, his dealings with Stalin and Churchill, his stewardship during the Marshall Plan era, his governorship in New York, and his return under Kennedy and Johnson to confront nuclear risk and regional conflict all reflect a rare continuity of service. He died in 1986, having spent most of the twentieth century at the intersection of finance and statecraft, and left a legacy as a patient broker whose influence was felt in boardrooms, embassies, and cabinet rooms on both sides of the Atlantic.

Our collection contains 24 quotes who is written by Averell Harriman, under the main topics: Witty One-Liners - Leadership - Peace - Decision-Making - War.