Ambassador Joseph G. Sullivan
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The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project AMBASSADOR JOSEPH G. SULLIVAN Interviewed by: Charles Stuart Kennedy Initial interview date: January 9, 2009 Copyright 2011 A ST TABLE OF CONTENTS Background Born and raised in assachusetts cCarthy era Cold War Tufts University, Georgetown University National Institutes of Health: Health Services Officer 19,7.1970 0ntered the Foreign Service 1970 Class diversity Orientation and training arriage State Department: FSI: Spanish language and 1atin America Training 1970.1971 Tlatelolco massacre e2ico City, e2ico: Consular3Political Officer 1971.1973 Ambassador Robert cBride 7isa case load Serving American citi8ens Prison visits Wives9 fitness reports 0cheverria Government 0nvironment State Department: Costa Rica Desk Officer 1973.1975 Robert 7esco case Pepe Fugueres Banana ta2 Nicaragua kidnapping case Sandinistas Nicaragua earthquake 1 Somo8a Congressional interest State Department; FSI: Portuguese language training 1975 1isbon, Portugal: Political Officer, Internal affairs 1975.1979 Ambassador Frank Carlucci 1eftist coup Communists Kissinger Political environment ario Soares Angola Spanish influence Political Parties Portuguese decoloni8ation USAID A8ores Relations Catholic Church NATO COPCON (a Portuguese military organi8ation) Cardinal of 1isbon Africa 0uropean Union Portuguese in US 1iving environment Aale University; 1atin American Studies 1979.1980 Course of study State Department: Policy Planning, Central America 1980.1982 Reagan Administration changes 1uigi 0inaudi Nicaragua Contras 0l Salvador Cuban activities Sandinistas Congressional interest 0l Salvador 0lections State Department: Special Assistant to the Counselor 1982.1883 Counselor Cames Buckley Counselor 0d Derwinski National 0ndowment for Democracy Operations 2 State Department: FSI: Hebrew language training 1983.1984 Netanya, Israel: Hebrew language training 1984 Tel Aviv, Israel: Deputy Political Counselor, Internal politics 1984.1988 0lections Political Parties Arab.Israel Peace process Israeli settlements Cesse Helms Israeli.Arabs Ambassador Sam 1ewis Ambassador Thomas Pickering Israel.1ebanon agreement Ariel Sharon Congressional visits Intifada Rabin Government Peace negotiations 7ice President Bush visit Conathan Pollard Russian immigration Israeli demographic changes ConGen Cerusalem Oslo Accords 0nvironment State Department: Director, Office of Central American Affairs 1988.1989 Contras funding Sandinistas US policy State Department, Deputy Assistant Secretary, Inter.American Affairs 1989.1992 Sandinistas and Contras Nicaragua elections 0l Salvador War Freddie Cristiani Cesse Helms Cuba Chamorro US policy Congressional interest Nomination for Ambassador to Nicaragua process US ission to Trinidad 3 Georgetown University: Diplomat in Residence 1993 Havana, Cuba: Principal Officer, US Interests Section 1993.199, Cuban.American community Cuban.American National Foundation (CANF) Radio arti Cuban economy Communist Party 0nvironment Currency Shortages Government Relations with government ariel mass migration E alecona8oF Fidel Castro Raul Castro Collective farms Staff 1iving conditions Border controls Personal relations Bilateral migration agreement 7isas Guantanamo base Dissidents Clinton Policy ar2ism Surveillance 02change programs Brothers to the Rescue Travel restrictions Oil sources Hugo Chave8 CARITAS (Catholic Charitable Organi8ation) Congressional interest Sate Department; Special Coordinator for Haiti 199,.1997 Aristide US troops Congressional interest Rene Preval Black Caucus US policy Clinton Administration policies 4 State Department; Co.Chairman, Israel.1ebanon onitoring Group 1997.1998 Netanyahu Agreement of 199, Israeli Grapes of Wrath Operation UN Camp Gana He8bollah South 1ebanese Army 0hud Barak Syrian representative involvement Rafiq Hariri United States Ambassador to Angola 1998.2001 Confirmation hearings Haiti Peace Agreement Guarantors President Cose 0duardo dos Santos United Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) 7ictor Boot Russian arms Political Parties Savimbi US policy Oil production South Africa Hostilities 1usaka Peace Agreement Relations Humanitarian assistance Foreign diplomats Israel assistance 0nvironment World Food program Blood diamonds South Africa Congo 1aurent Kabila Susan Rice ar2ism Corruption 0mbassy morale 1ocal employees Relations with oil companies Recreation 5 United States Ambassador to Himbabwe 2001.2004 ugabe 0conomy USAID Himbabwe Democracy and 0conomic Recovery Act 0lection Observers Himbabwe African National Union. Patriotic Front (HANU PF) Himbabwe Democracy Act South Africa Government Opposition leader organ Tsvangirai 0migration 0uropeans Property nationali8ation Decline in agriculture World Food Program US sanctions ugabe loyalists Coshua Nkomo 1and distribution policies Intimidation policies USAID Human rights Western embassies ineral resources Social life Currency Diplomat.in.Residence, Tulane University 2004.200, Hurricane Katrina Dillard and Southern Universities New Orleans Public School System Foreign Service recruitment State Department: Office of the Inspector General 200,.2008 Retirement 2008 Foreign Service Inspection Teams INTERVIEW ": Okay, today is the 9th of January 2009. This is an interview with Joseph G. S-)-L-L-I-V-A-,. -hat does the G stand for. , SU11I7AN: Gerard. ": -hat do you go by, Joe. SU11I7AN: Coe. ": -ell, let/s start. -hen and where were you born? SU11I7AN: I was born in Boston, assachusetts, in August 1944. ": Let/s look at the family say on your father/s side. Sullivan and Boston one thinks of the Irish. SU11I7AN: Sure. ": -hat do you know about the Sullivan side of your family. SU11I7AN: Well, not a lot. y father was from the third generation of emigrants but had lost all connection with Ireland certainly. He was one of nine children, brothers and sisters, but didn9t have real close family relations outside that immediate group. His mother actually happened to be of Austrian descendency and so it wasn9t perhaps the typical Boston.Irish family. y mother, on the other hand, was also Irish. Her last name was H.O.A.R and both sides of her family were Irish. y father grew up in South Boston and my mother grew up in Dorchester and Ro2bury and they were typical of the depression era. y father9s father died when my dad was fifteen. So he had to leave school and support his younger siblings and only was able to go back and get a G0D later and study accounting at night in order to work for the city of Boston where he eventually became acting auditor of the city of Boston. He probably had the capability to do much more, had he not had difficult circumstances, but did ama8ingly well under these circumstances. Nonetheless, he wanted very much for his four children to have the educational opportunities he never had. ": I/m still talking to people who represent your generation and my generation, which was the generation before of Foreign Service officers whose parents for the most part didn/t graduate from college. SU11I7AN: Right. ": It was the times and also the era4 they got self-educated and probably did as well as the ones who went through a more formal education, but it/s still that era. On your mother/s side where did they come from and what do you know about them. SU11I7AN: Well in her case, she was only second generation born in the U.S. so she had slightly more knowledge about her background in Ireland coming from County ayo 7 and County Galway. So on the one occasion I got to visit Ireland I had no connections to look up. In my father9s family, the emigrants who came in potato famine years lost all connection and many of their relatives in Ireland would have died. The further back that emigration occurred, the less likely family ties to Ireland were maintained. y mother9s childhood was also complicated as one of seven siblings with very modest income. Her mother died when my mom was in her teens. Nonetheless, my mother was able to complete high school, do some post.secondary clerical studies and work for the State of assachusetts Health Department. y mother and father originally met and wanted to getting married when they were 25 but their finances and the depression just didn9t permit it. Then began dating again and did get married when they were each 30 in 1937. They lived those times and imparted that e2perience and values of frugality and desire for education to their four children. I had three sisters and our parents inspired us to secure what they had not been able to have themselves, education first and foremost for its own sake and as the means to a successful life. They sacrificed constantly to provide everything possible for all of us children to achieve the college education they had not been able to afford. So they lived very frugally, both because of their depression background and difficult childhoods but also in order to provide the ma2imum possible for their four children. I remember that they rented the same rent.controlled two.bedroom apartment for $35. per month until my older sister was 15 and my youngest sister 2 and only then thought they were sufficiently financially secure to buy a single.family home in the same Neponset area of Dorchester, a district of Boston. ": At looking at sort of influences in the first place being Irish and from Boston I will ask where did your family fall politically. SU11I7AN: They were like 95 percent of Boston.Irish Democrats, relatively liberal Democrats. y father fell in the in.between war years and already had children