# United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration *Multilateral relief agency through which Harlan Cleveland worked in Italy and China, 1946–1948* The United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) enters the Minnesota record through one official, [[Harlan Cleveland]] (1918–2008). He worked for the agency as department chief of its Italian Mission from 1946 to 1947 and as director of its China office from 1947 to 1948.[^1] Two University of Hawaiʻi sources describe the same service: in the early postwar years he served as "a United Nations relief and rehabilitation administrator in Italy and China".[^2][^3] Cleveland later became the first dean of the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs at the [[University of Minnesota]], serving from 1980 to 1987.[^1] That appointment is the link that places the agency in this record. A University of Hawaiʻi biographical summary records that he retired in 1988 as professor emeritus at the University of Minnesota.[^2] The sources in this record are a manuscript finding aid, an oral-history biographical summary, a university news release, and two pages from the U.S. Department of State's Office of the Historian.[^1][^2][^3][^4][^5] None of them is an UNRRA charter, report, budget or personnel file. The record documents UNRRA through one staff member's career. It does not establish the agency's mandate, expenditures or caseload.[^1] ## Who - Cleveland was born in New York City on January 19, 1918. He graduated from Princeton University in 1938 and then studied for a year at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar.[^1] - According to the University of Hawaiʻi, he was blind in one eye after a childhood accident and was disqualified from military service in the Second World War.[^3] - Before joining UNRRA, Cleveland held several wartime posts: - In 1940 he joined the information division of the Farm Security Administration as a writer.[^1] - From 1942 to 1944 he worked at the Board of Economic Warfare (later the Foreign Economic Administration). There he focused on "problems of relief and economic rehabilitation of the European countries that were occupied by Germany".[^1] - From 1944 to 1946 he was executive director and acting vice president of the economic section of the Allied Control Commission in Rome.[^1] - Cleveland died on May 30, 2008, in Sterling, Virginia, at the age of 90.[^3] ## What - Cleveland held two UNRRA posts, according to the finding aid for his papers: department chief of the Italian Mission (1946–1947) and director of the China office (1947–1948).[^1] - His papers at Princeton University Library include a series titled *U.S. Government and United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA), 1937-1948*.[^1] - The collection is indexed under the organization heading "United Nations, Relief and Rehabilitation Administration".[^1] ## When - **1946–1947:** department chief, UNRRA Italian Mission.[^1] - **1947–1948:** director, UNRRA China office.[^1] - **1948:** Cleveland joined the [[Economic Cooperation Administration]] (ECA) as director of the China Aid Program, according to the University of Hawaiʻi summary.[^2] - **1948–1951:** the finding aid lists him as director (1948–1949) and then department assistant administrator (1949–1951) of the ECA's Far East Program Division.[^1] - **1952–1953:** he was assistant director for the [[Mutual Security Agency]], in charge of the European program. In that post he supervised the fourth year of the Marshall Plan.[^1] - Congress established the Mutual Security Agency in the Mutual Security Act of 1951 (Oct 10, 1951; 65 Stat. 378). The agency superseded the Economic Cooperation Administration.[^4] - Reorganization Plan No. 7 1953 (67 Stat. 641) abolished the agency. Its functions passed to the [[Foreign Operations Administration]], effective Aug 1, 1953.[^4] - The Office of the Historian lists the agency's directors as William Averell Harriman (1951–1953) and Harold E. Stassen (1953).[^4] - Stassen was appointed director on January 27, 1953, and served until August 1, 1953. He was then appointed Director of the Foreign Operations Administration on August 3, 1953, and served until March 19, 1955.[^5] - **1953:** Cleveland left government service to become executive editor of *The Reporter* in New York City.[^1] ## Where - Cleveland's two UNRRA postings were in Italy and China.[^1][^2] His preceding Allied Control Commission post was in Rome.[^1] - His papers are held at Princeton University Library: Public Policy Papers, under call number MC234.[^1] - The finding aid also points to related records at the National Archives of the government agencies Cleveland worked for.[^1] ## How many - The Cleveland papers at Princeton total 14 boxes. They span 1937–2006, with the bulk dated 1960–1979.[^1] - The collection has four series:[^1] - Series 1, the UNRRA and U.S. government series (1937–1948): 2 boxes. - Series 2, U.S. Department of State: 7 boxes. - Series 3, Aspen Institute: 4 boxes. - Series 4, personal files: 2 boxes. - The collection was a gift of Zoe Cleveland in October 2008. It was processed in 2009.[^1] ## In the Minnesota record ### Who - Cleveland, a former UNRRA department chief and China office director, was the first dean of the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota.[^1] - The University of Hawaiʻi describes him as the institute's "founding dean".[^2] Its 2008 release says he went on to help develop and lead the institute.[^3] ### When - Cleveland was dean from 1980 to 1987, according to the finding aid.[^1] That appointment came more than three decades after his UNRRA service ended in 1948.[^1] - He retired in 1988 as professor emeritus, according to the University of Hawaiʻi summary.[^2] ### Where - The finding aid notes that the University of Minnesota, along with Syracuse University and the University of Hawaii, holds records related to Cleveland's tenure at each institution.[^1] ## Notes [^1]: Princeton University Library, Public Policy Papers (via Philadelphia Area Archives, Penn Libraries), *Harlan Cleveland Papers* (MC234; finding aid by Adriane Hanson, May 2009) — establishes Cleveland's UNRRA posts (1946–1948), wartime and later federal posts, Humphrey Institute deanship (1980–1987), and the collection's series, extent and acquisition. https://findingaids.library.upenn.edu/records/PRIN_MUDD_MC234 [^2]: University of Hawaiʻi Center for Oral History, *Oral History Interview with Harlan Cleveland* (January 18, 1996), biographical summary — establishes his service as a United Nations relief and rehabilitation administrator in Italy and China, his 1948 move to the ECA China Aid Program, and his retirement from the University of Minnesota in 1988. https://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/06664c59-9afe-47e1-a739-155aafc827a2/content [^3]: University of Hawaiʻi, External Affairs & University Relations, *University of Hawaii remembers former president Harlan Cleveland* (June 5, 2008) — establishes his relief and rehabilitation service in Italy and China, his wartime disqualification from military service, his later role at the Humphrey Institute, and his death on May 30, 2008. https://www.hawaii.edu/news/article.php?aId=2348 [^4]: U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian, *Directors of the Mutual Security Agency* (last updated March 14, 2024) — establishes the agency's creation by the Mutual Security Act of 1951 (65 Stat. 378), its abolition by Reorganization Plan No. 7 1953 (67 Stat. 641) effective Aug 1, 1953, and its directors. https://history.state.gov/departmenthistory/people/principalofficers/director-mutual-security-agency [^5]: U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian, *Harold E. Stassen* (last updated March 14, 2024) — establishes Stassen's appointment dates as Director of the Mutual Security Agency and of the Foreign Operations Administration. https://history.state.gov/departmenthistory/people/stassen-harold-e