Liberal Democrat and Top Presidential Adviser : Ex-Ambassador Chester Bowles Dies

Former Ambassador Chester Bowles, a liberal Democrat who was a top presidential adviser and served as governor and congressman during a public career spanning more than 25 years, died Sunday. He was 85.

Bowles died at his home of complications arising from his long bout with Parkinson’s disease, said Lise Stone Heintz, a spokeswoman for the Bowles family. He also suffered a stroke last week, she said.

Bowles, who gave up a successful career in advertising for politics, began his public career under the tutelage of Eleanor Roosevelt, who assisted him in winning a spot as a delegate to the 1940 national Democratic convention. He went on to become a key federal administrator in wartime and a presidential adviser in peacetime.

Role as Ambassador

After the 1960 election, Bowles hoped to be named secretary of state, but was passed over in favor of Dean Rusk. Bowles was instead named under secretary, but his outspoken criticism of the Bay of Pigs invasion and U. S. involvement in Southeast Asia soon resulted in his being named Latin American adviser and later to a second term as ambassador to India, a post he had held in the 1950s.

Bowles also was known as an author and lecturer, using his persuasive skills to argue for progressive causes. After World War II, he proposed that the United States rebuild Europe’s economy a year before the Marshall Plan became a reality. He also was an advocate of the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s.

Gov. William O’Neill praised Bowles for inspiring others to enter politics and public service.

“He holds a very special place in the hearts of Connecticut citizens whom he served so ably as governor and a congressman,” O’Neill said. “I extend to Chet’s family and loved ones my deepest sympathy.”

U.S. Sen. Christopher Dodd, whose father was Bowles’ contemporary, said Bowles “was not only a great friend of mine and my family, but he was also a model of what a statesman can and should be.”

Bowles’ career crossed the paths of such political luminaries as Franklin D. Roosevelt, Adlai E. Stevenson and John F. Kennedy. A close friend of Stevenson since their days together at Choate School, he was considered by liberal members of the Democratic Party as a potential presidential candidate in 1960, after Stevenson’s two unsuccessful bids for the White House.

Foreign Policy Adviser

Instead, he became the top foreign policy adviser to Kennedy.

Born in Springfield, Mass., on April 5, 1901, Bowles was the grandson of Samuel Bowles, a founder of the Republican Party and founder of the Springfield Republican newspaper.

After graduation from Yale University, Bowles worked briefly as a reporter, before entering the advertising business in 1925. From 1936-41, Bowles was chairman of the board of a New York advertising firm he founded with William Benton, who later became a U. S. senator from Connecticut.

Although his involvement with politics began at the 1940 convention, it was not until the outbreak of World War II that Bowles gained his first public office. He was appointed to organize and head Connecticut’s wartime rationing program, and in 1943, Roosevelt appointed him to head the federal Office of Price Administration, where he oversaw the federal effort to control inflation during the war.

Bowles served briefly as head of the federal Office of Economic Stability, which was formed in 1946 to assist in returning the U. S. economy to peaceful enterprises. In the bold style that was to mark his career, Bowles left the OES later in 1946, claiming Congress approved legislation that undermined the efforts of his office.

Two years later, he gained the Connecticut gubernatorial nomination over rival Thomas Dodd, who later became a U. S. senator, and staged a shocking upset over his Republican rival by a slim 2,225 votes. The surprise was mirrored on the national level, where President Harry S. Truman upset Republican Thomas E. Dewey.

Bowles’ Successes

One successful act of Bowles’ administration was the abolition of segregation in Connecticut’s National Guard. He also saw the powers of the state’s Interracial Commission expanded to enable the panel to study complaints of discrimination in housing.

He lost his bid for reelection in 1950 as Republicans attacked him and blamed him for worsening unemployment.

In 1951, Truman appointed Bowles as U .S. ambassador to India and Nepal, where he served until Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower took office.

Bowles returned to politics in 1958, when he was elected to a single term in Congress. He left Congress after that single term to join Kennedy’s presidential campaign and then his Administration.

When he retired from politics in 1969, Bowles turned his energies to writing. By the time he finished, he had written or assisted in the writing of eight books.

Bowles leaves his wife, Dorothy Stebbins Bowles, and five children. A memorial service was planned, but no time or date had been set Sunday.