{{Short description|United States Navy admiral}} {{Use American English|date=November 2025}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = Alan Goodrich Kirk | image = Alan g kirk.jpg | caption = Admiral Alan G. Kirk | office = United States Ambassador to Taiwan | president = John F. Kennedy | term_start = June 7, 1962 | term_end = January 18, 1963 | predecessor = Everett F. Drumright | successor = Jerauld Wright | office1 = United States Ambassador to the Soviet Union | president1 = Harry S. Truman | term_start1 = July 4, 1949 | term_end1 = October 6, 1951 | predecessor1 = Walter Bedell Smith | successor1 = George F. Kennan | office2 = United States Ambassador to Belgium concurrent with United States Ambassador to Luxembourg | president2 = Harry S. Truman | term_start2 = April 1, 1946 | term_end2 = May 6, 1949 | predecessor2 = Charles W. Sawyer | successor2 = Robert Daniel Murphy | birth_name = Alan Goodrich Kirk | birth_date = {{birth date|1888|10|30}} | death_date = {{death date and age|1963|10|15|1888|10|30}} | birth_place = Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. | death_place = Washington, D.C., U.S. | resting_place = Arlington National Cemetery | spouse = {{Marriage|Lydia Chapin|1918}} | relatives = Caspar F. Goodrich (uncle) | education = United States Naval Academy | allegiance = United States | branch = United States Navy | service_years = 1909–1946 | rank = Admiral | commands = U.S. Naval Forces, France | unit = | battles = {{plainlist| * World War I * World War II }} | mawards = {{plainlist| * Navy Distinguished Service Medal * Legion of Merit }} | laterwork = }}
'''Alan Goodrich Kirk''' (October 30, 1888 – October 15, 1963) was a United States Navy admiral during World War II who most notably served as the American senior naval commander during the Normandy landings. After the war he embarked on a diplomatic career serving as U.S. ambassador to Belgium, the Soviet Union and the Republic of China (Taiwan).
==Biography== Kirk graduated from the United States Naval Academy in the class of 1909. His classmates included Jesse B. Oldendorf, Olaf M. Hustveldt, and Theodore S. Wilkinson.<ref>{{Cite book |url=http://archive.org/details/luckybag1909unse |title=Lucky Bag |date=1909 |publisher=First Class, United States Naval Academy |others=Nimitz Library U. S. Naval Academy}}</ref> Kirk served in the United States Navy during World War I and World War II. During his wartime naval service, Kirk became the U.S. naval attaché in London (1939 to 1941). He was Director of the Office of Naval Intelligence from March 1941 but, obstructed and opposed by Rear Admiral Richmond Turner, he was unable to develop the office into an effective center along the lines of the British Royal Naval Operational Intelligence Centre (which he had seen while in London). Eventually, he requested a transfer to an Atlantic destroyer squadron.<ref>{{cite book|last = Gannon|first = Michael|title = Operation Drumbeat|publisher = Harper Collins|year = 1991|location = New York|pages = 160–161|isbn = 0-06-092088-2}}</ref>
thumb|left|Quote, "Deliver for D-Day!" Kirk served as an amphibious commander in the Mediterranean in 1942 and 1943 (the Allied invasion of Sicily and Italy). In addition, he was the senior U.S. naval commander during the Normandy landings of June 6, 1944 where he commanded the Western Naval Task Force embarked on the heavy cruiser {{USS|Augusta|CA-31|6}}. He served as Commander U.S. Naval Forces in France during 1944 and 1945. He retired from the Navy as a full admiral in 1946. He was decorated with Legion of Honour by the Provisional Government of the French Republic for his World War II service.<ref name="All Hands June 1945">{{cite web | url = https://ipv6.navy.mil/ah_online/archpdf/ah194506.pdf | access-date = 11 February 2017 | work = navy.mil | title = All Hands - The Bureau of Naval Personnel Information Bulletin; June 1945 | publisher = United States Navy Websites | archive-date = 15 June 2020 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20200615160111/https://ipv6.navy.mil/ah_online/archpdf/ah194506.pdf | url-status = dead }}</ref>
[[File:Watching operations from the bridge.jpg|thumb|left|Senior officers watching operations from the bridge of {{USS|Augusta|CA-31}}, off Normandy, June 8, 1944. They are (from left to right): Rear Admiral Alan G. Kirk, Lieutenant General Omar Bradley, Rear Admiral Arthur D. Struble (with binoculars), and Major General William B. Kean.]]
After retirement from the United States Navy, Kirk embarked on a diplomatic career, and subsequently served in several United States embassies abroad, beginning with the combined posting of U.S. Ambassador to Belgium/U.S. Envoy to Luxembourg (resident in Brussels, Belgium), 1946–49; as U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union, July 4, 1949, to October 6, 1951; and finally as United States Ambassador to the Republic of China (Taiwan), June 7, 1962, to January 16, 1963. He served as ambassador to the Soviet Union during the beginning of the Korean War, and expressed concern that the conflict could escalate to World War III, comparing it to proxy conflicts of the 1930s such as the Spanish Civil War and the Soviet–Japanese border conflicts which he believed precipitated World War II.<ref>{{Citation|last=Carson|first=Austin|title=5. The Korean War (1950– 1953)|date=2018-12-31|url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9780691184241-006/html|work=Secret Wars: Covert Conflict in International Politics|pages=150|publisher=Princeton University Press|doi=10.1515/9780691184241-006|isbn=978-0-691-18424-1|s2cid=239293400 |access-date=2022-02-16|url-access=subscription}}</ref>
Admiral Kirk took his post as the second president of American Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia, in February 1952. As a former U.S. ambassador to the Soviet Union, he oversaw the recruitment of emigres in New York City and Munich, a group that would later form the core of Radio Liberty's staff. Less than a year after taking office, Kirk was forced to resign due to poor health. Also in 1952, he served briefly as Director of the Psychological Strategy Board, which planned for and coordinated government psychological operations.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.trumanlibrary.org/hstpaper/physc.htm |title=Staff Member and Office Files: Psychological Strategy Board Files |publisher=Harry S. Truman Presidential Library |access-date=2006-11-04 |archive-date=2018-11-06 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181106200445/https://www.trumanlibrary.org/hstpaper/physc.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref>
In 1962 he was portrayed onscreen in the film ''The Longest Day'' by Australian actor John Meillon.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0056197/fullcredits/cast |title=Full Cast and Crew: The Longest Day|publisher=Internet Movie Database}}</ref>
Alan Goodrich Kirk died on October 15, 1963, in New York at the age of 74 and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.usna.edu/Notables/ambassadors/1909kirk.php |title=US Naval Academy Notable Graduates: Alan G. Kirk |publisher=United States Naval Academy}}</ref>
==See also== {{Portal|Biography|Politics}} {{Commons category}} * Perle Mesta
==References== {{Reflist}}
==Further reading== * Kohnen, David. ''Alan Goodrich Kirk: U.S. Navy Admiral of Intelligence and Diplomacy.'' In: John Hattendorf and Bruce Elleman (Eds.). ''Nineteen Gun Salute: Profiles in U.S. Navy Leadership in Wartime Operations''. Newport, Rhode Island: Naval War College Press, 2010, pp. 75–92. * Kirk, Lydia. ''Postmarked Moscow''.
==External links== * {{Commons category-inline|Alan Goodrich Kirk}} * {{PM20|FID=pe/009634}}
{{s-start}} {{s-dip}} {{succession box|title=United States Ambassador to Belgium|before=Charles W. Sawyer|after=Robert Daniel Murphy|years=1946 – 1949}} {{succession box|title=United States Ambassador to the Soviet Union|before=Walter Bedell Smith|after=George F. Kennan|years=1949 – 1951}} {{succession box|title=United States Ambassador to Taiwan|before=Everett Drumright|after=Jerauld Wright|years=1962 – 1963}} {{s-end}}
{{US Ambassadors to Belgium}} {{US Ambassadors to Luxembourg}} {{US Ambassadors to Russia}} {{US Ambassadors to China}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kirk, Alan}} Category:1888 births Category:1963 deaths Category:United States Navy admirals Category:Ambassadors of the United States to Taiwan Category:United States Navy personnel of World War I Category:United States Navy World War II admirals Category:Recipients of the Navy Distinguished Service Medal Category:Recipients of the Legion of Merit Category:Burials at Arlington National Cemetery Category:Ambassadors of the United States to the Soviet Union Category:20th-century American diplomats Category:Honorary Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath Category:Ambassadors of the United States to Belgium Category:Directors of the Office of Naval Intelligence Category:Military personnel from Philadelphia Category:United States naval attachés