The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project AMBASSADOR WILLIAM GREEN MILLER Interviewed by: Charles Stuart Kennedy Initial interview date: February 10, 2003 Copyright 2005 ADST TABLE OF CONTENTS Background Born and raised in New York City Williams College% Goethe Institute, Germany% Magdalen College, Oxford Uni,ersity% Har,ard Uni,ersity Marriage Entered the Foreign Ser,ice in 1.5. Isfahan, Iran% 0ice Consul 1.5.11.22 En,ironment The city 1.53 coup SA0A5 US military and economic aid Mullahs Agriculture Mossade6 US policy The Shah 7ocal staff Tribes Security Contacts Teheran, Iran% Political Officer and Aide to Ambassador 1.2211.25 Iran9s foreign policy CIA Ambassador :ulius Holmes 0ice President :ohnson9s ,isit Shah 5homeini Status of Forces Agreement Anti1Shah riots 1 Iran as US policy issue Congressional attitude State Department, I R% —Iran, Political Dynamics“ 1.25 Assignment to the Peace Corps, Middle East Program 1.2511.22 Iran Programs Importance State Department, Executi,e Secretariat 1.2211.27 Operations and Issues 0ietnam Policy Resignation 1.27 Assistant to Senator :ohn Cooper 1.2711.72 0ietnam En,ironment Duties Anti1Ballistic Missile debate Senator Cooper President Nixon Relations with State Department Watergate —Saturday Night Massacre“ The Pentagon Papers 5issinger China relations Chief of Staff, Senate Select Committee 1.7211.72 Presidential Emergency Powers and War Powers Secret Acti,ities and Intelligence —Family :ewels“ Rockefeller Commission Security maintenance FBI files Underworld hearings CIA and foreign elections Ambassador1CIA relations Terrorist acti,ities Senatorial Intelligence O,ersight Committee 1.7211.81 Creation of Permanent Standing Committee 2 In,estigati,e committee O,ersight Committee FBI leadership Presidential use of intelligence ational Intelligence Estimates Iran Hezbollah The Fletcher School of 7aw and Diplomacy% Associate Dean 1.8111.82 and Adjunct Professor of International Politics European ,s. American uni,ersities American Committee on U.S. B So,iet Relations 1.8211..2 George 5ennan Andropo, Gorbache, Board members So,iet changes So,iet International Foundation Perestroika So,iet Personalities The Interregional Group Rules of the Supreme So,iet Gorbache, ,s. Yeltsin on1go,ernment organizations So,iet changes from within Communications China interest CIA analysis Yeltsin Fall of Berlin wall The Baltics Coup US as model 0iews on So,iet breakup So,iet economic structure So,iet industrial base Brezhne, Changes in Embassy operations Economic collapse So,iet society Susan Eisenhower So,iet Republics So,iet personalities Intellectual Programs 3 Clinton Administration, Transition Team 1..211..3 President Clinton9s ,iews on So,iet Union Gorbache, policies Transition Team members Administration Policies Personnel Ambassador to Ukraine 1..311..8 uclear arsenal Diaspora groups Strobe Talbot US support for Ukraine Ukraine1Russian relations Crimea Black Sea Fleet Meshko, go,ernment Ethnic groups Odessa Collecti,es Social structures Relations FBI presence Corruption Economy Foreign aid ATO 5uchma Chernobyl Woodrow Wilson International Center% Senior Fellow 1..81 5yi, Mohyla Uni,ersity Foundation Iranian affairs The Foreign Ser,ice as a career Suggestions and ad,ice INTERVIEW Q: Today is the 10th of February, 2003. This is an interview with William (reen Miller, and this is being done on behalf of the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training, and I+m Charles Stuart Kennedy. Do you go by Bill or what- MI77ERD Yes. C Q: Could you tell me when and where you were born and something about your family bac.ground- MI77ERD Yes, I was born in New York City. Q: What year was that- MI77ERD 1.31, August 15th, and I was brought up in New York. I9m a nati,e New Yorker. I went to public schools until the 7th grade when I went to Trinity School. Q: I want to ta.e you bac. a bit. First, about your father, could you tell me about his bac.ground and sort of the Miller family on his side- MI77ERD Yes. He was a commercial artist. His family came from St. Petersburg around 18.0 and they settled in New York. His father9s work was as a contractor, reno,ation of apartments, things of that sort, although his background was as a soldier, as far as I understand the family history. Q: Did he get any higher education- MI77ERD My grandfatherF No. My father, didn9t get any higher education beyond high school, because he was born deaf, and went to primary and secondary schools in New York for the deaf. Q: This is your father- MI77ERD My father. My mother, who was also deaf, was born in New York. She was of Irish ancestry. Her father was a Protestant from Dublin, and her mother was a Catholic from Dublin. Her mother was disowned for marrying a Protestant. Q: Oh yes, this is an era of 0 I mean, this is very important. MI77ERD Still is. She grew up in New York. They met in the circles of deaf people in their schools, and married in 1.30 and I was born in 1.31. Q: 1our father, you say he was an illustrator, do you recall any of the sort of things he was doing as an illustrator- MI77ERD Yes, the company he worked for, which I remember, did ,arious things, maps, ad,ertising, lay1outs, that sort of thing, and he worked on things that go into lithographs particularly. He was ,ery good at drawings that would transfer to the lithographic techni6ue. Q: How was it growing up with your parents both being deaf- I always thin. of the Lon 5 Chaney e4perience, where both his parents were deaf, and the concern with whether the son would be deaf. How does this wor. out for you- MI77ERD It wasn9t a problem at all because New York is so compressed that the isolation of the silent world really doesn9t apply. It was just another language to me, really B two languages actually, that is, sign and being able to read lips and to intuit, I suppose, might also be part of that. I was learning English, of course, and the ,arieties of American English because New York is such a melting pot B Irish, Italian, German. Those were the major groups I remember, as well as Nati,e New Yorkers B meaning those who had been in New York for at least a generation. But the church was ,ery important for me. Q: Which church was this- MI77ERD St. Mark9s Church. Q: Was this the Catholic Church- MI77ERD No, St. Marks was an Episcopal church. I had a good ,oice as a child. I sang in the choir. The church was the center of many of my acti,ities and I was gi,en a scholarship to Trinity School in New York. I was a good athlete, as well as the first in my class all the way through. Q: What sort of athletics- MI77ERD I played e,erything. I was a fi,e letterman in a small school, Trinity, in a different era of physical demands. So I played football, I ran winter track and spring track, I played baseball and basketball. We were ,ery well coached. All our teams did ,ery well. Our basketball team was undefeated in 1.C8 in a ,ery tough league. I was awarded the Holden Cup gi,en to the best athlete in the school in my senior year. Q: What about at home- This is the era 0 as a small lad you were there to catch or at least be aware of the (reat Depression toward the end. Did this affect your family very much- MI77ERD No, I don9t think so because B no, we were ne,er in po,erty. We were poor, but ne,er in po,erty. My father was always working so there was ne,er that problem that so many had in the thirties and since e,eryone else I knew was in the same condition it was not seen by me as exceptional. My childhood life growing up was within a city and a community and a world where e,eryone shared this experience. Q: What about New 1or. being such a cosmopolitan place 0 did the outside world intrude as far as national politics and international events and all this- MI77ERD Oh yes, ,ery definitely, from the beginning. Not only because of the ethnic make up of the city which was heightened, I9d say, by that time, because of tragic e,ents 2 in Europe and the explosion of New York as a city in e,ery way. There were an abundance of newspapers which I saw and read many at the time. I had a radio from my earliest memory so I heard news and music as well. I grew up with WGHR, that music and news station of the New York Times. The schools were ,ery ,ibrant. The schools I went to had excellent teachers. Q: How did your family fall in the political spectrum- Was this something which you were aware of- MI77ERD Oh yes, ,ery much. Since it was in New York City, politics it the time of was 7aGuardia, while in national politics it was Roose,elt. Q: This is the liberal Republican and the liberal Democrat. This is very much MI77ERD This was, and I like to think is the mainstream majority of United States. Q: Do you recall Mayor La(uardia reading the comics- MI77ERD I heard him do this on the radio a number of times. I recall e,en seeing 7aGuardia chasing fire engines, things like that. I was at the opening of 7aGuardia airport B I went to that occasion when 7aGuardia cut the ribbon opening the airport. I remember the first DC139s land in great majesty.