Rabb, Ambassador Maxwell M.: Papers, 1980-1989

Biography

Maxwell Milton Rabb (September 28, 1910-June 9, 2002) was an American lawyer, government executive, White House and political advisor in the Eisenhower Administration and Ambassador to Italy under President Ronald Reagan. 

Mr. Rabb was born in Boston. He graduated from Harvard University and its law school. He was admitted to the Massachusetts bar in 1935. After briefly practicing law in Boston, he moved to Washington in 1937 as administrative assistant to Sen. Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. (R-Mass.). When Lodge resigned in 1943 to enter the Army in World War II, Mr. Rabb worked briefly for Sinclair Weeks, who was appointed to fill Lodge's unexpired term. 

Mr. Rabb then joined the Navy himself. From 1944 to 1946, Rabb served in the United States Naval Reserve as a lieutenant. In 1946 he would serve as legal and legislative consultant to United States Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal and he also returned to his law practice in Boston.

A lifelong Republican, Rabb was involved in efforts to persuade Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, then the commander of NATO, to seek the Republican presidential nomination in 1952. In January 1953 he joined the White House staff as aide to Sherman Adams and counsel to the President, and in 1954 he became Secretary to the Cabinet. Eisenhower created this position for Rabb. The job involved organizing the weekly Cabinet meetings that were a prominent part of the Eisenhower administration and keeping track of decisions that were made.

Throughout his time in the White House, Rabb was viewed as the staff member in charge of minority affairs. Correspondence, reports, and printed materials involving Jewish issues, African-Americans, civil rights, segregation, integration, anti-Semitism, refugees, and immigration were often referred to Rabb. Eisenhower used his knowledge and skills in this area, notably giving him a directive to desegregate public facilities in Washington, DC. He also was adviser on the dispatch of federal troops to Little Rock to desegregate Central High School.

His quiet role in these early White House civil rights actions persuaded the late Rep. Adam Clayton Powell Jr., the flamboyant New York Democrat from Harlem, to back Eisenhower in his reelection campaign in 1956. Rabb was also admired by Powell’s successor, Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.), who became a longtime friend of Mr. Rabb.

Leaving the White House, Rabb practiced law in New York, where he was a partner in the law firm of Stroock & Stroock & Lavan from 1959-1981. A modest, unassuming man with a reputation for wit, Mr. Rabb was long familiar with the corridors of power. He had wide-ranging contacts in business and political circles in this country and abroad. Consequently, he continued to be useful as a private citizen for the U.S. government.

Just after leaving the White House, Rabb was sent as chairman of the U.S. delegation to the tenth session of UNESCO in Paris in 1958, later serving on the executive committee of the United States Committee for UNESCO (1959-60). President Johnson appointed Rabb to the Commission on Income Maintenance Programs (the Heineman Commission on Welfare and Related Programs, 1968-70). In the late 1960s he made 23 trips to East Germany to broker the release of Americans being held on espionage charges. He was a trustee of the American Health Foundation (1969-74) and served on the Council of Foreign Relations (1978). Rabb was a director of several corporations and a member of the board of directors of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. He also served as president of the United States Committee for Refugees, a private group organized in 1958 that dealt with refugee resettlement and immigration.

Rabb was also active in Jewish charities and political advocacy for Jewish people and Israel. Rabb was chairman of the government division of the United Jewish Appeal (1953-57), a member of the board of governors of the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, and vice chairman of the New York executive committee of the Anti-Defamation League, among many other posts.

As with Eisenhower, Rabb was an early backer and fundraiser for President Ronald Reagan. He supported his run for the presidency in 1976 and during the 1980 campaign. Rabb was appointed as ambassador to Italy where he served from 1981-1989. During that period, the Reagan administration also used him on other assignments -- for example, he helped arrange the sale of AWACS planes to Saudi Arabia.

The normal rhythm of diplomatic life was sharply interrupted for Mr. Rabb shortly after he took up his duties in Rome, when Italian police uncovered a Libyan plot to assassinate him, and the U.S. flew him out of Rome for a brief time. The plot was said to be in retaliation for the downing by U.S. fighters of two Libyan jets over the Gulf of Sidra. The American planes were carrying out exercises over the gulf, which the U.S. considers to be international waters, when they were attacked by Libyan planes. The incident had little effect on Mr. Rabb's official duties, but for the remainder of their years in Rome, he and his wife, Ruth, were under guard.

John Cabot University established the Maxwell Rabb Scholarship in honor of Rabb, who was the longest-serving American ambassador to Italy. The partial-tuition scholarship is granted to a degree-seeking student from the U.S. or Italy who demonstrates a commitment to community service and/or civic involvement.

Remaining active in his law practice, Mr. Rabb continued to serve the U.S. Government and other organizations. He was a former U.S. representative to World Bank's International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes; a member of the Presidential Advisory Panel on South Asian Relief Assistance, a member of the board of advisers of the John F. Kennedy School of Government and the Harvard School of Public Health; a trustee of the Eisenhower Library and the George Marshall International Center.

Rabb was married to Ruth Rabb for 62 years and they had four children and five grandchildren. At the time of his death, he was of counsel to the firm of Kramer, Levin, Naftalis & Frankel.

Ambassador Rabb died at the age of 91 after suffering a fall while walking to his law office in New York City.