Bagley, Elizabeth Frawley
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project AMBASSADOR ELIZABETH FRAWLEY BAGLEY Interviewed by: Charles Stuart Kennedy Initial interview date: July 27, 1998 Copyright 2 6 ADST TABLE OF CONTENTS Early Life orn and raised in New York State Regis College, (eston, Massachusetts (foreign languages) ,eorgetown -ni.ersity Law School Foreign Tra.els -ni.ersity of Dijon, France oston College Introduction to American politics Dukakis presidential campaign Massachusetts Defenders Committee 0e.in and 0athryn (hite oston icentennial Senator Edward 0ennedy (ashington, D.C.2 Early political career Receptionist3 Office of Senator (endell Anderson State Department3 Congressional Relations 1477-1474 Panama Canal Treaties Cyprus Agreement -S Military (orking for bi-partisan support Democratic and Republican party leaders Importance of working with 8the Hill9 (orking with the (hite House Neutrality Treaty State Department2 Projects and Assignments 1474-1480 Cyprus issue Lifting Turkish Arms Embargo The ,reek lobby 1 Representati.e to the (inter Olympics, Lake Placid Cancellation of -S participation in Moscow Olympics Philadelphia 8Mini Olympics9 Detailed to the (hite House (Olympic concerns) Presidents Reagan and Carter (comments) Implementing Camp Da.id Accords Assistant to Sol Linowitz Egyptians .s. Israelis Detail to Congressional Delegation to the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) Non-,o.ernment Acti.ities 1481-1488 Pri.ate film work in -S and Paris, France 1481 Pierre Salinger>s film project 1480-1483 Center for National Policy3 Congressional Relations 1481-1483 Presidential Campaigns (Mondale and Dukakis) Marriage Campaign financing issue National Democratic Institute for International Affairs International elections obser.er delegations ackground to appointment as Ambassador Connections to President ill Clinton Pamela Harriman 8Democrats for the Eighties9 (orkings of politics Fund raisers ,ary Hart campaign Husband>s political acti.ities Vulnerabilities of political figures Dukakis Presidential Campaign, (ashington area Finance Chairman Fund raising Dukakis personality and character Foreign Affairs as an issue Competition Madeleine Albright (hy Dukakis lost National Policy organization ,eorge ush (orking the diplomatic corps National Policy Organizations Center for National Policy National Democratic Institute for International Affairs 2 National Republican Institute National Democratic Institute National Endowment for Democracy Political Acti.ities following Dukakis defeat Irish problem Senates 8Four Horsemen9 ,ulf (ar, for and against ,o.ernor ill and Hillary Clinton Democratic Leadership Council Esther Coopersmith Presidential Campaign 1441-1442 Democratic Leadership Council meeting Tom Harkin candidacy ob 0erry candidacy ill Clinton candidacy Clinton-0erry relations Clinton- ush debates ,ulf (ar issue Clinton-,ore relations Fund raising riefing foreign Diplomatic Corps Israel Cuba osnia Transition Team role State Department interests at the State Department 1442 Chief of Protocol Congressional contacts Congressional liaison Clinton-0erry relations Pregnancy Ambassadorships Appointment as Ambassador to Portugal 1443-144A Pregnancy Financial Disclosure issue Male spouse situation riefings and preparations Senate Hearings Senator Helms> surprising endorsement 80ennedy and Helms Support agley9 3 Ambassador to Portugal 144A-1447 East Timor independence Portuguese Americans Lajes airbase (Azores) Portuguese-American De.elopment Foundation ilateral TaB Treaty NATO base Iberlant Prime Minister Anibal Ca.aco Sil.a Sil.a .isit to (ashington Visa wai.er issue Embassy staff -S-Portugal relations Lajes Agreement on cooperation and Defense France NATO enlargement issue osnia Diplomatic duties Communists President Soares En.ironment Vice President ,ore>s .isit ,ore>s 8,lobal Classroom9 treaty Hillary Clinton>s .isit Clinton .isit to Our Lady of Fatima Recipient of Order of Prince Henry EBpo eBhibition Transfer of military aircraft to Portugal Senior Ad.isor to the Secretary of State for Media Programming AcCuisition 1477 Mission to Republic of osnia Herzego.ina and Republica Srpska American TV programs INTERVIEW %: Today is July 27, 1998. This is an interview with Ambassador Eli)abeth Frawley Bagley done on behalf of the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training and I am Charles Stuart Kennedy. To begin with, could you tell me when and where you were born and something about your family. A,LEY2 Yes. I was born in Elmira, New York, the second of eight children. My father was, first a family court judge and later, a county judge for o.er 35 years and is a lifelong Democrat. In fact, since I was fi.e years old my brother and I campaigned for him A because a judge in New York runs e.ery four years on a ticket, and then, of course, he became nonpartisan after he went on the bench. My mother grew up in Manhattan, the daughter of Irish immigrants, who also can.assed and campaigned for democratic candidates, so it>s ob.iously in my bloodE %: Are there upstate Democrats. I didn/t 0now that. A,LEY2 In Elmira, New York there aren>t many, but he was and is, .ery much. My older brother 0e.in is a lawyer in New York and worked for Mayor Ed 0och for years. Another brother is a priest. A typical Irish-Catholic family2 I ha.e four sisters and three brothers. -nfortunately, there are no doctors, as we ha.e no medical eBpertise whatsoe.erE So, I grew up in an Irish-Catholic family that was political in the sense that e.ery year on election day we would all go out to dinner together, because most of the time it was too eBpensi.e for such a large family. My parents instilled in us at an early age the belief that politics was an honorable profession and that .oting was a right of our citizenship and a responsibility. My mother told us that her parents could not wait to relinCuish their Irish citizenship, which was then under the Fueen of England, and .ote as Americans. %: 1here did you go to school. A,LEY2 I went to school in Elmira at Our lady of Lourdes, a Catholic school, from kindergarten through eighth grade, and then to Notre Dame High School. Then I went to Regis College in (eston, Massachusetts, also a Catholic school. And finally, I graduated from ,eorgetown Law School, so I spent my entire educational life in Catholic schools. %: Did Nuns run the place in elementary school. A,LEY2 Yes, the Sisters of Mercy. %: How did you find them. A,LEY2 Some good, some bad, like e.eryone else. I ha.e to say it was a wonderful training, although my children are now going to an Episcopal school because it is a pri.ate school and the best one here in (ashington. (e didn>t ha.e a choice where we were going. (e went to Catholic school all the way through college. Our parents were .ery much into Catholic parochial school education. At that time there were no teachers other than nuns and priests. Now a Catholic school would ha.e lay people. %: 4ou started school when. A,LEY2 I was born in 1452 and started school at the age of four or fi.e. %: Just to pic0 up a little social history. 1as there much of a cleavage between Catholics 5 and non5Catholics in Elmira in those days or not. A,LEY2 I would say we were .ery isolated. I ne.er set foot in a Protestant church or Hewish synagogue. In fact I think we were told not to. I can remember knowing then that they were different. (e were taught that we were the one true faith. I don>t remember being taught any kind of anti-Semitism, but Hewish friends of mine said that their Catholic friends had been taught that the Hews killed Hesus. I ne.er heard that, although I always knew they were different from us by religion and customs2 they went to synagogue on Saturdays when we were going to Mass on Sundays. I went all through the Catholic school system and knew only a few token Protestants, but no Hews. I had a .ery insulated, .ery middle American eBistence. There were se.eral blacks in our high school. (e were from the most affluent part of Elmira, New York, if you could call it that. It was a community of about a 100,000 population with a lot of people from Corning ,lass, etc. There were ethnic pockets that were interesting, which I didn>t know until I went to high school. In my elementary school we were mainly from the same area but there were Irish, Italians and Polish people. My Irish grandmother li.ed with us and was always characterizing the Italians as being this and the Poles that. She would say to forget the rits and the Scots because they were the blackest of all Protestants, meaning they were anti-Irish and anti-Catholic. She brought with her great stories from Ireland, but also a lot of ethnic prejudices, usually laced with great wit. (e always had knowledge of what my heritage was from her. My mother grew up in New York City, the daughter of two Irish immigrants. Her father was a chauffeur. My grandmother>s family had ele.en and they all came o.er. Two brothers were priests. So, we were really raised as .ery religious Irish, much more than any of my friends. My mother was first generation. E.en though we were not in the city we were more kind of ethnically oriented than the rest of Elmira. If they were Irish, they had been there for generations. %: Did you pic0 up anything from your Irish grandmother about how wonderful the British were. A,LEY2 Yes, eBactly the opposite. My grandmother wasn>t in.ol.ed in the famine because it was in the 18A0s and 1850s. She came o.er because that was what e.eryone did. They immigrated to somewhere and mostly to the new world, New York or oston.