The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project JACOB GILLESPIE Interviewed by: Charles Stuart Kennedy Initial interview date: February 4, 2010 Copyright 2016 ADST TABLE OF CONTENTS Background Born in Illinois; raised in Illinois and Maryland Dartmouth College Marriage Commissioned USIA Foreign Service Officer, 1961 Edward R. Murrow Washington, DC: Foreign Service Institute; French 1962 Accra, Ghana: USIA Rotation Officer 1962-1963 Environment Kwame Nkrumah American Outlook James Baldwin US aid program Ambassador William Mahoney Edgar Kaiser G. Mennen Williams Danquah Scholars of Africa W. E, B. Du Bois French Birth of son Ghanaian hospitality International Visitor Program Corruption British Peace Corps Bujumbura, Burundi: USIS, Assistant Public Affairs Officer 1963-1964 Environment Staff Ethnic groups 1 Government Tutsi refugee camps Communication facilities Elton Stepherson Kennedy assassination University of Butare Chinese officer defection Chinese official presence U.S. media Leopoldville, Republic of the Congo: Field Operations Officer; 1964-1966 Motion Pictures Officer Averill Harriman Consulate personnel hostages in Stanleyville Max Kraus Belgians retake Stanleyville Stanleyville devastation Ambassador Godley Work load Elizabethville Bukavu Environment Rebel activities Mike Hoare’s mercenaries South African mercenaries Motion Picture Distribution Mobutu Internal travels Coquilhatville Fred Hunter Industrial diamonds Exhibits Social life Parc Albert Hank Ryan Films production and distribution George Stevens, Jr. Wife’s pregnancy and return to US Birth of daughter Prime Minister Moise Tshombe Joseph Kasavubu Mobutu Coup d’état Mobutu Sese Seko Mobutu-Godley relations Infrastructure Embassy personnel 2 State Department: Foreign Service Institute; Spanish 1966-1967 Montevideo, Uruguay: USIS, Assistant Cultural Affairs Officer 1967-1969 Exhibits program Artists Program presentations Cultural Exchange Program Fulbright Program Juan Jorge and Ines Schaffer Cattle and sheep Ambassador Robert Sayre Education Social structure Environment Culture Economy Political parties Military Government Alliance for Progress USAID Mission I.M. Pei visit Giancarlo Puppo Ichi Mori Foreign orientation Graf Spee Foreign nationals Tupamaros Americans kidnapped President Gestido President Jorge Pacheco Areco Ambassador Henry Hoyt Security Funeral customs Movie “State of Siege” Intelligentsia Labor Exhibit John Topping Duke Ellington Douglas Pike Washington, DC: TDY at local Television Station WETA 1969-1971 Programming “Washington Week in Review” Station fan mail Julia Child 3 Max Kampelman Personnel Quality newspapers “PBS News Hour with Jim Lehrer Washington, DC: USIA Headquarters: Training Division 1971-1975 Stan Moss Training Program content National Press Club Staff members “Art in America” seminar Dan Ellsberg (Pentagon Papers) Nicholas Von Hoffman State Department: FSI: Dutch language training 1975 The Hague; Information Officer and Press Attaché 1976-1981 “Vrij Nederland” Philip Agee “Who’s Who in the CIA” Lockheed bribery scandal Prince Bernhard Ambassador Kingman Gould Ambassador Robert McCloskey Victor Stier Ambassador Geri Joseph US election seminar US Bicentennial Cultural programs Neutron bomb Deployment of Intermediate Nuclear Forces debate Government Political Parties Catholic/Protestant division International Visitors Program Polling Marshall Plan Edward Teller Missiles Terrorist groups South Moluccans Central America Teheran embassy takeover Visitors Program Tom Korologos Reagan election 4 Dutch elections Washington, DC: Headquarters, USIA: Chief, Fast Guidance Unit 1983-1986 Missiles deployment Bud McFarlane Charlie Wick Reagan’s “Zero Option” speech Policy guidance for USIA media Operations Alan Romberg Congressional interest Javier Solana Department of State: Press Officer 1986 San Salvador, El Salvador: USIS, Public Affairs Officer 1986-1988 Family Contra/Sandinista Guerilla War Office organization Universities Government Jose Napoleon Duarte Ambassador Edward Corr US Military Group Security Marine guards murdered Journalists Operations Crisis management Earthquake “Eugene Hasenfus Affair” Embassy emergency operations Dealing with the press Daily briefings Earthquake devastation Felix Rodriguez Colonel Oliver North International assistance efforts Press conference International assistance teams “backpackers” Press reporting Foreign casualties David Dlouhy Congressional delegations USAID 5 Senator Chris Dodd VIP visitors Election observers Ethnic and social groups Turcos (Levantines) Political Parties D’Aubuisson Death squads European Christian Democratic Movement Political animosities Exchange Programs Bi-National Commission Dorothy Dillon Guerilla Army attacks Cuban influence Cable system FBI interrogation Washington, DC USIA Headquarters; Deputy Director, 1989 Press and Publications Division Publications Worldwide printing facilities Madrid, Spain: USIS, Public Affairs Officer 1989-1994 Ambassador Joseph Zappala Government Seville Universal Exposition (Expo) US participation Congressional support Olympics Terrorists American participation Arrangements Staff US Air Force bases Fulbright Program Crown Prince Felipe Relations Felipe Gonzalez Dolores Ibárruri B-52s (Kuwait War) Hezbollah & Terrorist Groups Middle East Peace Conference Charles Wick Arnold Schwarzenegger Monarchy 6 Ambassador Richard Capen Presentation of Credentials US presidential elections Ambassador Richard Gardner Pepé Ortega Environment Consul General Ruth Davis Basque/Catalan/Spanish Washington, D.C.: USIA Headquarters: Director, Foreign Press Centers 1993-1997 Location of Centers National Press Club Historical background Objectives Leading foreign newspapers Organization Center operations Ron Brown Donna Shalala Briefing procedures Protection of intellectual property Microsoft Summit of the Americas, Miami Carlos Menem G-8 Conference Call (Denver) Democratic Convention (Chicago) Dennis Rodman Atlanta Olympics Jorge Mas Canoso TV Marti Congressman Dante Fascell Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty Voice of America Harold Ickes Foreign Press Corps Country evaluation Washington, DC: USIA Headquarters: Executive Director, Inter-Agency 1997-1998 Committee on International Exchange & Training American agencies Function and organization USIA-State Dept. consolidation Reflections 7 INTERVIEW Q: Today is the 4th of February, 2010. This is an interview with Jacob P. Gillespie. And what does the “P” stand for? GILLESPIE: Priester Q: Priester. Okay, and you go by Jake? GILLESPIE: I do. Q: Okay Jake, let’s start at the beginning. When and where were you born? GILLESPIE: I was born on July 4, 1939, in Cairo, Illinois. Q: In Cairo? Oh yes, that was a big center for the Union army going down the Mississippi. GILLESPIE: It was Grant’s headquarters for the Union army. It was an important town because it’s at the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers. Q: For the transcriber, Cairo is spelled like Cairo, C-A-I-R-O. GILLESPIE: And frequently mispronounced. I ran into former- the late Senator Paul Simon once when he was overseas and I- Q: He was a senator from Illinois. GILLESPIE: Yes. He was; moreover, he was a congressman before from the southern part of Illinois, and I said, “Senator, I was born in your old congressional district.” He said, “Oh where?” When I said Cairo and pronounced it “Karo,” he said “yes, you were.” Cairo was an important town at the time of the Civil War. It had been a bit of a boomtown; it was a rail hub, the river traffic was very important. The other reason that Grant wanted his headquarters there was that it was Copperhead country and he wanted to make sure he knew what these guys behind him were doing. Q: Copperheads being people living in the Union but sympathetic to the South. GILLESPIE: Correct. Q: Somehow when I think of that place I think of lead. Was there a lead mine within-? 8 GILLESPIE: There are lead mines but not there. The lead mines are east and obviously north of there but there were lead mines, there was some coal but mainly it was built around the river- rail traffic; it was farming. Q: Okay. Let’s get to the family. What can you tell me about the Gillespies? GILLESPIE: My father was Frank Gillespie. His father, William, was a railroad man. He was yard manager in Cairo and died before I was born. Q: Do you know where he came from? GILLESPIE: Yes, his family was all from southern Illinois, but the Gillespies were originally pre-Revolutionary settlers who were probably indentured servants in North Carolina and worked their way west. My father’s mother’s family was the similar. They were all farmers. Both of my father’s grandfathers fought for the Union and both were imprisoned. My paternal great grandfather, James Bryson Gillespie, was fortunate enough to be an officer and went off to the officer camps, which was somewhat better. George Huffman, Dad’s maternal grandfather, went to Andersonville, was there for two or three months, survived that and Florence, South Carolina, and eventually escaped from a prison camp in Goldsboro, North Carolina. They both left some written history; consequently I go on more than I should there. But that history was important to his family and to him – and to me. Dad and his brother and sisters were raised in little rail centers throughout that region, one being Hope, Arkansas, where he started school. Q: That’s where President Clinton came from. GILLESPIE: That’s right. I asked my father in 1992 what it was like to be a boy in Hope. He said they weren’t