Jacob D. Beam

Who was Jacob D. Beam?

Jacob Dyneley Beam was an American diplomat.

Beam was born in Princeton, New Jersey. His father was a German professor at Princeton University, and the younger Beam earned a bachelor's degree in 1929 from Princeton. He then joined the United States Foreign Service.

His first assignment was in Geneva, where he monitored the League of Nations and served as vice counsel in Geneva from 1931 to 1934. He then moved to Berlin and served as third secretary to the United States Embassy from 1934 to 1940. During World War II, he served as second secretary of the embassy in London, returning to Germany after the war.

Beam was counselor to the U.S. Embassy in Indonesia from 1949 to 1951 and to Yugoslavia from 1951 to 1952. He became United States Ambassador to Poland from 1957-61. From 1966 to 1969 he served as Ambassador to Czechoslovakia and he was present at the Prague Spring there. Then to the Soviet Union from 1969 to 1973.

Beam died in Rockville, Maryland of a stroke. His son is journalist Alex Beam.