William Watts
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The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project WILLIAM WATTS Interviewed by: Charles Stuart Kennedy Initial interview date: August 7, 1995 Copyright 1998 A ST TABLE OF CONTENTS Background Born and raised in Ne York City Yale University% University of Syracuse% Harvard University (MA) U.S. Air Force - Russian language training ,ntered Foreign Service, .901 Foreign Service ,2am State Department - INR, Soviet Internal Affairs .901-.908 5amma 5uppie Operation Soviet press Relations ith Soviet Desk Seoul, 6orea - visa7political .908-.910 Ambassador :illiam Do ling Local environment Syngman Rhee Visa issuance Intervie ing North 6oreans Ambassador :alter McConaughy 6orea's .910 elections Rhee resignation ,isenho er letter to Rhee ,isenho er visit to 6orea Russian language training .910-.91. Mosco , USSR - Cultural affairs .91.-.913 Ambassador Tommy Thompson Ambassador Foy 6ohler Stalin "dethroned" Cultural e2hibits and events Local environment 1 Tricks for entrapment Lumumba students' oes Berlin :all falls Penkovsky files Cuban Missile Crisis 6hrushchev second letter to 6ennedy :ar averted 6hrushchev the man Anti-Russian feeling in USSR ,mbassy reporting Chinese language training .913 State Department - Office of Asian Communist Affairs .914-.910 Resignation, .910 Ford Foundation - Office of Policy Planning .910-.918 Rockefeller political campaign .918 The Ni2on :hite House - Staff Secretary, NSC .919-.9A0 6issinger and Ni2on relationship Internal back-biting State Department briefing books Internal NSC secrecy State Department versus :hite House By-passing bureaucracies Al Haig Tony Lake Vietnam USSR SALT talks Vietnam China NSC recommendations (NSIMs) Cambodia Resignation over Cambodia attack Aftermath Potomac Associates .9A0 Publications INTERVIEW 2 ": Today is August 7, 1995 and this is an interview with William Watts on behalf of the Association for Diplomatic Studies and I am Charles Stuart Kennedy. To begin this, could you tell me something about your family and when and where you were born and your early upbringing( :ATTS: I as born in Ne York City in .930. My parents married fairly late so I think of them as being al ays older people. I as one of four sons, a large family ithin the :atts clan, hich is a very big family, many of hom ere in business in various ays. My father orked on :all Street, but I had also a number ho had been in public service. A cousin of mine, ho as actually a generation older, Phillip :atts, as the e2ecutive secretary of the old policy planning staff under 5eorge 6ennan and Paul NitCe, orking under Dean Acheson. He as a very loyal Republican but he had gone in to ork ith Democrats and hen Dulles came in ith ,isenho er he as promptly fired. My t o older brothers both served in the Second :orld :ar. My eldest brother, hom I as probably closer to than anybody in my life, ound up in China aiting for the invasion of Dapan...I obviously find the current discussion about the use of atomic eapons a very interesting thing. If you havenEt read it, I ould urge you to read Donathan YardleyEs piece in the Post this morning. It is Fuite interesting and very balanced. ": Yesterday was the 50th anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and particularly in the academic world there has been a great debate over was it necessary or not, which is a much more generational debate, I thin-, than... :ATTS: I think hat is most bothersome is the group that argues that it as done for essentially racist grounds and an attempt to scare the Russians and had very little bearing on the ar, hich I think frankly is just absolutely bull shit. Any ay, hen the bomb fell, I remember screaming ith joy because I said, GHBH (my oldest brother Bigelo Es nickname) is going to come home alive.H And he did. My older brother as injured on Okina a, hich as one of the bloodiest battles of the ar -- a precursor of hat ould have been if e had to go on and invade the mainland. :hat happened then as -- and it changed my life -- my oldest brother ent through college and as at Harvard La School, and I as an undergraduate at Yale. He as recalled, having fought through the Second :orld :ar, into the Marine Air Corps. He had been a Marine pilot and loved to fly and had stayed in the Reserves. He as recalled to active duty on the day his class began their third year at Harvard La School and he as killed the day his class graduated. :hen he as recalled I immediately Fuit Yale. I felt, GYou fought your ar and I just canEt stay here.H I ent into the service here I as assigned to Russian language training in the Air Force. ": Where did you go( 3 :ATTS: I ent to Brooks Air Force base for the pre-language, here you learn the alphabet, etc.. Then you either ent to Monterey or to Syracuse. They took hat I think ere the second-rate students and sent them to Monterey for a short cram course. The people ho sho ed some aptitude ere sent to Syracuse for a full year. ": I have to say that I am an alumnus of Broo-s 6901rd Personal Processing S2uadron. :ATTS: I ent through that and the 4.st RSM. :hen ere you thereI ": I was there in 1950. :ATTS: I as there in .90.. ": I went to Monterey but this was before they had the short course. I too- a full 10 months. :ATTS: :as that in the army or air forceI ": Air force. :ATTS: The last letter e got from my brother before he as killed...I had ritten him saying ho bitter I as that he had fought his ar and as back in his second in 6orea and I as being in language training. He rote me a very carefully censored letter, cut out, but he as saying, GIf I kne hat you ere learning I ould kno hat I hear hen I go to ork every day.H In other ords, he made it clear that the pilots he as flying and fighting against ere mostly Russian, hich the Russians, of course, denied for years. ": I might as well mention here that I was in Korea in 1950 and I used to monitor the Soviet air force. I was on the fighter net... :ATTS: Yes, e used your tapes for training tapes hen I as at Brooks and Syracuse. Then I ound up in Bremerhaven, 5ermany monitoring the Soviet forces in ,ast ,urope. Any ay, that, as I say, changed my life. I as planning to go into la ith my oldest brother and instead I ound up in the Foreign Service. ": I thin- it is an interesting thing to loo- at our generation. I was born in 1908. The war, either World War II or the Korean War were great recruiters. I have to say I thin- the military language system, for those of us who were put into it, also was a great recruiter for the Foreign Service. :ATTS: And for a lot of other things. The number of people ho ent through the multitude of languages that ere being taught. Many of them have joined the Foreign Service, but many ent else here using that language. I keep bumping into some of my 4 old friends from back in Brooks and from .90.-03 and Syracuse and a lot of them stayed ith hat they learned. ": You were in the Air Force from when to when( :ATTS: From .90.-00. I served in Lackland AFB for basic training, Brooks Air Force Base in San Antonio, a full year at Syracuse, and then I as assigned to the 4.st Radio SFuadron Mobile in Bremerhaven, 5ermany. I as there for t o years and then discharged. :hat e ere doing as electronics intelligence of Soviet aircraft. I got out of the Air Force and ent back to school. :hat happened as I had Fuit Yale, I as an undergraduate of Yale. :hile I as in the service I had a really flukey deal. There as something called Operation Bootstrap hich said that if you had less than si2 months remaining to finish a college degree, and if it as your intention to make the Air Force a career, you could go to college to finish your undergraduate education. I had finished the Russian language training up at Syracuse, a year. I ent back to Yale and said, GLook, I have finished Russian language training, I have my old Yale credits, ho about my coming back and finishing up at YaleIH They said, GNo ay. You go back here you started as first term junior.H But Syracuse said, GIf you come back e ill give you a degree.H So, I then got that angled through the Air Force and ent to Syracuse for si2 months and got an undergraduate degree, hich I consider a complete fraud. Then I ent back do n to Te2as and as elcomed back by the Air Force and as told I ould be going to OCS since I planned to make the Air Force a career. I said, G:ell, you kno , I have changed my mind. I donEt think I ant to make the Air Force a career.H I as shipped overseas the ne2t day. T o of us did this together, a friend of mine and I ho had gone in...interestingly enough he as sent to Dapan and ound up at Habomai, ay up in the north at a listening post up there.