WAIMEA, Hawaii » A former U.S. ambassador who was on a shuttle diplomacy team that helped to shape the framework for peace in the Middle East in 1967 has died on Hawaii island.
William Buffum, who served as ambassador to Lebanon under the Nixon administration and was a top-ranking American at the United Nations, died April 13 at his home in Waimea, according to his daughter Diane Klieforth. He was 90.
William Buffum:
The diplomat earned
praise from former Sec-
retary of State Henry
Kissinger
Buffum served as ambassador to Lebanon from 1970 to 1974, as the country was descending into civil war.
He spent another year with the State Department before going on to become undersecretary-general of the United Nations for political and General Assembly affairs.
Klieforth said her father survived three assassination attempts in Lebanon and was praised by former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger as one of the United States’ best diplomats.
Buffum was part of a team that worked with Arthur Goldberg, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, in shaping U.N. Security Council Resolution 242 in 1967, according to the book "King’s Counsel: A Memoir of War, Espionage, and Diplomacy in the Middle East," written by Jack O’Connell with Vernon Loeb.
Resolution 242 made up the framework and principles for peace in the Middle East, calling for Israel to return lands it captured in the 1967 war in return for peace with its neighbors Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria, O’Connell’s book said.
Buffum is survived by daughters Karen Clarkson and Diane Klieforth, and three grandchildren. Private services are pending.
Buffum, born in Binghamton, N.Y., studied at Oneonta State Teachers College in Oneonta, N.Y.
He later taught foreign languages at the University of Pittsburgh and attended a number of universities, including Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, Klieforth said.
Buffum, who spoke German, French, Spanish and a little Russian, became a career foreign service officer in 1949 and retired in 1987.
Star-Advertiser reporter Gary T. Kubota and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
