born Nov. 15, 1891, New York, N.Y., U.S.
died July 26, 1986, Yorktown Heights, N.Y.
U.S. diplomat.
The son of Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed him to the National Recovery Administration. In 1941 he went to Britain to expedite lend-lease aid; he later served as ambassador to the Soviet Union (1943–46) and to Britain (1946), as secretary of commerce (1947–48), and as special U.S. representative to supervise the Marshall Plan (1948–50). He was governor of New York from 1954 to 1958. In 1961 he was appointed assistant secretary of state for Far Eastern affairs by Pres. {{link=Kennedy, John Fitzgerald">John F. Kennedy , for whom he helped negotiate the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. As ambassador-at-large for Pres. Lyndon B. Johnson , Harriman led the U.S. delegation to the Paris peace talks with North Vietnam (1968–69).