LIBERIA COUNTRY READER TABLE OF CONTENTS William E. Reed 1946-1948 Economic Mission for the State Department, Li eria Edward R. Dudley $r. 1948-1953 Am assador, Li eria Allen C. Davis 1958-1960 Consular/,olitical Officer, Monrovia .eorge $aeger 1958-1960 Commercial Officer, Monrovia Miles Wedeman 1960s 0SA1D Africa 2ureau, Washington, DC Leon Weintrau 1962-1964 ,eace Corps 4olunteer, Monrovia and 5ahnple Mary Chiavarini 1963-1965 Consul, Monrovia $ames R. Meenan 1965 Trainee, Li eria Audit ,rogram, 0SA1D, Monrovia Ro ert 7. Nooter 1965-1967 Mission Director, 0SA1D, Li eria $ohn L. Loughran 1966-1967 Consul, Monrovia 7orace .. Dawson 1967-1970 ,u lic Affairs Officer, 0S1S, Monrovia $ohn A. Linehan $r. 1967-1970 Senior ,olitical Officer, Monrovia $ohn .. Edensword 1970-1972 Consular Officer, Monrovia Charles E. Rushing 1971-1973 Chief of the Economic/ Commercial Section, Monrovia 2eauveau 2. Nalle 1972-1974 Chief of the ,olitical Section, Monrovia 7oward S. Teeple 1972-1975 ,u lic Affairs Officer, 0S1S, Monrovia Thomas :. $ohnson 1975-1977 Assistant. ,u lic Affairs/1nformation Officer, Monrovia 7arvey E. .utman 1975-1978 ,rogram Officer, 0SA1D, Monrovia 2everly Carter, $r. 1976-1979 Am assador, Li eria 7arold E. 7oran 1976-1979 Deputy Chief of Mission, Monrovia 8oel Marsh 1976-1980 ,rogram Officer, 0SA1D, Monrovia $ulius W. Walker $r. 1978-1981 Deputy Chief of Mission, Monrovia ,arker W. 2org 1979-1981 Country Director, West African Affairs, Washington, DC Ro ert ,. Smith 1979-1981 Am assador, Li eria ,eter David Eicher 1981-1983 Desk Officer, Washington, DC $ohn D. ,ielemeier 1981-1984 Deputy Director, 0SA1D, Monrovia $ohn E. 7all 1984-1986 Economic Counselor, Monrovia 5eith L. Wauchope 1984-1986 Deputy Director, :rancophone West Africa, Washington, DC 1986-1989 Deputy Chief of Mission, Monrovia 7erman $. Rossi 111 1986-1989 Economic Officer, Monrovia $ames 5. 2ishop $r. 1987-1990 Am assador, Li eria Donald ,etterson 1998-1999 Chargé d=Affaires, Monrovia ,rudence 2ushnell 1993-1995 Deputy Assistant Secretary, Su -Sahara Africa, Washington, DC WILLIAM E. REED Economic Mission for the State De artment Monrovia (1946-1948) Dr. William E. Reed was born in 1914 and raised in Columbia, Louisiana. He received a bachelor‘s degree in agricul ural science from Sou hern Universi y in Ba on Rouge, Louisiana; a mas er‘s degree in 1940 from Iowa S a e Universi y; and earned a Ph.D. in soil science and chemis ry form Cornell Universi y in 1945. In addi ion o serving in Ghana, Dr. Reed served in Liberia, Nigeria and E hiopia. He was in erviewed by Henry E. Ma o/ on July 1, 1992. REED: 1n Octo er of ?46, 1 was contacted by the State Department, which invited me to join an economic mission to Li eria. 34 They wro e you6 They elephoned you6 REED: 1 was contacted by the State Department. Actually, it was the National Academy of Sciences that had listed my name as a suita le person to contact. And 1 believe it was my major professor, who was a mem er of the National Academy of Sciences. 7e was the head of the department of soil science and agronomy at Cornell. 34 Wha was your Ph.D. area6 REED: My ,h.D. was in soil science, soil chemistry. 1 was in school at Cornell from 1944 to ?45. 1 had the ,h.D., and 1 was invited to join this team. The money funding this economic mission to Li eria was through the State Department. The reason for esta lishing this mission was that before ,resident Roosevelt died, he had made a loan for twenty million dollars to build a port in Li eria. After ,resident Roosevelt passed, the State Department was concerned a out whether Li eria would ever be a le to repay that loan. 2efore that, small amounts of money had been loaned to Li eria, but 1 think Li eria had defaulted on most of those payments. So there was a concern a out whether Li eria would ever be a le to repay that loan. 0nlike today, the loan was made without any feasi ility study or anything, and there was very little information in Li eria itself, what missionaries and all, and it was scattered. Actually, there was very little factual economic information on the economic potential of Li eria. So a small team of a out 15 officers was sent to Li eria to make an economic survey, and 1 was a mem er of that team. 34 Do you remember who he eam leader was6 REED: Oscar W. Meier was the chief of the mission, you could call it. 34 Was he an economis 6 REED: 1 don=t think he was really a trained economist, as such. 7e was supposed to have had some eAperience in administration of a..., but 1 don=t think he was really a trained economist. 7e was more or less a person who had worked in the government and had moved up more or less in administration. ,erhaps he might have had some eAperience in managing finance, but 1 don=t think he was an economist. 34 So all 15 of you go oge her and flew ou o Monrovia. REED: We didn=t go out at one time, no. The recruitment was scattered. When 1 arrived, Meier was there, and there must have been four or five other officers. There was one person who had een there before, and he was held on. 7is name was :rank :ender. And :rank :ender had carried on a type of agricultural eAtension work, but he really wasn=t trained in research and that type of thing. 7e had been there during the war period, when our government sent people out to promote the eAtraction availa ility of agricultural products that would be useful for the war effort. 7e had been there earlier, and so he was held on. 34 Was he mission based in he embassy6 REED: No, our headBuarters was in the old .erman legation building, which 1 imagine had been almost vacant since World War 1. During World War 11, there had been a pu lic health program there, and there was already in operation a team, 1 think detailed from the military, to supervise the building of the port. So that was another unit there. Our program was directly under the control of the State Department, whereas the pu lic health mission was under the Department of 7ealth...not 7uman Services then. 1t was another unit of government, but not under the Department of State. 34 How did he eam conduc i s ac ivi ies6 REED: Well, my responsi ility was to travel into the field and to collect information on the different soils. 1n fact, 1 could give you a pu lication that was done of my work, a report of the mission. There were two reports that were pu lished by the State Department and the 0.S. Department of Agriculture: my reportC and another one, by Carl Mayer, of the forestry resources. 8ow what we did was to travel all over the country. There were no roads in the interior. There were no paved roads in Li eria at that time, eAcept for a out 20 feet in front of the president=s mansion. There were these laterite roads, you know, gravel, laterite, dusty roads from Ro erts :ield, the :irestone ,lantation, up to Monrovia, which is a out a distance of 40 miles. And the only other passa le road was...you=ve never been to Li eriaD 34 No, I haven‘ . REED: There was another road that eAtended inward a out 20 additional miles. So altogether there were hardly over 60 miles of roads over which you could use a $eep or a car to travel on in all of Li eria. And all the other places you had to go, you had to walk. So 1 would may e spend as much as three to four weeks in the interiorEwalking for 20 or 30 miles a dayEcollect information, make notes, and return. When 1 would go out, 1 would have to have a lot of what we called local employees to go with me. And 1=d have to carry enough money to buy food for them, to feed them while 1 was on these field trips. We couldn=t use paper moneyC it would have to be coins, and we=d have to carry that in on the heads, in metal cases. Fou=d have to take may e four or five hundred dollars in change, and that=s pretty heavy. 34 Sounds li7e a safari. REED: 1t was. 34 And i wasn‘ dangerous, carrying ha money around6 REED: 1 never lost any money. 34 Well, ha ‘s an in eres ing way o see he coun ry. REED: Fes. 34 I did ha in Nepal years ago. The only way o ge around was o wal7. REED: That=s right. 34 9ou were here wo years. REED: 1t was actually almost two and a half years. 34 And he eam even ually issued an overall repor 6 REED: 1 never saw an overall report. 1 think everything we did was monthly reports and provide additional information. 1n fact, 1 was asked to stay on siA months longer than 1 had planned. During the period we were in Li eria, ,resident Truman made his ,oint :our speech, and we were asked to make recommendations as to how that program might be applied to Li eria. So we made... recommendations. 1n fact, at that time, there were only two programs worldwide that carried out the idea of what we were doing in Li eria.