Library of Congress Interview with William Clark Jr. The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project AMBASSADOR WILLIAM CLARK, JR. Interviewed by: Thomas Stern Initial interview date: January 11, 1994 Copyright 1998 ADST Q: Let me start with the usual question. tell us a little about your background and education and how you came to the foreign affairs community. CLARK: I took a slightly convoluted route, which actually may have been quite similar to that of my Foreign Service colleagues. I was born in California; I grew up in Hayward, a town outside of San Francisco. While growing up, I met and made friends with a number of Nisei, who were taken to resettlement centers during World War II. After graduating from Hayward Union high school, I went to what was then known as San Jose State University. I might note that the high school no longer exists because unfortunately it had been located on the Hayward fault—an off-shoot of the San Andreas fault. Because of its shaky location, it was torn down as a potential unsafe building. On that empty lot, the city put a civic center, which pleased the real estate community if no one else. In keeping with my father's wishes I enrolled in a pre-med course, which was entirely satisfactory. It became clear to me that I would probably not become a doctor, but what was not clear was were my future laid. Fortunately, at the time, there existed a program which allowed people to join the Navy for a year. I enlisted in that l in 1948 looking for a year's travel or diversion, in any case. After boot camp, the Navy sent me to electronics Interview with William Clark Jr. http://www.loc.gov/item/mfdipbib000206 Library of Congress school for the whole year. I was discharged at Treasure island a year after entering the service, not having been further away from home than twenty miles. I returned to San Jose State. This time, influenced to a degree by a mother who thought it might be nice to have a scientist for a son, I decided to become a chemistry major with a math minor. Then came the Korean “police action”. I was recalled by the Navy as a technician and spent almost two years in Hawaii, working on communications gear as an electronic technician. This tour gave me the opportunity to review my academic career to date. I found that although I had started as a pre-med and then took chemistry and math, all my electives were in economics and political science. So, when I returned once again to San Jose State, I became a social science major, despite the family chorus of “What are going to do with it?”. I finally graduated in 1955 with a BA in Social Sciences. I missed the Foreign Service entrance exam that year because after graduation, I went to Hartford, Conn. as a trainee for Travelers' Insurance Company. I was placed in the group insurance division as consultant, not a salesman. It was distinction without a difference. I was sent by the Company to Los Angeles where I finally caught up with the Foreign Service exam. I had known about the Foreign Service and its entrance exam for quite a while. While at University, I had gone to the Post Office to get the prerequisite employment forms. Unfortunately, that Post Office had never heard of the Foreign Service. By the time, it found out about it, it was too late for filing. So I looked for another opportunity after landing in Los Angeles. The Department actually sent a recruitment team to Los Angeles which found space not far from my office. I paid them a visit and told the head of the team that what I really wanted to do was to enter the Foreign Service Staff Corps and then later entered the Foreign Service Officer Corps through lateral entry. I added that I had a good job and that I wasn't interested, but I would take the exam if he would give me the necessary forms. He said that no one ever passed the test, but I persevered. So he gave me the application forms and I took the test with about 1,000 others, most of whom raised their hands when asked who had taken the test before. I passed the written, which had just Interview with William Clark Jr. http://www.loc.gov/item/mfdipbib000206 Library of Congress recently become a one-day test, mostly multiple choice, on the first attempt and then took the orals in Los Angeles, which I also managed to pass. I had taken some psychologist courses while at the University, so that I recognized quickly the “good guy, bad guy” composition of the oral exam panel. So the orals went fairly well. I also had a security interview on Los Angeles in an office near mine, which was right on Pershing Square. The security man asked whether I liked boys or girls and I admitted that I preferred girls. Later in the interview, he asked the same question and got the same answer. When he asked the same question for the third time, I became a little testy. He said that he was under instructions to conduct the interview in that manner. Being from California, I said: “That must be because there are a lot in the State”. His immediate response was: “Yes, but we are trying to weed them out!”. He obviously had misunderstood my reference. I was referring to the State of California; he was referring to the Department of State. After all the checks were completed, I was sworn into the Foreign Service in February, 1957. None of my friends, either from San Jose or from after graduation, took the exam. So I didn't know any of the applicants or any of my junior Foreign Service Officer colleagues. We—I was already married to Judith—came to Washington and took a very nice apartment in Southwest, only to find that we were living a considerable distance away from our colleagues. I began taking the orientation course at FSI, which was then located where New State now is. My class consisted of a fairly diverse group of more than 30 people. It included four women, one black—Ron Palmer, who has been a friend ever since—who was one of the younger members of the class. The Department had at the time an age ceiling for entrance to the Foreign Service; I think it was thirty-two. The average age of the class was 27, which is roughly the average age of today's entering class. The white males were graduates of many different universities and colleges. It was at a time when the Department was expanding to some degree which explains the rather large size of the Interview with William Clark Jr. http://www.loc.gov/item/mfdipbib000206 Library of Congress class; the incoming classes then were certainly larger than today's. We had representation from the South, California—there were four or five of us from there. The Ivy League was represented, but it was not an overwhelming number. The A-100 course was then six weeks long. But before going overseas, the student returned to take a consular course. So, if I remember correctly, the entering course was broken up in two sections. The first part was a general introduction to the Foreign Service and the Department of State. We had a few representatives of other agencies talk to us, but it was very few, as I recall it. I found it a very useful course, especially for someone like myself who knew absolutely nothing about Washington or the Foreign Service. I knew roughly what people did overseas, but certainly not in much detail. I had never known any American Foreign Service people, but my father was a member of the Canadian legion and through him I had met some British consuls. But I was totally unfamiliar with the State Department and the Foreign Service. The A-100 course was good one because it provided us with some familiarity with our future career. The course director was an old China hand and his boss was a hard charger. The course was well done. We went out to Front Royal for a week of “togetherness”. It may have been modeled after the British “weekend house party”. It gave each of us an opportunity to explore our own behavior and to do different things. My poker game improved during that week, although by this time, I knew that game pretty well. I was assigned to the International Educational Exchange Service (IEES), headed by Manny Esposito. It was an office in the Bureau for Cultural Affairs. But since the office was located near K and 18th Street—far from the Department—, we really never had much contact with the rest of the Bureau. I was supposed to be the junior officer in the Liaison Office, which was IEES' “external affairs” office. I actually ended up in a GS-15 position which the Department had never been able to fill. I became a follow-up specialist, which required me to keep in contact with foreign people who had completed their Fulbright exchange program period in the United States. We would also keep in touch with Japanese people who had come to the US under the GARIOA program. We would Interview with William Clark Jr. http://www.loc.gov/item/mfdipbib000206 Library of Congress send them periodicals in their field of interest—i.e.