Leon B. Poullada

Who was Leon B. Poullada?

Leon B. Poullada was an American diplomat, the son of a Mexican immigrant doctor, and served as an Ambassador to Togo under the Kennedy Administration. He died of prostate cancer in 1987.

Poullada was a career Foreign Service officer who served as the United States Ambassador to Togo during the Kennedy Administration and specialized in Afghan history. He died of cancer at his home in St. Paul, Minnesota at age 74. In his 17-year diplomatic career, Poullada served in Ceylon, Pakistan and Afghanistan before President Kennedy nominated him as Ambassador to the nation of Togo in 1961. In 1963, during Poullada's posting, Togo's President, Sylvanus Olympio, was assassinated at the United States Embassy gates.

After retiring in 1965 from the Foreign Service, Poullada began studies at Princeton University for a doctorate in political science. His dissertation, titled "Reform and Rebellion in Afghanistan, 1919-1929", a study of Afghan history between 1919 and 1929, was published in 1972 by Cornell University Press. The book is a case history analysis of King Amanullah of Afghanistan's failure to modernize a Tribal Society.