The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project
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The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project AMBASSADOR WILLIAM GREEN MILLER Interviewed by: Charles Stuart Kennedy Initial interview date: February 10, 2003 Copyright 2016 ADST TABLE OF CONTENTS Background Born and raised in New York City Williams College; Goethe Institute, Germany; Magdalen College, Oxford University; Harvard University Marriage Entered the Foreign Service in 1959 Isfahan, Iran; Vice Consul 1959-1962 Environment The city 1953 coup SAVAK US military and economic aid Mullahs Agriculture Mosaddegh US policy The Shah Local staff Tribes Security Contacts Teheran, Iran; Political Officer and Aide to Ambassador 1962-1965 Iran’s foreign policy CIA Ambassador Julius Holmes Vice President Johnson’s visit Shah Khomeini Status of Forces Agreement Anti-Shah riots 1 Iran as US policy issue Congressional attitude State Department, INR; “Iran, Political Dynamics” 1965 Assignment to the Peace Corps, Middle East Program 1965-1966 Iran Programs Importance State Department, Executive Secretariat 1966-1967 Operations and Issues Vietnam Policy Resignation 1967 Assistant to Senator John Cooper 1967-1972 Vietnam Environment Duties Anti-Ballistic Missile debate Senator Cooper President Nixon Relations with State Department Watergate “Saturday Night Massacre” The Pentagon Papers Kissinger China relations Chief of Staff, Senate Select Committee 1972-1976 Presidential Emergency Powers and War Powers Secret Activities and Intelligence “Family Jewels” Rockefeller Commission Security maintenance FBI files Underworld hearings CIA and foreign elections Ambassador-CIA relations Terrorist activities Senatorial Intelligence Oversight Committee 1976-1981 Creation of Permanent Standing Committee Investigative committee 2 Oversight Committee FBI leadership Presidential use of intelligence National Intelligence Estimates Iran Hezbollah The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy; Associate Dean 1981-1986 and Adjunct Professor of International Politics European vs. American universities American Committee on U.S. -- Soviet Relations 1986-1992 George Kennan Andropov Gorbachev Board members Soviet changes Soviet International Foundation Perestroika Soviet Personalities The Interregional Group Rules of the Supreme Soviet Gorbachev vs. Yeltsin Non-government organizations Soviet changes from within Communications China interest CIA analysis Yeltsin Fall of Berlin wall The Baltics Coup US as model Views on Soviet breakup Soviet economic structure Soviet industrial base Brezhnev Changes in Embassy operations Economic collapse Soviet society Susan Eisenhower Soviet Republics Soviet personalities Intellectual Programs Clinton Administration, Transition Team 1992-1993 3 President Clinton’s views on Soviet Union Gorbachev policies Transition Team members Administration Policies Personnel Ambassador to Ukraine 1993-1998 Nuclear arsenal Diaspora groups Strobe Talbot US support for Ukraine Ukraine-Russian relations Crimea Black Sea Fleet Meshkov government Ethnic groups Odessa Collectives Social structures Relations FBI presence Corruption Economy Foreign aid NATO Kuchma Chernobyl Woodrow Wilson International Center; Senior Fellow 1998- Kyiv Mohyla University Foundation Iranian affairs The Foreign Service as a career Suggestions and advice Addendum INTERVIEW Q: Today is the 10th of February, 2003. This is an interview with William Green Miller, and this is being done on behalf of the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training, and I’m Charles Stuart Kennedy. Do you go by Bill or what? MILLER: Yes. I am called Bill by my friends. 4 Q: Could you tell me when and where you were born and something about your family background? MILLER: Yes, I was born in New York City. Q: What year was that? MILLER: 1931, August 15th, and I was brought up in New York. I’m a native New Yorker. I went to public schools until the 7th grade when I went to Trinity School. Q: I want to take you back a bit. First, about your father, could you tell me about his background and sort of the Miller family on his side? MILLER: Yes. My father was a commercial artist. His family came from St. Petersburg around 1890 and they settled in New York. His father’s work was as a contractor, renovation of apartments, things of that sort, although his background in Russia was as a soldier, as far as I understand the family history. I recall my grandfather telling me that as a young man he worked on lumber rafts that floated timber down the river. I also recall that he was fond of listening to opera. We were at his house when Pearl Harbor was attacked. I remember the opera performance was interrupted with the news of the attack. Q: Did he get any higher education? MILLER: My grandfather? No. My father, didn’t get any higher education beyond high school, because he was born deaf, and went to primary and secondary schools in New York schools for the deaf. Q: This is your father? MILLER: My father. My mother, who was also deaf, was also born in New York. She was of Irish ancestry. Her father was a Protestant from Dublin, and her mother was a Catholic, also from Dublin. Her mother was disowned for marrying a Protestant. Q: Oh yes, this is an era of -- I mean, this is very important. MILLER: Still is. Both my mother and father grew up in New York. They met in the circles of deaf people in their schools, and married in 1930, and I was born in 1931. Q: Your father, you say he was an illustrator, do you recall any of the sort of things he was doing as an illustrator? MILLER: Yes, the company he worked for, which I remember, did a variety of printing: maps, advertising, advertising lay-outs for newspapers and magazines, that sort of thing, and he worked on illustration projects that went into books -- lithographs particularly. He was very good at working on drawings that would then be transferred to the lithographic technique. 5 Q: How was it growing up with your parents both being deaf? I always think of the Lon Chaney experience, where both his parents were deaf, and the concern with whether the son would be deaf. How does this work out for you? MILLER: It wasn’t a problem at all because New York was and is so compressed and entwined, and interrelated that the presumed isolation of the silent world really doesn’t apply. It was just another language to me, in fact, two languages actually, that is, sign and being able to read lips. I learned to anticipate, to intuit, I suppose, might also be part of that legacy of languages and communication. I was learning English, of course, and the varieties of American English because New York was and is such a melting pot -- Irish, Italian, German -- at the time I was growing up. Those were the major groups I remember, as well as Native New Yorkers -- meaning those who had been in New York for at least a generation. The public school, P.S. 151 and the nearby parish church was very important for me. At P.S. 151, I can remember my friends: Herbert Bauerly, Helen Jansen, Joe Gagliardi, and Manus Marcruf. I can recall my devoted teachers such as Miss Taylor who gave me books to read and invited a few of us to have tea in her house nearby the school. Teachers like Miss Taylor instilled in me a love of books and learning, which I have never lost. Q: Which church was this? MILLER: St. Mark’s Church. Q: Was this the Catholic Church? MILLER: No, St. Marks was an Episcopal church. I had a good voice as a child. I sang in the choir. The church was the center of many of my activities beyond the choir and religious life -- cub scouts, boy scouts, athletic teams, parties and dances. Because I was a soloist with a good voice, I was given a choir scholarship to Trinity School in New York. I was a good athlete, as well as the first in my class all the way through. Q: What sort of athletics? MILLER: I played everything. I was very fortunate to be able to play in all the available sports. I was a five letterman in a small school, like Trinity, This was possible in a different era of physical demands. So I played every sport: football, I ran winter track and spring track, I played baseball and basketball. I even boxed in the Police Athletic League and did some wrestling at Trinity. We were very well coached. All our teams did very well. Our basketball team was undefeated in 1948 in a very tough New York City league. At that stage of my young life, athletics were very important. I was very pleased when I was awarded the Holden Cup given to the best athlete in the school in my senior year. Q: What about at home? This is the era -- as a small lad you were there to catch or at least be aware of the Great Depression toward the end. Did this affect your family very much? 6 MILLER: No, I don’t think so because -- no, we were never in poverty. We were poor, but never in poverty. My father was always working so there was never that problem that so many had in the thirties and since everyone else I knew was in the same condition it was not seen by me as exceptional to be poor and have to be frugal. My childhood life growing up was within a great, vibrant city and a community and a world where almost everyone shared this experience. We lived in a model public housing project called Boulevard Gardens. Built in 1935,. The apartments were set in gardens. I can recall the plantings which included big maples and oaks and roses and lots of ligustrum hedges. I remember the rent which was $10 a room. Most of the neighbors were recent Irish immigrants. Q: What about New York being such a cosmopolitan place -- did the outside world intrude as far as national politics and international events and all this? MILLER: Oh yes, very definitely, from the beginning.