The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project
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The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project ANN B. SIDES Interviewed by: Charles Stuart Kennedy Initial Interview Date: October 8, 2010 Copyright 2012 ADST TABLE OF CONTENTS Background Born in Massachusetts, raised in Connecticut and Florida Broward Junior College, University of Florida Marriage March on Washington, 1969 European trip Entered the Foreign Service in 1983 State Department: A-100 Course 1983-1984 Niamey, Niger; General Services/Consular Officer 1984-1985 President Seynni Kountche Poverty Peace Corps USAID Mission Environment Operations Spouse Ambassador William Casey Post morale Hygiene Vice President George Bush visit Memphis Slim concert Recreation Uranium French Oran, Algeria; Consular Officer 1985-1987 Spouse Industry Political Parties Government (FLN) President Chadli Bendjedid 1 Muslim fundamentalists (FIS) activities Operations Ambassador Craig Johnstone Housing Staff Relation with officials Surveillance Security Environment Barbara and John Randy Anti-US demonstrations Tangiers activities Local travel University of Oran Pied Noirs Oil and gas Christians Algerian women US-Algeria relations French-Algeria relations Dakar, Senegal: Consul, Regional Consular Officer 1987-1990 Areas of responsibility Operations Ambassador Lennon Walker Ambassador and Mrs. George Moose Religions French influence Relations Commercial relations Mouride religious brotherhood “Roots trade” Senegalese culture Peace Corps USAID Palestine Liberation Organization (PL0) Anti-Mauritanian riots Ambassador William Twaddell Health issues Social life Protection case Diversity Immigrant Visa program Immigration amnesty program Belgrade, Yugoslavia: Chief of Visa Section 1991-1992 Ambassador Warren Zimmerman 2 Consular District Prospective immigrants Population diversity Local press Student demonstrations Environment Milosevic regime Serb-Croat-Bosnian massacres Vukovar Protection of US citizens Evacuation of US citizens Consul General Bob Tynes Congressional visits Visa applicants Economy collapse Local staff European Union Germany recognizes Croatia Bosnian War starts Jugoslav National Army (JNA) movements US recognizes Bosnia and Croatia Paris leave Evacuation to Zagreb War Croatia President Franjo Tudjman Refugee Program Local exodus Consular difficulties Atrocities rumors Ron Neitzke Child adoptions Bianca Jagger Congressional visa interest Dubrovnik war damage Tudjman Muslim Bosnians Dublin, Ireland: Chief Consular Officer 1993-1996 Ambassador Jean Kennedy Smith Staff morale Operational conflicts Morrison visa program Problems Changes in US visa regulations for Ireland US/Ireland relations Northern Ireland Peace Process 3 British policy US policy Senator Edward Kennedy Irish Republican Army (IRA) Official Provisional Gerry Adams Local environment Operations Comments on service at Dublin State Department: Office of West African Affairs 1996-1998 Cote d’Ivoire, Togo and Benin Dictator Eyadema Peace Corps USAID Environment Government Economy Guinea Bissau Civil War Ann Wright (Sierra Leone) Guinea Bissau embassy evacuation Sarajevo, Yugoslavia: Chief Consular Officer 1998-2001 Post-war environment Dayton Peace Agreement Stabilization Force (SFOR) International Police Training Force (IPTF) License plates International security forces Visa applicants Visa fraud Lawlessness Ambassador Tom Miller Local employees Congressional delegations (CODELS) Madeleine Albright Refugee program Visas Social life Relations Srebrenica Election monitoring Visegrad bridge Republic of Serbska Reconstruction 4 Comments on tour Government corruption Muslim fundamentalist visa applicants Belgrade, Yugoslavia: Consul General 2001-2004 Embassy compound Restoration 1999 bombing damage Ambassador William Montgomery Zoran Djindjic 911 Trade Center terrorist act Local reaction Consular security procedures Mary Ryan Change in passport regulations Lookout lists President Djindjic assassination Protection cases Israelis Montenegro US benefit checks Prisoner exchange Tourism Bytici Brothers Staff Environment “Yugonostalgia” Macedonia Republika Srpska Radovan Karadzic Arrest of colleague Husband’s activities State Department: FSI: Greek language training 2004 Athens, Greece: Consul General 2004-2008 US/Greece relations Anti-Americanism Greek Colonels legacy Religion Karamanlis Government Ambassador Charles Reis Consular staff American Citizens Service Unit Protection cases 5 Visa Waiver Program Visa security Terrorist groups Greek passport reform Electronic System of Travel Authorization Social life Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) Anti-US demonstrations State Department: Grievance Officer, Human Resources Bureau 2008-2010 Operations Grievance process Retirement 2010 Comments on Foreign Service INTERVIEW Q: Today is 8 October 2010. This is an interview with Ann B. Sides. What does the B stand for? SIDES: Bardsley, my maiden name. Q: And it is being done on behalf of the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training, and I am Charles Stuart Kennedy. I take it you are called Ann. SIDES: I am called Ann. Q: Ann, let’s start at the beginning. When and where were you born? SIDES: 16 April 1946 in Massachusetts. Q: Where in Massachusetts? SIDES: I physically came into the world in Framingham, but I was registered in Milford, so I always give that as my place of birth. The hospital just happened to be in Framingham, but my mother was from Milford, my parents were living there. Q: All right, so let’s take on your father’s side. What do you know about the Sides side of things? SIDES: Well actually it would be the Bardsley side of the family if we are looking at my father. The Sides side is my husband’s side. 6 Q: Right. Well let’s do you father’s side. SIDES: My father was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1919 during the troubled times. His father was a discharged soldier from the British army, half Irish, half British. He was very badly wounded on the Western Front so he was working in the post office in Dublin. Q: The famous post office. SIDES: That famous post office. The poor guy, he was shell-shocked as well as wounded, I think. It probably was not a good place to for him work. Even after the Easter Rising, which happened while he was still in the British Army, the center of Dublin where the post office was, was frequently the site of shooting. He had married an Irish lady during the war who was his nurse. His father—my great-grandfather—was also in the British Army, and granddad was born at the British army base in Aldershot, England. However, his father, who was a sergeant major, had retired to Dublin with his Irish wife, so Dublin was my grandfather’s home and he and my grandmother settled there. That is where my father was born, in 1919. He emigrated to the United States as a boy with his parents in the 20’s. Q: What did he do when he came to the States? SIDES: He lived in Uxbridge, a small town right next to Milford. Granddad worked in a textile mill; he was a foreman. My father grew up in Uxbridge and went to Holy Cross. He was a naval aviation cadet when Pearl Harbor was attacked. They discovered as he was about to be commissioned as an officer that he was not a U.S. citizen. He had derived naturalization when his father got citizenship in, I think, 1930, but under the law of the time Dad was supposed to take the oath himself when he reached adulthood in order to retain citizenship. So before he got his little gold bars as an ensign he had to renounce his British citizenship and swear to support and defend the United States, which he went on to do in World War II as a naval aviator. After the war he had a long career with Dun and Bradstreet as a financial reporter. However, he stayed in the Navy Reserve for another 25 years so and retired as a commander. Q: Did he talk about to Holy Cross and all that? SIDES: Oh yes, he often talked about it. He loved Holy Cross. He played in the college band and got a very good education from Jesuits. He had a great interest in current events, public affairs, politics, and history. He read a lot. He met my mother because they came from neighboring towns. I guess they met when they were in high school. But she was going to what is now Worcester University, which was Worcester State Teacher’s College then. So they were dating, riding into Worcester together, and getting from just a fun relationship to a serious one. They married in 1943. Q: What do you know about your mother’s side? 7 SIDES: My mother’s mother was Irish, but my mother’s father was an old New England Yankee, literally descended from the Mayflower. I think I might be eligible to be in the DAR, which is a funny thing for an Irish gal. Grandpa was a member of the Congregational Church and at one time was a selectman of the town of Milford. He was a grocer, but not much of a businessman. He lost everything in the Depression. He loved poetry and could recite great long passages of “The Lady of the Lake.” Q: Did you have any contact with your grandparents when you were a kid or were they around? SIDES: They were around until I guess I was 12 or 13 years old. I remember them very well. My grandfather, the former British soldier, had tattoos on his arms of snakes. I believe he got them serving in India before the war. He used to flex the muscles in his forearms to make the snakes wiggle. Q: Speaking of your grandfather, how did the sort of troubles in Ireland translate into your family? SIDES: You know my family didn’t talk about it much; at least, not least on my father’s side. I think having lived through all this turmoil they were very careful about stereotyping anybody or anything. My grandparents and my father witnessed a lot of shooting and violence. My father’s earliest memory is of an armored car shooting a machine gun in the street below their bedroom. My paternal grandparents were Catholic, both of them, but because of their very British-sounding family name and the fact that my grandfather had been in the British army, I think that Ireland wasn’t a very comfortable place for them when independence came.