The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project
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The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project PHILIP C. BROWN Interviewed by: Charles Stuart Kennedy Initial interview date: January 18, 2012 Copyright ADST 2016 TABLE OF CONTENTS Background Born in Massachusetts; raised primarily in Pennsylvania College of Wooster, Ohio; Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy Operation Crossroads Africa Marriage Washington, DC; Voice of America; Africa news room 1965 Entered the Foreign Service, USIA 1965 State Department: Foreign Service Institute (FSI): 1965 French language training Dakar, Senegal: USIA: Junior Officer Trainee 1966-1967 President Leopold Senghor French presence Lebanese Festival of Negro Arts John McKesson Ambassador William R. Rivkin Environment Cultural Center operations Recreation Islam Douala, Cameroon: Branch Public Affairs Officer 1967-1968 Environment Cultural Center operations Religions French “cooperants” French influence Institute of International Education Biafra War 1 Voice of America Birth of daughter Yaoundé, Cameroon: Cultural Affairs Officer 1968-1970 Environment President Ahmadou Ahidjo Tribal influence French presence Relations Political climate Ambassador Robert Payton Embassy staff Living arrangements Jim Bishop Recreation Visitors Program Ambassador Lewis Hoffacker Secretary and Mrs. Rogers visit Algiers, Algeria: Cultural Affairs Officer 1970-1972 American Interests Section, Embassy of Switzerland 1967 Six Day War Economic relations Political relations US Export-Import Bank loans El Paso Natural Gas William Eagleton Scholarship/Visitors’ program Berbers Tuaregs Wall paintings Eldridge Cleaver Airplane hijackings Soviets Local Americans Local press French language Roman ruins Housing Cultural programs Family illness Malcolm Kerr Princeton University: Russian studies 1972-1973 George Kennan 2 State Department: Soviet Union Affairs Desk Officer 1973-1974 Personnel Jack Matlock Ambassador William Luers Watergate Relations with Soviet embassy Operations Work environment Washington, DC: USIA: Office of Eastern Europe Affairs 1974-1976 Personnel “Photo USA”, Budapest Hungary James Keogh Washington, DC: USIA: Staff Assistant to Officer Director, 1976-1977 Jock Shirley Washington, DC: Foreign Service Institute; Russian language 1977 Training Discussion of visits to Eastern Europe Garmisch, Germany: U.S. Army Russian Institute; Russian 1977-1978 Language Study Personnel and Course content Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) Moscow, USSR Information Officer/Press Attaché 1978-1981 Ambassador Malcolm Toon American press SALT Treaty Soviet radiation of Embassy Operations Family Housing Recreation Environment Exhibitions Robin Knight incident Pentecostals Tom Hutson Secretary Vance visit Jamming of VOA Travels America magazine Radio Moscow 3 Sakharov American movies Cultural environment US-Soviet prisoner exchange Ambassador Thomas Watson International Visitors Program New Chancery construction Soviet press Local Contacts Television Teheran Embassy hostage taking Soviets invade Afghanistan Vienna Summit Yuri Zarakhovich Embassy Foreign Nationals KGB Religion Relations with allied Ambassadors Soviet leaders Politburo Armand Hammer VIP visitors Cultural presentations Biological weapons Moscow Olympics Soviet leader funerals Anglo-American Canadian School Official entertainment Spaso House Ambassador Jack F. Matlock, Jr. Soviet education Paris, France: Information Officer/Press Attaché 1981-1986 US-Soviet relations President Francois Mitterrand Reagan/Mitterrand relations Pershing Missiles NATO Ambassador Arthur Hartman Brussilovsky’s violin Ambassador John Kenneth Galbraith Ambassador Joseph M. Rodgers Embassy personnel Charlie Wick visit French Communist Party French view of Soviet-style communism 4 French intellectuals French press Le Pen Housing Contacts Local staff Chargé Christian Chapman assassination attempt Lt. Col. Charles Ray assassination Terrorism G-7 Rambouillet meeting President Reagan visits Henry Kissinger visits Grenada invasion Secretaries of State visits State Department press corps Visiting VIP’s France/US relations The French Left Schooling Pierre Salinger Soviet boycott Los Angeles Olympics Galbraith and Foreign Service Casper Weinberger visits Cultural life TWA plane hijacking Rock Hudson visit French battlefield communications technology TDY: National Security Council, Washington, DC 1985 Public Diplomacy Task Force; Geneva Summit, 1985 Reagan/Gorbachev Jack Matlock Operations Oval Office visit Paris, France: (Continued) Challenger catastrophe Operations Security Arab World Education of French political leaders French government Official functions Superior Honor Award Statue of Liberty Russian Jews 5 Wife’s English language teaching Home leave Garmisch, Germany: US Army Russian Institute: 1986-1987 Russian language training Instructors Environment Radio Liberty Nicholas Daniloff East European travel Reykjavik, Iceland: Reagan/Gorbachev Summit 1987 Arms control Garmisch, Germany: US Army Russian Language Institute 1987 East European travel Environment Recreation Student body Moscow, USSR: Counselor for Press & Cultural Affairs 1987-1990 US/Soviet relations Sergeant Lonetree Affair Withdrawal of local laborers Working environment Moscow environment Jamming Refusniks “Controlled” change Ambassador Jack Matlock Staff Visiting VIP’s Chautauqua exchange US press corps US/USSR information talks President Reagan visit Billy Joel US cultural programs US Speakers programs Embassy building reconstruction Security André Gromyko death Russian cultural life Armenia earthquake National Symphony Orchestra Ambassador’s access to Soviet leaders 6 Local employees Travels in USSR Soviet media Robert Redford Travel restrictions Ambassador press briefings USIA Director Wick Cultural Exchange Agreement VOA Director Richard Carlson Raisa Gorbacheva Sakharov death Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy: Edward R. Murrow fellow 1990-1991 Student body Academic program Teaching Foreign students Washington, DC: USIA Headquarters: Director, Foreign 1991-1994 Press Centers Office organization Madrid Middle East Conference Foreign Press Center Lexus Nexus Nashville press visit Press Centers’ operations G-7 meetings President Bill Clinton Clinton visit to Riga, Latvia Vienna, Austria; Regional Public Affairs Officer 1994-1996 Housing International Atomic Agency Operations President Clinton area visits Ambassador Swanee Hunt Office reorganization and reduction Retirement 1996 Post-retirement career Reflections INTERVIEW 7 Preface At a Public Diplomacy Alumni Association luncheon in late 2011, a colleague asked me if I had done my oral history. I had to admit that I had not. In fact, I was not that familiar with the project. I went to the ADST website and was impressed by the collection of oral histories, including those done by many people that I had known and with whom I had served. Soon after, my attention was drawn to the December 2011 issue of the Foreign Service Journal. Devoted almost entirely to the years of my second tour in the Soviet Union (1987-1990), it convinced me that I needed to stop procrastinating. I sat down with Stu Kennedy for the first time on January 18, 2012. Before he turned on the tape recorder, I told him that if he was looking for someone who had spent the bulk of his career in high policy positions, we could get by with one or two sessions. But if he was interested in someone who had spent 20+ years overseas in a variety of posts and who could recollect a lot of unusual experiences, ranging from walking across the Tassili Plateau in southern Algeria to walking across Red Square in Moscow with Bob Hope, my hand was up. Between January and June, 2012, I had 12 separate oral interviews (some 24 hours) with Stu. For every hour of conversation, I spent several hours preparing. This meant going through a journal that I have kept almost daily since 1972 and occasionally looking at folders full of mementos from those years. (I did not touch the myriad slides, photo albums or programs from virtually every cultural event I attended.) The journal provided an enormous amount of raw material but also presented me with a challenge of organizing and structuring that I did not always meet to my satisfaction. In July, I began editing some 300 pages of transcript. As I did, I was constantly reminded what a privilege it is to be able to take advantage of this project. I would never have done something like this on my own. But as I went through the transcript, I had to be careful not to fall victim to one of my most serious weaknesses, i.e. making the perfect the enemy of the good. During the interviews, I was often talking off the top of my head and not for the printed page. I began to notice overused words and expressions. And I discovered that the beginning of one session would overlap the end of the previous, resulting occasional repetition. It has been no easy task cleaning up the syntax and punctuation, taking out words and occasionally entire paragraphs and relocating some portions simply for continuity. Even with this, the now-final product often reads like an oral interview. It is not a finely- polished piece of prose. It is not perfect! All of the above notwithstanding, I am very pleased to have undertaken this project. It gets a monkey off my back. It reminds me of what an interesting and rewarding career I 8 had. Thanks to the Internet, it has allowed me to revisit some of the people I met and experiences that I had. And just in case someone should ever want to know something about me after I am not around,