The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project LUCIAN HEICHLER Interviewed by: Susan Klingaman Initial interview date: February 2, 2000 Copyright 2000 ADS TABLE OF CONTENTS Background Born in Vienna Austria Anschluss Environment in Austria Queen Wilhelmina%s assistance Jewish persecution Immigrated to ).S. - 19.0 Europe%s immigration policies 0ew 1ork )niversity 0aturali2ed ).S. citi2en - 19.. ).S. Army WWII Japanese language study Department of the Army - 3ilitary History 195. ).S. Army in WWII - 5erman research 6The Siegfried 7ine Campaign9 State Department - I0R - 5erman Desk 195.-1959 Wristoni2ation to FSR - 195. Biographic information Berlin 5ermany - Political Officer 1959-1965 Allan 7ightner Senat liaison officer duties Berlin Wall erected - August 13 1961 Environment Contacts Transit passes Russian threats 5DR economic crisis 6Semi9 divided Berlin ).S. protests wall Allied Control Authority operations 1 Willy Brandt%s anger at West 6Ostpolitik9 Divided 5ermany Escape story Vice President Johnson%s Berlin visit - 1961 7BJ%s antics President Kennedy%s visit - 1963 6Ich bin ein Berliner9 Kennedy assassination State Department - Foreign Service Institute (FSI) A Economic Training 1965 3acroeconomics 1aoundB Cameroon - EconomicCCommercial Officer 1965-1968 Tariff problems French legacy Bush country Comments on Wristoni2ation Process 1968 From FSR to FSO Kinshasa Eaire - Chief Economic Section and Deputy 1968-1970 Director of AID Economy Corruption Belgian legacy ).S. interests 3aurice Templesman ).S. programs 3issionaries Soviets ).S. military mission 3obutu 0atural resources Environment Rome Italy - 0ATO Defense College 1970-1971 Course of instruction Field trips Students Colleagues Bern Swit2erland - Political Officer 1971-1973 )SIS Ambassador Shelby Cullom Davis ).S. policy 2 0a2i legacy Reporting Alabama claims Environment State Department - E)R - Austria Italy and Swit2erland Desk 1973-1975 State Department - E)R - Federal Republic of 5ermany Desk Officer 1975-1977 Elwood Williams Balance of Points Offset Agreement William Casey Ambassador Peter Hermes 5eorge Springsteen 5erman visits to ).S. Relations with East 5ermany Consular agreement Relations with 5DR embassy 0otetaking for Kissinger Ambassador 3artin Hillenbrand Kissinger antics Ambassador Dobrynin and Kissinger Helmut Sonnenfeldt Arthur Hartman Kissinger%s arrogance Chancellor Helmut Schmidt visit White House relations ).S. forces in 5ermany 5erman reunification Brussels Belgium - NATO HeadGuarters - International Staff 1977-1980 Duties Relations with ).S. delegation The French CommuniGuBs Cruise missiles deployment President Carter visit Ankara Turkey - Counselor for DECA 1980-1983 (Development and Economic Cooperation Agreement) ).S. military bases ).S. military commands J)S3AT ).S. military aircraft Status of Forces Agreement Ambassador James Spain Coup d%Btat 3 5eneral Kenan Evren Environment Terrorism 5reek-Turkish issues Relations with State Duties Relations with ).S. military Ambassador Robert Straus2-HupB State Department - I0R - Interagency Coordinator 1983-1986 Personnel comments Duties Disillusionment Retirement Seminar Program 1986 Course of study Retirement 1986 Smithsonian Institution - Volunteer Computers Comments on career Preparation for Foreign Service Performance evaluation Topical 6Endnotes9 Emmerich to Eevenaar Postscript 3ilitary history The Berlin Wall How Berlin mourned John F. Kennedy Into Africa (with apologies to Isak Dinesen) Via delle 3ontagne Rocciose A day in the 7ife of a Foreign Service officer INTERVIEW Q: oday is February 2nd in the year 2000. his is an interview with Lucian Heichler, a retired Foreign Service officer. his interview is being conducted on behalf of the Association for Diplomatic Studies and raining. I am Susan Klingaman. Lucian, could you tell me something about when and where you were born and something about your family' HEICH7ER: Okay I was born in Vienna Austria in 1925. 3y father was a doctor in private practice an internist. I lived a relatively normal life for the first 13 years of my 4 life until 1938 when the Anschluss with 5ermany changed everything for me. I am Jewish and after a few weeks I was no longer allowed to attend school. Q: (hat did you do when you couldn)t attend school' HEICH7ER: Well my family tried at first to teach me at home but that experiment didnKt last very long because everybody was too nervous too anxious too busy. I ended up spending most of my time reading daydreaming keeping a diary. Our principal concern was leaving the country and young as I was I Guickly became an expert on most of the worldKs immigration laws. Our first intent was to go to America. Q: (hy was that' (hy, rather than any other country' HEICH7ER: 3y father had been to America several times in the late K20s and early K30s and liked it and thought if we wanted to settle anywhere at all it would be in the )nited States. Now this is a little funnyL itKs almost miraculous. )nder the American immigration law my father having been born in C2ernowit2 (which before World War I was part of Austria-Hungary but then became part of Rumania) was placed on the Rumanian immigration Guota (and my mother and I even though born in Austria along with him). 5iven the small si2e of pre-World I Rumania the Guota was tiny only about 295 people. And my father went down to the American consulate to register. A few weeks after the Anschluss he was told that it would be at least 10 years before his number came up and he might as well forget it. So we started casting around for other places to go and then he remembered that in the early K30s probably about 1931 he had toyed seriously with the idea of going to live in America and had been to the consulate to register. Q: Had he registered for a visa then' HEICH7ER: 1es he had registered for a Guota number. 3iraculously the consulate found his application even though it was by that time seven or eight years old - something that would never happen today. Q: Exactly. I can imagine. HEICH7ER: They found it and they told him that he was now practically at the head of the Guota. Q: hat is miraculous. HEICH7ER: That did not mean necessarily that we could leave right away. We had to fulfill other reGuirements. We had to find someone in the )nited States who would provide an affidavit attesting that we would not become burdens to the state. If that somebody was a relative his signature would sufficeL if a friend he would have to deposit M5 000 -- a very large sum in 1938 dollars.. It took two years but my mother finally found a very distant cousin in Chicago who had emigrated in the early K20s and he agreed to issue the affidavit -- on condition that we would never bother him. 5 Q: ,ight. HEICH7ER: And we never did bother him. We never met him. All I know is his name. Q: Interesting. HEICH7ER: And with that in hand Guota number affidavit and all we were able to obtain an immigration visa in January or February of 19.0. Then came the problem of how to pay for passage to America at an unbelievably inflated rate of exchange. The Deutschmark was worth practically nothing at this time - something like 30 marks to the dollar - however we had to pay at the official rate which was 2.5 marks to the dollar with the proceeds going to Vienna%s Jewish Community Center which used the money for such purposes as trying to save members of the Jewish community in Vienna by 6buying9 them free from the Na2is. Buying the three steamship tickets took about all the money that my parents had but apparently it sufficed. We packed up. We sold most of our goods at auction but were allowed to send a lift van to America. We were allowed to take the official eGuivalent of 10 Reichsmark a person out of the country with us - M..00. Q: hat too- a lot of courage, I would say. HEICH7ER: 1es - and a very limited number of goods like no more than 100 books no clothing less than two years old no jewelry no medical instruments - very very limited. And we booked passage on one of the last -- perhaps the last -- Holland-America 7ine ships to leave Rotterdam for New 1ork the S.S. .olendam. The ship was supposed to sail on the 28th of 3arch 19.0. )nder Dutch law we were allowed three days transit stay in the country no more. Well as it happened - I donKt want to make this too long a story (see endnote 1) - we arrived at the border on the 25th of 3arch and were turned back by the 5erman border police and told curtly that we might as well go back because the Dutch wouldnKt let us in. We were traveling with a transport of maybe 30 or .0 people accompanied by a young agent of the Dutch Holland-America 7ine office in Vienna. Q: hese were all other families, other Jewish families' HEICH7ER: 1es. 3y father and this young man managed to persuade the 5erman police at least to allow us into the waiting room and to make some inGuiries. Our young companion called his office in Vienna and slowly but surely the story came out. The ship we were supposed to sail on had been held up on the way back from New 1ork to Rotterdam by the British on suspicion of carrying contraband breaking the British blockade of 5ermany. She was still being held in Southampton harbor and there was no chance that she could sail from Rotterdam three days later. Then we were told to sit and wait. We waited there for some seven hours in total silence. It was for me an unforgettable experience - IKve written about it (see endnote 1) - because I knew even at the age of 1. that there was no place for us to go other than a concentration camp if we were not able to cross the border.