DOCSLIB.ORG

Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project ELEANORE RAVEN-HAMILTON Interviewed by: Edward Dillery Initial Interview Date: November 18, 2009. Copyright 2012 ADST TABLE OF CONTENTS Background Born and raised in Ne York City BA from Rosemont College, Rosemont, PA, %une 1956 MA from American University of Beirut, ,ebanon, %une 196. Entered the Foreign Service in 195. A1100 Course Ne York City3 State Department 4isitors5 Center 195. ,eader 6rants 7ashington, DC, State Department3 4oluntary 4isitors Program 195.11959 Operations Marriage Resignation from the Foreign Service 1959 Ne Delhi, India3 7ife of USAID Officer, %ac9ues Raven 195911962 ,iving 9uarters and environment Birth of son Anglo1Indians Daily living Travels US presidential elections 7ashington, D.C. 7ife of USAID officer 196211964 Beirut. ,ebanon3 7ife of United Nations Development Officer 19641196. American University of Beirut, Masters degree studies Children5s education Environment The American University of Beirut State Department Arabic language program ,ebanese ethnic and religious mix 1 Palestinians San Francisco, California3 7ife of 7ells Fargo Officer 196.11969 Head start program Teacher, French1American Bilingual School Paris, France3 19691 19.5 Teacher, American School of Paris Teacher, Marymount school Medical problems Application to rejoin the Foreign Service Divorce Re1joined the Foreign Service 19.5 State Department3 Foreign Service Institute (FSI); Farsi 19.5 ,anguage training Family obligations Teheran, Iran3 Consular Officer 19.5119.. Transiting Beirut Environment 4isa volume Children5s schooling Corruption OPEC oil ministers Aidnapped by BThe %ackalC SA4AA (Secret Police) Capital flight Petrochemical industry The Shah Iranian students in US Ambassador Richard Helms Housing Mohammed Mossadegh Shah5s BcoronationC Persepolis celebrations of 2.500 years of Persian monarchy Economy Religions Farsi language Russia Anti1Sha students University of Teheran Terrorist groups 6ro ing unrest Ahomeini return President Carter visit 2 Abadan cinema fire Shah5s illness State Department3 4isa Office, Bureau of Consular Affairs 19..119E0 4isa security issues OPEC oil ministers5 captured Carlos RamireF (The %ackal) Palestinian ,iberation OrganiFation (P,O) Screening process Arab family feuds Security threats Iran 7orking 6roup Iran evacuation planning British aid in evacuations Iranian visa demands 4isa BvettingC process Henry Precht Department5s Operations Center Threats to Teheran Embassy Ambassador 7illiam Sullivan Iran revolution Shah admitted to US Embassy seiFed Canadian Embassy assistance Iranian local employees ChargG Bruce ,aingen Failed rescue attempt US visas in Iranian passports canceled Release of Teheran Embassy hostages Sheldon Arys ,akhdar Brahimi (Algerian diplomat) 7ork schedule Iran 6overnment Iranian citiFen visas applicants Preventing visa fraud Need for Farsi speaking officers 7eekly briefing cable to posts Arako Consulate Intervie ing visa applicants State Department3 Office of 6reek Affairs 19E0119E3 Mort D orken 6reek lobby Constantine Aaramanlis The 6reek colonels Spiro Agne 3 Ano ledge of 6reek history 4oice of America Cyprus partition 6reek elections Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou Socialist Party (PASOA) Ambassador Monteagle Stearns Presodent5s congatulatins, message SecState Alexander Haig visit 6reece re1integration into NATO European Union US16reek Agreements 7ork load P,O move to Tunis State Department3 4isa Office, Bureau of Consular Affairs 19E3119E5 Experience in BIron CurtainC country visits Atmosphere Economy Restrictions Surveillance Belfast, Ireland3 Consul 6eneral 19E5119E. Sectarian violence BPeace 7allC Anglo1Irish Agreement Husband5s activities Northern Ireland reaction Security Environment Political/Religious Parties Exchange programs 4isa applicants 6erry Adams Political leaders 6erry Adams Ireland/Northern Ireland relations E9ual housing Prisons Human Rights Catholic1Protestant marriages Schools Fair Employment and E9ual Opportunity la s Religious population divide Correymeela Center ,oss of industry 4 Universities State Department3 Office Director, BENE,UI Affairs 19E.11990 Belgium, Netherlands and ,uxembourg Investments in US President Bush visit to French/Dutch Caribbean Island 6reenpeace Dutch Caribbean Islands Dutch Possession legal status 6round ,aunched Cruise Missiles (6,CMs) Fall of Berlin all effects Dutch orld1 ide influence Mladic Hague trial Bosnia 7ar Diplomatic Exchange Program Dutch Environmental Issues State Department3 Oceans and Environmental and Scientific 199011993 Service Bureau South Pacific Regional Environment Program (SPREP) SPREP membership Diverse cultures 6reenpeace Environmental issues Extinguishing oil firs United Nations National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Agency (NOAA) Territorial aters Jodiacs International data sharing Persian (Arab) 6ulf Oslo Peace Accords Arab/Israel ater issues Oil spills Monterrey meeting State Department, Foreign Service Institute (FSI); ,abor Officer 1993 Training The Hague, The Netherlands3 ,abor officer 19931199. Scope of responsibility ,abor Union federations Union/6overnment on ages and issues FN4 Union Embassy/Union relations 6lobaliFation 5 Rotterdam unemployment US/Dutch union relations 6,OBE project Marijuana legal issue Dutch treatment of drug use and addiction Money laundering State Department3 Bureau of International Narcotics and ,a 199.12000 Enforcement %onathan 7iner Transnational International Crime ,yon 6roup membership Cyber crime and paperless records %urisdiction issues Russians ,yon 6roup issues ,yon 6roup Record keeping Retirement 2000 State Department3 7AE (7hen Actually Employed) employee 200012004 European Bureau issues Retirement Comments on life in the Foreign Service INTERVIEW Q: It is November 18, 2009, this is Ed Dillery, and I will be interviewing Eleanore Raven-Hamilton. A small personal note, we were members of the same Foreign Service -100 class when I knew her as Eleanore Mc-roarty. Now we will start with the .uestions. So first could you tell us something about your early life, when you were born and where and something about your family. RA4EN1HAMI,TON3 I as born in 1935 in Brooklyn, Ne York. My father as a la yer, hile my mother as a homemaker. Both my parents ere active in the community and church. I came from a Catholic family, mostly Irish descent. My mother5s family had been in Ne England and Ne York for generations, and my father5s family had been resident in Brooklyn for at least six generations. In 1E9E, my paternal great grandfather played a role in making Brooklyn, once a separate city reachable by ferry from the island of Manhattan, a borough of Ne York City. The Brooklyn Bridge as built to connect Brooklyn to Manhattan, and my great grandfather, a member of the Brooklyn Borough Council as one of those voting to approve it. 6 My father, the oldest of five, graduated from Fordham la school in 1930, right after the 1929 stock market crash. 7hile he as in la school, he orked at one of the oldest la firms in Brooklyn and remained there for most of his career, eventually becoming a senior partner. ,ater, he became a %ustice in the State (Ne York) Supreme Court 11 in Ne York State the Court of Appeals in Albany is actually the highest state court. He also taught at the American Institute of Banking and as very active in the Democratic Party as his forebears had been. My father as a legal advisor to the Democratic Party and also ran several campaigns, including Averill Harriman5s campaign in Aings County (Brooklyn), hen he as candidate for governor. My father as also very active in community, professional and church groups and on an a ard from the National Conference of Christians and %e s, as ell as a ards from the Boy Scouts and other community groups. My mother as born in Manhattan and educated in Brooklyn, here she graduated from Berkeley Institute. She as a leader in church groups and in the community, especially orking ith omen5s groups to alleviate poverty. She also on an a ard from the National Conference of Christians and %e s. I as the oldest of four. I had a brother t o years younger, ho as killed in an automobile accident in 1965. My sister, five years younger than I am, has an MA in Education and has retired as a reading specialist in the Ne York public school system. She lives in Manhattan and is married to a la yer. They have t o children and three granddaughters. My brother, ten years younger than I am, lives in Connecticut. He started in the business side of radio and television and as one of the founders of MT4. Then, he orked at Citibank on its capital markets portfolio. No , he is a partner in an investment management firm. His ife orked for a non profit in Stamford, Connecticut, finding affordable housing for people orking in the area. They have three daughters and seven grandchildren. I have t o sons and three grandchildren. One of my sons has an MA in History and teaches in a public high school in 4allejo, California, here he coaches the team that takes part in the regional Academic Decathlon. His ife has an MA in special education, has orked in journalism, and is no in the education field in Marin County, California. My other son is a practicing architect and ecological urbanist. He is Associate Professor at the Ne York Institute of Technology. He has an MA in sustainable urbanism from Cambridge University and is ,EED certified. His ife has a Ph.D. in engineering and has developed soft are applications to help cities maintain their ater pipes. T o of
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Supreme Court of the United States
    No. 04-5928 IN THE Supreme Court of the United States JOSÉ ERNESTO MEDELLÍN, Petitioner, v. DOUG DRETKE, DIRECTOR, TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE, CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTIONS DIVISION, Respondent. ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FIFTH CIRCUIT BRIEF AMICUS CURIAE OF AMBASSADOR L. BRUCE LAINGEN AND LIEUTENANT COLONEL JOHN J. SWIFT, ET AL., IN SUPPORT OF PETITIONER JOSEPH MARGULIES MACARTHUR JUSTICE CENTER UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO LAW SCHOOL TH 1111 EAST 60 STREET CHICAGO, IL 60637 Telephone: (773) 702-9560 Counsel for Amici i TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Table of Authorities…………………………………….. ii Interest of Amici Curiae………………………………… 1 Summary of Argument…………………………………. 5 Argument……………………………………………….. 6 I. The United States Played A Leading Role In Developing The International Protections Provided By Both The Vienna Convention And The Optional Protocol………………….. 6 II. Failure To Provide Vigorous And Robust Enforcement Of The Vienna Convention Could Have Grave Consequences For U.S. Citizens Abroad………………………............ 16 Conclusion……………………………………………….. 27 ii TABLE OF AUTHORITIES Page(s) CASES: Breard v. Pruett, 134 F.3d 615 (4th Cir. 1998).......................................22 Case Concerning United States Diplomatic and Consular Staff in Tehran, (U.S.A. v. Iran), 1980 I.C.J. 3 (Judgment of May 24).................................................14 Flores v. State, 994 P.2d 782 (Okla. Crim. App. 1999)......................23 Standt v. City of New York, 153 F. Supp. 2d 417 (S.D.N.Y. 2001)................... 21-22 U.S. v. Carillo 70 F. Supp. 2d 854 (N.D. Ill. 1999) ............................22 TREATIES: Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, April 24, 1963, 21 U.S.T. 77, 596 UNTS 261...............................passim Optional Protocol Concerning the Compulsory Settlement of Disputes, April 24, 1963, 21 U.S.T.
    [Show full text]
  • American Diplomacy at Risk
    American Diplomacy at Risk APRIL 2015 American Academy of Diplomacy April 2015 | 1 American Academy of Diplomacy American Diplomacy at Risk APRIL 2015 © Copyright 2015 American Academy of Diplomacy 1200 18th Street NW, Suite 902 Washington DC 20036 202.331.3721 www.academyofdiplomacy.org Contents Participants . 6 Donors . 7 I . Introduction: American Diplomacy at Risk . 9 II . The Politicization of American Diplomacy . 14 A. General Discussion . 14 B. The Cost of Non-Career Political Appointees . .15 C. Recommendations . 17 III . The Nullification of the Foreign Service Act of 1980 . .22 . A. General Discussion . 22 B. Recommendations . 24 IV . Valuing the Professional Career Foreign Service . .30 A. Basic Skills of Diplomacy . 30 B. Diplomatic Readiness Compromised . 31 C. Background . 34 D. Entry-Level Recommendations . 39 E. Mid-Level Recommendations . 42 V . Defining and Improving Opportunities for Professional Civil Service Employees 44 A. Discussion . 44 B. Recommendations . 45 VI . State’s Workforce Development, Organization and Management . .47 A. Discussion . 47 B. Recommendations . 47 Appendix A . 51 Washington Post op-ed by Susan R. Johnson, Ronald E. Neumann and Thomas R. Pickering of April 11, 2013 Appendix B . 53 State Press Guidance of April 12, 2013 Appendix C . 55 List of Special Advisors, Envoys and Representatives Appendix D . 57 Project Paper: Study of Entry-Level Officers, The Foreign Service Professionalism Project for the American Academy of Diplomacy, by Jack Zetkulic, July 9, 2014 American Diplomacy at Risk Participants Project Team Ambassador Thomas D. Boyatt, Susan Johnson, Ambassador Lange Schermerhorn, Ambassador Clyde Taylor Co-Chairs Ambassador Marc Grossman and Ambassador Thomas R. Pickering Chair of Red Team Ambassador Edward Rowell American Academy of Diplomacy Support Team President: Ambassador Ronald E.
    [Show full text]
  • 20 YEARS LATER Where Does Diplomacy Stand?
    PUBLISHED BY THE AMERICAN FOREIGN SERVICE ASSOCIATION SEPTEMBER 2021 20 YEARS LATER Where Does Diplomacy Stand? September 2021 Volume 98, No. 7 Focus on 9/11, Twenty Years Later 22 Getting Off the X In a compelling personal account of the 9/11 attacks, one FSO offers tactics for surviving when catastrophe strikes. By Nancy Ostrowski 26 The Global War on Terror and Diplomatic Practice The war on terror fundamentally changed U.S. diplomacy, leaving a trail 39 of collateral damage to America’s readiness for future challenges. Intervention: FS Know-How By Larry Butler Unlearned Lessons, or the Gripes of a Professional 46 31 The State Department’s failure to Whistleblower effectively staff and run interventions Protections: America and 9/11: has a long history. Four critical A Nonpartisan The Real-World Impact of lessons can be drawn from the post-9/11 experience. Necessity Terrorism and Extremism As old as the United States itself, In retrospect, 9/11 did not foreshadow By Ronald E. Neumann whistleblowing has protections the major changes that now drive worth knowing about. U.S. foreign policy and national security strategy. By Alain Norman and 43 Raeka Safai By Anthony H . Cordesman From the FSJ Archive 9/11, War on Terror, Iraq 35 and Afghanistan FS Heritage The Proper Measure of the Place: 48 Reflections on the Diplomats Make Afghan Mission a Difference: Drawing from two tours, a decade The U.S. and Mongolia, apart, a veteran diplomat explores the competing visions for Afghanistan. 1986-1990 In the 1992 FSJ, Ambassador By Keith W.
    [Show full text]
  • FLAG and the Diplomacy of the Iran Hostage Families
    Daniel Strieff FLAG and the diplomacy of the Iran hostage families Article (Accepted version) (Refereed) Original citation: Strieff, Daniel (2017) FLAG and the diplomacy of the Iran hostage families. Diplomacy and Statecraft, 28 (4). pp. 702-725. ISSN 0959-2296 DOI: 10.1080/09592296.2017.1386465 © 2017 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC This version available at: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/86833/ Available in LSE Research Online: February 2018 LSE has developed LSE Research Online so that users may access research output of the School. Copyright © and Moral Rights for the papers on this site are retained by the individual authors and/or other copyright owners. Users may download and/or print one copy of any article(s) in LSE Research Online to facilitate their private study or for non-commercial research. You may not engage in further distribution of the material or use it for any profit-making activities or any commercial gain. You may freely distribute the URL (http://eprints.lse.ac.uk) of the LSE Research Online website. This document is the author’s final accepted version of the journal article. There may be differences between this version and the published version. You are advised to consult the publisher’s version if you wish to cite from it. 1 FLAG and the Diplomacy of the Iran Hostage Families Daniel Strieff Abstract. The extraordinary public diplomacy carried out by the families of the American hostages held in Iran from 1979-1981 played a pivotal role in domesticating and humanising the biggest foreign policy crisis of Jimmy Carter’s presidency.
    [Show full text]
  • US Foreign Policy and Its Perspectives on Revolutionary Iran
    A Fleeting, Forgotten, Modus Vivendi: U.S. Foreign Policy and its Perspectives on Revolutionary Iran Before the Hostage Crisis of 1979 By Nathan Eckman Senior Thesis Spring 2018 Columbia University Department of History Seminar Advisor: Matthew Connelly Faculty Advisor: Peter Awn Table of Contents 2 Preface & Acknowledgments 3 Introduction 11 Chapter One: America, The Arbiter January – December, 1978 25 Chapter Two: “The Islamic Movement Will Squander” January – April, 1979 42 Chapter Three: Dawn in Qom, Dusk in Tehran May – November, 1979 54 Conclusion 60 Bibliography Eckman 1 Preface & Acknowledgments Four years ago I was in the Middle East wearing Marine Corps combat utilities. The men I trained beside, the seas and straits my ship traveled through, and the lands my platoon traversed illuminated the complexity and richness of the Middle East as a whole. I became fascinated with the region’s history and the United States’ involvement in it. It was also then that I decided to study the region whenever and wherever I went to school. Even then, due in part to its mysterious image and rogue-classification, I knew Iran must be the topic of my studies. So to begin, I must thank Columbia University and its History Department for providing me the opportunity to make my intellectual aspirations a reality. My years at this institution have challenged me on nearly every front and simultaneously given me the autonomy to find answers for myself. This, of course, is possible only because of the people that are the fabric of this great institution. It is tempting to list every man and woman who helped me along this journey.
    [Show full text]
  • The Fates of American Presidents Who Challenged the Deep State (1963-1980) アメリカの深層国家に抗した大統領の運 命(1963-1980)
    Volume 12 | Issue 43 | Number 4 | Article ID 4206 | Oct 20, 2014 The Asia-Pacific Journal | Japan Focus The Fates of American Presidents Who Challenged the Deep State (1963-1980) アメリカの深層国家に抗した大統領の運 命(1963-1980) Peter Dale Scott In the last decade it has become more and subsurface part of the iceberg I more obvious that we have in America today shall call the Deep State, which what the journalists Dana Priest and William operates according to its own Arkin have called compass heading regardless of who is formally in power.3 two governments: the one its citizens were familiar with, I believe that a significant shift in the operated more or less in the open: relationship between public and deep state the other a parallel top secret power occurred in the 1960s and 1970s, government whose parts had culminating in the Reagan Revolution of 1980. mushroomed in less than a decade In this period five presidents sought to curtail into a gigantic, sprawling universe the powers of the deep state. And as we shall of its own, visible to only a see, the political careers of all five—Kennedy, carefully vetted cadre—and its Johnson, Nixon, Ford and Carter—were cut off entirety . visible only to God.1 in ways that were unusual. One president, Kennedy, was assassinated. Another, Nixon, was forced to resign. And in 2013, particularly after the military return to power in Egypt, more and more To some extent the interplay of these two forms authors referred to this second level asof power and political organization is found in 2 America’s “deep state.” Here for example is all societies.
    [Show full text]
  • The Foreign Service Journal, April 1981
    foreign Scmce journal APRIL 1981 75 CENTS Armies in Flight by Nicholas Davies Bruce Laingen Talks with the Journal The Visa by John A. Bovey Special Election Section When you’re going overseas, you have enough to worry about without worrying about your insurance,too. Moving overseas can be a very traumatic time if you Moving overseas is simplified by the AFSA-sponsored don't have the proper insurance. The fact is, the government insurance program for AFSA members. Our insurance will be responsible for only $15,000 worth of your belongings. program will take care of most of your worries. If any of your personal valuables such as cameras, jewelry, With our program, you can purchase as much property furs and fine arts are destroyed, damaged or stolen, you insurance as you feel you need at only 75<t per $100, and it would receive not the replacement cost of the goods, but only covers you for the replacement cost of household furniture a portion of what you'd have to pay to replace them. and personal effects that are destroyed, damaged or stolen, Claims processes are another headache you shouldn't with no depreciation. You can also insure your valuable have to worry about. The government claims process is articles on an agreed amount basis, without any limitation. usually lengthy and requires investigation and AFSA coverage is worldwide, whether on business or documentation. pleasure. Should you have a problem, we provide simple, If you limit yourself to the protection provided under the fast, efficient claims service that begins with a simple phone Claims Act, you will not have worldwide comprehensive call or letter, and ends with payment in either U.S.
    [Show full text]
  • Interview with L. Bruce Laingen
    Library of Congress Interview with L. Bruce Laingen The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project AMBASSADOR L. BRUCE LAINGEN Interviewed by: Charles Stuart Kennedy Initial interview date: January 9, 1993 Copyright 1998 ADST Q: Today is January 9, 1992. This is an interview with Ambassador Bruce Laingen on behalf of the Association for Diplomatic Studies and I am Charles Stuart Kennedy. Bruce, I wonder if you could give me a little about your background — where you came from, your education, etc. LAINGEN: I was a farm boy from Minnesota growing up on a farm in southern Minnesota. I am often asked why I joined the Foreign Service and I give the answer that we couldn't all be farmers. I had some brothers and I began to look beyond that. I went to school at St. Olaf College in Minnesota. It was a liberal arts school in that part of the country. I served in the Navy in World War II and then took a Masters degree in International Relations at the University of Minnesota in 1949. Q: What did you do in the Navy? Where did you serve? LAINGEN: I was a V-12 Apprentice Seaman at the University of Dubuque, Iowa, in 1943. Q: V-12 meaning a reserve program for 12 weeks which turned you into an officer, or something like that? Interview with L. Bruce Laingen http://www.loc.gov/item/mfdipbib000651 Library of Congress LAINGEN: Not quite. It was a program that picked up people at mid-term in their college career and sent them off to another college for six months.
    [Show full text]
  • The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project
    The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project AMBASSADOR L. BRUCE LAINGEN Interviewed by: Charles Stuart Kennedy Initial interview date: January 9, 1993 Copyright 1998 A ST TABLE OF CONTENTS Background Born and raised in Minnesota St Olaf College, University of Minnesota U S Navy, World War II (oined Foreign Service 1950 West -ermany 1951.1953 0reis Officer Ham1urg, vice consul Teheran, Iran 1953.1955 Meshed, economic officer 2ehedi overthro3s Mossadegh Am1assador 4oy Henderson Political situation U S influence The Shah NEA 1955.1960 -reek desk officer Cyprus pro1lems 0arachi, Pakistan 1960.1967 Political officer Political situation Divided Pakistan India vs Pakistan 8ice President (ohnson visit President Ayu1 Soviets NEA 1967.1968 1 Director, Pakistan and Afghanistan Affairs National War College 0a1ul, Afghanistan 1968.1971 Deputy Chief of Mission Am1assador and Mrs Ro1ert Neumann Peace Corps Political Corps Political situation American —hippies“ NEA 1971.1977 Director of Pakistan and Afghanistan Affairs Pakistan split, Bangladesh formed Pakistan vs India Simla Agreement Bhutto Deputy Assistant Secretary 1977.1975 EUR 1975.1977 Deputy Assistant Secretary for Southern Europe Spain>s (uan Carlos Cyprus pro1lem 8alletta, Malta 1977.1979 Am1assador U S interests Mintoff 4i1ya and Qadhafi SCCE conference Teheran, Iran 1979.1980 Chargé d>Affaires Em1assy —protected“ by thugs Political turmoil Em1assy attacked and su1seAuently seiBed again Aftermath of revolution Functioning as an em1assy Iran Provisional
    [Show full text]
  • Interview with Henry Precht
    Library of Congress Interview with Henry Precht The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project HENRY PRECHT Interviewed by: Charles Stuart Kennedy Initial interview date: March 8, 2000 Copyright 2001 ADST Q: Today is March 8, 2000. This is an interview with Henry Precht being done by the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training and I am Charles Stuart Kennedy. Henry, could you tell me when and where you were born and a little about your parents? PRECHT: I was born June 15, 1932 in Savannah, Georgia. My father was a clerk in a local fertilizer factory and my mother was a former school teacher and secretary in a bank. Nobody in my family, except my mother for two years, had any college education. I went to Armstrong Junior College in Savannah and then to Emory University where I had a major in history. Q: Let's go back. What was the background of your mother? Was sha native Georgian? PRECHT: My mother's mother was a native Georgian. Her roots in this country go back, we think, to before Oglethorpe came to Savannah in 1733. Her family was Middleton from South Carolina. My grandfather was a Welshman who had come over with his parents to farm in Kansas and when that went bust and he got tired of school, he ran away and became an itinerant printer, eventually came to Savannah and worked in the print room of Interview with Henry Precht http://www.loc.gov/item/mfdipbib000947 Library of Congress the Savannah Morning News where my grandmother's father was the foreman.
    [Show full text]
  • 444 Days: Memoirs of an Iran Hostage
    Moments in U.S. Diplomatic History 444 Days: Memoirs of an Iran Hostage More Moments in U.S. Diplomatic History Categories 12 A Moment in U.S. Diplomatic History More than thirty years later, the Iran Hostage crisis still ranks as one (486) of the most traumatic diplomatic events in U.S. history. Dissatisfied Africa (87) with the corrupt and ineffective regime of Reza Shah Pahlavi, many China (36) Iranian citizens began protesting the Iranian government in 1977. In Cold War (126) 1979 after nearly two years of protests and strikes, the Shah was Consular (74) exiled from Iran and was succeeded by the radical Ayatollah East Asia and Pacific (77) Ruhollah Khomeini as Supreme Leader of the newly established Espionage (29) Islamic republic. The Shah sought asylum and medical care from his Europe (140) erstwhile allies, particularly the United States, which agreed to help. Foreign Service (129) Enraged members of the Iranian Revolution insisted on his return so Hostage (39) that they could prosecute and punish him for his actions. The Human Rights (107) 444-day-long crisis began on November 4th when some 3,000 militant Iranian students stormed the Humorous (121) United States embassy in Tehran, taking nearly sixty diplomats hostage. Middle East (104) Military (204) Revolutionaries demanded that the U.S. return the Shah to Iran. Public Diplomacy (59) After much internal debate, President Jimmy Carter decided not Russia/Soviet Union (89) to do so, given the Shah’s medical condition and his many years as South Central Asia (38) a stalwart American ally. Spouses and children (36) Terrorism (79) Shows such as ABC’s “Nightline” with Ted Koppel had daily The Stump (13) updates on the crisis and counted the days of “America Held Vietnam Conflict (1) Hostage.” Ultimately, the long grind of negotiations and bad Western Hemisphere (77) publicity took its toll on the American psyche and the Carter Women and Minority FSOs (66) presidency; he lost to Ronald Reagan and his campaign for “Morning in America” in the 1980 elections.
    [Show full text]
  • National Commission on the Public Service
    URGENT BUSINESS FOR AMERICA REVITALIZING THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT FOR THE 21ST CENTURY REPORT OF THE NATIONAL COMMISSION ON THE PUBLIC SERVICE JANUARY 2003 PREFACE Fifty years have passed since the last comprehensive reorganization of the federal government. The changes proposed by The Hoover Commission served the nation well as it adapted to the mid-20th century world. It was a world transformed by World War II and the new responsibilities of the United States government at home and abroad. It was also a world in which television was still a curiosity, transportation without jets was slow and expensive, typewriters were still manual, and Xerox machines, personal computers, microchips, and the Internet were unknown and beyond imagination. Medicare and Medicaid did not exist. There were no nuclear power plants and no national high- way system. The government organization table contained no EPA, OSHA, NIH, or dozens of other now familiar institutions. The relationship of the federal government to the citizens it serves became vastly broader and deeper with each passing decade. Social programs are by far the largest component of a federal budget that now amounts to over one-fifth of the gross national product. National security and foreign policy issues, the environment, protection of human rights, health care, the economy, and questions of financial regulation dominate most of the national agenda. Something less tangible, but alarming, has also happened over the last 50 years. Trust in govern- ment — strong after World War II, with the United States assuming international leadership and meeting domestic challenges — has eroded. Government’s responsiveness, its efficiency, and too often its honesty are broadly challenged as we enter a new century.
    [Show full text]