The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project
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The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project AMBASSADOR SAMUEL F. HART Interviewed by: Charles Stuart Kennedy Initial interview date: June 12, 1992 Copyright 1998 A ST TABLE OF CONTENTS Background Born and raised in Mississippi oast Guard Academy Georgia Military Academy, University of Mississippi Harvard, Fletcher School US Army 1955 Entered Foreign Service 1958 Montevideo, Uruguay 1959-1961 Political officer Fidel astro influence olorados and Blancos Am,assador Ro,ert .oodward E. Howard Hunt and 1A Tupamaros Economics conditions 1ndonesian 2anguage Training 1961 Djakarta, 1ndonesia 1962-1964 Economic officer 2ocal political situation Sukarno Am,assador Howard 5ones Ro,ert 6ennedy Sergeant Shriver Em,assy divided Pre-1965 coup 6uala 2umpur, Malaysia 1964-1966 onsular7 political officer 2ocal conditions 1 2ee 6wan 8ew 1A Economic Bureau 1966-1968 Economic training Temperate Products Division The hicken .ar State Department and economic and commercial policy 9ander,ilt University San 5ose, osta Rica 1969-1971 Economic7 commercial officer 2ocal conditions Pep; Figueres 1A activity A1D ASP on osta Rica US business interests and influence Rivkin Award Santiago, hile 1971-1975 Salvador Allende ASP on hile 1A A,ortive anti-Allende coup of 5une 1973 General Arturo Pratts Am,assador Nat Davis The movie >Missing? Successful coup Septem,er 1973 Death of Allende American casualties US accused of involvement Augusto Pinochet Harry Shlaudeman US press reporting hile@s > hicago boys? Pinochet@s policies Senator hurch@s committee hearings 1NR AEconomic Research) 1975-1977 AFSA trou,les Tel Aviv, 1srael 1977-1980 Economic7 commercial counselor amp David 2 US policy and 1srael 1sraeli invasion of 2e,anon Am,assador Sam 2ewis 1sraeli attitude towards em,assy US-1sraeli relations ARA AAndean ountries)- 1980-1982 Human rights issues Domestic regimes ountry political parties Reagan policies Haig and 6irkpatrick S1G 2ucho Arce GomeD and Mike .allace Reagan@s Bit,urg visit Tom Enders Euito, Ecuador 1982-1985 Am,assador US agenda in Ecuador Tuna pro,lem A1D program Military attaches President 2eon Fe,res ordero Em,assy State friction Recruiting Soviet am,assador 1A Alfaro 9ive arajo osta Rica Aattachment) President 5ose Figueres Personalities osta Rica 1970-1971 Alan Stewert and Pep; Figueres >Treason?F Trou,les in the em,assy ASP pro,lems hile Aattachment) Military takeover, Septem,er 11, 1973 Allende and democracy INTERVIEW 3 ": I wonder if we could start off with your giving me a bit about your background, where and when you were born, and where you were raised' HART: All these tough Huestions. ": All the tough (uestions. HART: Okay. Born in anton, Mississippi. ": Where's Canton' HART: anton is 20 miles north of 5ackson, center of the state. Date of birth: 1933. My father was a traveling salesman. My mother was a housewife. 1 have an older sister, nine years olderI an older brother, seven years older. 1 was the ba,y in the family. Grew up in a wonderful world of freedom as a white ,oy in a small Mississippi town, county seat, during the Depression. My family, economically, was much better off than 99 percent of the population of this little town that 1 lived in, which at that time had a,out 5,000 people, 60 percent of whom were black. And then, of the white population, you had two groups: you had the mill-town group Athere was a big, hardwood lum,er mill there), and then you had the townies. So the population really was fragmentedI it was greatly compartmentaliDed. But as a result of this kind of compartmentaliDation, in a way, 1 grew up with very nearly total freedom, from the time 1 was three or four years old, to do whatever 1 wanted to do. Now part of that was a function of my mother, and whether she did it because she was a ,rilliant child raiser or because she was a bad mother, 1Jm not sure. But from four years old on, if 1 wanted to go downtown by myself, 1 just walked downtown. 1 didnJt have to ask permissionI 1 had to say where 1 was going. And from age six or seven, anytime 1 wanted to go out into Bear reek Swamp and camp out and spend the night, no pro,lem, 1 went, may,e with one friend. My mother used to go off when 1 was nine or ten years old and spend a week and leave me home alone in the house, and 1Jd fix one meal a day, and the maid would come in and fix one meal a day. So it was a marvelous childhood. Almost a mythical Huality now--the old America. ": Sounds a little bit like a touch of the book To 6ill a Mocking,ird. HART: 8es, To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper 2ee, captured exactly the atmosphere of anton, Mississippi, when 1 grew up. 1t happens to ,e one of my favorite books. The only thing missing in my life was an Atticus FinchI he was the father that all of us would have liked to have had, or would have liked to be--a wonderful father figure. ": Oh, yes, wonderful, wonderful. 4 HART: 1 went to pu,lic school in anton. My family was always different from other families in that my mother always wanted to know what was over the next hill. She traveled widely, and read, by anton, Mississippi, standards of that time, widely, and instilled in me, and to a certain extent my brother and sister also, a kind of curiosity a,out the world. My father had none. 1 went away to high school when 1 was 15. 1 went to Georgia Military Academy, in ollege Park, Georgia, because anton pu,lic schools were not very goodI my family could afford this. Spent three years there, graduated, intended to be a lawyer. 1 wanted to go to Harvard University and then to Harvard 2aw School and be a lawyer. 1 was admitted to Harvard and expected to go to Harvard on a Naval ROT scholarship, when 1 committed one of the early errors of my life. .hen being interviewed by the oral panel for the Naval ROT scholarship, they asked me if 1 planned to make the Navy a career. And instead of saying, L.ell, this is something 1Jll have to decide down the line, ,ut 1 certainly am giving it thought,L 1 said, LNo way, ba,yM 8ou got me for four years and then 1Jm goneML And 1 didnJt get the scholarship. So then 1 went to my father and 1 said, L1 didnJt get the scholarship to go to HarvardI how a,out you picking up the billFL And he wouldnJt do it. And so, in a fit of piHue, 1 accepted an appointment to the U.S. oast Guard Academy, which 1 decided very early on was another large mistake after 1 got to New 2ondon, onnecticut. 1 had appointments to .est Point and Annapolis through the honor school system, but 1 flunked the physical because of hearing. Anyway, 1 ended up at the oast Guard Academy, hated it from the beginning, spent seven months in there, and, finally, through a form of blackmail, got my mother to give me permission to resign, and 1 got out. 1 ended up going to the cheapest place 1 could go to school, which was the University of Mississippi. And so, the next three years, 1 went to Ole Miss, and graduated in 5anuary of J55. ": What were you taking' HART: .ell, at Ole Miss, they had a five-year B.A., 22.B. program, and 1 was going to ,e in that. After seven months in the oast Guard Academy, 1 transferred as a sophomore to Ole Miss. And you have to begin that in your junior year, if youJre going to do it, ,ecause your last two years are mainly law-school courses instead of undergraduate- school courses. So, shortly after 1 got to Old Miss, 1 had to make a decision a,out what 1 was going to do with my program. 1 was taking history and political science, mainly, as undergraduate studies. And 1 decided, after a lot of soul searching, that 1 couldnJt live with ,eing a lawyer, because what 1 really wanted to do was be a judge and jury, and they didnJt have a course for that. The idea of having to do, ethically, the things that a good, 5 successful lawyer had to do didnJt have anything to do with justice. And 1 was interested in justice. So 1 decided 1 couldnJt cut it as a lawyer, and 1 didnJt go to law school. But 1 had a political science professor who taught 1nternational Relations at Ole Miss, and he talked one day in class a,out the Foreign Service, and told some story a,out something that happened in Dechoslovakia in 1948, and how a Foreign Service officer had predicted everything that was going to happen, but it was ignored back in .ashington, ,lah, blah, blah. And 1 said, LGee, that sounds like something 1Jd like to do.L And so 1 did it. 1 didnJt do it right away, because 1 had the Army to go to first, and 1 did 28 months in the Army. ": What did you do in the Army' HART: .ell, 1 was an infantryman and a paratrooper who got assigned to an armored ,attalion at Fort Hood, Texas, as a personnel officer. .hile still a second lieutenant, got made battalion adjutant. Now the pro,lem with that is, usually the battalion adjutant is the senior captain in the battalion, and, in Army usage, whenever anything good happens, the battalion commander tells the company commanders a,out itI when anything bad happens, the adjutant tells them, and for a second lieutenant to have to tell all these captains a,out the bad news--that their supply clerk and their mess sergeant have just ,een transferred to Alaska--is very dangerous for the second lieutenant.