The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project AMBASSADOR DANIEL A. O‘DONOHUE Interviewed by: Charles Stuart Kennedy Initial interview date: May 28, 1996 Copyright 2 ADST TABLE OF CONTENTS Background Born and raised in Detroit Michigan University of Detroit U.S. Army %orea Entered Foreign Service in 1959 )enoa Italy - ,onsular officer 1957-1959 .efugee .elief program Environment /edding 0ale University - %orean language training 1959-1910 Seoul %orea - Political officer 1910-1913 President .hee toppled in military coup d4etat %orean political parties Park ,hung Hee Economic development Embassy officers Ambassador Sam Berger Elections - 1913 ,IA North %orea relations State Department - %orea desk 1913-1911 %orean economic gro8th ,ongressional relations AID operations State Department - E9ecutive Secretariat 1911-1918 USS Pueblo crisis "Blue House" attacked Vance Park negotiations 1 Paris-Vietnam negotiations Accra )hana - Political officer 1918-1971 Environment Issues Army /ar ,ollege 1971-1972 Seoul %orea - political counselor 1972-1973 President Park ,hung Hee %im Dae Jung (kidnaped) Phil Habib "Unshin" period %orean ",IA" U.S. ,IA U.S. military Mrs. Park4s assassination State Department - Office Director %orean Affairs 1973-1971 "%oreagate" Human rights issue F3s and F5s to Vietnam ,ongressional vie8 of %orea %orea unification issue SS MayayeA incident State Department - E9ecutive Assistant - Under Secretary for Political Affairs 1971-1977 Personalities %orea "tree-chopping" incident Japan-%orea relations U.S. Troop 8ithdra8al issue .ichard Holbrooke "%oreagate" Jong Sun Park ,ongressional relations Philippine base negotiations Bangkok Thailand - D,M 1977-1978 Embassy problems Ambassador ,harles /hitehouse Environment .egional pressures ASSAN Issues Human rights issues 2 The monarchy Vietnamese "Boat-people" State Department - Deputy Assistant Secretary - Political/military affairs 1978-1981 BrAeAinski Nuclear disarmament issues Personalities Arms sales ID,A AID program Somalia The Shah and Iran policies .egional issues State Department - Deputy Assistant Secretary - South Asia affairs 1981-1983 ,hina regional policies %hmer .ouge and ,ambodia ASSAN issues Singapore4s Cee %8an 0e8 U.S. Southern Asia policy Vietnam4s policies PO/ issue in Vietnam D.efightingE Vietnam Burma Indonesia Philippine base issue ,IN,PA, The Marcos Ambassador to Burma 1983-1987 Narcotics program The military and politics DEA presence ,orruption AID Staff Burma4s relations 8ith neighbors Economy San Suu %yi State Department - Deputy Director - Policy Planning S/P 1987-1988 P/M and regional bureaus Ambassador to Thailand 1988-1991 Jim Thompson Medical programs 3 ,ambodia and %hmer .ouge Vietnam refugees MIA Prime Minister )eneral Prem Prime Minister ,hatchai ,oups Ceaders U.S.-Thai relations )ulf 8ar ,ongressman SolarA Prince Sihanouk ,ambodia4s "non-communist" resistance groups .efugee issues (N)Os) U.N. presence Embassy operators Environment ,ongressional visits Narcotics Economic issues U.S. business interests AID Trade "piracy" ,ivil air issues Social problems Foreign commercial service Military coup d4etat - 1991 %ing of Thailand Ho8ard University - Diplomat in residence 1991-1992 State Department - Inspection ,orps 1992-1993 INTERVIEW $: Today is May 28, 1996. This is an interview with Ambassador Daniel A. O(Donohue, being done on behalf of the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training. I am Charles Stuart Kennedy. Well, let(s start at the beginning. Would you tell me when and where you were born and something about your family, OFDONOHUE: I 8as born on October 27 1931 in Detroit Michigan. Both my father and mother 8ere immigrants from Ireland although they had met in Detroit. I 8as the first-born in the family. My father 8as a bus driver. I spent all of my youth in Detroit. $: We-re tal.ing about when the /reat Depression hit the 0nited States. 3 OFDONOHUE: 0es although in those days the condition of DpovertyE 8as so 8idespread that as a child I hardly noticed it as a matter of fact. I canFt really claim that the Depression ever bore very heavily on me. $: I thin. that that(s true of most of us at that time. It wasn-t that bad a time for .ids. OFDONOHUE: ThatFs right. This 8as an utterly different kind of American society. This 8as actually the beginning of a period of Dlean years.E /e 8ere children gro8ing up in an adult society unlike the Dbaby boomE after /orld /ar II 8hen children 8ere the focus of society. It 8as an une9ceptional childhood. Then I 8ent to the University of Detroit. $: Where did you go to high school, OFDONOHUE: ,atholic ,entral High School in Detroit. $: Did you get much material on foreign affairs, We(re tal.ing about the period of World War II. OFDONOHUE: /ell I had al8ays had and indeed Huite clearly the reason 8hy I 8as interested and entered the Foreign Service 8as that I 8as an omnivorous reader. I 8as particularly interested in history. At that age I 8ouldnFt have described this as Dforeign or international affairs.E In effect I 8as reading a great deal and continued to do so throughout my life. At the University of Detroit I actually majored in chemistry. Then in my junior year I found out that I 8as color blind. I received a Bachelor of Science degree and 8ent into the military. Up until that point I had never heard of the Foreign Service having come out of an immigrant milieu. $: When did you graduate from the 0niversity of Detroit, OFDONOHUE: I received my degree in 1953. I served t8o years in the Army including one year in %orea. $: What did you do in Korea, OFDONOHUE: I 8as assigned to a very strange group. It 8as a special category of the Army detailed to serve 8ith the Air Force. It had a very mysterious title but in fact it 8as an Aviation Battalion 8hich built airfields. In %orea. I 8as first assigned to %impo Air Base 8hich 8as called D%-13E in those days. I 8as briefly at 1K2334 Air Base a large air base do8n near Osan Iabout 30 miles South of SeoulJ. Then for most of my time in %orea I 8as at D%-11E Air Base on 0oido Island in the middle of the Han .iver near Seoul. In those days D%-11E could take a ,-37 transport aircraft. During the rainy season one end of the air strip 8as flooded and 8e 8ere evacuated at that time. Cater it 5 8as the site of a massive land fill 8here there no8 may be a million people living on 8hat had once been a very small island. /hen I came back from the Army I then entered /ayne State University in Detroit 8here I obtained a Masters Degree in Public Administration in 1955. Early in the fall of that year a friend of mine told me that there 8as an e9amination for the Foreign Service and suggested that 8e take it. Up until then I had not kno8n that 8e had a Foreign Service but I took the Foreign Service e9amination in October 1933. Then events proceeded in a slo8 manner 8hich I think are as true today as they 8ere then. I took and passed the 8ritten e9am passed the oral and at that point became much more seriously interested in foreign affairs. The process finally ended in July 1957 8hen I entered the Foreign Service. $: Could you give us a little feel for the oral e5am you too., Do you remember how and when it was given, OFDONOHUE: 0es. It 8as given regionally. I drove do8n to ,incinnati from Detroit. As I remember there 8ere three e9aminers. The e9amination 8as heavily oriented to8ard foreign affairs 8ith emphasis on ho8 I e9pressed myself. I 8ould say that it 8as Huite Dopen ended.E That is the Huestions didnFt lend themselves to D0esE or DNoE ans8ers. Indeed the e9aminers let me ramble on. Ho8ever the Huestions 8ere all related either to government foreign affairs or international developments. As I said they 8ere really Huestions to elicit responses. The e9amination 8as conducted in a fairly lo8 key 8ay by the three e9aminers. As I recall it it lasted for about an hour or an hour and 20 minutes. I didnFt feel that it 8as an Dinterrogation.E On the other hand I felt that I had been put to a thorough test. As I remember I left the room at the end of the e9am. Cater one of the e9aminers came out and said that I had passed. $: Were you married when you entered the Foreign Service, OFDONOHUE: No. $: After you too. the written e5am, were you starting to ma.e some in7uiries about what the Foreign Service was, If you did, I was wondering what people told you. OFDONOHUE: /ell in Detroit and among the people that I associated 8ith the Foreign Service 8as really Huite a mysterious thing. /hen I passed the 8ritten e9am I became more interested in the Foreign Service. At the same time then as no8 you couldnFt Dbank your futureE on it. So 8hile 8aiting for all of the events involved in entering the Foreign Service to unfold I 8ent to Cansing to 8ork in the State )overnment. Essentially I 8as Huite ignorant about the Foreign Service. Although I had majored in chemistry I had t8o strengths. There 8as my massive reading in history and foreign affairs. Then I also had a practical and solid grounding in American politics and government because my father had been very active in the 1 Democratic Party. Indeed he had the rather ignominious e9perience of having been a campaign manager in 1932 for a Democratic candidate for ,ongress in Detroit 8ho lost in the .oosevelt landslide. So this kind of influence obviously affected me. I 8as essentially ignorant of the Foreign Service outside of descriptions of 8hat it did.