View source for Emory C. Swank

{{short description|American diplomat}}
'''Emory Coblentz''' "'''Coby'''" '''Swank''' (January 29, 1922 – June 3, 2010) was the United States ambassador to [[Cambodia]] from 1970 to 1973.<ref>{{Cite web |date=January 1988 |title=The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project AMBASSADOR EMORY C. SWANK |url=https://adst.org/OH%20TOCs/Swank,%20Emory%20C%20.toc.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240709174917/https://adst.org/OH%20TOCs/Swank,%20Emory%20C%20.toc.pdf |archive-date=9 July 2024 |access-date=5 August 2024 |website=Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training}}</ref>

==Personal life==
Swank was born in [[Frederick, MD]] and graduated [[magna cum laude]] from [[Franklin & Marshall College]] in 1942 where he was a member of [[Sigma Pi]] fraternity and [[Phi Beta Kappa]].<ref name="Emerald1971">{{cite magazine|date=Fall 1971|volume=58|number=3|magazine=The Emerald of Sigma Pi|title=Our Man in Cambodia -- Emory C. Swank|page=26|url=http://www.enivation.com/SigmaPi/archive/Emerald/1971/SP_EMERALD_VOL_58_NO_3_FALL_1971.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161014061425/http://www.enivation.com/SigmaPi/archive/Emerald/1971/SP_EMERALD_VOL_58_NO_3_FALL_1971.pdf|url-status=usurped|archive-date=October 14, 2016}}</ref>  He earned his master's degree in the English Language and Literature from [[Harvard University]] in 1943.<ref name="Emerald1975">{{cite magazine|date=Spring 1975|volume=62|number=1|magazine=The Emerald of Sigma Pi|title=Swank Speaks at F&M|page=3|url=http://www.enivation.com/SigmaPi/archive/Emerald/1975/SP_EMERALD_VOL_62_NO_1_SPRING_1975.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160917215259/http://www.enivation.com/SigmaPi/archive/Emerald/1975/SP_EMERALD_VOL_62_NO_1_SPRING_1975.pdf|url-status=usurped|archive-date=September 17, 2016}}</ref> He entered the U.S. Army during [[World War II]] and was awarded the [[Bronze Star]] in Europe.   He married Margaret Katherine (Meg) Whiting in 1949.  He is described as being 5-foot-10, 170 pounds, soft-spoken, and formal in dress. For years, he did fifty pushups per day.<ref name = Obituary>http://www.cleveland.com/obituaries/index.ssf/2010/06/emory_c_swank_peace-minded_amb.html Emory C. Swank's obituary</ref>

==State Department Career==
At the end of the war Swank spent one semester as an English instructor at Franklin and Marshall.  In 1946 he began his career with the [[U.S. State Department]].  He was fluent in Russian and French and graduated from the [[National War College]]<ref name = Emerald1975/>

He served in China, [[Djakarta]], and Romania.  From 1961 to 1963 he was a special assistant to [[United States Secretary of State|Secretary of State]] [[Dean Rusk]]. He was appointed deputy chief of mission in [[Laos]] in 1964.  In 1967 he was named chief deputy to ambassador [[Llewellyn Thompson]] in Moscow.<ref name = Emerald1975/>  In 1968 he was the U.S. signee for a space treaty between Great Britain, Russia, and the United States.<ref name = Emerald1971/>

==Cambodia==
Swank was the first [[List of ambassadors of the United States to Cambodia|U.S. Ambassador to Cambodia]] after the U.S. reestablished diplomatic relations with the country in 1969.<ref name = Emerald1975/> On September 7, 1970, shortly after arriving in [[Phnom Penh]], he survived an assassination attempt when someone rolled a bomb carrying bicycle towards his car that did not got off. He did not know about the attempt until several hours later.<ref>{{cite news|newspaper=The New York Times|title=An Attempt to Kill U.S. Envoy in Pnompenh Fails|date=8 September 1970|page=3}}</ref>

He boosted the embassy's staff from sixty to two hundred.  He passed on orders to Cambodian leader [[Lon Nol]] but thought that the U.S. should be doing more to help the country and warned of a civil war.  He clashed with State Department leaders about policy towards the country and was eventually reassigned to a dead-end desk job advising [[NATO]].  He would later say that his time in Cambodia had been the most frustrating of his career.  He would spend two years advising NATO before retiring in 1975.<ref name = Obituary/>

==Cleveland Council on World Affairs==
From 1977 to 1987 Swank lived in [[Cleveland, OH]] where he headed the [[Cleveland Council on World Affairs]].  He revitalized the group by forming a motivated and efficient staff, improving finances and fundraising, and attracted an array of outstanding speakers on international issues which brought in new members.  He successfully applied for grants from various foundations, led a Model United Nations, and ran programs for high schools.  He also helped start the Akron Council on World Affairs.<ref name = Obituary/>

After retirement he wrote a book of poems and lectured on cruise ships.

== References ==
{{reflist}}

== External links==
*[http://www.cleveland.com/obituaries/index.ssf/2010/06/emory_c_swank_peace-minded_amb.html Emory C. Swank's obituary]

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{{succession box|title=[[United States Ambassador to Cambodia]]|before=[[Randolph A. Kidder]]|after=[[John Gunther Dean]]|years=1970–1973}}
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[[Category:1922 births]]
[[Category:2010 deaths]]
[[Category:Ambassadors of the United States to Cambodia]]
[[Category:Harvard University alumni]]
[[Category:United States Army personnel of World War II]]
[[Category:Franklin & Marshall College alumni]]
[[Category:National War College alumni]]
[[Category:American expatriates in Indonesia]]
[[Category:American expatriates in China]]
[[Category:American expatriates in Romania]]
[[Category:American expatriates in the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Sigma Pi members]]