Ambassador William Bodde, Jr
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The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project AMBASSADOR WILLIAM BODDE, JR. Interviewed by: Charles Stuart Kennedy Initial interview date: October 5, 1998 Copyright 006 ADST TABLE OF CONTENTS Background Born in Brooklyn, New York; raised in Huntington, Long Island U.S. Army (orea Hofstra College ewspaperman Entered Foreign Service , 1.60 A111 2ienna, Austria , 3otation Officer4Staff Aide 1.6051.66 Ambassador 3iddleberger Environment (ennedy5(hrushchev meeting (ennedy assassination Soviets 7aldheim affair Espionage State Department , Public Affairs Bureau 1.66 Home Leave Travel Program School of Advanced International Studies 8SAIS9 1.6651.67 Johns Hopkins University Stockholm, Sweden , Political Officer 1.6751.71 2ietnam issue Political environment Anti5Americanism Environment Soviet Union U.S. deserters State Department , Sweden Desk Officer 1.7151.70 Olaf Palme 1 Embassy contacts The —Middle 7ay“ State Department , Personnel Officer , European Bureau 1.7051.73 Global Outlook Program 8GLOP9 Observations Berlin, Germany , Political Officer, U.S. Mission 1.7351.7A Buadripartite Agreement Ostpolitik Liaison duties The 7all The French Problem incidents Bonn, Germany , Political Officer 1.7A51.77 Helmut Schmidt U.S. troop presence Carter and neutron bomb 7illi Brandt State Department , East Asia Bureau , Auckland, New Cealand and Pacific Islands 1.7751.81 Micronesia agreements Solomon report Peace Corps —Strategic denial“ ICBMs Solomon Islands independence French interests Greenpeace vessel eEploded Australian and New Cealand interests British interests Treaty negotiations and ratification A CUS 3ichard Holbrook (iribati and Tuvalu Fiji 5 Ambassador, Tuvalu, and Tonga and EE4MP to (iribati 1.8151.80 Economy Ethics Government Sinai Multinational Force Environment Hawaii 5 East57est Center 5 Diplomat in 3esidence 1.8051.83 2 2ietnam Operations Pacific Island studies Cross5cultural studies Foreign diplomat training Frankfurt, Germany 5 Consul General 1.8A51.86 Ambassador Arthur Burns Case studies 3ed Army Faction Security 7ifeFs contribution General Colin Powell U.S. military Spies tradeoff Sharansky Beirut Marine bombing Politics Green Party IBM missile deployment Banking State Department 5 European Bureau 5 Deputy Assistant Secretary 1.8651.8. Assistant Secretary 3oG 3idgway German reunification USS3 disintegration The French French5German relations Italians Chirac Portugal U.S.5U( relations Secretary of State ShultG Gorbachev Hans5Dietrich Genscher ShultG57hitehead relations 3eagan policies Spain Casper 7einberger COCOM Jewish claims on East Germany (urt 7aldheim issue Ambassador 3on Lauder Accused war criminals U.S.5Austria relations EE5 aGi problems 3 Ambassador to SwitGerland Green Party Soviets Germany policies Short5range missiles U.S. visa reHuirement (ohl German reunification Secretary of State Baker U.S. bases in Germany Prime Minister Schroder Gorbachev53eagan 3eykjavik meeting —Star 7ars“ Moscow summit BakerFs staff Canada Acid rain Bush5Mulroney meeting Canadian sensitivities U.S. Canada issues Petra (elly Terrorism 5 European attitudes toward State Department 5 Senior Seminar 1.8.51..1 Course of instruction Comments on Foreign Service and State Department Marshall Islands , Ambassador 1..151..0 U.S. aid Economy Health problems U.S. missile range Corruption 3elations with 7ashington U.S. programs P Ged President (abua Environment U.S. interests State Department 5 Bureau of Oceans, Environment, and Science 1..0 APEC Trade and investment liberaliGation in Asia5Pacific OrganiGation Seattle meeting 4 3etirement 1..A —2iew from the 1.th Floor“ INTERVIEW BI Today is the 5th of October, 1998. This is an interview with (illiam Bodde, Jr. BODDEI 3ight. BI And I,m Charles Stuart Kennedy, and this interview is being done on behalf of the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training. All right, well, let,s start at the beginning. Could you tell me when and where you were born and something about your family- BODDEI Yes, I was born in Brooklyn, New York, on November 07, 1.31, but grew up in Huntington, Long Island. My father was a blue5collar worker. BI (hat type of wor. was he doing- BODDEI He was a letterer and striper, you know, that is sign painting on vehicles and striping. In those days, they didnFt have chromium on the cars, and so they used to stripe them. They still do on hot rods and fire engines and detailed stuff now. BI It ta.es a very steady hand. BODDEI ItFs a special skill. He was self5educated and an eEtremely well read person. He talked to me about world affairs and politics from when I was a little boy on. BI /our mother- BODDEI My mother was Irish and from Brooklyn. Although my father was born in Holland and emigrated to the United States as a teenager, my mother was more Irish than he was Dutch because she grew up in an Irish neighborhood and so on. My wife claims itFs an impossible combination of stubbornnessI Irish and Dutch. SheFs probably right. BI (hat about growing up in Huntington- (hat was Huntington li.e- BODDEI Huntington was neat because it was rural in those days. My father was probably one of the first of a handful of people who commuted into the city in those days. He worked for the Brooklyn Union Gas Company. My mother could never understand why I didnFt take a job with the Brooklyn Union Gas Company, 5 a good steady job, you know. But anyhow Huntington was wonderful because although it was rural it was situated in the New York Metropolitan Area. It was sort of plugged5in, so to speak. 7e read the New York papers and listened to the ew York radio stations. It was a nice place to grow up. Huntington had 35,111 people then and now has at least 111,111. BI (hat about school, elementary and then on- BODDEI I went to a small elementary school. In fact, the first one I went to was just one step up from the proverbial one5room schoolhouse. To create an auditorium, they opened a wall between two of the classrooms and packed all four grades in. Then I went to a somewhat larger one, and on to a small high school, South Huntington High School. It is now called 7alt 7hitman High School, after HuntingtonFs most famous son. 7e had 057 students in all with 31 in my graduating class. BI During your education at the elementary and high school level, what were your interests- BODDEI 7ell, I was a typical American kid, I played football. In fact, I was captain of the football team, which would be really something, eEcept that it was a lousy small school team. I did all the stuff that an average American teenager did. But because my father was European he didnFt have any feeling for American sports. He was also very handy and could do things like repair radios and cars. I wasnFt interested in home repairs although later as a homeowner I was sorry I hadnFt learned more from my dad. Our meeting ground was made up of books, politics and world affairs. 7e spent many hours late into the night discussing world events. 7hen I was in the embassy in Bonn and my father had been dead for many years, I got a Superior Honor Award for my political reporting. At the ceremony I told my colleagues that, —My father wouldnFt believe I get paid to do what I do here.“ I owe my everlasting interest in politics to him. He read a lot, and he got me in the habit. BI Could you give me some ideas, in the first place, about some of the .ids, boo.s or young people,s boo.s- Do any of those come bac. to you that you li.ed- BODDEI Yes, sure, I read the Hardy Boys and I listened to the radio. In those days it was Jack Armstrong, All5American Boy; The Lone 3anger; and all those things. Of course, we went to Saturday afternoon movies and to see the serials, which we called —the chapters.“ They included, —Dick Tracy“, —The Lone 3anger“, —The Invisible Man“, etc. At 10 or 13 I started reading more adult books, you know, or at least not kidFs books. I also read comic books and a lot of pulp literature in the form of idealistic sports stories that were published in monthly magaGines, printed on cheap paper. They only had about three plots, you know. 6 BI The .id comes to the big team and 1 BODDEI YouFve got it. Or the bonus baby who hasnFt panned out but finally proves himself, or the veteran thatFs being pushed out and plays that one last great game. You probably read the same ones. They were this sort of Horatio Alger saga. I, like most people never read Horatio Alger, but I think that they were that kind of thing. You know, virtue is rewarded; good guys win in the end. Because I was a Brooklyn Dodger fan, the sports stories were right up my alley. BI (hat about a minor thing that was going on in the time you were in 0untington, and it was called (orld (ar II- /our father, particularly, from the 2etherlands and all this, how did this 3 did this have an effect on you- BODDEI Oh, sure. My father had been wounded in the First 7orld 7ar, while serving in the American Army. He was too old for the Second 7orld 7ar. But of course, he was very caught up in what was happening. He had left Holland when he was a teenager, and had lost contact with his family. After the war he tried, through the 3ed Cross, to find them, but had no luck. I donFt know why he lost contact. It could be that he felt he hadnFt been successful enough or whatever. The story has a happy ending, however. Many years later when I was in the army in Germany, and I went on leave to Holland, through a girl I met there I located his family, and he got back to see them before he died.