Hoover Acquires The Papers Of American Diplomat William C. Burdett

Hoover Archives has acquired a collection of scrapbooks, photograph albums, documents, and ephemera belonging to American diplomat William C. Burdett. A World War II veteran and Foreign Service officer, Burdett was first thrust onto the international stage during the Arab-Israeli War in May, 1948 after U.S. Consul General Thomas C. Wasson was killed by a sniper in Jerusalem. Burdett, who had arrived only ten days earlier to serve as Wasson’s Vice Consul, was named Acting Consul General and the U.S. member of the United Nations Security Council Truce Mission. A seasoned Middle East diplomat, Burdett was posted to Iran and Sudan in the early 1950s, and he played an important role as a U.S. envoy during the Suez Crisis leading up to the Second Arab-Israeli War in 1956.