The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project Foreign Service Spouse Series ELIZABETH LEWIS CABOT Interviewed by: Jewell Fenzi Initial interview date: April 28, 1987 TABLE OF CONTENTS Mrs. abot accompanied her husband, Ambassador John Moors abot, on his Foreign Service assignments in the United States and abroad Background Born in Mexico ity, Mexico Education: Sarbonne, Paris, France: Vassar ollege Married John Moors abot in 1,3. Family background Posts of Assignment Mexico ity, Mexico 1,3. Social Secretary to wife of Ambassador lark Ambassador and Mrs. 0euben lark Marriage 0io de Janeiro, Bra1il 1,3.21,33 Environment offee US4 economies Birth of children Embassy staff Instructions from the Ambassador 6ork and recreation Portuguese language study Bra1ilian work and play schedule Sao Paulo 0evolution hange of ambassadors and routine Naval and military missions The Hague, Netherlands 1,3321,38 Birth of child Post formality 1 Marriage of Juliana Dutch language study Evacuation to Stockholm European travel Stockholm, Sweden 1,38 Housing at Peruvian embassy 4uatemala ity, 4uatemala 1,3821,41 President 4eneral Jorge Ubico astaneda 4erman submarine activity British aribbean needs 4erman colony 6ashington, D 1,4121,43 Buenos Aires, Argentina 1,4321,46 Ambassador Spruille Braden ;Peron ”si=, Braden ”no= Argentineans in Paris European immigrants Ambassador 4eorge Strausser Messersmith Belgrade, Yugoslavia 1,46 Mikhailovich Tito=s policies Bombing destruction Shortages Environment Muslim ruins and architecture Monasteries Ethnic controversies ommunism 6ashington, D 1,4621,47 National 6ar ollege Nanking/Shanghai, hina 1,4721,4, 6ithout children ommunists hina Hands Ambassador John Aeighton Stuart Mao Tse2tung Madam hiang Bai2shek Soong family 2 Aocal travel Jack Service John Paton Davies John arter Vincent New York ity 1,4,21,30 United Nations, Aake Success Mrs. DEleanorE 0oosevelt Black delegates Helsinki, Finland 1,3021,34 Eleanor 0oosevelt visit Environment Olympic 4ames 6ar 0eparations Aapland Sweden=s wartime hospitality hildren wartime evacuation Hoover ommission 4ermans in 6orld 6ar II Stockholm, Sweden 1,3421,37 Bogota, olombia 1,3721,37 6ashington, D 1,3821,3, 0io De Janeiro, Bra1il 1,3,21,6. Embassy staff 6arsaw, Poland 1,6.21,63 4eneral omments hildren=s view of life in the Foreign Service Advice: ;Beep flexibleF Schooling The early State Department hanges brought by modern technology 4rowth of government agencies at Embassies Husband=s historical records David Newsom Edward Muskie Eli1abeth Olds 0ole of wives of diplomat hildren=s schooling in 66II 3 ost of living rise Payment for services of Foreign Service wives Tandem couples Benefits of life in the Foreign Service Former ;vettingF of Foreign Service wives Post 66II changes in regulations Foreign born wives of Ambassadors ;ProfessionF of Foreign Service wives Batie Aoucheim arol Scherer INTERVIEW ABOT: Before you start, tell me first what you are looking for. The other day when you were with those two girls DElsie Ayon and Ailla Moffat AevittE, that was completely past history. It was wonderful. It was the old diplomacy, and you couldnGt have gotten anyone who was more involved in it than those two sisters. Q: Yes, and I really think that Lilla Moffat Levitt$s memories are going to go back further than anyone else$s. ABOT: I would probably guess so. Q: Because the other people that I$ve talked to - Mrs. ,urtis Jordan, who is 90 and in .anta Barbara - her Foreign .ervice connection only dates from 1921, because she was a bride. I don$t know anyone else other than Elsie and Lilla. ABOT: 6ell, the amusing thing is here is Ailla, the daughter of an ambassador, having lived all those lives with her father, and then the very young wife of a very mature Foreign Service officer, who already had hit the top ranks when he married her. Q: .o, she went right from one to another and now has a son 0who is an ambassador1, so it$s really nice for her since her husband did die so early in her career, to have a son take over. ABOT: ItGs very nice. Q: Now, when did you enter the Foreign .ervice3 4ere you married when your husband entered3 ABOT: I married him when he was a third secretary in the embassy in Mexico. Q: In Me5ico3 .o, he had been to .anto Domingo before3 4 ABOT: Oh, goodness, yes. He had Peru and Santo Domingo before coming to Mexico. Q: .o your association with the .ervice actually started in 1932. .o you went to Me5ico ,ity as a bride3 ABOT: No, I was living in Mexico ity. Q: 8h, you were living in Me5ico ,ity. ABOT: And I had great connections with the Service, because I was working in New York at the Museum of Modern Art. I had a wonderful job. I was perfectly happy, and my Mother found out that I was flying and she didnGt like my flying, so she used this beautiful excuse to ask me to come to Mexico for hristmas and visit her. 6hen I got down there, it was just at the moment of turnover in the embassy. Mr. Morrow was leaving 2 a very astute and wise man with a very experienced wife. And a very interesting new ambassador came, whose name was 0euben lark. A Morman. HeGd been Under Secretary of State. A very able man, who came down to settle some very tedious and confusing financial patterns with Mexico. Being a Mormon, he and his wife lived very simply. In the embassy, there was no coffee, there was no tea, there was no drink ever served. There were very careful, agreeable regulations, but very simple regulations. I had a great many connections in Mexico, so they asked me to stay for a year and be the Social Secretary and introduce Mrs. lark to some of the confusions of diplomacy. I got my training there, because Arthur Aane, at that time, was the counselor, a very definite, astute, old2fashioned career man, and he simply taught me what goes on in an embassy. Then, I tried to help Mrs. lark. Q: How old were you at that time3 ABOT: I was .6. Q: 26. And could I ask what your maiden name was3 ABOT: Eli1abeth Aewis. Q: Elizabeth Lewis. ABOT: Yes. Q: And your mother was living in Me5ico ,ity3 ABOT: Yes. She was married to the Manager of the Aight and Power ompany. It was her second marriage. I had not been within Mexico for awhile, except I had all sorts of 5 friends and connections. By that time, Jack was at the embassy, and I just decided that I wouldnGt go back to New York. 6e were married about eight months later. Q: 8h, how nice. 4hat was the reaction of the Me5icans to the simplicity of the ,lark regime after what must have been a very elegant regime under Dwight Morrow3 ABOT: It was very interesting. They had every respect for Mr. larkGs ability. They recogni1ed him as a very important power, but the way lark handled the embassy is very interesting. Mr. lark, after a few months 2 when all these politicos would come to a party and come actually soused, because they would say, H6e will drink before we go there and then we will drink enough to get us through the partyH 2 said this is not very well done and weGll do this a different way. Across the lawn from the embassy were two little houses where two of our secretaries lived. Mr. lark, as guests came in, would say, HIf you feel you must have a cocktail, would you like to go across the lawn and have a cocktail with Mr. Satterthwaite or Mr. Daw2 sonIH hiefly, Mr. Satterthwaite. And, of course, the ambassador took care of that for Mr. Satterthwaite, but he did not serve liquor in the embassy. Q: But, really, how astute of him to solve the problem that way. ABOT: It was so much better, yes. And, of course, people soon learned. I mean, everybody learns the different patterns, and they were so much appreciated for their acquired calm distinction. They were very, very simple people after this tremendously sophisticated and elaborate Morrow regime. Q: 8h, and I$m sure it was. ABOT: They had a big embassy. They had a lot of people. But when we announced our engagement, the State Department, instead of keeping us in Mexico, promptly shifted us, you see, which they donGt do as much now. Now, they begin to let a wife, who has a connection with a country, either return to a country or stay in a country. But, in those days, the rule was adamant. Q: I do remember that. ABOT: So that, when we were married, we left for our post. Q: And then you went from there to where3 ABOT: 6e went to 0io. 6e were four years in 0io. Aovely yearsK Q: Lovely, a lovely city, and it lived up to its reputation3 ABOT: Everything about it was charming and beautiful and relaxed. The world was, more or less, at peace in Europe, and the Bra1ilians had no serious problems, except 6 terrible inflation even then, and much, too much, coffee. Aiving in 0io in those days, coffee was being thrown into the ocean. offee was being used for fuel for the little locomotives. 6e rode all over Bra1il with that wonderful, beautiful smell of the burning coffee. 4loriousK DlaughsE Q: 8f course, that was in the Depression. ABOT: It was all during the Depression, and living in Bra1il during the Depression times was as fortunate as could be. The State Department was unkind to us.