Courtesy of the Oregon Historical Society the Association For
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Courtesy of the Oregon Historical Society The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project AMBASSADOR ALAN GREEN JR. Interviewed by: Jim Strassmaier Initial interview date: April 20, 1999 TABLE OF CONTENTS Bac ground Born and raised in Oregon Stanford University; University of Oregon U.S. Army, World War II Dooley and Company Private Career Marriage and children Business ventures Western Batteries Clubs Alcoholism Politics Republican fundraising Political personalities East,West Center Oregon ports -eorge Bush .i/on Port E0uali1ation Agreement , 1234 Port Commission Federal Maritime Commission , Chairman 1281,1285 Senator Pac wood Shipping Act of 1285 Washington environment Tariffs 8apanese 9Bushites: President Reagan Personalities Unions 1 Presidential campaign Romania , Ambassador 1282,1222 Conformation Preparations Ceausescu Environment Revolution Financial arrangements Communists Elections 9Les Miserables: Washington visit Pro,Americans Ion Iliescu 8im Ba er Political parties Religion Miners Robert Dole 9Most Favored Nation: issue -ulf War Adoptions .ATO wives U.S. interests Distinguished Honor Award Peace Corps Threats Retirement 1222 President, Council of American Ambassadors Family INTERVIEW Q: This is an oral history with Alan " unch" Green, and the date today is the 20th of April, 1999, and the interviewer is Jim Strassmaier for the Oregon Historical Society. To start out, I wonder if I could simply have you state your full name and the date and place of your birth. -REE.: Yes. It's Alan -reen, 8unior. I have no middle initial. My friends call me Punch. I don't now what my enemies call me, but I'd just as soon not find out. 2 But I got the nic name from my father who was nic named Punch, and he got it from Michigan where he was born in Saginaw, Michigan, and I as ed him how he got the nic name Punch, and he said, A.one of your business.A So there you have it. In the 1220s, an informal organi1ation was active in Portland. They were nown locally as the Hoot Owls , I believe they broadcast on radio once a wee CSaturday night , 11:00 to 12:00 midnightD from the old Oregonian Building at Eth and Alder. I mention this because the names include Charles and Forrest Berg, Fran Sardams, Harry S. -rannatt, Homer Welch, and Alan 9Punch: -reen, Sr. , the -rand Song Master Cmy dadD. ItFs my understanding Dad had to come up with a song every wee . He had the natural talent to do this. I donFt have it, and IFve yet to see it in my children or eight grandchildren. The Hoot Owls are important to me because on or about May 1, 1225, I was made a member , I guess that ma es me the only remaining Hoot Owl sans the talent of my illustrious predecessors. .ow, I was born on May the 1st, 1225, in Portland, Oregon, and my mother was Helen Corbett Ladd, a prominent family in Oregon. Q: Could you tell me something about the traditions, beginning with the Ladds, your mother's side of the family, and what you ,new of them, and what you heard from your mother about the family- -REE.: Well, actually, it's really ind of a sad story. The Ladds did an awful lot for this area, and W.S. Ladd was one of the founders, for e/ample, of the Arlington Club and was a ban er, Ladd G Tilton Ban , which, of course, established the U.S. National Ban here. They went under, under the tutelage of my grandfather, Wesley Ladd, and I thin it's Charles Ladd, and it was a bad trip. -oing from rich to poor is very difficult, and combined with the Depression , this even happened before the Depression. But my mother lost her hearing, and Dad, I thin , lost his nerve. He was a marvelous man; I don't want anybody to misinterpret. I love my father very deeply, but he lost his nerve, and he turned, I thin , to boo1e. He handled it pretty well, but I was young. But I new that he had a problem, and Mother lost her hearing. I mean, I went to Ainsworth School, and she was the cashier in the cafeteria, and I have a feeling that , I was never aware of it, but I thin that that's how I got fed , so she didn't have to pay for the lunch for me. She had some awfully good staunch friends, and Dad did, too. But I was aware that we didn't have any particular money, but I also wasn't that aware because I was a boy, you don't reali1e those things when you're a id. Everybody was bro e anyway in the Depression. And we had some marvelous people living across the street from us on Talbot Road on Portland Heights by the name of Octy and Roberta -raham. I as ed them to be my 3 godmother and godfather, and they accepted to my joy. And they had a dog named 8iggs. We couldn't afford a dog, so I adopted 8iggs, and they had two of the greatest sons I've ever nown, Clar -raham and Douglas -raham, and both of them have passed on. But they were certainly my boyhood friends. And I remember Aunt Bob -raham gave me my first pair of long pants for Christmas, and she's been a dear friend of mine ever since. I love her dearly, and she's 101 years old. And I just last wee , 8im, saw her, and her main concern was getting the Master's -olf Tournament on television. I mean, that's, when you're 101 and you have that sort of interest. Her eyesight is leaving her, but I gave her a ABoo s on Tape: mechanism and she's utili1ing that, and the state of Oregon provides Boo s on Tape free of charge, you just return them. It's a marvelous service that I wasn't aware that they do. But that's, I thin , filled her day 0uite a bit. But I played the usual things, football, baseball. I was a trac man, surprisingly enough. At Lincoln School, I almost had the record for the , I had the record for the 0uarter mile, but then I twisted my an le chasing Sol Menashe because he'd stolen my lunch, and I slipped and twisted my an le, and I couldn't get my speed bac in time to get the record, and that's something , it's a funny thing, all my life I've ind of regretted that because Lincoln, you now, we didn't have any really good football team; we had good baseball teams, but, you now , and bas etball teams, we had good bas etball teams. Q: I wonder if we could sort of go bac, to your family for a bit. .ou say your dad lost his nerve. About what time -- -REE.: Oh, I thin when the Ladd estate went down the tube, and that sort of thing. I thin he was a bro er, and I thin he would have been tremendously successful if he'd stayed with it. He had that ind of personality. But it just didn't wor out, and I can remember Dad , well, I suppose it's all right to say , pic ing up the telephone and tal ing about some business thing, and I pic ed up the telephone and the line was dead on the other side. I mean, that sort of thing. You now, it was sad. But Dad, I tell you one thing he did. During World War II, he too a job in the shipyard, and you now, the people I was going with were pretty fancy, and Dad was, I thin , a time eeper down there, and he'd ta e the streetcar home. And I'd be on the streetcar with him sometimes, and you now, I'd go over and sit with him, and he'd say, AYou don't have to sit with me,A you now, so I'd be embarrassed. And I said, ADad, I'm proud to sit with you.A And then Mother, she had a tough time with it for a while, an awful tough time. But Lord, the more she came on , and maybe I'm jumping ahead, and if I am, I'm sorry, but I thin one of the biggest pleasures of whatever success I've had is the fact that I was able to ta e care of my mother at the end. She didn't have anything to worry about, and it wasn't tough for me to help her. Well, we'll stay with this, but I do want to put in right now that the most important 4 decision I've reached, ever reached in my life is the girl I married, 8oan Irwin. She was right with me all the time, and through the boo1e and the whole thing, and if I'd ta en another drin , I wouldn't be married to her , and justifiably so, I might add. -o ahead. Q: 0ell, you're having a really full picture of your life, going bac,. But that ma,es a lot of sense. -REE.: Yes. But I do want to get in early on that I would not be a success without 8oan. 8oan had some money, too. Her father was a very successful lumberman. We didn't use it particularly; I was able to ma e money. But I used her guarantee a couple times.