George Frederick Reinhardt (1911–1971) was an American foreign service officer and diplomat from 1937 until 1968. He was considered by his peers to be among the finest diplomats of his era. Reinhardt was the U.S. ambassador to South Vietnam (1955–1957), to the United Arab Republic and North Yemen (1960–1961) and to Italy (1961–1968). In Vietnam, he worked to improve relations between the United States and South Vietnamese Prime Minister Ngo Dinh Diem. Childhood and education Ambassador Reinhardt was born in Berkeley, California on October 21, 1911, the eldest of two boys born to Dr. George F. Reinhardt Sr. and Aurelia Henry Reinhardt (later to become president of Mills College). Reinhardt's father, George, was a well known physician who sat on the Medical Board of California (originally the Board of Examiners of the Medical Society of California), serving as the organization's vice president in 1908 and its president in 1909. Dr. George Reinhardt was also the first University Physician and Professor of Hygiene at the University of California, Berkeley, where he founded the country's first, comprehensive, prepaid, student health program and hospital, in 1906. George died in Berkeley on June 7, 1914, when Reinhardt was not yet three years old. Reinhardt matriculated at the University of California, Berkeley, graduating in 1933 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in classics and modern languages. Reinhardt would win the Alumnus of the Year award from the Cal Alumni Association in 1962. He earned an M.A. from Cornell University in 1935 in the field of European history and international law, his dissertations were entitled, "German interest in the Russo-Japanese war" and "International Control of Rivers for Non-Navigational Purposes." Reinhardt also earned a Diploma from Cesare Alfieri Institute, Florence, Italy in 1937. Reinhardt would also earn honorary doctorates from Universities of California, Gonzaga and Mills College. Foreign service career Reinhardt began his professional career serving on the United States and Mexico International Boundary Commission. In 1937 Reinhardt began his foreign service as the vice-consul in Vienna, Austria. There, in March 1938, he witnessed the Austrian Anschluss. By the end of the year he had been recalled and begun training in Russian at Harvard University. In October 1939, he was designated third secretary of the legation and American vice consul in Tallinn, Estonia. By June 1940, Reinhardt was assigned for the first time to the Moscow embassy. During his first assignment in Moscow, Reinhardt assisted in the