Buchanan, Thompson R

The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project THOMPSON R. BUCHANAN Interviewed by: Charles Stuart Kennedy Initial interview date: March 15, 1996 Copyright 199 ADST TABLE OF CONTENTS Background Born in Beverly Hills California Raised in U.S. and abroad Yale University' Columbia University U.S. Navy ))II State Department - OIR 19.8-1900 U.S.-Soviet bilateral relations - DRS Berlin Agreement Negotiating 1ith Soviets State Department - 2ntered Foreign Service 1903 4cCarthy environment Communism 1orld1ide 5infiltration6 Frankfurt 7ermany 1900-1908 Defector 9Soviet: Reception Center Types of defectors Paris France - Political officer - NATO 1908-1960 Duties 4iddle 2ast issues Nasser State Department - U/C7A - Communist 2conomic Affairs 1960-1962 Africa issues - Congo Africa trip Africa Bureau 9AF: vie1s on colonies African 5blackmail6 South Africa Chinese Africa activities 1 4osco1 USSR 1962-196. Security PN7s Publication Procurement Khrushchev era Cuba crisis 2mbassy staffing and morale President Kennedy assassination Daily life experiences KhrushchevAs African 5offensive6 Soviet agriculture Bujumbura Burundi - DC4 196.-1966 Ambassador Donald Dumont Hutus 1in 1960 elections Hutu-Tutsi civil 1ar 5Selective6 PN7 U.S. interests Listening post Chinese influence Soviet interests 4issionaries Belgian influence Libreville 7abon - DC4 1966-1968 Natural resources President Bongo French presence Peace Corps Political situation 2nvironment State Department - Personnel 1968-1968 Personnel assignment policies State Department - Soviet Affairs 1968-1980 CCech crisis Soviet and U.S. chancery issue U.S.-Soviet consulate agreements 4osco1 USSR - Political counselor 1980-1983 Dietnam issue NixonAs 4osco1 visit Kissinger 2nvironment 2 Security Reporting Soviet dissidents Soviet 1eaknesses U.S. press Oslo Nor1ay - DC4 1983-1980 Ambassador Phil Cro1e Oil production Soviet-Nor1egian relations State Department - Africa Bureau - Director Central African Affairs 1980-1988 Angola policy Cuban intervention in Angola 4NITA Eaire Shaba invasion Tribal disputes Congressional interest in Africa Human rights French/Belgian presence 4obutu CIA presence Bokassa AID Leningrad USSR - Consul 7eneral 1988-1980 Reporting duties Lecturing Soviet Fe1s K7B 2nvironment Staff problems Security problems Soviet economy Afghanistan invasion 4rs. 4ondale visit DentspilAs 5The 4ask6 Soviet harassment Die1s on RussiaAs future U.S. policy trends Internal problem National Defense University 1980-1981 3 Soviet policy in Africa Retirement 1981 State Department - INR 1981-1986 History of American diplomats in St. Petersburg Special studies - 5active measures6 in Africa Soviet activities in Africa Sgt. Lonetree case 4osco1 Russia - INS 1990 )ould-be refugees Travel experiences Humanitarian issues USSR crumbles INTERVIEW $: Today is March 15, 1996. This is an interview with Thompson Rhodes Buchanan on behalf of the Association for Diplomatic Studies and I am Charles Stuart Kennedy. I might mention we are old friends dating back to when I first came into the Service in 1955 in Frankfurt. Tom, to get this thing started, could you tell me when and where you were born and a bit about your family and early childhood. BUCHANAN: I 1as born in Beverly Hills California where my father formerly a Ne1 York play1right had moved to 1ork in films. )e left there 1hen I 1as three my mother 1as divorced at that point and moved to Chicago. 4y family on my motherHs side 1ere old Chicagoans my father a Kentuckian. 4y mother remarried about 1931 marrying a British-Indian Prince 1ho had gone to Harro1 and Cambridge and later became a London barrister. Needless to say it caused a little consternation 1ithin the family and 1e moved to 2urope. So from age 8 I to 1. I 1as at schools in France S1itCerland and mostly in 2ngland 1hich is really the genesis for my interest in the Foreign Service encouraged by my parents. $: I am just trying to get a little feel for the timing now. -hat years would be covered when you were . to 140 BUCHANAN: It would have been 191231 . $: So these were the formative years for the genesis of -orld -ar II and all of that. BUCHANAN: I 1as supposed to go on to Harro1 and Cambridge in my step-fatherAs footsteps but 1ith the 1ar coming and my mother 1anting me to come back to my 4 American roots 1e returned in 1938 and settled in Ne1 York. I 1as sent to old family schools 2xeter and then on to Yale initially as a civilian and later in the Navy D-12 Program. $: The 4312 Program being a Navy 7fficer Training Program...903day wonders9 BUCHANAN: I graduated from Columbia University and 1anted to go into LSTs landing ship tanks the smallest vessel 1ith the least discipline I could think of but on graduation day they asked if anybody kne1 a foreign language. I kne1 French and 7erman and the next thing I kne1 I 1as out in Boulder Colorado not learning Fapanese as I had been told but learning Russian 1ith Prince and Princess 4estchersky. I met my 1ife Nancy in Boulder Colorado a Philadelphian of Boulder and 1e 1ere married in 19.0. Actually I still have the Russian notes of )alter Stoessel 1ho 1as in the class ahead of me. $: Could you give a little feel for Russian training at that time0 BUCHANAN: Totally embryonic. Prince and Princess 4estchersky 1ere 1onderful people. He 1as a painter she had scrubbed all the floors of Paris to keep them alive after the revolution. )e had no regular textbooks. It 1as not very good. Instead 1e learned about the ballet. )e 1ere supposed to be giving ships to the Russians under Lend Lease so 1e should have been learning something about the vocabulary of a naval officer. )e learned about the ballet and opera. $: A painter is not e:actly the greatest naval linguist. BUCHANAN: Absolutely not. So 1hen I graduated and 1ent to )ashington I 1as called over by a captain 1ho said 5I understand young man that you speak pretty good Russian.6 I replied: 5)ell I suppose I speak it no better no 1orse than anyone does after seven months of Russian discussing the ballet.6 This sho1ed lack of confidence and I am probably alive today because of it. He 1anted to send me out as a simultaneous interpreter for 7eneral 4acArthur. He blackballed me out of the job of Naval AttachJ in Istanbul so I negotiated my o1n job in naval intelligence in Bremen 7ermany for three months. I 1as the most overtrained under used naval officer in the history of the US Navy. After the 1ar I returned to Yale to finish my degree in international relations. $: Could you give us a little feel for the period, of how both students and professors, who were almost all veterans, I assume at that time, looked at things such as the US role in the world, the United Nations, and all of that0 BUCHANAN: )e 1ere certainly a soberer group than 1e had been before the 1ar. )e 1ere older of course and many of us 1ere married. I really had a very short period there in Yale after the 1ar basically only one term since I had been into an accelerated program under the D-12. )e lived in a childrenAs delinquency home 1here my 1ife 1orked 80 hours a 1eek. 7enerally 1e felt that Russia 1as an ally. I had had little 5 sympathy for the naval captain 1ho had run our unit in Bremen 1ho 1as preparing for the next 1ar. He brought me one time a document 1hich he had bought in 2ast 7ermany and said 5Tom if the K7B kno1s that you and I have this document 1e are dead.6 I read the document 1hich 1as some notes from a K7B informer aboard some little Soviet vessel about 1hat Igor had said to Ivan. Total nonsense and still is probably classified top secret in some naval files on my captainHs orders. I had thought about going into the Foreign Service and come do1n to )ashington to talk to Fulian 7reen the examiner for the Foreign Service and said I 1as on my 1ay to S1itCerland to the Institut des Hautes 2tudes Internationales in 7eneva but 1ould be interested maybe in taking the Foreign Service exam 1hen I returned. 5Oh young man you donAt 1ant to go to S1itCerland 6 he said. )hat he really meant 1as 1e 1ant our ne1 officers to be young and malleable enter no1. But any1ay I 1ent to S1itCerland and after a year my daughter 1as born so I had to come back and earn a living. By then I had decided I 1anted my children to have more roots than I had had so I applied to the State Department and different places. Finally the Navy offered me a job as a cryptanalyst 1orking on Russian code at L0 000 a year 1hich in those days 1as a large amount of money. $: That was big money. I came into the Foreign Service at $1,500. BUCHANAN: )ell I 1orked one 1eek doing cross1ord puCCles 1hich I hated and at that point happily Boris Klosson in OIR offered me a job at L3 000. So my career started in the State Department in 19.8. $: You started in 7IR. BUCHANAN: Yes. It 1as basically the successor of OSS. )e had people such as Herbert 4arcuse 1ho may mean something to you. $: 7h yes. He eventually became the great intellectual of the left in the United States. BUCHANAN: Yes. He 1as used as the advisor on the Social Democratic Left in 7ermany at the time. 4y job 1as to 1ork on US-Soviet bilateral relations Soviet relations 1ith the UN and Soviet relations 1ith front organiCations. I 1as sort of the ideologue for 1hat 1as then called DRS the Division of Research on the Soviet Union.

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