High, George B

The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project GEORGE B. HIGH Interviewed by: Charles Stuart Kennedy Initial interview date: August 26, 1993 Copyright 199 ADST TABLE OF CONTENTS Background Born and raised in Chicago Dartmouth Columbia Law School Internship at United Nations Entered Foreign Service in 195, State Department - Passport Office 195,-1959 State Department - IN. - Africa 1957-1959 Duties Ira0 Task Force Luanda Angola - Economic officer 1959-19,1 Environment Portuguese presence Belgian Congo refugees .ichard Sanger visit African nationalists attack Portuguese Contacts with Portuguese Treatment of Africans 1issionaries e2pelled Living conditions Beirut Lebanon - Arabic language trainee 19,1-19,2 State Department - African Bureau 19,2-19,5 Portuguese Africa 1adagascar officer Aid to 1adagascar Secretary of State 4Soapy4 5illiams A6ores bases Portuguese distrust of U.S. policy Ambassador Burke Elbrick 1 .oberto 1ondlane Averill Harriman Inter-bureau debate on Portuguese Africa 8uaya0uil Ecuador - Deputy Principal officer 19,5-19,8 Consulate-Embassy relations and functions Political ferment Arosemena berates U.S. at 1ontevideo conference 1ilitary power and influence Tuna wars Peace Corps activists Buenos Aires Argentina - Political officer 19,8-1972 1ilitary government U.S. economic interests Ambassador Carter Burgess Contacts Cordoba insurrection Peron influence .ockefeller mission Spruille Braben CIA Terrorism National 5ar College 1973-1974 State Department - A.A-Caribbean Affairs 1973-1975 Prime 1inister 1ichael 1enley of Jamaica Ambassador Vincent de .oulet Kissinger Puerto .ico Caribbean Basin Initiative State Department - Inspection Corps 1975-1978 Operations Training issues Importance of management Senator Jesse Helms and outside inspection general Paris inspection Problems and solutions Brasilia Bra6il - DC1 1978-1982 1ilitary government Human rights Nuclear issue 2 Hard feelings Congressional visits Ambassador Bob Sayre Ambassador Tony 1otley Embassy morale Bra6il and Ecuador-Peru dispute Kissinger visit Falkland crisis 5orking spouses issue 1e2ico City 1e2ico - DC1 1982-1983 Staff Ambassador John 8avin Financial crisis Petroleum U.S. policy coordination Embassy operations Consulates State Department - A.A - Country Director 1e2ico 1983-1985 Assistant Secretary 1otley Duties and operations Ambassador 8avin's operating style Narcotics issues Binational Commission Congressional interest Illegal immigration Pollution of environment issue Population control issue Central America issues NAFTA Kissinger Commission State Department - PA - Deputy Assistant Secretary 1985-1989 U.S. diplomatic history projects FIO information declassification Historian's Office Office of Public Diplomacy issues Otto .eich .elations with A.A South Africa issues SALT II Treaty .elations with U.S. public Press relations 1argaret Tutwiler 3 State Department - Asylum Affairs 1989-1991 Operations Human rights and INS Cuban .efugee Act Inconsistencies in law application Comments Senior Foreign Service Association Foreign Service Act of 1980 Time in class issue INTERVIEW Q: Today is August 26, 1993. This is an interview with George B. High being done on behalf of the Association for Diplomatic Studies, and I am Charles Stuart Kennedy. George, could you give me a little about your background,,where you came from, a little about your family, where you grew up and went to school- HI8HA 5ell the family roots on my father's side were Swedish immigrants in the 1880s who came to the United States and ended up in Nebraska. And on my mother's side 8ermans who settled in Chicago at some time in the last century I've never 0uite understood those details. I was born in Chicago in 1931 and grew up in a town named Blue Island which is on the far south side. I went through high school there -- Blue Island Community High School which is now named Eisenhower High School. Didn't travel at all abroad but collected stamps and that interested me in geography. And my father taught geography in high school. Both my parents were high school teachers. One thing that began to interest me in world affairs and travel was .ichard Haliburton's writings. Q: .ou are the second person who talked about being influenced by Haliburton. HI8HA One of the times while in grade school when I had one of those childhood diseases I was given The Ten /onders of the /orld or maybe the title was The Book of /onders by Haliburton. It was a collection of several of his travel books and it opened up to me the world of adventure and travel. 5hen I was in high school one of my government teachers noted an interest in world affairs. She encouraged me to read a book describing the e2periences of an American diplomat early in the century. I've forgotten the title but it was written by a blue blood 4 New Englander who as a young man had gone to Turkey to be the private secretary to the American Ambassador. That was the beginning of his e2traordinary career and the book described it in inspiring detail. The author was Lloyd C 8riscom who shortly after the turn of the century became ambassador to Persia Japan Bra6il briefly and Italy. So I went off to college Dartmouth and majored in economics while taking a number of government courses including some international affairs courses. Several of the latter also sparked interest in diplomacy. They were taught by a fellow named John Pelenyi. He was the last Hungarian ambassador to the United States before 5orld 5ar II at the time that the war broke out. He married an American woman from Cleveland as I recall. He remained in the U.S. and taught international affairs. One of the visitors to his class was Ambassador Briggs Ellis O. Briggs the father of Ted Briggs. I just thought it was fascinating to hear what Briggs who you will recall always was outspoken had to say and to see how this former Hungarian diplomat sort of bowed and scraped in the grand European manner when Briggs visited the class. 5hen it became time for me to decide on graduate school the choice came down to business administration or law. Even with a strong economics background I decidedA why not take lawB It might fascinate me and if it didn't it would be good preparation for government. I was already contemplating the Foreign Service. I went to Columbia Law School from 1953 to 195, and when I could I took international law courses. The second year in law school I spent a summer as an intern at the United Nations. Philip Jessup was a professor at Columbia Law and he wrote a very helpful recommendation for my participation in the intern program. Substantively the summer wasn't very stimulating. I worked in the UN's legal division on a couple of papers on subjects that were not demanding. But the environment was e2citing. Dag Hammarskjold was the Secretary 8eneral and staff officers played up to this group of international students about 30 of us. That time spent with colleagues there was very broadening. The summer had value. I applied to the Foreign Service in the spring of 1954 and took the several-day written e2am in Chicago that summer. I took the oral e2am while I was at the United Nations in the summer of 1955. I passed the oral and could have gone into the Foreign Service that summer but I said that I really would like to hold off and take my third year in law school and get the degree. There were other international law courses given in the third year that I would find useful. The Department said 4Fine.4 On taking the oral e2am one interesting insight came. A law school classmate who took the e2am with me. He really was very bright. He had studied international affairs and had taken some international law courses as well. He could talk a blue streak on international politics. I thought 4Boy if there was somebody who was well prepared for the Foreign Service and could contribute to it he had to be the guy.4 I found out afterwards that his e2am had not gone well. For one thing he walked into the e2am room with a copy of the 5 0ew .ork Times under his arm. He admitted afterwards that this was a gimmick to impress the e2aminers that he was well read and reading the right things. One of his first 0uestions out of the hopper wasA who is the Times correspondent in 1oscowB He couldn't name the fellowC it shot the image of the well-read newspaper reader. As a matter of fact he did not pass the e2am. I was asked as a law school student what characteri6ed Justice Frankfurter's decisions on the Supreme Court. The e2aminer was after the Justice's about face while on the court from a number of his earlier liberal decisions. I admitted that at Columbia we hadn't looked closely at the evolution of judges' opinions. I passed the e2am but I don't suppose it rested heavily on that honest answer. Despite failing to describe Frankfurter's background I graduated from law school and came into the Foreign Service in June 195,. That put me in the A-100 junior officer course at the Foreign Service Institute. The institute was then located in an old brick building on C and 22nd Streets. Several years later we watched the building collapse as it was destroyed to make way for New State. Q: How did you find those courses- HI8HA I though they were pretty good. I certainly was intrigued by the background of my colleagues in the A-100 course. There was everything from business to journalism to the English major who had tried to write the great American novel and it hadn't worked to the environmentalist who logged up in Alaska.

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