They met in 1951, while he was on the Economic Cooperation Administration (ECA) staff and she was a secretary with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

He began there in 1941 and rose through a variety of positions over the next several years, most concerned with forming and implementing foreign economic policy.

Later in 1943, he was made deputy director of the Office of Foreign Economic Coordination, and in January 1944 he was appointed chief of the Eastern Hemisphere Division.

[4] Labouisse then served as the principal State Department officer working with the Economic Cooperation Administration (ECA) during the initial implementation of the Marshall Plan.

He traveled to Paris in March 1948 as head of the mission to establish the ECA as the agency to administer United States economic aid to Europe.

Labouisse then served as coordinator of foreign aid and assistance in the State Department from June 1948 until October 1949, when he became director of British Commonwealth and Northern European Affairs.

In December 1960, Labouisse was appointed as the International Bank's special representative for Africa and also headed a mission to Uganda to study economic problems.

[4] He returned to United States government service in January 1961, when he was appointed Director of the International Cooperation Administration (ICA) by President John F. Kennedy, which was created to coordinate nonmilitary foreign aid programs.

In May 1961, President Kennedy began to work with the United States Congress to reorganize the foreign aid programs into a single agency.

During his directorship, Labouisse oversaw the emergency relief efforts for several major conflicts and naturals disasters, and fought to alleviate poor conditions in developing countries.

UNICEF provided relief to both sides in the Nigerian civil war in 1968 and to Cambodia in 1979, after the country was invaded by Vietnam.

[4] Labouisse retired from his position with UNICEF in December 1979, although he continued to work as a consultant on the Cambodia and Thailand operations for most of 1980.