Milenko Radomar VesniÃÂ (Vesnitch in French, and Wesnitsch in German; 13 February 1863 – 15 May 1921) was a Serbian politician, diplomat, cabinet member and prime minister.
VesniÃÂ studied law at la Grande ÃÂcole of Belgrade and at the University of Munich since 1883. On 8 August 1888, VesniÃÂ received a Ph.D. in law with a thesis under the title "The Blood Feud among South Slavs". His highly praised thesis was published in German the following year in Stuttgart. Over the next two years, from 1888 to 1889 in Paris and from 1889 to 1890 in London, he obtained further specialization in law.
VesniÃÂ joined the diplomatic service of Serbia in 1891, as the secretary of the Serbian Legation at Constantinople. In 1893, he was appointed as a university professor teaching international law at Grande ÃÂcole in Belgrade, and the same year became MP in the National Assembly of Serbia as a member of the People's Radical Party.
In the government of Sava GrujiÃÂ from 1893 to 1894), he was the Minister of Education and Religious Affairs. In 1899, he was sentenced to two years in prison after he insulted King Milan I. In 1901, VesniÃÂ returned to the diplomatic service as the Serbian Minister in Rome.
In 1904, Vesniàwas appointed Serbian Minister in Paris, a posting he held for almost 17 years in various terms. In the Radical cabinet of Nikola Paà ¡iàin 1906, Vesniàwas Minister of Justice, and afterward returned to Paris, again as the Serbian Minister to France. After the Balkan Wars, Vesniàwas a member of the Serbian delegation at the Conference of Ambassadors in London from 1912 to 1913.
During the First World War, VesniÃÂ successfully organized various conferences in favour of the war effort of Serbia.
VesniÃÂ was the diplomatic representative from Serbia at the Paris Peace Conference at Versailles in June 1919. VesniÃÂ travelled to Washington prior to the Peace Conference to meet with Wilson and explain the Serbian position with respect to the break-up of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He also represented Serbia at the League of Nations Conference in January 1919.
In 1920 Vesniàbecame Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, and during his office, he signed the Rapallo Treaty with Italy. During his second government (1920âÂÂ1921), Vesniàretained the portfolio of Foreign Minister as well.
A collection of his speeches and articles in French papers and journals was published in Paris in 1921 under the title: "Serbia through the Great War ("La Serbie ÃÂ travers la Grande Guerre").
Vesniàwas elected a corresponding member of the Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques in Paris.
A talented scholar VesniÃÂ wrote dozens of studies regarding international law in general and the position of Bosnia-Herzegovina in the international system after the Austro-Hungarian occupation in 1878, in particular.
Vesniàtranslated important university textbooks on international and criminal law from French and German into the Serbian language, as well as the book on Prince Miloà ¡ Obrenoviàrule, written in French by his Italian physician Bartholomeo Cunibert.
In 1906, he was married to the American Blanche ( Ulman) Wertheim (1870âÂÂ1951) who was acquainted with President Wilson's wife. The former wife of Siegfried Salomon Wertheim, her sister, Cécile Ulman, married Napoléon Louis de Talleyrand-Périgord, 8th Duke of Montmorency, as her second husband. From her first marriage, Blanche was the mother of Vota Lucille Joan Wertheim, who took her stepfather's surname and married Aristide Blank.
VesniÃÂ died in Paris on 15 May 1921. She died at the Ritz Carlton, Paris in 1951.