Thomas Graham Jr., an ambassador, diplomat and scholar of international law who played a central role in containing the threat of nuclear destruction during the Cold War and its aftermath, passed away at his home in Washington on September 3. He was 92.
A man of peace who dedicated his life to eliminating history’s most deadly weapons, Graham was at the center of virtually every major arms control agreement of the later 20th century. He served as acting director and longtime general counsel of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency (ACDA), leading the successful effort in the 1990s to secure a permanent extension to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the cornerstone of modern arms control, and playing a major part in concluding the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. In 1994, President Clinton named him special representative with the rank of ambassador in arms control, non-proliferation and disarmament.
Graham’s life was marked by a fundamental optimism about humanity’s ability – and equally important, its willingness – to achieve peace through dialogue and abide by global norms – that the arc of history would bend in a more enlightened direction, a belief that he never abandoned even as the world has moved along a more dangerous course in recent decades.
After his 1997 retirement from government service, Graham taught undergraduate and graduate students at Stanford University, the University of Virginia, the University of Washington, and other schools. A prolific writer and student of history, he was the author of more than a dozen books including “Commonsense on Weapons of Mass Destruction,” “Seeing the Light: The Case for Nuclear Power in the 21st Century,” and his autobiography, “Disarmament Sketches.” An astute analyst of public life and global affairs, he was active in authoring or co-authoring articles on politics and current events up to his final weeks of life.
Ambassador Graham was equally devoted to his family, his Episcopalian faith, and his beloved home state of Kentucky. He is survived by his wife of 43 years, Christine Ryan, his children Eliza, Tommy, Thomas, Clover, and Missy, and his seven grandchildren Michael, Nico, Skye, Charlotte, Henry, Sam, and Fiona. His funeral will take place at Immaculate Conception Church in Washington, followed by a family burial alongside his parents at Cave Hill Cemetery in Louisville.
Graham was born on October 9, 1933 to Thomas Graham of Louisville and Charlotte Henriques of New York. In what was perhaps a portent of his son’s religious devotion and interest in public life, the elder Thomas Graham hailed from a family of Presbyterian ministers; he worked as a financier in Louisville and was an active supporter of Kentucky Democratic politics who ran for mayor in 1948. In one of the family’s proudest moments, the elder Thomas Graham arranged for the city of Louisville to present the key to the city in 1950 to Jackie Robinson, who had received boos when he played in Louisville only four years earlier. Charlotte Graham was known for her formidable humor, her love of horse racing, and her annual Kentucky Derby parties.
Graham had what he described in his memoir as a “golden childhood.” His father introduced him to Democratic politics, bringing him to national conventions as early as 1952; in Graham’s telling, it was a time when politics was more lighthearted and even fun. Throughout his life Graham was a fervent devotee of the Kentucky Derby – he attended more than 50 Derbies – and initiated his grandchildren into one of his most cherished rites when they reached the age of 10. Without fail, he shed tears when the first chords of “My Old Kentucky Home” rang out before the race.
It was while an undergraduate at Princeton University – a school he attended to fulfill a dream of his father’s, who had been forced to drop out before graduating due to insufficient family funds – that Graham set his sights on being a diplomat. He wrote his senior thesis on American attitudes toward Soviet power. He then studied at L’Institute des Sciences Politiques in Paris and served in the Army before enrolling at Harvard Law School, where he studied under then-professor Henry Kissinger, and subsequently clerked for Wilbur Miller, chief judge of the Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.
Graham was so affected by the chaos of the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago that he changed parties from Democrat to Republican and secured a job with the Nixon campaign. He became a civilian attorney for the U.S. Air Force in 1969 and moved the following year to ACDA, then a high-profile locus of global concern about an unchecked nuclear future, and ended up staying for 27 years.
Under six presidents of both parties, Graham’s career at ACDA put him at the front lines of the existential U.S.-Soviet struggle for global military primacy. At a time when the Soviet Union was a remote and otherworldly threat in the minds of most Americans, Graham sat across from Soviet negotiators in Moscow and across Soviet republics. Over the course of his ACDA career he worked on agreements including the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks, Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty, the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, and the Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) Treaty.
His official travel roster was legendary. He always brought home tchotchkes for his children, and scarves, jewelry and other gifts for Christine; his home office became a warren of world culture.
Graham married Clover Nicholas in 1968; his first child Eliza was born in 1970. After the end of his first marriage, he bought a home a block away so he could remain within a few minutes’ walk of his young children. He married Christine Ryan in 1983. Graham was an accomplished tennis player into his 90s. He loved a good story and a good joke, all the more so if it involved history or geopolitics. He had an uncanny memory for historical fact; he was an avid reader and a passionate consumer of works of high culture like Tosca or Handel’s Messiah. He loved parties and festive garb; at the family’s annual Christmas Eve parties, he enjoyed leading the group (with enthusiasm if not skill) in belting out carols and reciting Bobby Burns. Graham cherished his family time in places including the Adirondacks, where he prized hiking in the high peaks.
After his retirement he worked at organizations including Lawyers Alliance for World Security, law firm Morgan Lewis and the Global Security Institute; he also served as executive chairman of Lightbridge Corporation and a board member of CanAlaska Uranium.
Funeral services will be held at 10 a.m. on September 14 at Immaculate Conception Church at 1315 8th St NW in Washington, D.C. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that memorial contributions be made to the American Civil Liberties Union or Doctors without Borders.
The Global Security Institute is dedicated to strengthening international peace and security based on co-operation, diplomacy, shared interests, the rule of law and universal values. Our efforts are guided by the skills and commitment of our team of former heads of state, distinguished diplomats and politicians, celebrities, religious leaders, Nobel Peace Laureates, disarmament and legal experts, and concerned informed citizens. Our focus is on controlling and eliminating humanity’s greatest threat – nuclear weapons.
