Sat on International Justice Court : Philip C. Jessup, 89; Veteran U.S. Diplomat

Philip Caryl Jessup, a judge on the International Court of Justice and veteran U.S. diplomat who was credited with playing a major role in ending the Soviet blockade of West Berlin, has died. He was 89.

Jessup, who died Jan. 31 at his home here, had been suffering from Parkinson’s disease.

He was an authority on international law and for many years was a professor at Columbia University.

Jessup was a U.S. representative to the United Nations General Assembly from 1948 to 1951 and a member of the International Court of Justice at The Hague from 1960 to 1969.

He also served as a U.S. ambassador at large from 1949 until his resignation in 1953. During that time, he was one of the closest advisers of then-Secretary of State Dean Acheson and came under attack from Sen. Joseph McCarthy, who charged that Jessup had “an unusual affinity for Communist causes.”

Dwight D. Eisenhower, then president of Columbia University, rallied to Jessup’s defense, as did much of the State Department.

McCarthy’s charges kept Jessup from being reappointed to the U.S. delegation to the United Nations in 1951 but President Harry S. Truman made him an alternate delegate the following year.

Jessup, working closely with his Soviet counterpart, Jacob A. Malik, played a crucial role in ending the 1948-49 Berlin blockade.

Washington instructed him to ask the Soviet delegate whether Josef Stalin’s omission in a declaration of a reference about the use of Western currency by the United States, Britain and France in Berlin indicated a willingness to open negotiations.

The currency issue was a major point of contention.

Malik told him a week later that Stalin’s statement was indeed important. Further inquiries led to the negotiations that eventually resulted in ending the blockade.