The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project AUGUST VELLETRI Interviewed by: Charles Stuart Kennedy Initial interview date: February 12, 1993 Copyright 1998 ADST TABLE OF CONTENTS Background Raised in New York and Italy Italy under Mussolini Rice and Ohio State Universities I R (Italian and (atican Affairs) 19,9-19.6 Italian political situation 0ommunists in San Marino 1uestion of relations with (atican Rome2 Italy 19..-1960 Political section Evacuations in 19.6 Sue5 6ar 0hristian Democratic Party Ambassador 0lare Booth 8uce U.S. influence Pope Pius :II Archbishop Dell;Acqua and Igino 0ardinale (atican intelligence service 0ardinal Minds5enty EUR 1960-196, ATO affairs Italian desk Personnel Athens2 Greece 196,-1969 Political officer 0olonel;s coup The Papandreous Orthodox 0hurch 1 Peshawar2 Pakistan 1969-1973 0onsul USAF Alistening postB Intelligence gathering Indo-Pak 6ar 1971 Political activity INTERVIEW Q: Today is February 12, 1993. This is an interview with August Velletri on behalf of the ssociation for Diplomatic Studies and I am Charles Stuart Kennedy. Mr. Velletri could you give me a feel for your background--when, where you were born, your education, etc., (E88ETRIC I was born in Ithaca2 New York. 6hen my father died I was about two years old and my mother decided to go back to Italy. 6e were four in my family...my mother and three children. I spent almost 12 years in Italy. Q: -here in Italy, (E88ETRIC 6ell2 it was south of Rome in towns by the names of Terracina and Fondi2 but I spent some time in Albano 8a5iale2 which is right outside of Rome and also near 8a Spe5ia where I spent about two years with my uncle. I went to school in Italy and completed the third year of gymnasium. Then I returned to the United States. Q: .ou were born in 1916, (E88ETRIC Yes2 a long time ago. Q: -hen did you go back to the 0nited States, (E88ETRIC I came back in 1932. Q: So you were in Italy for part of the Mussolini period. (E88ETRIC Yes. 6ell2 during the march on Rome I was there2 but I was very small. But even in these two little towns you could see the trouble between the Socialists and Fascists. They were fighting right in the middle of the streets sometimes. The Socialists were picked up and were given2 I remember2 large doses of castor oil and marched up and down the main street of the town. It was very embarrassing for them because naturally nature was taking its course. It was tough and many times I had to seek refuge in churches because often I was caught in the middle of these wild confrontations. 2 Q: 1ow old were you then when you came back, (E88ETRIC I was almost 16. Q: So you came back to..., (E88ETRIC Ithaca. Q: -hat were you doing during that time and the time when you got involved with the Department of State, (E88ETRIC I went to high school there. Then I graduated from high school and went to 0ornell for less than a year because I could not afford the high tuition of E.00 a year in those days. So I happened to get a scholarship at the Rice Institute in Houston2 Texas. I went there and spent about a year at the Institute2 which is now Rice University. By that time I had an offer to come to 6ashington by the Securities Exchange 0ommission which had offered me a job. So I came to 6ashington and have stayed here ever since. From there I went to Dayton2 Ohio during the war and then I went to Ohio State and did some graduate work and stayed on a while teaching. Somebody came from the Department of State and offered me a job in I R. Q: This is when, (E88ETRIC This was in 19,9. Q: .ou had already done some graduate work on the Christian Democratic Party. (E88ETRIC Yes. I passed my orals but did not present my dissertation. Q: .ou then came into INR. -hat were you dealing with there, (E88ETRIC I was dealing with Italy and the (atican. At that time2 in fact2 I went to Rome for three months to get some information to write the NIS ( ational Intelligence Survey) on the (atican. Then in 19.. the 6ristoni5ation movement... Q: This was the amalgamation of the Civil Service, which you were in, with the Foreign Service. (E88ETRIC Yes. Q: Now, I would like to go back to the INR period. .ou started there dealing with Italy and the Vatican in 1959. This is a very interesting period. One of the most crucial things at that time was the election of 1958. It was an open secret that the Soviets had been pouring money in and we had poured money in, particularly to the Christian Democrats. 3 -hat was the attitude towards Italian politics, Italy7s role and concerns about the Communists in this late forties, early fifties period, (E88ETRIC Strategically Italy occupied a very important place as far as the United States was concerned. I think we really feared a 0ommunist takeover in Italy. That would have been a catastrophic occurrence. That was the way we thought at the time. All sorts of money and aid was poured into Italy to prevent it. Of course we worked very closely with the 0atholic Party2 the 0hurch and the Holy See to prevent the 0ommunists from taking over. The only place in 6estern Europe where the 0ommunists were in charge was San Marino. If that happened in the rest of Italy it would have been too much. In fact San Marino was taken care of later on. I was in Italy at the time assigned to Rome in the political section and was the liaison officer to monitor the San Marino question. Q: -e will come back to that. How did we view the Communist Party of Italy at the time, Did we feel it was completely under Soviet..., (E88ETRIC Soviet influence and possibly control. I think that it might...a personal view at the time2 Togliatti would have been a much better man to work with2 but he had people under him like 8uigi 8ongo2 for instance2 who were very closely allied with the Russians and the 0omintern. During the Spanish 0ivil 6ar 8ongo played a very important role in Spain on the 0ommunist side. So there was that fear that if Italy went communist2 Russia would have gotten a foothold in southern Europe2 and this is what we did not want. Q: 1ow did we view the Christian Democratic Party during that time, (E88ETRIC 6ell the party was our faithful ally and we accepted its 0atholic ideology. 6e were not worried that it would bring a theological government in Italy. Q: -hat was the role of INR in Italian affairs, -hat did you do, (E88ETRIC 6e looked at it from the intelligence point of view. I think I R worked very closely with 0IA at the time. 6e did exchange information. I donFt think at the time I R had any great input into the policy making. Q: It was just an analytical tool. (E88ETRIC Yes. If the analysis put out by I R was accepted and did influence the policy2 well then I think that was to some extent incidental. Q: -hat about relations with the Vatican in this 1959-55 period, (E88ETRIC There werenFt any because2 as you remember2 the special representative of Roosevelt was withdrawn after the war. There was a gap. During his first campaign for the Presidency2 it was rumored that Truman had made a deal with 0ardinal Spellman. If the 0ardinal could help him get the 0atholic vote2 Truman2 if elected2 would sponsor 4 legislation to open up an American diplomatic mission to the (atican. He won the election2 as you well know2 and he did present 0ongress with a bill proposing a diplomatic relationship with the (atican2 but 0ongress turned it down. Q: It is hard to recall, but at the time there was great concern of church relations... (E88ETRIC At the time2 I believe2 The 6ashington Post was somewhat anti-clerical2 and anti-church. Also2 there were a number of liberal refugees from Italy2 who still were fundamentally anti-clerical and viewed the 0hristian Democratic Party and the (atican in a very negative sense. They heard that the (atican would eventually dominate the Italian political scene. I think I made a mistake in accepting an assignment in Italy2 because at the time2 the sending of a Foreign Service officer with antecedents in that particular country was not looked upon favorably. Q: So the fact you were of Italian background was... (E88ETRIC Of course my assignment was not to the political section of the Embassy but as deputy to the political counselor who headed the Rome 8iaison Group. Q: -e had these different groups. I was in the Dhahran Liaison Group, which was evacuations from the Middle East. .ou would be doing this with southern Europe. (E88ETRIC This is correct. The Rome 8iaison Group was responsible for the evacuation of American citi5ens in North Africa2 Egypt and the Middle East in general during a war. After the Sue5 6ar in 19.62 I moved into the political section as a political officer. Q: Did you get involved while in the Rome Liaison Group during the 1956 war in getting people out, (E88ETRIC Oh yes2 indeed. 8ansing 0ollins as chairman of the Group2 and I worked with Admiral G0atG Brown2 the head of the Sixth Fleet. 6e tried to GpressureG the Admiral into using the Sixth Fleet to get the Americans out from the Middle East.