Lester Pearson

I

Introduction

Lester Pearson (1897-1972), 14th prime minister of Canada (1963-1968). Pearson took office in 1963, with a minority in the Canadian House of Commons. He approached the political process with an idealism that was strongly tempered by practicality. He approached problems cautiously, gathering as much background information as he could, then acting decisively. Pearson was uncomfortable campaigning and lacked the ruthlessness often associated with political leadership.

His relaxed manner and sense of humor contributed to Pearson's talent for solving difficult diplomatic problems. His natural charm was combined with a sophisticated diplomatic mind. In diplomacy, Pearson's philosophy was to draw the best out of people and policies, and make allowances for their limitations.

II

Early Life

Lester Bowles Pearson was born in Newton Brook (now part of Toronto), Ontario, in 1897. His father, Edwin Arthur Pearson, a Methodist minister, took his family along on his journeys as itinerant preacher through Ontario and western Canada. Pearson's background gave him deep religious convictions and an old-fashioned morality. His father inspired in him a deep concern for people and a boundless curiosity.

Pearson attended public school and completed his college preparatory studies in Peterborough and in Hamilton, Ontario. He entered Victoria College at the University of Toronto in 1913. He remained there until World War I (1914-1918) broke out and then enlisted in the university's ambulance corps, which was attached to British forces in Greece. Later, Pearson served with the Canadian army, and toward the end of the war he was commissioned flight lieutenant in the royal flying corps. He was injured in a crash during his first solo flight and was returned to Canada as a training instructor.

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When the war ended, Pearson resumed his studies at Victoria College and received his bachelor's degree in history in 1919. In 1921 he resumed his studies in history through a Massey Foundation fellowship. He entered Saint John's College at England's University of Oxford, where he won recognition as an athlete and student. In 1923 Pearson received his bachelor's degree at Oxford, and in 1924 Pearson was appointed lecturer in history at the University of Toronto. The following year he married one of his students, Maryon Elspeth Moody. In 1927 he was appointed assistant professor of history.

III

Early Government Service

Oscar D. Skelton, head of the Canadian government's small Department of External Affairs, induced Pearson to take the difficult foreign-service entrance examination. Pearson made the best showing among the applicants and in 1928 entered the department as a first secretary. During his early years in public service he gained firsthand experience in international affairs and in Canada's economic problems and national politics.

In 1935 Pearson was sent to London, England, to serve as assistant to Vincent Massey, the high commissioner for Canada. During this time, Pearson met with many of the world's leading statesmen and he attended several critical sessions of the League of Nations, an international organization established in 1920 to preserve peace. He remained in London after the start of World War II (1939-1945) and during the worst days of the Battle of Britain, in which the Germans tried to establish air superiority over southern England. In 1941 he was called back to Canada by Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King to serve as assistant undersecretary of state for external affairs. In June 1942 he was sent to Washington, D.C., as minister counselor and was placed directly under the Canadian ambassador to the United States. His status was later changed to minister plenipotentiary, a function similar to that of a diplomatic troubleshooter. In January 1945, Pearson became ambassador to the United States and held that position until September 1946, when he was recalled to Canada to serve as undersecretary of state for external affairs.

A

Diplomatic Achievements

In 1943 Pearson served as a delegate to several conferences and planning sessions of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, a forerunner of the United Nations (UN), an international organization established to maintain peace and security, and as chairman of its supplies committee, which undertook emergency feeding and refugee programs in troubled areas. In 1944 he was asked to head initial planning sessions of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), an agency whose goal is to eliminate hunger. In 1945 Pearson was Canada's chief delegate to the San Francisco Conference, which drew up the charter of the United Nations. At the first session of the UN the political and security committee chose Pearson as its chairman. From 1948 to 1956, he was head of the permanent Canadian mission to the UN, and during the 1952-1953 UN session, Pearson was president of the General Assembly, the representative body of the UN.

Pearson drafted the proposal for a Western alliance that eventually became the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). On April 4, 1949, he signed the treaty for Canada, and he represented his country at many of NATO's meetings. He was involved in establishing the state of Israel in 1948. Five years later he took part in the negotiations to achieve a truce in the Korean War (1950-1953). He led the Canadian delegation to the 1954 Geneva Conference on political settlements in Asia.

In 1955 Pearson visited the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and met with that country's leader, Nikita S. Khrushchev. Their exhaustive review of Cold War issues brought about some relaxation of world tensions. In 1956 Pearson initiated the resolution that terminated the conflict between the Egyptian government and the French and British governments over the Suez Canal, and sent a UN police force to restore peace to the Gaza Strip, an area then under Egyptian control from which terrorist attacks on Israel were being staged. He designated certain battalions of the Canadian army to be used as a United Nations peacekeeping force, a practice that was soon adopted by other nations. Pearson supported the outlawing of nuclear testing. He also participated in the Commonwealth foreign ministers' conferences that defined a more independent role for Commonwealth countries.