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1 the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project ROBERT J. KOTT Interviewed by: Raymond Ewing Initial interview date: November 21, 2000 Copyright 2007 AD T TABLE OF CONTENTS Background Born and raised in Ne York City University of Oregon St. John's University, NYC Peace Corps, India (1,--.1,-,/ 0ntered the Foreign Service in 1,11 State Department of State, FSI2 Indonesian language study 1,11 Djakarta, Indonesia, Consular Officer 1,11.1,13 0nvironment 4uslim population Country description Department of Commerce2 training 1,13.1,15 State Department2 FSI2 French language study 1,15 6om7, Togo, 8eneral Officer 1,15.1,1- Ambassador Self Help Fund Use of Peace Corps volunteers Ambassador Nancy Ra ls 0nvironment Coup attempts 0yadema coup The French US interests UN Development Program Ambassador Shirley Temple Black (8hana/ 4rs. Kott and the American School State Department2 Nigeria Desk Officer 1,1-.1,1, 1 Petroleum Human Rights Policy US visit of Dictator Olusegun Obasanjo President Carter visit to Nigeria US commercial interests US investment in Nigeria Corruption US Trade and Development Program Chinese activity French economic activity State Department2 FSI2 0conomic training 1,1, Yaound7, Cameroon2 0conomic/Commercial Officer 1,80.1,81 0nvironment French influence 4ilitary assistance Self Help Committee US commercial interests Chad evacuation 6ilong e, 4ala i2 Deputy Chief of 4ission 1,81.1,85 0nvironment The British Tobacco US regional objectives Foreign embassies Relations President Hastings Banda 0xiled opposition Orton and 4rs. Chir a US aid UN voting record Foreign assistance to 4ala i Self Help Program 4ala i military State Department2 South Africa Desk Officer 1,85.1,85 Office environment US Policy State Department2 Personnel. 0uropean Assignments 1,85.1,8- Aork environment Operations 2 Canadian Defense College 1,81.1,88 Calgary, Canada2 Consul 8eneral 1,88.1,,1 0nvironment Description of Post Oil and gas Provincialism Relations ith 0mbassy Reporting Relations ith government US.Canada relationship North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA/ Diplomatic Survey Team to Somalia 1,,1.1,,2 State Department2 Office of the Inspector 8eneral 1,,2 Dakar, Senegal2 Deputy Chief of 4ission 1,,2.1,,5 Relations USAID programs President Abdou Diouf Senegalese troops in 6iberia Peace Corps The French Relations ith government Ambassador 4ark Johnson Relations ith neighbors Senegal participation in 8ulf Aar 8ambia R anda.Burundi Task Force 1,,5 Non 8overnment OrganiCations Hutu killings Justice and judicial proceedings in R anda Civil ar INTERVIEW DNoteE This intervie as not edited by 4r. KottF ": This is an Oral History interview with Robert J. Kott. It)s the 21st of November 200. This is being conducted under auspices of Association for Diplomatic tudies and Training. My name is Raymond Ewing. Bob, I see that you entered the Foreign ervice in 3 1071, but it loo1s li1e you perhaps had some prior government or military service before that. But, let me sort of bac1 you up. If you could tell us first a little bit about where you grew up, and how you got interested in the Foreign ervice. KOTTE Fairly easy ans er, Ray. Born and raised in Ne York City, ent to school in Ne York City. Joined the Peace Corps after college, and ent to India for t o years and that sort of changed my life and gave me some direction as a young pup. From there I ent back to graduate school at the University of Oregon to do a 4asters program in International Studies focusing mainly on South Asian studies. I took the Foreign Service exam hile I as out there, some hat of a lark because I as really more interested in development ork, either ith an N8O (non.governmental organiCation/ or USAID (United States Agency for International Development/. In fact I had applied to USAID and had been accepted for I think it as their Gietnam refugee relief program, something to that effect as my memory serves me. I continued on at school as I as being processed into the Foreign Service and I got a call one day and they ere offering me a position, so left Oregon and joined the Foreign Service. ": 2here had you gone to undergraduate college3 KOTTE St. John's University in Ne York City, political science major. ": 2hy don)t you say a little bit more about your Peace Corps e5perience3 6ou were in a village in India3 KOTTE Indeed. Yes. It as eye opening, life.changing one might say. It as basically a general community development program, in those days Peace Corps programs ere less focused and more general than they eventually gro n into. Ae ere specifically supposed to be orking in agricultural development, right out of Ne York City. Had to learn hat a co and a tree as, before I could to that. But any ay, basically, e ere there to be change agents, orking ith government counterparts in areas that ere ne ly brought under irrigation. The Indian government as irrigating at a furious rate back in those days, in the early stages of the Hgreen revolution,I so called. They ere introducing the miracle cropsE miracle heat, hybrid corn, hybrid sorghum. I as on the Deccan Plateau in southern India, a sorghum producing area. And they anted us to help the government efforts to introduce to the farmers the hybrid crops, so as to take better advantage of the ne ly irrigated fields that ere being brought into production, at the great expense to the Indian government of course. ": 6ou refer to it as 7we.8 2ere there several Peace Corps volunteers wor1ing I the same village, doing this 1ind of wor1, or were you pretty much by yourself3 KOTTE Both. 8enerally, e ere assigned individually to the village, but the group that I came in ith2 e ere trained as a group and as divided into t o areas in the state, so that there might have been 12 of us ithin a 20 mile radius in one part of the state and 12 of us in another similar situation. As it turned out, I had been assigned to a city, rather 4 than to a village, and that proved not to be so very productive for a number of reasons, but largely a Peace Corps experience really is one of a village experience, and so after about a year in the city, I asn't very happy, don't forget I as not being terribly productive there, I moved out to a village here there as another Peace Corps volunteer from my group and a good friend of mine, and orked ith him, doing hat I earlier described plus other general community development.type projects. He helped start a cooperative through a grant from the CAR0 (Cooperative for Assistance and Relief 0very here/. That proved to be very productive and lasted a number of years and may still be in existence as far as I kno . Introducing things as hybrid chicken and that sort of thing, the usual Peace Corps experience. He left earlier and I stayed behind and remained in the village by myself. ": India must have had 9uite an impact on you if you decided to do outh Asia graduate wor1 at the :niversity of Oregon. 2as it that e5perience3 KOTTE Yes, absolutely. India is the kind of place, I think most people ould agree, you either hate it or you love it. If you can last more then a eek in India, you probably love it and fall in love ith it. Upon arrival, my only culture shock that I can remember in my hole life, of course it as my first real overseas experience other than student trips to 0urope, after about three days got over culture shock and on e ent. India is a ay of life, it's an existence, Hinduism, even though it is not a completely Hindu country of course, is so over.compassing, it's not just a religion, it's a ay of being. Obviously if you are ith and amongst the people and in a rural setting and participate as most Peace Corps volunteers do, speak a little of the local language, it gro s on you. To this day, it still is my first love, even though I never got reassigned back there as a Foreign Service officer, I al ays anted to but I didn't. ": 2hat years were you in India3 KOTTE The end of 1,-- until the beginning of 1,-,. 0ffectively just over t o years, it sounds like four years but it as just over t o years. ": Because I was in Pa1istan in 1065, when there was a war between Pa1istan and India, but that war didn)t last very long and the ne5t wars did not clear until 1071, which resolved in Bangladesh. o India must have been, it was peaceful time KOTTE Yes it as relative peace, it as going through, it as just coming out of a great drought and famine that occurred in the mid J-0s. After the fact, I learned in the chartered India aircraft, that took our Peace Corps group and another Peace Corps group to India from JFK in Ne York, as sitting, in the first class compartment, 4rs. 8andhi, Prime 4inister of India of the day, ho as returning after visiting 6yndon Johnson in Aashington, asking for American heat. And apocryphally 6yndon grabbed the lady by the sari and said, HIf you ant my heat you take my Peace Corps volunteers.I That is ho e got up to something like 1,500.1,500 Peace Corps volunteers in India hen I as there.
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