Robert Lansing
Robert Lansing (/ˈlænsɪŋ/; October 17, 1864 – October 30, 1928) was an American lawyer and diplomat who served as Counselor to the State Department at the outbreak of World War I, and then as United States Secretary of State under President Woodrow Wilson from 1915 to 1920. A conservative pro-business Democrat, he was a strong advocate of democracy and of the United States' role in establishing international law. He was an avowed enemy of German autocracy and Russian Bolshevism.[1] Before U.S. involvement in the war, Lansing vigorously advocated freedom of the seas and the rights of neutral nations. He later advocated U.S. participation in World War I, negotiated the Lansing–Ishii Agreement with Japan in 1917 and was a member of the American Commission to Negotiate Peace at Paris in 1919. However, Wilson made Colonel House his chief foreign policy advisor because Lansing privately opposed much of the Treaty of Versailles and was skeptical of the Wilsonian principle of self-determination.
For other people named Robert Lansing, see Robert Lansing (disambiguation).
Robert Lansing
October 17, 1864
Watertown, New York, U.S.
October 30, 1928 (aged 64)
New York City, U.S.
Eleanor Foster (1890–1928)
Lansing was associate editor of the American Journal of International Law, and with Gary M. Jones was the author of Government: Its Origin, Growth, and Form in the United States (1902). He also wrote: The Big Four and Others at the Peace Conference, Boston (1921) and The Peace Negotiations: A Personal Narrative,[14] Boston/New York (1921).
Lansing kept a voluminous archive of US government communications during WWI, which are a key resource on US thinking and decision making in this period.
Legacy and honors[edit]
During World War II the Liberty ship SS Robert Lansing was built in Panama City, Florida, and named in his honor.[15]
; Peck, H. T.; Colby, F. M., eds. (1905). "Robert Lansing". New International Encyclopedia (1st ed.). New York: Dodd, Mead.
