The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Program AMBASSADOR LARRY C. WILLIAMSON Interviewed by Charles Stuart Kennedy Initial interview date: October 26, 2006 Copyright 2007 ADST TABLE OF CONTENTS Background Born and raised in Arkansas Uni ersity of Louis ille Uni ersity of California, Berkeley US Marine Corps, %orean War Marriage Entered the Foreign Ser ice in 1958 State Department; ,nternational Relations Officer 1958.1961 European Bureau Freeto0n, Sierra Leone; 1SO; Consular Officer 1961.1962 En ironment US presence 1o ernment Religion British Lusaka, Northern Rhodesia; 1eneral Officer 1962.1966 En ironment Peace Corps South Africans Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland British Nyasaland Peoples Conference US commercial interests A,D programs Tribes Leadership 5ambia African American ,nstitute Unilateral Declaration of ,ndependence Press Economy 1 State Department; Staff Secretariat 1966.1968 Operations State Department; Office of the Counselor 1968.1970 Monitoring T9 ne0s of 9ietnam Tra els 0ith President :ohnson 9ice President Hubert Humphrey Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) 1970 Organizing OEO office Donald Rumsfeld Dar es Salaam, Tanzania; Economic Officer 1970.1972 Arusha Declaration (Nationalization) Nyerere Economy East ,ndian exodus US A,D 5anzibar Foreign Assistance Chinese London, England; Commercial Attach? 1972.1977 US Ambassadors En ironment Margaret Thatcher Oil Tourism Aircraft British trade policies Farnborough Air Sho0 9ietnam En ironment Nairobi, %enya; Economic Counselor 1977.1980 US Commercial presence En ironment Economy Crime US military interests State Department; Acting Director, East Africa 1980.1982 Somalia Eritrea/Ethiopia Droughts 2 So iets Tanzania State Department, Desk Officer, East Africa 1982.1982 Chet Crocker East African go ernments French presence State Department; Office Director, Airline Negotiations 1982.198A European African ,sraelis Latin American Asian Middle Eastern Ambassador to 1abon 198A.1987 Description French interests and influence US interests 1o ernment En ironment Education State Department; Performance E aluation 1988 State Department; Office of the Director 1eneral 1989.1991 Assignments 1rie ances Special problems Homosexuals Specialists and language officers Medical issues SubseBuent Assignments 1991.1992 Defense ,ntelligence Agency Retirement 199A INTERVIEW Q: Today is the 26th of October 2006. This is an interview with Larry C. Williamson. This is being done on behalf of the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training, and I)m Charles Stuart Kennedy. You go by Larry. 2 W,LL,AMSONC Des. Q: Larry, let)s start at the beginning. When and where you born? W,LL,AMSONC , 0as born in Fort Smith Arkansas in 1920. Q: Let)s get a little about the family. First of all, can we tal- about your father)s side? What do you -now about the Williamsons, what were they up to, and how did they get there? W,LL,AMSONC The Williamsons and the Williams (the t0o families intermarried) 0ere early settlers in 0estern Arkansas. They arri ed there in the 1820Fs and 0ere dirt farmers. After the third generation, they began to mo e into the to0n. Fort Smith 0as the second largest city in Arkansas, but it 0as only about 25,000 people in those days. My grandfather 0as a Marshal in the ,ndian Territory and later a city detecti e. My parents chose a ery unfortunate time to get married in ie0 of the depression coming up, but they couldnFt see it. They got married in F28 and , 0as born in F20. By that time the depression 0as on them, and Dad couldnFt find 0ork. He 0as sort of an engineer or 0ould pass for an engineer in those daysGci il engineerGand he found 0ork o er most of the 1920Fs by super ising WPA (Works Progress Association) gangs on the roads and 0orking 0ith the Arkansas State High0ay Department. He 0as on detail to the High0ay Department. We 0erenFt po erty stricken, but 0e 0erenFt ery 0ell off, either. Q: Did your father, was he a degreed engineer? W,LL,AMSONC No. Q: In those days, this was in the... W,LL,AMSONC Des, the 1920Fs. Actually, he started out as a sur eyor. Q: Had be gone to college? W,LL,AMSONC He had three years of college, but apparently he managed to drink his 0ay out during his junior year and ne er 0ent back. , gre0 up in Fort Smith. After the Second World War 0e mo ed to a place e en smaller but probably better kno0nC Fayette ille. ,t is up in the Ozark Mountains. All of those people 0ere long.time settlers in 0estern Arkansas in the mountains. , had a great.grandfather 0ho fought for the Confederacy, for all fi e years during the Ci il War, and a lot of relati es 0ho carried many grudges coming from that era. Q: How about on your mother)s side? W,LL,AMSONC My motherFs side 0as a little bit different. My great.grandfather 0as the dominant influence there. Her mother and father seemed to ha e had a real tempestuous A relationship. They married each other t0ice and di orced t0ice. My great.grandfather raised my mother and her brother, and their mother. He 0as a Di ision super isor on the Frisco Railroad. HeFd started out as a telegrapher at the age of 12 and 0orked 0ith a ariety of railroads. He ended up being the superintendent of the south0est section of the Frisco Railroad 0hich in those days ran from Springfield, Missouri, do0n to Paris, Texas. That paid ery 0ell. He 0as in pretty good shape and had his o0n car but 0as the sole support of his 0ife, his daughter, my uncleG0ho ne er did keep a job ery longG and my mother until she married my father. My father 0asnFt doing too 0ell in the 1920Fs, so 0e all li ed in a huge extended family in big old southern houses in Fort Smith. My great.grandfather retired from the railroad sometime in the late I20s. The 0hole family existed on his railroad retirement checks plus 0hate er my father 0as able to pull together from the federal go ernment. Q: Let)s tal- a bit about Fort Smith and Fayetteville. Through the elementary grades, what it was li-e being a -id then? W,LL,AMSONC ,t 0as great stuff. That part of the 0orldFs hotGphysicallyGand from the middle of May to the first days of school, 0e boys just ran around in a pair of shorts and under0ear, barefoot and bare.chested. We did a lot of things, ran in packs (those days 0e 0erenFt 0orried about being run o er by cars too much). We had the protection of being in a group, so nobody e er bothered us. My parents thought it 0as the most natural thing in the 0orld to turn us out of the house after breakfast. We came back for lunch, and in the heat of the summer 0e 0ere made to take naps (0hen 0e 0ere little) , but after 2 pm 0e 0ere a0ay till dinner time. After dinner 0eFd go back out and play. ,n the 0inter, there 0as school, but still youFd hang around in gangs as kids do, or as kids used to do. We didnFt e er get into any really bad mischief, but 0e certainly tried to from time to timeJ ,f my parents had kno0n 0hat 0e 0ere doing, they probably 0ould ha e died. For example, 0e used to put up huge bag s0ings. The to0n 0as fairly 0ell 0ooded. We 0ould climb up a tree and put a platform up about 20, 20 feet up in the air, and then played chicken. Who could get that bag s0ing going the furthest from the platform... Q: A bag swing is a what? W,LL,AMSONC A to0 bag. A bag that you kept potatoes and things in. Q: A burlap bag. W,LL,AMSONC Des, a burlap bag. DouFd stuff it full of stra0 usually stolen from somebodyFs manger because a lot of people 0ere keeping cattle around still. Then you 0ould do things like see 0ho could stay up longest before he jumped and ho0 0ide the gap 0as bet0een the platform and the bag. On one or t0o occasions pretty close to catastrophes happened, but most of the time 0e made it. We did all sorts of strange things. We entertained oursel es. Q: I assume there were swimming holes? 5 W,LL,AMSONC There 0ere s0imming holes. There 0as a public s0imming pool 0hich 0asnFt too bad. The problem 0ith the public pool 0as that in those days, of course, polio 0as a great scourge, and the authorities closed the pools and the mo ie houses and e erything else after about the end of :une and they did not reopen until 0ell after school started. There 0as nothing else to do. Q: What did girls do? Did girls fit in your e/uation at all? I)m not tal-ing about dating but... W,LL,AMSONC There 0ere a couple of sisters 0ho 0ere hangers.on. There 0as one 0ho had a 0icked left hook. Her name 0as Delores Hinton. , ha enFt thought of her in 50 or 60 yearsJ WeFd push the girls around as boys 0ould, and theyFd take it pretty 0ell except for Delores 0ho 0as constantly pushing us back. Since she 0as one of those girls 0ho got their gro0th early, she stood about four or fi e inches taller than the tallest of us and 0as a real menace 0hen she put her mind to itJ Hanging out 0ith girls 0as not stuff boys did in those days. Q: Of course not. W,LL,AMSONC With one exceptionJ We all 0ent to dancing school.