The Association of Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project AMBASSADOR JAY PIERREPONT MOFFAT Journals TABLE OF CONTENTS Background Entered the Foreign Ser ice in 1919 A typical work day at Department of State Treaty of Versailles Senate League of Nations debate Senator Lodge President (ilson (arsaw, Poland* Third Secretary (,- 1919.1921 0ourney to post 1inister Hugh 2ibson3s The 4Blue Palace5 Chief of State Pilsudski Prime 1inister Paderewski Role in Peace Conference (1919- Pianist Assets and deficiencies Poland dread of war Support 2ermany or Russia, 8oscius9ko S:uadron reception Pilsudski Bolshe ik atrocities reports 0an Sobieski 1erian Cooper Herbert Hoo er Boys Legion (Vigilantes- massacre Poland3s scrambled frontiers Poland/Russia relations Patek failed mission to enlist U8 support Poland3s fighting force Berlin isit 2erman unrest Poles in ades Ukraine Cossacks enter Ukraine Paul Dukes 1 0ourney to 8ie 1erian Cooper Train tra el Countess 4X5 Budienny Red Cross Brest.Lito sk Collapse of Polish Front Bolshe iks (So iets- reach (arsaw then collapse British support of Polish/So iet armistice Plans for e acuation Embassy documents burning Diplomatic Corps 2o ernment mo e to Posen Russian peace delegation (arsaw martial law Exodus towards west Refugees Club des Chasseurs (ielki Pans of 1920 2eneral (eygand So iet retreat 41iraculous deli erance of (arsaw5 Cathedral 4Te Deum5 4Fall of three great empires of Europe5 Russian Austria.Hungary 2erman 4Congress of Poland5 Return of Polish nobility (arsaw post.war en ironment Polish Cardinal Polish aristocracy Exploring post.war Poland Free City of Dan9ig Letts and Balts Riga3s 4(hite Terror5 and 4Red Terror5 (arwick 2reen writings Views on Polish philosophy Tokyo, 0apan: Second Secretary 1921.192A US.0apan relations Hugh (ilson (ashington Conference Carrying the diplomatic pouch Ambassador Charles Beecher (arren 2 Tokyo En ironment Russo.0apanese (ar Conference on Limitation of Na al Armaments, (ashington Prime 1inister 1r. Hara stabbed Prime 1inister Takahashi Visit to Nikko Chrysanthemum 2arden Party Court Typical wedding reception The Family Council 0apanese Spring 1t. Fuji excursion Prince of (ales isit Ika (Ikaho- excursion 0apanese house and daily routine Visits of mother and brother 1onastery isit Earth:uakes Bath houses 0apanese lea e Siberia Refugees Reds enter Vladi ostok US Consulate Vladi ostok closed 2eisha parties (restling matches 1o ie theaters Imperial duck hunt Departure JOURNALS (arsaw: In the spring of 1919 I returned to America to take my examinations for the diplomatic ser ice. They were not as much of an ordeal as I feared, and I was fortunate enough to pass in first of my group with a grade of 90.DE. Before being sent to our posts we were gi en a few weeks training in the State Department during th summer months. In those days the Department was still like a club: the outsider was regarded with a faint air of suspicion, but a member, e en a junior, was treated with absolute trust. (ith rare exceptions, the day3s work ended at 4:A0* an occasional afternoon off for golf was considered normal, and no one raised a disappro ing eyebrow at generous weekends. Naturally, my work was pretty routine in character, making summaries of dispatches for Bill Castle, keeping the minutes of interdepartmental meetings, and the like* but I did 3 ha e access to most of the telegrams, particularly those relating to the new states in Europe. For the most part they told of a series of clashing nationalistic ambitions, which neither hunger, nor po erty, nor re olutionary mutterings ser ed to :uell. But our forcing policy was as a standstill* there was little the United States could do until the Senate had ratified or rejected the Treaty of Versailles and the League of Nations. (here er one went, this was the sole subject of con ersation. At first there were many who studied the subject with an open mind, but as the weeks sped by the lines became drawn, and feelings ran so high that e en among friends argument risked degenerating into abuse. I made it a practice in the late afternoon to go down to the Senate galleries and follow the debate. It was probably the last great forensic battle of modern times. The Administration supporters had the ad antage of unity of purpose, while Senator Lodge as the leader of the opposition had the difficult task of keeping in alignment a disparate group ranging from 4mild reser ationists5 to 4bitter enders.5 To counterbalance this, the Administration senators lacked inspiration G only President (ilson himself seemed able to fire the American public with his burning 9eal G while supporting Senator Lodge was a galaxy of outstanding debaters who had the gift of dramati9ing their beliefs. 1ore than once I saw the Senate galleries, in defiance of the rules, burst into applause following a speech by Borah or 0ohnson or 8nox. The President who was slow to belie e that the country would support an attempt to 4break the heart of the world5 became apprehensi e and started (est to plead in person for the League of Nations. His speeches, as they came back to us in (ashington o er the wires (this was before the days of radio- seemed more and more to ha e a 1essianic ring, which aroused his isible audience to boundless enthusiasm, but did nothing to dispel the growing fear of millions that membership in the League would ine itably in ol e us in Europe3s perennial wars. Then came the President3s collapse, and a long interlude when the country felt that it was drifting, without a hand at the rudder. Slowly but relentlessly the tide of American idealism began to recede, while from his bed in the (hite House President (ilson tried to stay the ebb. He came to think of his opponents as the forces of e il, and refused to compromise with them e en to sa e the League. In No ember the Senate was willing to agree to the Co enant, pro ided the President were willing to accept a series of reser ations. 1ost of us who later ser ed in 2ene a felt that e en if the reser ations did in theory gi e us a mildly preferred position, yet they would in practice ha e done little to hamper, or e en retard, the de elopment of the League. But on the ground that 4the resolution in that form does not pro ide for ratification, but rather the nullification of the Treaty5, the President instructed his followers to ote against the proposal. Because America would not enter the League all the way, he refused to countenance her entry nine tenths of the way. Ha ing created the League, his was the hand that sterili9ed it. To my way of thinking, the tragedy of (oodrow (ilson centers in that one decision. Late in September I was posted to the Legation in (arsaw. It is hard to recapture in memory all the excitement of the next few weeks. Poland sounded infinitely remote and faintly exotic. True, I had taken a course in Sla ic history under Professor Lord, and I had more than once read Sienkiewic93s great trilogy 4(ith Fire and Sword5, 4The Deluge5, and 4Pan 1ichael5. But of modern Poland I knew nothing. I recall my impatience to be off. An enforced delay of some weeks due to a longshoreman3s strike in New Hork* an 4 uncomfortable crossing on a transport amid hea y autumn gales* two or three rather hectic days in Paris* a long, slow journey across Central Europe in the Courier train* a first sight of emaciated faces and hungry stares* long hours looking out o er plains of unutterable dreariness, where the sticky brown mud was waging a winning battle with the early snow* a sudden passage, without preliminary warning in the shape of suburbs, into the heart of a large and acti e city G at long last I had reached (arsaw and set foot on the lowest rung of the ladder called career. I was lucky in drawing Hugh 2ibson as my first chief. He was only thirty.six at the time, the youngest minister in our ser ice. President (ilson had promoted him to (arsaw o er the heads of a score of seniors at the joint instance of 1r. Hoo er and Colonel House. 1r. Hoo er had gauged his abilities in Brussels during the early days of the war, when as secretary 2ibson had done most of the work for which Brand (hitlock recei ed public credit* Colonel House had subse:uently used him on ro ing errands as a political intelligence officer. He had a scintillating mind and a ra9or.like wit, fortunately tempered by a keen sense of fun. He knew Europe as did few Americans* he was on terms of intimacy with the key men in a do9en Foreign offices* his use of French was not only fluent, but so accurate that he could con ey shaded meanings. 1any a time he had to tell his Polish friends some unpalatable truth, but the happy knack of wrapping it up with a :uip or a jest enabled him to con ey his message without lea ing a sting. He :uickly became a prime fa orite with Polish society, and no gathering was complete without 4our dear 2ibson5. He had not yet married, but he knew his world well enough to understand that importance attached by the Poles to outward show. He had accordingly rented for our Legation the historic Blue Palace with its sixty rooms and its priceless collections. His means howe er were slender and he found the upkeep a strain until someone suggested a happy arrangement, e:ually ad antageous to all, whereby he in ited the two secretaries of the Legations to occupy a ailable apartments in the Palace, and in return to share the running expenses of the establishment, prorated according to the si9e of their official salaries.