{{Short description|American diplomat (1928–2008)}} {{More citations needed|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox officeholder |image = Ronald Reagan and Evan G. Galbraith.jpg |caption=[[Ronald Reagan]] and Galbraith in [[Oval Office]] in 1981 |office = [[United States Ambassador to France]] |president = [[Ronald Reagan]] |term_start = December 2, 1981 |term_end = July 15, 1985 |predecessor = [[Arthur A. Hartman]] |successor = [[Joe M. Rodgers]] |birth_name = Evan Griffith Galbraith |birth_date = {{Birth date|1928|07|02}} |birth_place = [[Toledo, Ohio]] |death_date = {{death date and age|2008|01|21|1928|07|02}} |death_place = |party = Republican |alma_mater = [[Yale University]]<br />[[Harvard Law School]] }} '''Evan "Van" Griffith Galbraith''' (July 2, 1928 – January 21, 2008) was the [[United States Ambassador to France]] 1981 to 1985 for Ronald Reagan; and Secretary of Representative to Europe & NATO 2002 to 2007 for Donald Rumsfeld.
Both in [[Toledo, Ohio]], Galbraith graduated from Ottawa Hills High School in 1946 then [[Yale University]] in 1950, as a member of [[Skull and Bones]]<ref>[[Alexandra Robbins]], ''Secrets of the Tomb: Skull and Bones, the Ivy League, and the Hidden Paths of Power'', [[Little, Brown and Company]], 2002, page 181, 187</ref><ref>David W. Dunlap, [https://www.nytimes.com/1988/11/04/nyregion/yale-society-resists-peeks-into-its-crypt.html?scp=2&sq=David%20W.%20Dunlap "Yale Society Resists Peeks Into Its Crypt"] ''[[The New York Times]]'', November 4, 1988. Link retrieved 9/30/09. No mention of Galbraith in article.</ref><ref>Millegan, Kris. [https://archive.org/details/MilleganFleshingOutSkullBonesInvestigationsIntoAmericasMostPowerfulSecretSociety2003/page/n17/ "Everything You Ever Wanted to Ask But Were Afraid to Know."] In: [[iarchive:MilleganFleshingOutSkullBonesInvestigationsIntoAmericasMostPowerfulSecretSociety2003|''Fleshing Out Skull & Bones: Investigations Into America’s Most Powerful Secret Society''.]] Edited by Kris Millegan. Trine Day, 2003, p. 10. Originally published on Parascope.com, July 1996.</ref>) and [[Harvard Law School]].
Galbraith served on active duty in the [[United States Navy|Navy]] from 1953 to 1957, his position attached to the [[Central Intelligence Agency]].
From 1960 to 1961, he was the confidential assistant to the [[Secretary of Commerce]] under [[Dwight Eisenhower]].
A close personal friend to [[William F. Buckley, Jr.]] who he had met while they were both studying at Yale.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Freeman |first=Neal B. |date=2025-05-13 |title=Sam Tanenhaus Biography of William F. Buckley Jr.: A Reader's Guide {{!}} National Review |url=https://www.nationalreview.com/2025/05/a-readers-guide-to-the-sam-tanenhaus-biography-of-william-f-buckley-jr/ |access-date=2026-02-11}}</ref>
Prior to his post as Ambassador to France under President [[Ronald Reagan]], Galbraith spent more than twenty years in Europe, primarily as an [[investment banker]]. He started his banking career at Morgan Guaranty in Paris selling and designing bonds and later became the Managing Director of [[Dillon Read]] in London in 1969. In the 1990s, he was an Advisory Director of [[Morgan Stanley]] in New York, Chairman of the Board of [[National Review]], and a member of the board of the [[Lagardère Group|Groupe Lagardère S.A.]] [[Paris]]. Together with [[Daimler Benz]], the Groupe Lagardère S.A. controls [[EADS]] (European Aerospace and Defense Systems), Europe's largest defense contractor and principal owner of [[Airbus]]. Galbraith also served on several other commercial boards and until 1998, was Chairman of the Board of [[LVMH]] (Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton) USA. He also served as a Member of the Board of Directors of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation during the latter years of Reagan's administration.<ref>[https://archive.today/20210203112736/https://www.reaganlibrary.gov/archives/speech/nominations-appointments-february-21-1986 "Nominations & Appointments, February 21, 1986."] ''[[Ronald Reagan Presidential Library]]''. Archived from [https://www.reaganlibrary.gov/research/speeches/22186a the original.]</ref> [[United States Secretary of Defense|Secretary of Defense]] [[Donald Rumsfeld]] appointed Evan G. Galbraith as his representative in [[Europe]] and the defense advisor to the U.S. mission to NATO. In making this appointment, Rumsfeld said, "I wanted a seasoned, vigorous representative in Europe who will bring experienced leadership to this important mission."{{Citation needed|date=April 2022}}
Galbraith was also a member of the [[New York Young Republican Club]],<ref>[https://nyyrc.com/history/ "Timeline."] ''[[The New York Young Republican Club]]''.</ref> [[Center for Security Policy]], [[Council of Foreign Relations]] and the [[Bohemian Club]] in [[San Francisco]]. He was also a member of the board of directors of Club Med Inc.{{Citation needed|date=April 2022}}
He was married twice. His first marriage, to Nancy Carothers Burdick, in 1955, ended in divorce in 1964. His second marriage was to Marie "Bootsie" Rockwell in 1964. He has three surviving children, all of his second marriage: Evan Griffith, Christina Marie and John Hamilton; and four grandchildren, Everest Griffith, Eva Quin, Sofia Christina Galbraith and Melinda Marie Galbraith. Two of his children predeceased him. A daughter by his first marriage, Alexandra Galbraith Stearns, died in 2005, and his eldest child by his second marriage, Julie Helene, died at age six in 1972 of a brain tumor. He is buried in [[Arlington National Cemetery]].{{Citation needed|date=April 2022}}
==Works== * [[iarchive:ambassadorinpari00galb|''Ambassador in Paris: The Reagan Years''.]] Washington, DC: [[Regnery Gateway]], 1987. {{ISBN|089526577X}} / {{ISBN|978-0895265777}}. ::Introduction by [[William F. Buckley, Jr.]]
==References== <references/>
==External links== *{{C-SPAN|6336}} * [https://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/7034 "Why Do Things Work in Switzerland and Not in the U.S.A.?"] ''[[Firing Line (TV program)|Firing Line with]] [[William F. Buckley, Jr.]]'', Ep. 850, February 22, 1990. Guests: Evan G. Galbraith and [[Jacques Freymond]]. [https://digitalcollections.hoover.org/internal/media/dispatcher/234274/full Full transcript available] at the [[Hoover Institution]].
{{s-start}} {{s-dip}} {{s-bef |before = [[Arthur A. Hartman]] }} {{s-ttl |title = [[United States Ambassador to France|U.S. Ambassador to France]] |years = 1981–1985 }} {{s-aft |after = [[Joe M. Rodgers]] }} {{s-end}}
{{US Ambassadors to France}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Galbraith, Evan G.}} [[Category:1928 births]] [[Category:2008 deaths]] [[Category:Ambassadors of the United States to France]] [[Category:Yale University alumni]] [[Category:Harvard Law School alumni]] [[Category:Lawyers from Toledo, Ohio]] [[Category:20th-century American memoirists]] [[Category:20th-century American lawyers]] [[Category:Members of Skull and Bones]]