The visit this week of Hillary Rodham Clinton has been generally described as the second such visit to Malta by a US Secretary of State, the first being that of James Baker, who accompanied President George Bush during the Bush-Gorbachev summit in 1989. In fact, Mrs Clinton is the third US Secretary of State to have visited Malta.

The first US Secretary of State to visit us was Edward Stettinius Jr, who accompanied President Franklin Delano Roosevelt during the latter’s second visit to Malta in 1945.

Mr Stettinius had been appointed Secretary of State only a few weeks before his visit to Malta. He had taken over from Cordell Hull to become the 48th US Secretary of State. The purpose of the visit in January 1945 was in connection with preparations for the forthcoming Yalta Conference. In Malta, the President and his delegation had talks with a British delegation headed by Prime Minister Winston Churchill.

Mr Stettinius, an accomplished diplomat, served under Presidents Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman before being appointed the first US Ambassador to the United Nations.

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