1 the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project AMBASSADOR GEORGE F. WARD, JR. Interv
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The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project AMBASSADOR GEORGE F. WARD, JR. Interviewed by: Charles Stuart Kennedy Initial interview date: April 23, 2001 Copyright 2003 ADS TABLE OF CONTENTS Background Born and raised in New York City University of Rochester U.S. Marine Corps - 196,-1969 -ietnam conflict .ntered Foreign Service - 1969 Hamburg0 1ermany - Political Officer 1920-1922 .nvironment Politics State Department - Operations Center 1922-1925 Operations -IP travels Arab-Israeli relations 7issinger State Department - FSI - Italian 8anguage Training 1925 1enoa0 Italy - Consular Officer 1925-1926 .nvironment Political parties Rome0 Italy - Political Officer 1926-1929 Staff Political parties .nvironment The Masonic connection Catholic Church Harvard University - 7ennedy School 1929-1980 Statistical analysis and operation research :Monte Carlo; ballistic missile simulation 1 State Department - Political-Military Bureau - Office of Systems Analysis 1980-1981 Arms control Persian 1ulf State Department - .uropean Bureau- Special Assistant to Assistant Secretary 1981-1985 Quadripartite talks Soviet Union relations French Falklands Arms control ATO Bonn0 1ermany - Internal Political Unit - Chief 1985-198, Chancellor 7ohl Political parties State Department - Office of .uropean Security and Political Affairs - Deputy Director 198,-1988 ATO members French Afghanistan Bonn0 1ermany - Deputy Chief of Mission 1989-1992 (Ambassador) 1eneral Walters Soviets Berlin Wall .ast 1ermany 7ommandatura meeting Condoleezza Rice Unification ATO forces .conomic progress .lections (.ast 1ermany) Border issues Dual embassy issue Security U.S. military 1ulf War Balkans State Department - International Organizations - Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary 1992-1996 U peacekeeping 2 Somalia ation building Madeleine Albright Rwanda Balkan wars U.S. military Polisario Rapid Reaction Force amibia - Ambassador 1996-1999 U peacekeeping force Relations .nvironment Demining Windhoek South Africa AIDS U.S. interests Congo Caprivi Strip rebellion Peace Corps USAID Retirement 1999 United States Institute of Peace INTERVIEW Q: oday is April 23, 2001. his is an interview with George F. Ward, Jr. his is being done on behalf of the Association for Diplomatic Studies and raining and I*m Charles Stuart Kennedy. Do you go by George? WARD: Yes. Q: Let*s start at the beginning. ell me when and where you were born and something about your family. WARD: I was born on April 90 195, in Camaica0 in the borough of Queens in New York City. My father was an accountant and my mother was a homemaker and also employed as a church secretary for most of my childhood. We lived in a neighborhood of dupleD houses0 which in New York City were called :semi-attached.; Q: What is the bac-ground of your father? Where did they come from? A WARD: My dad0 1eorge F. Ward0 was born in Birmingham0 .ngland0 on May 200 1902. He completed his schooling in .ngland0 graduating from the Aston Commercial School0 which gave him the eEuivalent of high school. His father0 Frank Ward0 had served in the British army in World War I and after demobilization could not find work in his trade as a silver and goldsmith. His father emigrated in 1921 to seek better fortune in the U.S.0 and the rest of the family0 including my dad0 followed the neDt year. Several members of my fatherFs eDtended family0 i.e.0 aunts0 uncles0 etc.0 also emigrated to the U.S. during the same period. Q: What did your grandfather do when he came? WARD: Initially0 he worked as a silver and goldsmith in the jewelry trade in New York City. Family legend G I have no idea if it is true G has it that he made the medal presented to Charles 8indbergh after the latterFs transatlantic flight. He did not earn very much0 however0 and his children0 including my father0 all worked from a very young age. The family situation became worse when my grandfather decided0 eDactly when I am not sure0 that he would stop working and let the other members of the family support him. When that support did not materialize0 he left New York City and moved upstate to a rural area across the Hudson River from Bear Mountain0 where he built himself a cabin0 lived off the land and occasionally worked odd jobs. Q: Was there a Grandmother Ward, too? WARD: There was a 1randmother Ward0 and she had much more good sense than my grandfather. My grandmother0 Mary Ward0 got a legal separation from my grandfather and stayed in New York City with her two spinster daughters. 1randma Ward lived to the ripe age of 96. Her two daughters are still living. They are in Putnam -alley0 ew York0 where they tutor schoolchildren0 volunteer for their church0 and bowl in a league0 all at over 90 years of age. Q: Did your father stay in New /or-? WARD: My dad worked virtually from the time he immigrated until a late retirement. .arly on0 he worked as a bookkeeper. He trained on the job as an accountant0 but could never afford to take the low-paying jobs that would have Eualified him to become a C.P.A. For a long while0 he was the accountant for the interior-decorating firm utilized by Marjorie Merriweather Post. For a while0 the china in our home consisted of the rejects from the sets made for the Sea Cloud0 the three-masted sailing yacht that belonged to Mrs. Post. That ship is still in service as a luDury cruise ship in the Mediterranean. Dad later became the trust accountant for the estate of Walter B. Chrysler0 the automobile manufacturer. My dad loved camping and the outdoors and eventually built a weekend house in Putnam -alley0 ew York. In the late H60s0 he left New York City0 moved up to Putnam -alley0 and worked as an administrator for the county. My dad was eDtremely proud that he worked for his entire life0 and especially that he managed to stay employed throughout the 1reat Depression. 5 Q: What was your mother*s bac-ground? WARD: My mother0 Hildegard Ward0 had an interesting background. She was born on May 190 1906 in New York City. Her mother0 8ina 8aerm0 emigrated from a small farming town near Halle0 1ermany in 1902. (I had the opportunity to visit that town0 7oesseln0 when the Berlin Wall came down.) She was the youngest of 1A children. She came to New York and fell in love with a Capanese immigrant0 Teddo Shimizu0 who apparently had run away from his very prominent family in Capan. They got married and stayed together for around 10 years. Both worked as household domestics. Around 1915 or 191,0 it seems that my grandfatherFs family located him and persuaded him to return to Capan. He was never heard of again. My grandmother later married a Scotsman0 Cohn .vans0 whom I knew as my grandfather. In fact0 I did not know the story of my motherFs birth father until I became an adult. My mother never spoke of her Capanese heritage. I think I can understand that in view of the stress she must have felt during those times0 when children of miDed race were regarded very differently than today0 and especially as an American of 1erman-Capanese ancestry during World War II. Her lot was not an easy one. She spoke 1erman until World War I0 when the other children in school picked on those who spoke 1erman. She never spoke 1erman again. Q: My mother had the same problem in World War I. She would say, 1What cloc- is it2 and things li-e that. 3nfortunately, then the language did not pass on, so I had to learn it on my own. WARD: I did the same thing. I had to learn 1erman on my own. Q: She grew up where? WARD: My mother had a very hard childhood0 since her father left the family. They were very poor0 way below what we think of as poor today. They had virtually nothing. She left regular school after the eighth grade and finished her high school at night while working as a bookkeeper during the day. She did well in her jobs and worked for Euite a while0 probably from 1920 or 1921 until after she married in 19A0. She worked for various small businesses in New York. She lived initially on the 8ower .ast Side of Manhattan and then in Brooklyn. Her mother eventually became the governess for the children of Colonel Cacob Rupert0 who owned the New York Yankees and a large brewery. Rupert was a very good to my grandmother and gave her a house in Forest Hills in Queens. She moved out there and tended her rose garden. I remember that house0 which later was torn down to make way for the construction of a large apartment house compleD. My grandmother then moved further out in Queens0 close to where my family then lived. Q: How did your mother and father meet? WARD: My mother caught my fatherFs eye while they were in the subway. In terms of temperament0 they were almost polar opposites. My father was an eDtrovert and my mother an introvert. At first0 she didnFt want to have anything to do with this red-haired , guy from .ngland - my father had flaming red hair when he was young - and tried to avoid him0 but he persisted0 and they were married in 19A0. Q: /ou had brothers and sisters? WARD: I had two sisters0 Barbara and .leanorI they were ten and twelve years older than me. Q: /ou were a really late child, weren*t you? WARD: My mother was A9 when I was born in 195,. My eldest sister0 .leanor0 died in 198,. My other sister0 Barbara0 lives in Florida.