Chester Bowles

Chester Bowles

Chester Bliss Bowles (April 5, 1901– May 25, 1986) was an American diplomat and ambassador, Governor of Connecticut, Congressman and co-founder of a major advertising agency, Benton & Bowles, now part of Publicis Groupe. Bowles is best known for his influence on American foreign policy during Cold War years, when he argued that economic assistance to the Third World was the best means to fight communism, and even more important, to create a more peaceable world order. During World War II, he held high office in Washington as director of the Office of Price Administration, and control of setting consumer prices.

Quotes

• I believe that we should take every opportunity to challenge the assumption that our European allies are doing us a favor whenever they provide us with the necessary facilities from which to defend their own continent.
  • Chester Bowles, "The Azores," White House Memorandum to President John F. Kennedy, Washington, DC, June 4, 1962. Quoted in Alexander Cooley and Hendrik Spruyt, Contracting States: Sovereign Transfers in International Relations, Princeton University Press (2009), pg. 100.

• Government is too big and important to be left to the politicians.
  • Quoted in in Forbes Magazine, vol. 68, 1951.

The Conscience of a Liberal, 1962

• And why should we, of all people, expect the proud new developing nations to see the world precisely as we see it? Was any new nation ever more outspoken, independent and unaligned than the young America of Jefferson, Jackson, and Lincoln?
  • Page 256

• To some extent we are all the prisoners of stereotypes; we see each other in terms of distorted and oversimplified images. Better communication in the realm of ideas, of the arts, and of science can help refashion these false images. And by seeing more clearly we may act more wisely.
  • Page 255