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Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipient Ellsworth Bunker
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Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipient Ellsworth Bunker
ELLSWORTH BUNKER
FIRST AWARD
Awarded by
President John F. Kennedy
December 6, 1963
Citizen and diplomat, he has brought integrity, patience and a compassionate understanding of other men and nations to the service of the Republic under three Presidents.
ELLSWORTH BUNKER
SECOND AWARD
Awarded by
President Lyndon B. Johnson
December 23, 1967
For extraordinary leadership and diplomatic service under arduous and taxing circumstances.
Ambassador Bunker was awarded the Medal of Freedom with Special Distinction in December of 1963. This award was in recognition of his service over the years as Ambassador to Argentina, Italy, India, and Nepal, his service as President of the American Red Cross, and a number of special and important missions performed as a consultant for the Department of State in the period from 1962 onward.
A second Medal of Freedom with Special Distinction is hereby conferred upon Ellsworth Bunker of Vermont. This second award--the first of its kind--recognizes Ambassador Bunker's service as Ambassador to the Organization of American States from 1964–65. It further recognizes the crucial role he played under the most difficult conditions, in the restoration of democratic processes in the Dominican Republic in 1965–66.
In particular it recognizes the rock-like devotion to duty which led Ambassador Bunker to accept the most difficult and demanding present position in the United States Diplomatic Service overseas, that of Ambassador to the Republic of Vietnam, at the age of nearly 73. In that position, Ambassador Bunker has once again demonstrated extraordinary diplomatic skill, as well as deep sympathy and understanding for the aspirations and efforts of the people and Government of South Vietnam. His quiet and effective leadership of all American activities in Vietnam have made an immeasurable contribution to the progress of our efforts to assist that country to determine its own future without external interference.
Through this award, a grateful nation once again pays tribute to one of its most distinguished citizens and public servants.
Biography
1894-1984
US Ambassador to South Vietnam, 1967-73. Bunker forged a reputation as an accomplished statesman prior to his assignment to South Vietnam. Once in Saigon, he strongly supported the war efforts of Presidents Johnson and Nixon, going so far as to applaud US incursions into Laos and Cambodia. Following the conclusion of the Vietnam War, Bunker headed the US team involved in the drawing up of the 1978 Panama treaty.
Born in Yonkers, New York, Ellsworth Bunker was a businessman who became a diplomat and was best-known for his role as U.S. ambassador to Vietnam from 1967 to 1973. Serving during the years of peak U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, he played a major role in making policy. Bunker began his diplomatic career as ambassador to Argentina in 1951 and subsequently served in Italy from 1952 to 1953 and India from 1956 to 1961. He was mediator of the Dutch-Indonesian dispute over West New Guinea in 1962. In his eighties, Bunker helped negotiate the Panama Canal treaty of 1977, by which the United States agreed to give Panama control of the canal by the year 2000.
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Medal History
