Cunningham, William J
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The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project WILLIAM J. CUNNINGHAM Interviewed by: Charles Stuart Kennedy Initial interview date: March 17, 1997 Copyright 2 ADST TABLE OF CONTENTS Background Born and raised in California .S. Navy - WWII niversity of New Me)ico Entered Foreign Service - 1,4, State Department - Foreign Service Trainee 1,4,-1,.0 Prague0 C1echoslovakia - Clerk 1,.0 Environment Security Espionage Am2assador Ellis Briggs Em2assy evacuation Black Monday Paris0 France - Evacuee3Clerk 1,.0 Seoul0 4orea - Personnel Officer 1,.0 Chinese troop invasion 5ocal .S. personnel evacuation Hospitali1ation Tokyo0 6apan - Evacuee37S Sector 1,.0-1,.1 Supreme Command of Allied Powers 8SCAP9 Sapporo0 6apan - :ice Consul 1,.1-1,.2 Impressions of 6apan .S.-6apanese marriages 6apanese language trainees Hokkaido e)perience Saigon0 :ietnam - 7eneral Services Assistant 1,.2-1,.4 1 French military defeat Environment Security :ietnamese government Military operations French presence Dien Bien Phu :iet Minh North :ietnam refugees Phnom Penh0 Cam2odia 1,.4-1,.. Environment International Control Commission Em2assy structure Am2assador Ro2ert McClintock Sihanouk Chancery Staff 6im Thompson State Department - Far East Bureau - E)ecutive Office 1,..-1,.6 State Department - Foreign Service Institute 1,.6-1,.7 Chinese 5anguage Staff Marriage Taichung0 Taiwan - Chinese 5anguage Student 1,.7-1,.8 FSO - 1,.7 Course of study Edgar Snow Economy China Taipei0 Taiwan - Press Translation3Director of 5anguage School 1,.8-1,62 Am2assador Drumright .S.-Taiwan relations .S.-ROC status of forces agreement Em2assy sacked McCarthyism Taiwanese language Quemoy bom2ardment PeopleAs 7overnment of China versus Repu2lic of China .S. troops to Taiwan Quemoy and Matsu Strait of Taiwan Territorial waters 2 ROC military Secretary of State Dulles Chiang 4ai-shek Spencer Moosa interview Press President Eisenhower visit China Democratic Party Politics 6apanese legacy 4oo Chen fu Opposition parties 5ei Chen trial .S. economic assistance Economy China-Soviet relations Mongolia 4ennedy policy Drumright recalled McCarthy victims Personalities 8 .S.9 State Department - China Desk 1,62-1,6. Repu2lic of China N issue Security Council representation Duties and operations State Department - Mainland China Desk 1,6.-1,67 7reat 5eap Forward Chou En-lai Meo Bedong :ietnam and China China-Soviet relations 7reat Cultural Revolution Trading with the Enemy Act Intelligence sources PRC recognition issue Secretary of State Dean Rusk Colum2ia niversity - East Asian Studies 1,67-1,68 :ietnam Tokyo0 6apan - Political Officer3First Secretary 1,68-1,71 Am2assador . Ale)is 6ohnson Relations Non-Proliferation Treaty 8NPT9 3 Micronesia 6apanese officialdom niversal Postal nion meeting 6apanese aircraft hijacked to 4orea Demonstrations Te)tile production Am2assador Armin Meyer Ping pong diplomacy China and N 6apan-China relations .S. Ta2le Tennis Association - to China Chinese visits to .S. issue .S. policy changeC Ballpoint pens 4issinger visit to China EhrlichmanAs DThe China CardE State Department - Senior Seminar 1,71-1,72 State Department - Bureau of Cultural Affairs - East Asia Desk - Deputy Director 1,72-1,77 New Fork0 New Fork - S N - Resource Management Section 1,77-1,81 Retirement 1,82 Houston0 Te)as - niversity of St. Thomas - Center for International Studies - Director G 1,82 INTERVIEW Q: Today is the 17th of March, St. Patrick(s Day, 1997. This is an interview with )illiam J. Cunningham. I am Charles Stuart Kennedy. )e are doing this on behalf of the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training. To begin with, can you tell me when and where you were born, C NNIN7HAM: I was 2orn in Santa Monica0 California on 6anuary 210 1,26. Q: Could you tell me a bit about your parents, about their background, C NNIN7HAM: My motherAs side of the family is of 7erman heritage. My great grandfather and great grandmother migrated from 7ermany to Iowa in the 18.0s. IAm doing a little bit of family research on them and in fact I found their golden wedding anniversary photograph. My grandfatherAs name was 7eorge and he moved to California from Minneapolis in 1,12 for reasons of health0 his and some of the other family 4 mem2ers. My mother0 who had been born in Minneapolis in 18,,0 spent the rest of her life in California. She was educated at a private high school0 Ramona Convent0 operated 2y the Sisters of the Holy Name in Alham2ra0 California. My fatherAs side of the family is of Irish background. My great grandparents on that side also immigrated in the middle of the 1,th century to Massachusetts. My grandfather Cunningham was trained as a boot maker. As a young man he went to California toward the end of the 1,th century. He at first applied his trade knowledge as a boot maker in San Francisco0 which was the big city in California in those days. 5ater he settled in 5os Angeles and became a very successful mortician0 or undertaker as they were called then. He had ten children0 one of whom died young. My father was the second oldest. He was a medical doctor. He was pro2a2ly the most highly educated mem2er of that generation in his family. He completed his medical degree at St. 5ouis niversity in 1,22 and began his practice in 5os Angeles. He had known my mother since high school days. They were introduced by his sister0 my aunt0 4athleen. They were married in 6une of 1,24 and lived in Santa Monica until 1,27. According to my mother0 my fatherAs practice was not prospering there because there was a lot of competition. My grandfather owned land in the Antelope :alley0 which is on the high deserts of California a2out 80 miles to the northwest of 5os Angeles. My mother encouraged my father to go out there and she persuaded my grandfather to develop the land and have my father manage it for alfalfa production0 so that is what happened. In 1,27 they moved out there and began cultivating a2out 40 acres of alfalfa seven miles east of 5ancaster0 California. I was a year-and-a-half when we moved out there. I donAt remem2er Santa Monica at all. My earliest memories are of the ranch0 as we called it0 in the Antelope :alley. My father resumed his medical practice there and he became very successful. He was a general practitioner0 a typical country doctor0 who made house calls as far as 40 miles away delivering children in the middle of the nightI taking care of youngsters who came down with mumps0 measles0 chickenpo)0 and all the restI taking care of hunters who got themselves wounded while hunting jackra22its in the valley on the weekendsI taking care of people who were injured on farm machineryI all those sorts of things that you do in that kind of community. ThatAs where I grew up. I have a younger brother who happens now to live in Houston0 Te)as. He was for thirty years the performing arts critic of the now defunct Houston Post. He now is a program annotator and writes for several arts pu2lications. It so happens that he has a review of the latest Houston 7rand Opera production G D6ackie O.E in this morningAs )ashington Post. I also have a sister who is the middle one of the three of us. She lives also in 5ancaster. There was a fourth child0 a sister0 between my sister and me. There was something defective and she died within a few days0 hours0 after birth in 1,27 or 1,28. My father died in 1,61. My mother is still living. She is ,7 and now in a convalescent hospital in California. Q: )here did you go to school, 5 C NNIN7HAM: I did my first two years at St. 6ohnAs Military Academy0 a military 2oarding school in 5os Angeles0 California0 operated by the Sisters of Mercy. My parents were both from a strong Catholic family and they wanted all their children to have a Catholic education. nfortunately the depression came along0 and I had series illnesses in the second grade0 so it was not possi2le to continue my education at a private school that must have been costly for my parents0 then with a young family and married only eight years. I went back to Antelope :alley and continued my education at Roosevelt Elementary School0 now called East Side Elementary0 through the eighth grade. From there I went to the Antelope :alley 6oint nion High School0 as it was known in those days0 in 5ancaster. It is now Antelope :alley High School. It was called 6oint nion 2ecause the school district covered parts of two counties0 northern 5os Angeles County and southern 4ern County. I completed my high school education in 6anuary of 1,44 and immediately went into the Navy :-12. Q: Of course )orld )ar II was in full swing. C NNIN7HAM: ThatAs right and the D-Day landing had not occurred yet. American troops in the Pacific were still way down in the South Pacific. 7uadalcanal had taken place a couple of years earlier. IAm not sure if they had gotten to Tarawa by A44 or not. Anyway0 it looked like the long haul still at that point and I went into the Navy :-12 program. My mother had noticed the announcement of the :-12 program the previous year and had encouraged me to take the entrance e)amination0 which I took in the fall of 1,43 at our high school. I was selected and went in for a physical e)am at the Navy Recruiting Station in 5os Angeles on Decem2er of 1,43. I was sworn into the Navy there on the 8th of Decem2er 1,43.