Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project KENNETH YATES Interviewed by: Charles Stuart Kennedy Initial interview date: March 20, 1997 Copyri ht 1998 ADST TABLE OF CONTENTS Background Born and raised in Connecticut Clarkson College University of Pennsylvania U.S. Army - 1958-1961 )yoto English teacher in Sapporo ,apan -U.S. Army. Adventures in ,apan -U.S. Army. Private banking in Philadelphia Entered Foreign Service -US0A. - 1961 A-100 course Foreign Service 0nstitute - )orean 3anguage Training 1961-1968 )orea - Public Affairs Officer 1968-1912 3anguage problems Ambassador 5illiam Porter Environment President Park Chung Hee Park-U.S. relations Threat from North )orea Peace Corps 7ietnam issue US0A programs Teaching American studies )orean education system Provinces vs. Seoul attitudes )orean vs. U.S. attitudes Divided )orea issue Student unrest Spreading 8the word: The George 5ashington University - Statistical Studies 1912-1913 1 US0A - Officer of Research 1913-1915 Media studies 3ebanon 0nformation Center 8Economic Portfolio: Computer study US0A leadership )abul Afghanistan - 0nformation Officer 1916-1918 Ethnic and tribal groups Past history Soviet activities Soviet-U.S. embassy relations Ambassador Ted Eliot US0S center USA0D C0A Security Revolt - 1918 Under fire Executions Revolution@s issues Revolt aftermath )hyber Pass Russian involvement in revolt 8An eye for an eye...: Mujaheddin Russian invasion prospect U.S.-trained Afghan officers U.S. press corps U.S. press chiefs meet Afghan press Tokyo ,apan - Policy Officer 1918-1982 ComputeriAation US0S regions US0NFO terminal Coordination responsibilities Programs Polling U.S.-,apan relations DRS PPBS system Bero Based Budgeting 3ibraries - organiAation and functioning COBO3 Outreach programs Trade issues U.S. military presence 2 Nuclear issues Congressional visits 5hite House personnel visits Presidential visits Environment ,apanese cultural and racial attitudes Ambassador Mike Mansfield Reykjavik 0celand - Public Affairs Officer 1982-1985 Ambassador Marshall Brement U.S. interests Strategic location Soviet military activities Chinese embassy U.S. )eklavik base 7ice President Bush visit SocialiAation Public Affairs Officer-embassy relations 7isitors program 8Crafts USA: 8Scandinavian Day: 5eather U.S.-0celand relations NATO tours Grenada invasion reaction Communist Party Dealing with leftists US0A - 5ashington DC - Office of Management 1985-1988 Special Assistant to Deputy Associate Director for Management Charles 5ick 7oice of America moderniAation program Security problems Computer problems Relations with Congress Funding 5ashington vs. 8Field: viewpoints State-US0A relationship Monitoring programs Broadcast station problems BBC comparison Evaluating US0S effectiveness 7oice of America special English program Radio T7 Marti -Cuba. Bern Convention 3 0nternational Center for 3anguage Studies and Foreign Service 0nstitute - 5ashington DC 1988-1989 Chinese language student )orean-Chinese comparison Chinese dialects Tiananmen SDuare - 1989 Beijing China - Deputy Public Affairs Officer 1989-1992 GuangAhou consulate activities and environment Fulbright Program demise Chinese public views Political 8chains: Farming and industry Military presence Shanghai branch problems Chinese military presence and control Book publishing program Book titles and U.S. authors Communicating with Chinese Shenyang branch visits -old Mukden. Cautions in discussing with Chinese Beijing environment Tourism problems 3iving in Beijing Dr. Fang 3i Bhi dissident Chinese surveillance Security Ambassador ,im 3illey Post-Tiananmen changes Nixon visit U.S. consulates Chengdu consulate role Travel in China 7oice of America Human rights issues Congressional visits U.S. press reporting Fulbright Program problems Meeting Chinese Hawaii - US0A Advisor to C0NCPAC 1992-1995 Environment Duties Admiral Church 3arsen Regional visits East-5est Center -SEAS program. C SEAS tours Ship visits Chinese visitors North )orean infiltration tunnel )orea border defenses 0ndonesian observations SEAS successes New Bealand and ANBUS Sommer@s report -New Bealand ports. ,apan and Status of Forces problems Seoul )orea - Seconded to State Department 1995 3iaison officer in Pyongyang North )orea DPR) submarine incident 3iaison Office plan aborted Foreign Service 0nstitute - State Department 1995-1996 orean 3anguage Student North )orea reactor problems State Department - Overseas Mission - 0AEA - Seoul )orea 1996 North )orean nuclear issues Monitoring )orean nuclear sites 3iving in North )orea Controlled environment in North )orea North )orean environment Nongbyon North )orean anniversary ceremony Experiences in North )orea Translation problems Dealing with North )oreans )im 00 Sung )im ,ong 00 Unification problems North )orean economy U.S. misconceptions of North )oreans Retirement 1996 INTERVIEW %E Today is March 20, 1997. This is an interview with Ken Yates bein done on behalf of the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Trainin and I am Charles Stuart Kennedy. Ken, could you tell me when and where you were born and somethin about your family* 5 FATESE 0 was born in New 3ondon Connecticut on the 10th of November 19C0. 0 began with the Second 5orld 5ar. My father was a salesman. He had the eastern part of Connecticut for Sunshine Biscuits and sold cookies. At the time 0 was born my mother was not working but when 0 got a little older she entered the workforce and we became a two-income family. 0 grew up in Mystic Connecticut which is a small seaport town. %: Whalin town. FATESE Fes. The whaling museum was right across the street from where 0 grew up. 0 used to go over the railing and wander around the museum. 0t was almost abandoned and wasn@t much then. They had the Charles Mor an an old whaling ship. As a child my father played on the Charles Mor an when it was a derelict wreck in New Bedford harbor so we had a family tie to that boat. The Mystic Marine Museum consisted of a reconstructed shipyard with supporting buildings including a rope-walk a ship@s chandlery a sail loft church apothecary school and a variety of other period buildings including homes. Each building had been disassembled at its original site the pieces numbered and recorded and then reassembled in Mystic. For example the old original New Fork Facht Club Building was brought to Mystic. Today the educational facilities have been expanded but the basic museum was there at the time. Now it costs a high price for a ticket but then nobody cared if the locals went in and out. 0 wandered around for many hours. 0 suspect my interest in Asia became firmly rooted at this time. The collection included a lot of Chinese artifacts because the whaling ships left the east coast and sailed around the Horn and up into the Pacific where they spent years in the whaling grounds there. China was a coaling station and a place for water and fresh vegetables so 0 learned a little bit about history and got a little sense of the rest of the world by jumping over the fence. For example the ships had rocks in the bottom of the hulls for ballast but when in Canton -GuangAhou. or similar Chinese ports they took the rocks out and substituted blue and white pottery which was cheap in China but brought a good price back in New England. A lot of the blue and white Chinese ware that shows up in antiDue shops in the area probably made its trip to America as replacement ballast. %: Where did you go to school* FATESE 0 went to a small town high school in Stonington and graduated in 1958. Mystic was then as now only a village divided between the towns of Stonington and Groton. Since 0 lived on the Stonington side of the Mystic River 0 went to Stonington High School. 0 was part of the group that was post-sputnik. %: Will you e,plain -post.sputni/0* FATESE That was when the Russians put up their first satellite that little beeping grapefruit that circled the earth and made such a splash. All patriotic Americans then wanted to become engineers. 0 was a member of the civil air patrol of the Boy Scout 6 Explorers and most other civic youth groups that were popular at the time such as the C- H clubs. 0 was the local cadet commander in the civil air patrol and had maxed out on the science portions of the Scholastic Aptitude Tests so 0 was given a strong nudge to become an engineer. 0 looked around for engineering schools including M0T Stevens and the smaller Clarkson College of Technology. My choice was Clarkson in Potsdam NF a small pretty good engineering college where 0 soon found myself working 16-18 hours a day in study. Fou couldn@t read a newspaper listen to the radio -television wasn@t such a big deal at that time. or have a social life. 0t was a slide rule on the hip and a constant grind of math physics and chemistry. My life consisted of classes all day study at night as much sleep as 0 could get and then early rising to study in the dorm cafeteria until the breakfast crowd forced me out. 0 was stimulated by the science and confused by the math. 0t wasn@t long before the boredom with the math and the frustration with seemingly overly picky profs who would not even allow erasures in work that was turned in for me to burn out in my first year. To give some variety to life 0 became part of a church group and even sang in the choir. There was a small Episcopalian church on a little island in the middle of the river that divided the two parts of the Clarkson campus. Each morning on the way to classes all the students had to pass over that island and usually by the wisecracking priest sitting on the steps of the rectory. During the mild haAing that went on during the first weeks at school the priest would sit on those steps and jeer as the embarrassed freshmen paraded by. There was one particular onerous custom of Gbackwards day@ when all Freshmen had to wear all items of clothing shirts pants belts an even the foolish little beanie that was part of the freshman@s trials backward.