1 the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs
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The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project AMBASSADOR VICTOR L. TOMSETH Interviewed by: Charles Stuart Kennedy Initial interview date: May 13, 1999 Copyright 200 ADST TABLE OF CONTENTS Background Born and raised in Oregon niversity of Oregon Dharan, Nepal - Peace Corps 1964-1965 Language training Teaching experience ,nvironment -overnment niversity of .ichigan 1966 South Asian studies ,ntered Foreign Service 1966 Chiang .ai, Thailand - Consular Officer 1967 Bangkok, Thailand - Political0.ilitary Officer 1967-1961 dorn, Thailand - Political0.ilitary Officer 1961-1969 C2A presence 2ndochina 3ar Bangkok, Thailand - Ambassador5s Staff Assistant0Political Officer 1969-1971 State Department - Board of ,xaminers 1971-1972 ,xaminations Candidates Cornell niversity - Southeast Asia Studies 1972-1973 State Department - ,ast Asia Bureau - Thailand Desk Officer 1973-1975 1 Southeast Asia developments 8issinger style 2ntelligence Lao refugees State Department - FS2 - Farsi Language Training 1975 Shira9, 2ran - Principal Officer 1976-1979 Student visas ,nvironment Shah reforms .S. presence SAVA8 C2A Teheran, 2ran - Political Officer 1979-1911 Rastacris Party 8homeini .ullahs .ilitary nrest Shah departs Anti- .S. sentiment Revolutionary courts Religions and minorities Javit9 resolution Soviets Students ,mbassy occupied Negotiations Canadian assistance Hostages Ramsey Clark0Bill .iller initiative Bruce Laingen Rescue plan Algerian mediation Jailed 2raq war Freedom President Carter Post-release activity Family liaison activity Senior Seminar 1911-1912 2 State Department - N,A0SA - 2ndia, Nepal, and Sri Lanka Affairs 1912-1914 Soviets .rs. -andhi Diego -arcia 2ndian democracy Afghanistan Tamils and Sinhalese Colombo, Sri Lanka - DC. 1914-1916 Tamil insurgency Security .S. aid State Department - ,AP - Office of Thailand and Burma Affairs - Director 1916-1919 A2D Democracy movement Burma5s external relations Commodity exports Arms Cambodia China Refugees PO30.2As Opium Thai royalty Bangkok, Thailand - DC. 1919-1992 Trade issues ,ducation 2ntellectual property rights Refugees 8hmer Rouge PO30.2As Drug trafficking Security ,conomy ,nvironment .rs. Tomseth Thai women niversity of North Carolina at -reensboro - Diplomat in Residence 1992-1993 Laos - Ambassador 1993-1996 PO30.2As 3 Refugees Narcotics -overnment nexploded ordinance ,lections Vietnamese Vientiane Retirement 1996 Boo9, Allen, and Hamilton - Consulting State Department - OSC, .ission, Croatia INTERVIEW [NoteA This interview was not edited by Ambassador TomsethB $: Today is May 13, 1999. This is an interview with Victor L. Tomseth. This is being done on behalf of The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training. I am Charles Stuart Kennedy. To start with, when and where were you born and could you tell me something about your parents and your family? TO.S,THA 2 was born in ,ugene, Oregon and grew up in Springfield, which is right next door. 2 was there for the first 22 years of my life. 2 went to the niversity of Oregon, which is in ,ugene. .y fatherCs parents were Norwegian immigrants. They actually met in .innesota, however, and married there and then came out to the Northwest in the early part of the 19th century. .y motherCs background is basically Scotch-2rish out of the hills of Appalachia early in the 11th century and through the .idwest and eventually to the 3est Coast, California and then Oregon. Springfield is a very working class, blue collar town. All of my family on both sides were either saw millers or loggers. As 2 said, 2 went to the niversity of Oregon. $: Did you have any brothers and sisters? TO.S,THA 2 have one brother, younger, and one sister, younger. $: ,ere your parents college graduates? 4 TO.S,THA No. $: Very few of our generation have parents who went to college. It was less than 10- of the population. TO.S,THA Des, probably. They were high school graduates, but no college. A few of my older cousins had gone to college before 2 went. $: ,hat about at home? ,as it a family who sit around the table discussing things, read, or not? How did it wor/? TO.S,THA 3ell, this is sort of jumping ahead a little bit. 3hen 2 was a kid, my parents bought a set of EThe 3orld Book ,ncyclopediaE at one point. 2 subsequently told people that 2 think 2 probably passed the Foreign Service written examination because 2 memori9ed that. $: This was something that grabbed you? TO.S,THA Not the Foreign Service. 2 had no idea what that was. But 2 was interested in the world. .y father was a member of the National -eographic Society, so 2 grew up looking at those and studying the maps. $: In what year were you born? TO.S,THA 1941. $: So ,orld ,ar II was not part of your bac/ground. TO.S,THA No. 2 remember Roosevelt dying in April of 1945 and the end of the war in the Pacific. 3e were sitting out in the yard on an August day. All of the mill whistles and sirens went off. For some reason, that stuck in my mind. $: How about school? Lets tal/ about elementary school first. TO.S,THA 2t was in Springfield, Oregon, a public school, District 19. At that time, Springfield grew fairly rapidly at the end of the war. 2t was a lumber economy. 2t was about 3,000 people in 1940 and 10,000 in 1950 and 20,000 in 1960. $: The building boom, particularly after the war, the end of the Depression. Everybody wanted to have houses. TO.S,THA That is exactly right. 2t was a pretty good time for the lumber industry. $: ,ere there any particular courses or anything that you recall at the elementary level? 5 TO.S,THA No, not really, but 2 was always interested in and fairly good at math and science. 2 suppose the courses 2 had through elementary, junior high school, and high school, the ones that stand out and the teachers who taught them that stand out in my mind were science and mathematics courses, not history, social studies, or things like that. $: High school. ,hat high school did you go to? TO.S,THA Springfield High School, the only one at that time. Dou sort of grow up in an environment like that knowing everyone from the first grade and you go all through school with them. $: ,hat activities were you involved in? TO.S,THA 3ell, 2 loved to play basketball. 2 wasn5t all that good at it, but 2 worked at it. 2 played some other sports, such as football and baseball. 2 also played in the band. $: ,hat instrument did you play? TO.S,THA 2 played trumpet and baritone. The keying is the same even though theyCre in different registers. $: ,hat about summer jobs? TO.S,THA At that time, what most kids (This was in the age before .cDonaldCs, 3endy5s, and all that.) did before they were 16 was work picking things in agricultureA cherries, strawberries, green beans... After 16, you could also work at things like canneries (There were a couple of canneries there.), picking peaches, apples, that sort of thing. But in high school, 2 got a part-time job with a car dealership washing cars. That was after school and on weekends. $: ,ere you continuing in your math and science courses? Did this continue to be your interest? TO.S,THA Des. 2n high school, my focus was very much on math and science. 2 liked history and what went by the rubric of social studies (2 don5t know what they call it these days.). .aybe the teachers werenCt as good. .aybe the material wasn5t as compelling. 2 don5t know. But math and science is what really grabbed me at that point. $: 2ou were at the 3niversity of Oregon, which was right around the corner, wasn5t it? TO.S,THA Two miles away from the house 2 grew up in, right across the bridge. $: 2ou were there from when to when? 6 TO.S,THA 2 started in 1959 as a math and science major. During the course of that year, 2 discovered 2 hated analytical geometry and 2 hated organic chemistry. 2 think it had something to do with the temperature in the rooms during the winter months. At the end of the year, 2 had a 1.4 -PA (grade point average). 2 had stopped going to class. 2 quit and went to work in the woods for a year. $: ,hen you say you went to wor/ in the woods, what were you doing? TO.S,THA Logging. 2n the course of a year, 2 discovered 2 hated logging and went back to the niversity in 1961. 2 wound up as a history major. $: I was a history ma1or. One tries out these other things. TO.S,THA For me, it was a process of elimination. $: So you were there from 1961 to when? TO.S,THA 2 nearly caught up in my class. 2 graduated in December of 1963. $: ,as there any particular area of history? TO.S,THA Des. There were twoA modern Japanese history and American history. $: This was before the great trade business with the Far East, particularly with Japan. Did the Orient intrude at all into Eugene? TO.S,THA 2 wound up doing that mainly because a friend had taken the basic survey course in Japanese history and said that the professor who taught it was extremely good. 2 had a history requirement that 2 had to satisfy outside the American history focus that 2 had. 2 said, E3hy notI 2Cll give it a tryIE 2t turned out this guy really was good. 2 was very interested in the history, as it turned out. As for the university itself, 2 am not sure how this came about, but there was a very good museum of northeastern oriental art there.