Profile of Patrick John Hurley on Famous Like Me

Patrick J. Hurley (January 8, 1883, Indian Territory — July 30, 1963, Santa Fe, NM) was an American soldier, statesman, and diplomat.

Hurley started a law practice in Oklahoma in 1908 and served as a colonel in the American Expeditionary Force during World War I. After the war, he became active in the Republican Party, and served as President Herbert Hoover's secretary of war from 1929 to 1933. Hurley received a promotion to brigadier general in 1941 when the United States entered World War II, and General George C. Marshall dispatched him to the Far East as a personal representative to examine the feasibilty of relieving American troops besieged on the island of Bataan. He was successful in delivering additional food and ammunition to the solders on three separate occasions, but could not evacuate them.

After the conclusion of this mission, he embarked on a series of assignments as a personal representative of Preseident Franklin D. Roosevelt. He served as minister to New Zealand in 1942 and then flew to the Soviet Union, becoming the first foreigner to receive permission to visit the Eastern Front. Over the next two years, he visited the Near East, Middle East, China, and Afghanistan on behalf of the president before being appointed U.S ambassador to China in 1944. In this capacity, he attempted to reconcile the Nationalist government and the Communists, but failed. He resigned from this post in November 1945. Hurley was the Republican candidate for a seat in the United States Senate for the state of New Mexico in 1946, 1948, and 1952, but he lost all three years.

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