James W. Gerard, American lawyer and diplomat, United States Ambassador to Germany (died 1951)

James Watson Gerard III was a United States lawyer, diplomat, and justice of the New York Supreme Court.

The United States has had diplomatic relations with the nation of Germany under its various forms of governments and leaders since 1871, and its principal predecessor nation, the Kingdom of Prussia, since 1835. These relations were broken twice, and again during the Second World War from 1941 to 1955, at first under 32nd President Franklin D. Roosevelt, continuing under 33rd President Harry S. Truman and 34th – Dwight D. Eisenhower), while Germany, when there was a state of war with the United States and for a continuation interval afterwards, following the 1918 Armistice or the 1945 Surrender and halting of military combat operations.