*Portrait of Warren Austin, courtesy of the Warren Austin papers archive of the University of Vermont’s Jack and Shirley Silver Special Collections Library*

With a long career as an attorney, mayor, state legislator, U.S. Senator for the State of Vermont, and first official Ambassador to the United Nations, Warren Austin founded the Vermont Council on World Affairs (VCWA) after retiring from his post as U.S. Ambassador to the UN. As the VCWA celebrates its 70th anniversary, it honors its founder and the principles and values that he embodied throughout his career. These principles and values have been central and instructive for the VCWA’s mission, to “promote awareness and understanding of the world and its people.”

Origins

Warren Austin was born in Highgate, Vermont in 1877 to Chauncey Goodrich and Ann Mathilda Austin. Austin was raised in the Champlain region of Northern Vermont and spent most of his youth and young adult life in the area, graduating from University of Vermont in 1899, and then going on to study law. As a lawyer, Austin practiced at his father’s law firm, but also undertook a plethora of diverse and complex projects. In his early career, Austin worked in a myriad of legal capacities, ranging from lecturing on the topics of medical jurisprudence and military law at University of Vermont, to serving as the St. Albans mayor, to working on international cases involving China. Austin’s time working in international law, particularly that related to China and east Asia, would greatly foreshadow the task he would undertake at the United Nations.

Austin went on to visit China, the Philippines, and Palestine before being elected as a US Senator for the State of Vermont. During his time as the Republican Senator for the State of Vermont, Austin would build a reputation of outspoken anti-communist stances, anti-warmongering rhetoric, anti-New Deal policies, fierce patriotism, and a support for a strong, engaged, U.S. presence in global affairs. Austin’s detestation of fascism, communism, and tyranny in its many forms would make him an important asset for the Democratic Truman administration, who would, shockingly, appoint the Vermont Republican to a highly visible and leading role as the first official United Nations Ambassador from the United States.

United Nations Career

“I accept the honor which the President of the United States has conferred upon me with humility, and with a deep appreciation of the responsibility, and the enlarged opportunity tendered me to work for my lifelong ideal of security and peace for all nations”

-Warren Austin, accepting his new role as the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations in 1946

*The Pathfinder (July 3, 1946) (Courtesy of the Warren Austin papers archive of the University of Vermont’s Jack and Shirley Silver Special Collections Library)*

Warren Austin’s career at the U.N. began in 1946. The Second World War had only recently ended, and the period of reconstruction, including the Marshall Plan, was being undertaken by the Truman administration. However, the United States was already finding itself totally engaged with new enemies in the communist countries. Warren Austin’s reputation and life experiences had made him a fascinating choice for the Truman administration amid such an uncertain time. Although the Second World War had ended, the U.S. was being thrusted into the Cold War. Much of Austin’s career, from 1946-1952, would be contextualized within the United States’ opposition to the Soviet Union and the other communist countries, which had become the next bastion of illiberal tyranny after the defeat of the fascist axis powers. Warren Austin, a vehement anti-communist, was the perfect man for this job.

Warren Austin, as the US ambassador to the United Nations, took on arguably the most important role of all in the U.N., in terms of the leadership, the agenda, and the discourse. Austin had many fiery speeches, often directed at the communist countries and their leadership. Austin was a proponent of American strength in foreign policy, but he prized diplomacy, dialogue, and debate above the impulse towards total war. Many of Austin’s agenda items in the United Nations focused on conflict resolution, such as the partition of India, the post-colonial conflict between Israel and Palestine, and the conflict in Korea, which would spiral into a fully-actualized war amid the ascendant Cold War. Additionally, under Austin’s leadership, the United Nations would take the direction of conceptualizing ‘human rights’ and discussing the issue of genocide.

Under Warren Austin’s leadership, the United Nations drafted the *Universal Declaration of Human Rights* in 1948. This ground-breaking document laid out the frameworks for human rights for the international community.

How does Austin Warren’s legacy shape the VCWA today?

Warren Austin reminds us that individual rights and freedom is a top priority in sustaining peace.

Warren Austin’s passionate United Nations “Essentials of Peace” speech reminds us that peace cannot be sustained without a framework for individual rights. Austin remarked:

“The interest of the individual human being in peaceful progress was recognized by all of us when we signed a Charter which begins by declaring the determination of ‘we, the peoples of the United Nations . . . to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war.’

The Charter is illuminated by the great lights of freedom, tolerance, human dignity, self-determination of peoples, cultural and educational cooperation, and economic and social advancement. These principles, reflecting the highest spirituality of man, can lead us to peace and security if we express them in understanding, purposeful and resolute action.”

Warren Austin reminds us of the important choice of peace and dialogue as an alternative to war.

Warren Austin began speaking about the horrors of war early in his career. On June 23, 1915, Austin gave a speech to New Haven and Bristol, Vermont, highlighting the death and destruction brought about from the First World War. Austin proclaimed:

“With the great nations and empires of Europe torn and mangled and desolated by the most frightful war mankind has ever waged; with peace, security and liberty there fought for with positively appalling slaughter and damage; the sentiment we glorify today, throughout the expanse of this great land, toward whom all people look with hopeful longing for friendly intervention, is more intimate and personal to us, and is appreciated more keenly than ever before.”

The recognition of the horrors of war throughout Austin’s speeches undoubtedly impacted the great importance he placed on the diplomatic process and peace-building. Rather than taking the opportunity to simply glorify the victories of U.S. and allied military action, Austin’s impulse toward articulating the cost of war was noteworthy. In the “Essentials of Peace” speech in the U.N., Austin showcased the role that dialogue could have in preventing war. Austin said:

“If all the peoples of the United Nations could begin to meet and to talk with one another, we would be on the way toward solving the many problems that beset the world community. I am sure that the people of the Soviet Union, no less the people of the United States, want cooperation and peace . . .

Without the understanding that can come only from a free interchange among peoples, agreements among governments rest on unfirm foundations.”

Furthermore, Warren Austin took major steps forward in using his platform in the United Nations to discuss genocide as an inexcusable act during wartime, something which set a precedent for formal genocide recognition in international bodies. In 1948, Austin, in a press release on behalf of the U.S. Mission to the U.N., stated:

“In the light of the record, there is no need for me to emphasize the great interest which my government takes in all measures designed to recognize genocide as a crime under international law, and to establish procedures which will lead to punishment of those responsible for such crime.”

Warren Austin reminds us that Vermonters have a tremendous role to play in international relations.

The St. Albans mayor-turned-Senator, who eventually became a U.N. ambassador, embodies the spirit of Vermont. Although Warren Austin was raised in Northern Vermont, far from the metropolises, Austin’s work ethic and principles took his career to East Asia and eventually the United Nations. Warren Austin’s Vermont pride can be found throughout his various speeches and writings. The VCWA, created by Austin in 1952, keeps this goal alive through citizen diplomacy, and engaging the international community at the local level. Through dialogue, exchanges, and public forums, the VCWA aspires to be a part of actualizing many of Warren Austin’s “Essentials of Peace”.

Celebrating 70 Years-Meet The Founder, former U.N. Ambassador Warren Austin