George S. Vest, long-serving Foreign Service officer and Cold War diplomat, dies at 102

George S. Vest, a long-serving U.S. diplomat who helped lay the groundwork for the Helsinki accords with the Soviet Union in the 1970s and later was the State Department’s chief of recruiting and training, died Aug. 24 at his home in Bethesda, Md. He was 102.

A family spokesman, Alexander Platt, said the cause was circulatory ailments.