Philip W. Ireland

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Philip W. Ireland
Born	Philip Willard Ireland 1902 (1902)
30 December 1991 (aged 89)30 December 1991 (aged 89)
🏳️ Nationality	American
🏫 Education	University of Tennessee, American University of Beirut, Balliol College
💼 Occupation

Philip Willard Ireland often written as Philip W. Ireland (1902 – 30 December 1991) was an American academic and Department of State official who also worked for the CIA.

Ireland attended University of Tennessee and American University of Beirut, in Beirut where he met his wife. He received his doctorate from the London School of Economics and went to Baghdad to write a book on how Iraq was created. In 1935 he was arrested in London for selling of stolen mail of the airplane of the 1934 KLM Douglas DC-2 crash in Iraq. After five years at Harvard University, he became professor at the University of Chicago. Shortly after, the State Department called him to head the Near East and Africa Division. He later served in Egypt, Greece (Consulate General) and Syria (CIA).

Biography

Ireland was born in 1902 and raised in Chattanooga, Tennessee, United States. He did certain studies at the University of Tennessee. In 1925 he moved to the American University of Beirut, in Beirut for three years. He fell in love of Patricia, the daughter of the professor of eye, ear, nose and throat diseases Charles Webster. On his last day of his stay in Beirut he asked her to marry him. After being in the United States he went back to Beirut where they married on 11 June 1930. Via Charles Webster he went with his wife (who was an archaeologist) to Oxford where he attended Balliol College. Two years later he started his doctorate at the London School of Economics in London with Arnold J. Toynbee and Harold Laski as his directors of study.

He went to Baghdad to write a book on how Iraq was created entitled “Iraq: A Study in Political Development”. For sources he also spend 6 weeks at the Ministry of Foreign affairs in London.

During his stay in Iraq in December 1934 the Dutch Uiver airplane crashed and burned down near Rutbah Wells. Somehow he obtained mail that was onboard of that aircraft. In 1935 he was illegal trying to sell the mail in London. At the request of the police in The Hague, the Netherlands, he was arrested in London and 36 mail pieces were found. The mail was given back to the right holders in February 1935.

After his return from London, he went to Harvard University. Via Quincy Wright he moved five years later to the University of Chicago as a professor. In April 1941 his essay entitled “ Berlin to Baghdad Up-to-Date” was published. In early 1942 he became the head of the Near East and African Section of the State Department in Washington. The biggest issues he had to deal with were that of Palestine, that would later be covered at the Truman's Declaration. Between 1948 and 1950 he worked in Egypt as the head of the political section in Cairo. He worked among others with diplomats Somerville Pinkney Tuck and later Jefferson Caffery. From 1950 to 1951 he was appointed to the National War College. Between 1951 and 1955 he was the second acting ambassador at the embassy in Baghdad, Iraq. He worked with ambassadors Burton Y. Berry and Waldemar J. Gallman. The main issues they had to deal with were oil related and with the Kurds. He became a friend of the Prime Minister of Iraq Nuri Said and taught his son at Beirut. From September 1955 to October 1958 he served as the Consulate General of the United States in Thessaloniki, Greece, succeeding Murat W. Williams. He worked in that time together with ambassadors James Riddleberger and George V. Allen. As a CIA person he worked in Aleppo, Syria from 1959 to 1961. He came back to Washington where he worked from 1961 to 1964 at the bureau of African Affairs. After that he retired.

On 11 June 1990 he celebrated his 60 years of marriage with Patricia. Ireland died on 30 December 1991.

References

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