Ambassador E. Michael Southwick
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The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project AMBASSADOR E. MICHAEL SOUTHWICK Interviewed by: Charles Stuart Kennedy Initial interview date: May 4, 2004 Copyright 2009 A ST TABLE OF CONTENTS Background Born in alifornia, raised in alifornia and Idaho Stanford University Marriage Entered the Foreign Service in 1967 Katmandu, Nepal, Rotation Officer 1967.1969 Environment Ambassador arol 0aise 1overnment Royal family Foreigners Peace orps Tourist accidents onsular functions Hashish and hippies State Department2 FSI, 0anguage and Administrative Studies 1969.1970 Kigali, Rwanda, Administrative and onsular Officer 1970.1972 Environment 1overnment AID Program Tribes Idi Amin Rwanda6s neighbors Dian Fossey State Department, Bureau of Educational and ultural Affairs 1972.1977 American 1rantee Program Fulbright Program East Africa Program 1 Africans and African Americans relationship 8est Africa tour 1eneva, Swit9erland, Staff Assistant to hief US Trade Negotiator 1977.1976 Reduction of tariff and non.tariff barriers Soviet Union :ewish emigration :ackson.Vanik Amendment US delegation Special Trade delegation European Union delegation Environment The Swiss 8illiam 8alker State Department, Economic Bureau, Office of Trade 1977.1979 Personnel Relations with ongress Relations with the 8hite House Political grand.standing :apan economy Bujumbura, Burundi Deputy hief of Mission 1979.1982 Environment 1overnment Shaba I and II US Ambassadors Hutu minority Missionaries Peace orps French.Belgian rivalry 0ake Tanganyika Dian Fossey USAID Hutu problem 0ibya het rocker Niamey, Niger2 Deputy hief of Mission 1982.1985 Ambassador 8illiam R. asey Uranium 1overnment Seyni Kountche Sahel drought 0ibya Nuclear Non.Proliferation Treaty 2 French presence Vice President 1eorge Bush visit orruption Attempted coup Peace orps Family State Department2 Personnel Officer, Africa Bureau 1985.1987 African assignment problems D M assignment considerations State Department2 Executive Officer, INR 1987.1989 US government Intelligence Agencies INR personnel Personnel Audit Report Value of INR product ArabAIsrael INR Information Retrieval System Senior Seminar 1989.1990 omments re course content and value Nairobi, Kenya, Deputy hief of Mission 1990.1997 Ambassador Smith Hempstone, :r. 1overnment USAID Mission Security Tribal politics President Moi 0ocal Asians Relations with neighbors Somalia ivil 8ar :oint US.Kenyan Humanitarian relief effort Black Hawk Down incident UN Somalia Peace Keeping operations Ethiopia Tigray 8ar 0ibyan prisoners of war Ambassador Rea Bra9eal Ambassador to Uganda 1997.1997 President Boweri Museveni Uganda army Power structure Environment US aid program 3 AIDS Restarting US Embassy Idi Amin legacy Southern Sudan Relations with neighbors Scandinavian presence in region Foreign assistance US policy Relations with government Hillary linton visit French presence Africa6s future State Department, Human Rights Bureau2 Deputy Asst. Secretary 1997.2002 Arrears in US payments of UN uba Resolution Human Rights ommission astro Madeleine Albright International riminal ourt Military recruitment of children International mail delivery Personnel hildren6s issues Beijing 8omen6s onference Human trafficking 1rowth of UN membership Eroding of US influence in UN ArabAIsrael differences International telephone issues Personal views on Israel issue UNES O uban anti.US tactics 1eneva onvention on Territories Terrorism Israeli racism Reparations for past slavery Negotiating with Arabs uba Human Rights UN and US uba policy Elian 1on9ale9 controversy 9A11 attack effect in UN olin Powell State Department, Deputy Assistant Secretary, 2002.2003 7 Human Rights and 0abor Human Rights ommission onferences Issues Retirement 2003 INTERVIEW CNote2 This interview was not edited by Ambassador Southwick.D ": Today is the 4th of May, 2004. This is an interview with E. Michael Southwick. (hat does the E stand for) SOUTH8I K2 The E stands for Elmer and that was my father6s name. ": Okay. This is being done on behalf of the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training and I,m Charles Stuart Kennedy. Do you go by Michael, Mike or something else) SOUTH8I K2 8ell, normally these days by Michael, but occasionally, it6s Mike. ": Try and keep it a little more formal if you can. SOUTH8I K2 Right. ": I wonder if we could just kind of start at the beginning. Could you tell me when and where you were born and then we,ll move on to something more. SOUTH8I K2 Okay. I was born on :anuary 12th, 1975 in harles R. Howard Memorial Hospital in 8illits, alifornia and that is the hospital that was erected by the Howard family, which owns Seabiscuit. It was a memorial to their only, well, it wasn6t their only son, but their teenage son who was killed in an auto accident some years before that. ": (as this in San Francisco) SOUTH8I K2 This is in Mendocino ounty. It6s about 135 or 70 miles North of San Francisco. ": So, you,re really way up close practically to the Oregon border) SOUTH8I K2 No, you6re about halfway up. Bes. 5 ": That,s longer. SOUTH8I K2 Bes, it6s about 300 miles from San Francisco to the Oregon border. ": (hat was the area like) SOUTH8I K2 Mendocino ounty is one of the most interesting places topographically I think in the United States. The lower half of the county is agricultural, pears, grapes, wine, it6s the Northern extreme if you want to call it that. It6s a wine country. The Northern part of it is heavily forested and that6s where the big Redwood forests begin. My father was in the lumber business. ": (ell, let,s talk a bit about your family. Let,s take the Southwick on the father,s side, first. (here did they come from and what do you know about them) SOUTH8I K2 Okay. A fair amount about my father6s, I guess it would be his grandfather who as a very small child immigrated with his family from England, the family had converted to Mormonism and they traveled by a ship to New Orleans and they got on a boat and went up to St. 0ouis and there they were supposed to be regrouped and put on wagons to go to Salt 0ake city. At that time there was a cholera epidemic. My great great grandfather died leaving his wife a widow and several children, only one of whom was by that union because he had been married before, but my great grandfather :oseph at about age five walked across that part of the United States eventually in 1852 from St. 0ouis to Salt 0ake ity. ": I remember there was a thing about so many came and pulled handcarts across, some must push and some must pull. SOUTH8I K2 There were some. Some must push and some must pull. There were a couple of handcart companies. As near as we know, my great grandfather was not part of that and it6s only with some difficulty that we6ve tracked down some of the details because my great grandmother was a widow and she died a few years after they got to Salt 0ake ity. ": (ell, what do you know about your grandfather,s life) SOUTH8I K2 He was left with a stepfather as it turned out and life was not very good for him at least that6s the family legend. At about age 13 or 17 he went off on his own. This would have been the 1860s and he got a number of different kinds of jobs, but towards the end of the century he got a land grant in Ogden Valley which is east of Ogden, Utah and there he settled to take up farming. By that time he had married and had about five or six children. ": Did Mormonism stick with the family) 6 SOUTH8I K2 It has to a large degree. I6m probably the only one who has emerged in other directions. I don6t consider myself a Mormon and I don6t consider myself anti. Mormon and I certainly value the heritage. ": Is it Jack Mormon) SOUTH8I K2 8ell, :ack Mormon was a term and I don6t know how it started, but it may have had something to do with :ack Dempsey who was a :ack Mormon, but it6s for a Mormon who may have still believed, but did not practice, like smoking and drinking. Mormons don6t smoke and drink and they6re not supposed to carouse around. ": So, you can carouse around if you want) SOUTH8I K2 I suppose, but the idea of :ack Mormon really concerns, they6re not really people who are against the church, they6re just not living it. ": It,s basically a lapse. SOUTH8I K2 Bes. ": (ell, then what happened to your grandfather) (hat happened to your father) SOUTH8I K2 8ell, let6s see, my great grandfather had this land grant and he settled his sons in that area in the Northern part of the Ogden Valley and divided the parcels among the sons and my grandfather had one of those and that6s where my father grew up. He was born in 1911 and he grew up in that kind of farm environment. I know a fair amount about that because a fair amount has been written. ": Tell me what was life like then) SOUTH8I K2 In many ways it was good because they had all of nature. It was a beautiful valley. There were mountains. People had horses. They could ride around. My father and I went on a visit there with my family in 685 and I have a recording of it and he knew every nook and cranny in that really Euite extensive valley. He6d ridden a horse to the top of Ben 0oman, which is a high peak there west of where he lived, but East of Ogden and they went to school. They had to track a little bit a few miles to school. There was a lot of snow during that period. Nobody was rich and the farmland was okay, but people had to supplement their income with odd jobs of various kinds.