John Flournoy Montgomery

John Flournoy Montgomery (1878–1954) was an American businessman and diplomat. His sole diplomatic posting was as U.S. Minister to Hungary, between 1933 and 1941. This ambassadorial assignment placed Montgomery at the center of the seething intrigue and gathering storm that characterized 1930's Hungary and Central Europe; in particular he was witness to the rise of Adolf Hitler’s influence in Budapest, and the complex struggle over the alliance between Hungary and Nazi Germany. His memoirs, entitled Hungary: The Unwilling Satellite, are considered a valuable document of that era.

Montgomery was a native of Missouri, born September 20, 1878 in the town of Sedalia and educated there. At the age of 26, he married Hedwig Wildi, and the couple had two daughters. Montgomery built a successful career in the dairy industry, specifically in the processing of condensed milk. From 1925 to 1933, he was the president of the International Milk Company in Vermont. He was a loyal and generous supporter of the Democratic Party, and after Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt claimed the White House in 1932, Montgomery was rewarded with the promise of a diplomatic job.

In June 1933, Montgomery was sworn in as U.S. Minister to Hungary (he had hoped to be sent to Vienna, but Budapest was what he was offered). Montgomery was clearly expected to watch over the political intrigues not only in Budapest but, from his central location on the Danube, to monitor the goings-on in Hungary’s neighbors (Austria, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Yugoslavia) and other countries in the region as well, including Bulgaria, Poland, Germany and Italy. Roosevelt invited Montgomery to report to him personally, an opportunity the ambassador took occasionally.

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