The last American aristocrat

Born into the Virginia gentry, David K. E. Bruce was, and in the words of his brother-in-law Paul Mellon, "the very epitome of the Greek Aristos." Handsome, brilliant, and entirely at ease with his own wealth and the fabulous Mellon riches, he was the perfect young dilettante.

But as he matured and World War II loomed, he devoted himself to public service and to turning American foreign policy from isolationism to world leadership - and went on to become ambassador to three crucial countries and an adviser and confidant to every president from Harry Truman to Gerald Ford. During the war he headed OSS spy operations in London and, with his pal Ernest Hemingway, was among the first Americans to enter Paris. After the war he headed the Marshall Plan in France during the critical years when it seemed that France might turn to communism. He played a crucial part in building the National Gallery of Art in Washington, the gift to the nation of his father-in-law, Andrew Mellon. When Bruce divorced Ailsa Mellon after enduring years of her chronic mental illness, he remained close friends with her brother, Paul. Bruce then married the talented and elusive beauty Evangeline Bell, who had worked for him in the OSS. When JFK sent him to Britain as ambassador to cement the "special relationship" between the English-speaking peoples, he and Evangeline were among London's most sought-after couples. After the London post, Bruce retired until Nixon and Kissinger asked him to lead the "peace" negotiations with the North Vietnamese. Later, in declining health, he became America's first diplomatic representative to China. Behind the glittering facade of diplomacy and international high society, however, the ambassador stoically endured great personal tragedies: the violent deaths of his two daughters.