Daniel Patrick Moynihan

Biography

Daniel Patrick Moynihan (March 16, 1927 – March 26, 2003) was an American politician, diplomat and social scientist.[1] A member of the Democratic Party, he represented New York in the United States Senate from 1977 until 2001 after serving as an adviser to President Richard Nixon, and as the United States' ambassador to India and to the United Nations.

Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Moynihan moved at a young age to New York City. Following a stint in the navy, he earned a Ph.D. in history from Tufts University. He worked on the staff of New York Governor W. Averell Harriman before joining President John F. Kennedy's administration in 1961. He served as an Assistant Secretary of Labor under Presidents Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, devoting much of his time to the War on Poverty. In 1965, he published the Moynihan Report on black poverty. Moynihan left the Johnson administration in 1965 and became a professor at Harvard University.