The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project AMBASSADOR J.D. BINDENAGEL Interviewed by: Charles Stuart Kennedy Initial interview date: February 3, 1998 Copyright 2 2 ADST TABLE OF CONTENTS Background Born and raised in South Dakota niversity of South Dakota" niversity of Illinois ROTC, .S. Army, (ermany Entered Foreign Service - 19,5 Seoul, .orea - Economic Officer 19,5-19,, /Tree Trimming0 crisis Commerce Chae1ol 2conglomerates3 Politics Environment Bremen, (ermany - Economic Officer 19,,-19,9 Commodities Society .S.-(erman relations Rockets (reens Netherlands relations State Department - (ermany Desk Officer 1980-1983 Politics Economics 8issiles Soviets East (ermany (erman chancellors Bonn, (ermany - Political Officer 1983-1989 (reens 8issiles French 1 (erman reunification Political parties (uestworkers Economy Bit1urg Reagan visit East (ermany State Department - Operations Center 1989-198, Issues Congressional Fellow 2American Political Science Association3 198,-1988 Representative Lee Hamilton Duties State Department - European Bureau - Canada Desk Officer 1988-1989 Armed forces coordination Joint pro1lems Que1ec East Berlin, (ermany - DC8 1989-1990 Religion Environment Operations Elections Leadership Revolutionists Soviets Refugees Demonstrations Honecker Fall of Berlin Wall Insert: Novem1er 9, 1989 Speech /Fall of the Berlin Wall0 After the fall Secretary of State Baker visit nification issues European nion Elections NATO East (ermans Economic monetary union Terrorists New consulates Congressional visits 2 State Department - European Bureau - Trade with Developing Countries - Director 1990-1991 TDA - Rockwell International 1991-1992 Soviet nion microfilming State Department - Central Europe - Office Director 1992-1994 NaCi records microfilming .S. Holocaust 8useum NATO enlargement President ClintonDs Berlin visit Bosnia Secretary of State Warren Christopher AWACS /Partnership for Peace0 N Force Balkan war2s3 French (ermanyDs world role Bonn, (ermany - DC8 1994-199, .S. investments Dresden Neo-NaCis Congressional visits NATO enlargement State Department - Economic and Business 199,-1998 NaCi gold issue Stolen art Holocaust assets Swiss banks (erman foundations Eichy regime acts /Conflict diamonds0 Retirement 1998 Asia Foundation speech Appointed .S. Am1assador, Special Envoy, for Holocaust Issues - 1999 Eice President for Program, Chicago Council on Foreign Affairs Attachments: /The Night the Berlin Wall Fell, Novem1er 9, 1989F /Justice, Apology, and Reconciliation and the (erman Foundation. Remem1rance, Responsi1ility, and the Future0 3 /Prologue To Diplomacy: The Bindenagel Family in America - an essay0 INTERVIEW $: Today is February 3, 1998. The interview is with J.D. Bindenagel. This is being done on behalf of The Association for Diplomatic Studies. I am Charles Stuart Kennedy. J.D. and I are old friends. We are going to include your biographic s,etch that you included at the beginning, which is really -uite full and it will be very useful. I have a couple of -uestions to begin. While you were in high school, what was your interest in foreign affairs per se. I ,now you were tal,ing politics with Mr. Fran, Humphrey, Senator Hubert Humphrey1s brother, at the Humphrey Drugstore in Huron, South Da,ota, and all that, but how about foreign affairs. BINDENA(EL: I grew up in Huron, South Dakota and foreign affairs in South Dakota really focused on our home town politician Senator and Eice President Hu1ert H. Humphrey. Frank, Hu1ert HumphreyDs 1rother, was our connection to Washington, DC, and the center of American politics. We followed Hu1ertDs every move as Senator and Eice President" he of course was very active in foreign policy, and the issues that concerned South DakotaDs farmers were important to us. 8ost of farmersD interests were in their wheat sales, and when we discussed what was happening with wheat you always had to talk a1out the Russians, who were buying South Dakota wheat. We were greatly influenced by the views of leading politicians like Humphrey and by South Dakota Senator (eorge 8c(overn, whose Food for Peace idea became a 1eacon for li1eral policy of the .ennedy Administration and helped South Dakotan farmers sell their wheat. These politiciansD politics may have been based on local interests in agriculture, 1ut those interests brought us high school kids closer to Russia and the Cold War. $: What about Russia and wheat. Was Russia a purchaser or a competitor. BINDENA(EL: Russia was a purchaser and there was always the Guestion whether their harvests would not satisfy their needs or would provide the market for South Dakota farmers. Each year market uncertainties would affect the price of wheat worldwide. In addition, the S (overnment would determine whether to allow the Soviets to purchase American wheat. This de1ate was our window on international politics" .S. relations with Russia were very much on our young South Dakotan minds. $: As a high school student and even before you were busy singing and in sort of various e3tracurricular activities. What did you read. Any sort or types of boo,s. BINDENA(EL: One of the books that forcefully struck me early, was a book called /(iants in the Earth0 by O. E. Rolvaag, a Norwegian immigrant to the Dakota Territory at the turn of the century. The book descri1ed life on the prairie, 4 its character and interaction with the elements, especially the weather. As you will find when you talk to people from the prairie, or at least from South Dakota, that the elements of nature play an incredi1ly important role not only for the crops but also for our very survival. Rolvaag was a very important novelist for me" he captured the characteristics necessary for survival in the bleak, bleak prairie H self -reliance, individualism and community. These values were certainly our link to Jacksonian Democracy, a frontier culture where government actively supports the well being of the community H its political, economic and moral welfare. Also, I read other pure American literature of John Stein1eck, Jack London and, 8ark Twain. Those were the adventure and novels that we read. $: How about Willa Cather and something li,e that. BINDENA(EL: I should of course talk a1out /Small Town on the Prairie,0 Willa Cather from neigh1oring Ne1raska was a favorite author. Not to forget Laura Engels Wilder from DeSmet, South Dakota. Of course, both authors were part of the genre that eIplained our lives to the world. By the way, DeSmet and our capital, Pierre, were named for the Catholic missionary Pierre DeSmet from Belgium, who helped bring education to the Indians and the settlers in the Dakota Territory in the late 19th Century. $: I was going to say that you were coming out of the period when there was a considerable literary focus on that particular element, area of the country. Follow the literature of the 42 s and 43 s and 45 s, of course they are still being read. There was -uite a school around the prairies. BINDENA(EL: Indeed. And for us the literature was not only entertainment" 1ooks helped us understand our daily life. It was our literature" we discussed it to understand our connections with life and our outlook on the world. As you see in the /Life on the Prairie0 and the connection to politics, you find very much the conflicts we faced, whether in the Cold WarDs conflicts or in the elemental conflicts we faced eking out a living on the very harsh prairie. We were children of pioneers on the prairie and our lives were descri1ed in the literature. Our politics were shaped in the discussions that we had at the Huron J.J. New1erryDs store soda fountain with Hu1ert HumphreyDs brother Frank, while we drank cherry coke. Frank would tell us stories a1out his 1rotherDs political eIploits in Washington, and we listened in awe of the great man from our hometown. $: Were there any particular ties to Scandinavian countries, other than some people were from Scandinavia. I was just wondering that. BINDENA(EL: For me there were very few ties for us to Scandinavia, other than the bachelor Norwegian jokes. Our family had a strong personal history of our arrival in Dakota Territory. 8y great-grandfather Carl, a Prussian 8usketeer of the Fifth Pomeranian Regiment emigrated from Prussia after the Battle of .oeniggraetC in 1899. He came first to the Burr Oaks Farm in Ford County, 5 Illinois and then later homesteaded in Dakota Territory in the 18,0s. Our life eighty years later very much focused on our own frontier-like eIperiences drawing from these settlers. In fact, my great-grandfather, Carl Bindenagel came to Spink County in Dakota Territory shortly after Colonel Custer took his .S. Seventh Calvary through the Black Hills in 18,4 and demonstrated that the .S. Army would provide security to the European immigrants who wanted to settle the land there. World War I became the 1reaking point for ethnic connection to (ermany that created a true /American0 identity for (erman immigrants on the prairie. That was particularly true for the (erman community, but also to European settlers. ntil the (reat War, (erman ethnic identity was strong. 8y (randmother, Elsie Bindenagel, told me that after the first World War, a distinct American, not (erman-American, identity was created among my kin in the Dakotas, and pro1a1ly also in the .S. After that awful conflict, the old countries, (ermany, Norway, and Sweden began to lose their hold on the settlersD identity. $: What about maps. Did maps play much of a role or not. My generation is older and we had WWII as ,ids. We followed it on maps and we really got to ,now maps. BINDENA(EL: We didnDt do much with maps. $: What about when you came to college. Did your view of foreign affairs open up at all or was it still rather constrained. BINDENA(EL: 8y views on foreign affairs were really affected by my personal eIperience. I was in college in 199," at that time my brother, Steven, was an in the .S.