Robert Charles Hill
| Robert Charles Hill | |
|---|---|
| United States Ambassador to Costa Rica | |
|
In office November 4, 1953 – September 10, 1954 |
|
| President | Dwight D. Eisenhower |
| Preceded by | Philip B. Fleming |
| Succeeded by | Robert F. Woodward |
| United States Ambassador to El Salvador | |
|
In office 4 November 1954 – 21 September 1955 |
|
| President | Dwight D. Eisenhower |
| Preceded by | Michael J. McDermott |
| Succeeded by | Thomas C. Mann |
| United States Ambassador to Mexico | |
|
In office 25 July 1957 – 1 December 1960 |
|
| President | Dwight D. Eisenhower |
| Preceded by | Francis White |
| Succeeded by | Thomas C. Mann |
| United States Ambassador to Spain | |
|
In office 12 June 1969 – 12 January 1972 |
|
| President | Richard Nixon |
| Preceded by | Robert F. Wagner, Jr. |
| Succeeded by | Horacio Rivero |
| United States Ambassador to Argentina | |
|
In office 15 February 1974 – 10 May 1977 |
|
| President | Richard Nixon |
| Preceded by | John Davis Lodge |
| Succeeded by | Raúl H. Castro |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
September 30, 1917 Littleton, New Hampshire |
| Died | November 28, 1978 (aged 61) Littleton, New Hampshire |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater |
Taft School 1938; Dartmouth College; Boston University |
Robert Charles Hill (September 30, 1917 – November 28, 1978) was a United States diplomat.
He was born in Littleton, New Hampshire. He attended Dartmouth College in the class of 1942. In 1947, he was staff on the Senate Banking Committee.
He served as U.S. ambassador to several Latin American countries—El Salvador, Costa Rica and Mexico—and Spain throughout his career. In 1961–1962, he was elected to the New Hampshire General Court. His last posting was in Argentina in the late 1970s, a period of great unrest in that country. He was also Assistant Secretary of State for Congressional Relations under President Eisenhower and Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs under President Nixon.
In Argentina, the five-time conservative Republican ambassadorial appointee became, after this death, best known for his strenuous efforts to keep the Argentina military junta that took power in March 1976 from engaging in massive human rights violations, as had Captain General Augusto Pinochet in neighboring Chile following the September 1973 coup in that trans-Andean republic. Upon finding out that Kissinger had given the Argentine generals a "green light" for their own so-called "dirty war" in June 1976 while at an Organization of American States meeting in Santiago (at the Hotel Carrera, a place later made famous in the film Missing), Hill immediately engaged in behind-the-scenes efforts to roll back the Kissinger decision. Hill did this although Kissinger aides told him that, if he continued, the Secretary of State would likely have him fired, and even as left-wing Argentine guerrillas attempted to assassinate both the U.S. envoy and members of his family living in Buenos Aires. Hill's role as ambassador to Argentina again became prominent in 2016, when President Barack Obama traveled to that country as it marked the 40th anniversary of the dirty "war" generals' supposedly bloodless coup.
As an article published in The Nation in October 1987 noted: "'Hill was shaken, he became very disturbed, by the case of the son of a thirty-year embassy employee, a student who was arrested, never to be seen again,' recalled former New York Times reporter Juan de Onis. 'Hill took a personal interest.' He went to the Interior Minister, an army general with whom he had worked on drug cases, saying, 'Hey, what about this? We're interested in this case.' He buttonholed (Foreign Minister Cesar) Guzzetti and, finally, President Jorge R. Videla himself. 'All he got was stonewalling; he got nowhere.' de Onis said. 'His last year was marked by increasing disillusionment and dismay, and he backed his staff on human rights right to the hilt."
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Wikipedia