Robert Blum papers

Collection

Call Number: MS 87

Scope and Contents

The papers consist of Blum's professional papers, largely reflecting his activities with organizations working on problems in Asia and international affairs. Almost half of the papers are records of the Asia Foundation (1953-1962) during his presidency. Included are monthly reports, speeches and articles and notes and photographs from annual trips to Asia (1953-1964). Other organizations represented include the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, UNESCO, the American Assembly and the National Strategy Seminar.

General correspondence and expense vouchers are filed at the beginning of the papers. Following are papers arranged alphabetically by organization.

Dates

1950-1964

Creator

Blum, Robert, 1911-1965

Conditions Governing Access

The materials are open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

Copyright status for collection materials is unknown. Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S.C.) beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners. Works not in the public domain cannot be commercially exploited without permission of the copyright owners. Responsibility for any use rests exclusively with the user.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Gift of Dr. Isabelle Blum, 1969.

Extent

2.25 Linear Feet (6 boxes)

Language of Materials

English

Catalog Record

A record for this collection is available in Orbis, the Yale University Library catalog

Persistent URL

https://hdl.handle.net/10079/fa/mssa.ms.0087

Additional Description

Overview

The papers consist of professional papers largely reflecting Robert Blum's activities with organizations working on problems in Asia and international affairs. Almost half of the papers are records of the Asia Foundation (1953-1962). Included are monthly reports, speeches and articles, and notes and photographs from annual trips to Asia (1953-1964). Other organizations represented include the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, UNESCO, the American Assembly, and the National Strategy Seminar.

Biographical / Historical

Robert Blum, a specialist in Asian Affairs, was born in San Francisco on March 12, 1911. He spent his childhood in San Francisco and Japan (Yokohama and Kobe). He earned his undergraduate (A.B., 1930) and his graduate degree (Ph.D. 1936) from the University of California at Berkeley. From 1937 to 1942, he was a research assistant and instructor in international relations at Yale University. He served in the OSS from 1942 to 1946, spending most of those years in London. In the fall of 1944, he was named Chief of the X-2 Branch set up in Paris, one of the Branches of the Counter Espionage division of the OSS. After the war he worked for two years as an assistant to Secretary of Defense James Forrestal. In 1949, Robert Blum returned to Europe, working in Paris with the Marshall Plan. From 1950 to 1951, he was the head of ECA (Economic Cooperation Administration), an agency of the Marshall Plan, in Indochina. He returned to the United States in 1953 to become the President of the Asia Foundation with headquarters in San Francisco. He left the Asia Foundation in 1962 to direct a three-year project for the Council on Foreign Relations financed by the Ford Foundation titled “The United States and China in World Affairs”. Robert Blum died suddenly on Long Island (N.Y.) on July 9, 1965 before he could revise his manuscript for publication. His book, The United States and China in World Affairs, edited by A. Doak Barnett, was published the following year.