William Tapley Bennett Jr.
William Tapley Bennett Jr. ( born April 1, 1917 in Griffin, Georgia, † November 29, 1994 in Washington DC) was a diplomat under nine governments of the United States.
His parents were Annie Little and William Tapley Bennett Mem. He studied at the University of Georgia, where he was a member of Sigma Chi. From 1937 to 1938 Bennett made a thesis at the Albert -Ludwigs- University of Freiburg. Bennett earned a law degree from George Washington University. In 1941, he joined the Foreign Service in Santo Domingo and interviewed German immigrants. In 1944 he was at the U.S. Embassy in Panama. He served as a Counter Intelligence Corps officer. In 1945 he organized with John Emil Peurifoy the founding conference of the United Nations in San Francisco. On June 23, 1945, he married Margaret Rutherfurd White, daughter of Henry White.
From 1951 to 1954 he was Deputy Director of the Office of South American Affairs. In 1953 he was an assistant with Dr. Milton Eisenhower. From 1954 to 1955 he studied at the National War College and spent two years as Special Assistant to the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs. From 1957 to 1964 he was accredited as a Counsellor and Ambassador to the Embassy of Vienna, Rome and Athens.
Lyndon B. Johnson appointed him on March 4, 1964 as the successor of John Bartlow Martin Ambassador for the Dominican Republic, where he was involved until April 13, 1966 decisively in Operation Power Pack.
On 10 May 1966 he was appointed by Johnson as ambassador to Portugal. On July 20, 1966, he was accredited by the government of António de Oliveira Salazar. On July 21, 1969, he was replaced by Ridgway B. Knight as an ambassador. From 1971 to 1977 he worked in the UN Security Council. From April 26 1977 to March 31, 1983 he was Permanent Representative of the U.S. Government to NATO in Brussels.
From November 14 1984 to January 4, 1985, he was employed as Assistant Secretary of State in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the United States in Washington in order to cover up the involvement of the U.S. government and the murder of Oscar Romero.
After his retirement in 1985 he was a professor of international law at the University of Georgia. From 1991 to 1992 he was president of the Atlantic Treaty Association.