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1 the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project AMBASSADOR MARY A. RYAN Interviewed by: Charles Stuart Kennedy Initial interview date: March 26, 2003 Copyright 200 ADST TABLE OF CONTENTS Background Born and raised in New York City St $ohn%s University Entered the Foreign Service in 1966 aples, ,taly- Consular Officer 1966.1969 Consul /eneral Homer Byington Environment 0isa and passport cases ,talian.Americans Tegucigalpa, Honduras- Personnel Officer 1910.1911 Environment 3onterrey, 3e4ico- Consular Officer 1911.1913 6orkload ,mmigrant visas 3arijuana 3e4ican police State Department- Roving Administrative Officer, Africa Bureau 1913.1918 Office environment Comments on issues at Posts State Department- Post 3anagement Officer, Africa Bureau 1918.1911 Personnel South Africa Spouse employment State Department- Career Development Officer 1911.1980 Post bidding process Se4 discrimination issue 1 3id.level program Assignment problems State Department, FS,- French language training 1980 Abidjan, ,vory Coast- Administrative Counselor 1980.1981 Environment Khartoum, Sudan- Administrative Counselor 1981.1982 Staff Environment Embassy move Problems ,llness and medical evacuation State Department- ,nspector /eneral Staff 1982.1983 State Department- E4ecutive Director, Europe Bureau 1983.1988 European and =/erman Club“ Political appointees Ambassadors State Department- E4ecutive Assistant, 3anagement Bureau 1988.1988 Embassy and Consulate protection Terrorism and counter.terrorism Terrorist groups CODEL Neil Smith Chernobyl disaster Ambassador problems Lie detector issue Sgt. Lonetree case Se4ual harassment issue 3entoring Evaluation of the bureaus Ambassador to SwaAiland 1988.1990 American presence /overnment 6omen%s issues South Africa A,D Peace Corps Environment State Department- E4ecutive Director of Consular Affairs (PDASC 1990.1991 2 Betty Tamposi 3orale ,raDi invasion of Kuwait Concurrently member of the Kuwait Task Force 1990.1991 Americans in Kuwait and ,raD Captive Americans released U 3ission (ordnance demolitionC 0isit to Kuwait and ,raD 6eapons of mass destruction U Operation ,raDis State Department- Deputy Assistant Secretary, Northern and 1991.1993 Southern European Affairs Turkey and the European Union Cyprus /reece /reek Americans Europeans and problems Turkey State Department- Assistant Secretary for Consular Affairs 1993.2002 Congressional interest 3achine readable visa applications 6orld Trade Center bombing FB, Technology Humanitarian issues 0isa fraud Pan Am 103 families Child adoption issues Child abduction Saudi Arabian hijackers Passport problems 0isas for 3iddle Easterners Terrorists Tourist visas Homeland Security State Department takes the heat Personal legal issues Congressional hearings Anti ArabE3uslim in US Personal support from colleagues /uest work Program for 3e4icans 3 US 3e4ican relationship INTERVIEW $: This is an interview with Mary A., is it &A'( Ryan. What does the &A' stand for( RYA : Agnes. $: Mary is an old friend of mine. This is being done on behalf of the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training and I-m Charles Stuart Kennedy. Well, Mary, let-s start at the beginning. Could you tell me where and when you were born and something about your parents- lineage, mother and father. RYA : , was born in New York City. 3y parents were both also born in New York City, although my mother%s parents came from ,reland. ,%m ,rish on both sides as far back as you can go. $: When were you born( RYA : ,n 1940. And , had two sisters who were twins who were 19 months younger than ,. And all my life up until the time , joined the Foreign Service was spent in New York. 3y education was in New York at St. $ohn%s University for undergraduate and graduate. $: All right. Well, now, on your mother-s side, what was her bac.ground( /ou say it was Irish, but do you have any idea RYA : 6ell, we don%t know very much, because my mother was an only child. Her mother died when she was only si4 months old. Her father apparently was very proud of his ,rish heritage. His daughter, being a first.generation American, was not particularly interested in the history of ,reland. She remembered his telling her stories about ,reland, but she wasn%t very interested in it, and of course he had died by the time, before , was born. So, , do know that he came from Roscommon. , investigated a little bit our genealogy and someone in ,reland who does ,rish heritage came up with a birth certificate which purports to be his, but who knowsH $: Well, how about education for your mother( RYA : Both my parents went to high school. 3y father had a little bit of college, but he was the oldest son of a family of seven children, so he didn%t have the lu4ury of being able to spend time in college. 3y mother was the first woman officer of the Savings Bank in New York City and had Duite a wonderful career up until the time that , was born. She gave up her career when she had children. 4 $: So, do you .now how your mother got into the savings ban. business( RYA : She told me once that she knew someone who worked at that bank where she was ultimately employed. Somehow through her parents, who were just people who worked with their hands I her father was a mechanic and her mother was like a superintendent of the building where they lived in 3anhattan I somehow or other they came to the attention of this man who worked at the bank and he got my mother a job there. $: And your father, do you .now where he came from in Ireland( RYA : No, his parents were both born in the United States. 3y mother used to call them Yankees. So that%s all lost in the mists of history. 3y aunt, my father%s sister, who lived the longest Jshe just died in 1999C, she thought that the family came from Tipperary, but , don%t know on what she based that. $: And what did your father do( RYA : He also worked at a bank I the same bank. That%s where they met. $: I-m going under the assumption that with the name Ryan and all that, that you-re Catholic. RYA : Absolutely, yes. $: Now did you come up through the nun-s school( RYA : Yes, , came up, my whole education I all 18 years of it I was Catholic education. /rammar school, high school, college, and graduate school. $: Well, for a .id in the late 120s and early 1 0s in New /or., where did you live in New /or., and what was it li.e( RYA : 6e lived in Kueens in a town called Flushing, which at that time was very beautiful. There were lots of trees. ,t could not possibly be called rural, but there were parks and there were flowers. ,t was a very lovely way to grow up. And we lived in an apartment building, but the apartment building had a huge lawn, gardens. ,t was wonderful for children. There were lots of children in the building at the time. 6e just had great fun. ,t was a wonderful place to grow up. And we had, of course, all of 3anhattan. 6e had all of the museums I the city, as we used to call it I there for us, at a time when people were not Duite as fearful for their children as they are now and they didn%t need to be. 6e used to take the subway into 3anhattan on our own, looking back on it, Duite young I early teens, 12, 13. $: When I was a .id I used to go through New /or. going to school up in New England. 8 /ou .now, spent the night, and wandered around Times S4uare. Well, in Flushing, in the first place, the World-s Fair had been there. RYA : The 6orld%s Fair was there in 1939. $: And then the 6nited Nations 7608 started up there too. Did either of those things raise interest on your part( RYA : 3y parents talked about the %39 6orld%s Fair a lot. ,t made a very great impression on them. Television was shown there for the first time and all of that. The U , don%t remember having- it didn%t come into my consciousness. 6hat , do remember is the creation of the State of ,srael, because many of the people who lived in our building were $ewish. And , remember their tremendous joy and happiness and , guess you would have to say satisfaction at the creation of the State of ,srael. And , was very little, , was , think 8, 1 or 8, at the time, but , do remember that, because they were so happy. $: Did you get, just to get a feel for the times, Catholic, Jewish, was there a good mixture and all( Did people divvy up at that time( RYA : There was where , grew up, the families were I the families with children, , should say, because , don%t know what the other families were like I but the people with children were all ,rish or $ewish. , mean, , grew up with the Finnigans and the Sussmans and the Levys, and those people. And they all had girls, and so we were all very, very friendly. $: /our mother being one of the first female ban. officials, it sounds li.e she was a pretty powerful woman( RYA : She was a very powerful woman, yes indeed. $: How did she affect you as a .id( RYA : As a child, , always say that my father loved us I the three of us children I the way /od loves us. 6e didn%t have to do anything- we just had to be. But my mother had standards. But she was a very loving mother, and she was very proud of us. And , remember her saying how much she enjoyed when we were off and all the other parents were saying that they couldn%t wait for their children to go back to school, and she was always saying how much she enjoyed having us home with her.
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