David Manning
Encyclopedia
Sir David Geoffrey Manning, GCMG
, CVO
(born 5 December 1949) is a former British diplomat, who was the British
Ambassador to the United States
from 2003 to 2007. He authored the so-called "Manning Memo" summarising the details of a January 2003 meeting between American president George W. Bush
and British prime minister Tony Blair
during the run-up to the invasion of Iraq. He has since been appointed to the Household of TRH The Duke of Cambridge and Prince Harry of Wales
.
and went on to study at Oriel College, Oxford, and at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies
of the Johns Hopkins University
. He began his career as a civil servant in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office
(FCO) in 1972. He has served in embassies in Poland
, India
, Paris
, and Moscow
, and within the FCO he has worked on the Central American desk, the Russian desk and held several senior positions. He has represented the UK in Brussels
and also at the International Conference on the former Yugoslavia in 1994.
Between 1995 and 1998, he was British ambassador to Israel
; from 2001, he was a foreign policy adviser to British Prime Minister Tony Blair
. During this time he developed a close relationship with his counterpart, then US National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice
. Blair selected him to replace Christopher Meyer
as the British Ambassador to the United States. Manning took up the post in 2003. Ambassador Manning visited numerous states, as well as the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico
, during his term as Ambassador to the United States and was instrumental in planning Queen Elizabeth's most recent visit.
condemning Iraq, President Bush
met with Tony Blair
During a private two-hour meeting in the Oval Office on Jan. 31, 2003, and made clear to Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain that he was determined to invade Iraq without the second resolution, or even if international arms inspectors failed to find unconventional weapons, stated a confidential memo about the meeting written by Manning and reviewed by The New York Times
.
At their meeting, Mr. Bush and Mr. Blair candidly expressed their doubts that chemical, biological or nuclear weapons would be found in Iraq in the coming weeks, the memo said. The president spoke as if an invasion was unavoidable. The two leaders discussed a timetable for the war, details of the military campaign and plans for the aftermath of the war.
The memo also says the president raised three possible ways of provoking a confrontation, including the most controversial:
His close relationship with the Prime Minister suggests he has been a key figure in driving British foreign policy in respect of the United States
, particularly in the aftermath
of the September 11, 2001 attacks
and the decision to invade Iraq
.
On November 30, 2009, Manning gave evidence to The Iraq Inquiry.
. Sir David retired from HM Diplomatic Service in January 2008. Six months later, he joined BG Group
(formerly British Gas plc
) on a part-time basis at a reported annual salary of £80,000. In 2008 he became a non-executive director of Lockheed Martin
, the multinational arms manufacturer that made millions supplying military hardware for the war, and joined the advisory board of Hakluyt & Company
, an intelligence company partly staffed by former MI6 officers.
At the beginning of 2009, Sir David was appointed by The Queen
to a "part-time, advisory role" in the newly-formed Household of HRH Prince William of Wales and HRH Prince Harry of Wales, since renamed after the marriage of Prince William to Catherine Middleton, the now Duchess of Cambridge now known as the Household of TRH The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and HRH Prince Harry of Wales.
Order of St Michael and St George
The Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George is an order of chivalry founded on 28 April 1818 by George, Prince Regent, later George IV of the United Kingdom, while he was acting as Prince Regent for his father, George III....
, CVO
Royal Victorian Order
The Royal Victorian Order is a dynastic order of knighthood and a house order of chivalry recognising distinguished personal service to the order's Sovereign, the reigning monarch of the Commonwealth realms, any members of her family, or any of her viceroys...
(born 5 December 1949) is a former British diplomat, who was the British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
Ambassador to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
from 2003 to 2007. He authored the so-called "Manning Memo" summarising the details of a January 2003 meeting between American president George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
and British prime minister Tony Blair
Tony Blair
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
during the run-up to the invasion of Iraq. He has since been appointed to the Household of TRH The Duke of Cambridge and Prince Harry of Wales
Prince Harry of Wales
Prince Henry of Wales , commonly known as Prince Harry, is the younger son of Charles, Prince of Wales and the late Diana, Princess of Wales, and fourth grandchild of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh...
.
Life and career
Manning was educated at Ardingly CollegeArdingly College
Ardingly College is a selective independent co-educational boarding and day school, founded in 1858 by Canon Nathaniel Woodard, included in the Tatler list of top public schools. The college is located in the village of Ardingly near Haywards Heath, West Sussex, England, having moved to its present...
and went on to study at Oriel College, Oxford, and at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies
Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies
The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies , a division of Johns Hopkins University based in Washington, D.C., is one of the world's leading and most prestigious graduate schools devoted to the study of international affairs, economics, diplomacy, and policy research and...
of the Johns Hopkins University
Johns Hopkins University
The Johns Hopkins University, commonly referred to as Johns Hopkins, JHU, or simply Hopkins, is a private research university based in Baltimore, Maryland, United States...
. He began his career as a civil servant in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office, commonly called the Foreign Office or the FCO is a British government department responsible for promoting the interests of the United Kingdom overseas, created in 1968 by merging the Foreign Office and the Commonwealth Office.The head of the FCO is the...
(FCO) in 1972. He has served in embassies in Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, and Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
, and within the FCO he has worked on the Central American desk, the Russian desk and held several senior positions. He has represented the UK in Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
and also at the International Conference on the former Yugoslavia in 1994.
Between 1995 and 1998, he was British ambassador to Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
; from 2001, he was a foreign policy adviser to British Prime Minister Tony Blair
Tony Blair
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
. During this time he developed a close relationship with his counterpart, then US National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice
Condoleezza Rice
Condoleezza Rice is an American political scientist and diplomat. She served as the 66th United States Secretary of State, and was the second person to hold that office in the administration of President George W. Bush...
. Blair selected him to replace Christopher Meyer
Christopher Meyer
Sir Christopher John Rome Meyer, KCMG is a former British Ambassador to the United States , former Ambassador to Germany and the former chairman of the Press Complaints Commission...
as the British Ambassador to the United States. Manning took up the post in 2003. Ambassador Manning visited numerous states, as well as the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
, during his term as Ambassador to the United States and was instrumental in planning Queen Elizabeth's most recent visit.
2003 Iraq War
In the weeks before the United States-led invasion of Iraq, as the United States and Britain pressed for a second United Nations resolutionUnited Nations resolution
A United Nations resolution is a formal text adopted by a United Nations body. Although any UN body can issue resolutions, in practice most resolutions are issued by the Security Council or the General Assembly.-Legal status:...
condemning Iraq, President Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
met with Tony Blair
Tony Blair
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
During a private two-hour meeting in the Oval Office on Jan. 31, 2003, and made clear to Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain that he was determined to invade Iraq without the second resolution, or even if international arms inspectors failed to find unconventional weapons, stated a confidential memo about the meeting written by Manning and reviewed by The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
.
At their meeting, Mr. Bush and Mr. Blair candidly expressed their doubts that chemical, biological or nuclear weapons would be found in Iraq in the coming weeks, the memo said. The president spoke as if an invasion was unavoidable. The two leaders discussed a timetable for the war, details of the military campaign and plans for the aftermath of the war.
The memo also says the president raised three possible ways of provoking a confrontation, including the most controversial:
"The U.S. was thinking of flying U2 reconnaissance aircraft with fighter cover over Iraq, painted in U.N. colours," the memo says, attributing the idea to Mr. Bush. "If Saddam fired on them, he would be in breach."
His close relationship with the Prime Minister suggests he has been a key figure in driving British foreign policy in respect of the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, particularly in the aftermath
Aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks
The September 11 attacks were the transformative incident of the first term of President George W. Bush and led to what he has called the Global War on Terrorism, or war against terrorism. The accuracy of describing it as a "war" and the political motivations and consequences are the topic of...
of the September 11, 2001 attacks
September 11, 2001 attacks
The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks (also referred to as September 11, September 11th or 9/119/11 is pronounced "nine eleven". The slash is not part of the pronunciation...
and the decision to invade Iraq
2003 invasion of Iraq
The 2003 invasion of Iraq , was the start of the conflict known as the Iraq War, or Operation Iraqi Freedom, in which a combined force of troops from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Poland invaded Iraq and toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein in 21 days of major combat operations...
.
On November 30, 2009, Manning gave evidence to The Iraq Inquiry.
Later life
He was appointed Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George (GCMG) in the 2008 New Year HonoursNew Year Honours 2008
The New Year Honours 2008 for the Commonwealth Realms were announced on 29 December 2007, to celebrate the year passed and mark the beginning of 2008....
. Sir David retired from HM Diplomatic Service in January 2008. Six months later, he joined BG Group
BG Group
BG Group plc is a global oil and gas company headquartered in Reading, United Kingdom. It has operations in 25 countries across Africa, Asia, Australasia, Europe, North America and South America and produces around 680,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day. It has a major Liquefied Natural Gas ...
(formerly British Gas plc
British Gas plc
British Gas plc was formerly the monopoly gas supplier and is a private sector in the United Kingdom.- History :In the early 1900s the gas market in the United Kingdom was mainly run by county councils and small private firms...
) on a part-time basis at a reported annual salary of £80,000. In 2008 he became a non-executive director of Lockheed Martin
Lockheed Martin
Lockheed Martin is an American global aerospace, defense, security, and advanced technology company with worldwide interests. It was formed by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta in March 1995. It is headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, in the Washington Metropolitan Area....
, the multinational arms manufacturer that made millions supplying military hardware for the war, and joined the advisory board of Hakluyt & Company
Hakluyt & Company
Hakluyt & Company is a British strategic intelligence and advisory firm. The company was founded in 1995 by Christopher James and Mike Reynolds. James retired in mid-2006, and was replaced as managing director by Keith Craig...
, an intelligence company partly staffed by former MI6 officers.
At the beginning of 2009, Sir David was appointed by The Queen
Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom
Elizabeth II is the constitutional monarch of 16 sovereign states known as the Commonwealth realms: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize,...
to a "part-time, advisory role" in the newly-formed Household of HRH Prince William of Wales and HRH Prince Harry of Wales, since renamed after the marriage of Prince William to Catherine Middleton, the now Duchess of Cambridge now known as the Household of TRH The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and HRH Prince Harry of Wales.
Posts held
- 1972: Entered Foreign and Commonwealth Office
- 1972 - 1974: Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Mexico/Central America Department)
- 1974 - 1977: Warsaw, Poland (3rd later 2nd Secretary)
- 1977 - 1980: New Delhi, India (2nd later 1st Secretary)
- 1980 - 1982: Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Soviet Department)
- 1982 - 1984: Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Deputy Head of Policy Planning Department)
- 1984 - 1988: Paris, France (1st Secretary)
- 1988 - 1990: Counsellor on loan to Cabinet Office
- 1990 - 1993: Moscow, Russia (Counsellor, Head of Chancery)
- 1993 - 1994: Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Head of Eastern Department)
- 1994: UK member of Contact Group on Bosnia (International Conference on Former Yugoslavia)
- 1994 - 1995: Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Head of Policy Planning Staff)
- 1995 - 1998: Tel Aviv, Israel (Ambassador)
- 1998 - 2000: Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Deputy Under-Secretary)
- 2001: UK Delegation NATO Brussels (Ambassador)
- 2001 - 2003: Foreign Policy Adviser to the Prime Minister
- 2003 - 2007: Washington, USA (Ambassador)