Benjamin Sumner Welles - People - Department History
Benjamin Sumner Welles (1892–1961)
NOTE TO READERS
Updates to the Principal Officers and Chiefs of Mission database are currently suspended. For information about the Department’s current and recent leadership, we recommend visiting the Department of State homepage’s Biographies of Senior Officials and List of U.S. Ambassadors.
Notice posted on January 12, 2024.
Last
updated March 14, 2024.
Career Foreign Service Officer
State of Residence: Maryland
State of Residence: Maryland
- Assistant Secretary of State
Appointed: April 6, 1933
Entry on Duty: April 6, 1933
Termination of Appointment: April 28, 1933 - Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary (Cuba)
Appointed: April 24, 1933
Presentation of Credentials: May 11, 1933
Termination of Mission: Normal relations interrupted on September 5, 1933- The new Government of Cuba was still unrecognized by the United States when Welles left post on December 13, 1933.
- Assistant Secretary of State
Appointed: December 12, 1933
Entry on Duty: December 15, 1933
Termination of Appointment: May 20, 1937- Commissioned during a recess of the Senate; recommissioned after confirmation on Jan 18, 1934.
- Under Secretary of State
Appointed: May 20, 1937
Entry on Duty: May 21, 1937
Termination of Appointment: September 30, 1943