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 DENNIS KUX Interviewed by: Thomas Stern Initial interview date: January 13, 1995 Copyright 199 ADST TABLE OF CONTENTS Background Born in England raised in New York City Lafayette College (PA) and Fletcher Middlebury College US Army - ,orea Entered Foreign Service - .900 State Department - Economic Bureau .900-.901 Trade Agreement Committee (TAC) 23ristoni4ation2 US Delegation to 5eneva - 5ATT Fuels Division - .906 Sue4 Canal crisis - .906 ,arachi, Pakistan - Economic officer .901-.960 Environment Reporting assignments AID program Social customs Embassy staffing 2Indian threat2 Ayub ,han's programs Madras, India - Commercial/Consular officer .960-.962 State Department - Nepal and India desk - Desk officer .962-.964 Office organi4ation Ambassador (to India) ,enneth 5albraith US relations with Pakistan and India Indo-Chinese relations India-Pakistan crisis - .962 ,ennedy-Macmillan Bermuda meeting - .962 Nehru's 2Dunkirk2 message 1 Pakistan-China relations India's Soviet 2tilt2 ,ashmir issue US military equipment to Nepal AID program to Nepal Peace Corps to Nepal VOA in India Ambassador Chester Bowles India AID program issue State Department - Personnel .964-.966 Assignment process Crockett's management 2revolution2 2Cone2 system 2Selection out2 process Bonn, 5ermany - Political officer .966-.969 Duties Contacts with Bundestag CIA operations and reporting Ambassador Mc5hee Ambassador Lodge Environment Adenauer funeral Congressional visits Congressman 3ayne HaysA visit Islamabad, Pakistan - Political officer .969-.91. US-Pakistan relations Ambassador Boseph Farland Culfikar Ali Bhutto Ayub ,han Mujibur Rahman East Pakistan issues China relations Consulate 5eneral Dacca's 2protest2 cable Dacca staff evacuation ,issinger China visit Army 3ar College .91.-.912 State Department - Deputy Director for India and Nepal .912-.911 India's nuclear program Country Director role Relations with India 2 Indira 5andhi's anti-US position Economic assistance to region Ambassador (to India) Pat Moynihan Indian rupee issue India's nuclear program US-India relations Ambassador (to Nepal) Carol Laise Mount Everest climbers State's NEA personalities US ambassadors to India - assessment Boint US-India 2Commission2 operations Senior Seminar .911-.918 Program description Ankara, Turkey - Political counselor .918-.980 Ambassador Ron Spiers US bases in Turkey Cyprus issue Security US-Turkish relations CENTO and 2liquidation committee2 Turkey and Europe State Department - INR - Deputy Assistant Secretary .980-.984 Intelligence Coordinator (CIA DIA, etc.) Covert action CIA and embassy relationship Congressional role Presidential approval of covert actions CIA Director Casey and Congress INR relations with bureaus Reporting assessment system 2Disinformation2 programs State Department - Deputy Director of Management Operations .984-.986 Crisis management project Operations Contractors Abidjan, Ivory Coast - Ambassador .986-.989 US commercial interests Cocoa trade AID programs French programs 3 Phillips Petroleum problem Houphouet-Boigny 2Notre Dame de la PaiF2 Local politics Secretary Schult4 visit US trade fairs Embassy problems Environment 2Regional2 staff National Defense University (NDU) .989-.99. State Department - FSI - Director of Center for Study of .99.-.992 Foreign Affairs Organi4ation and operations Seminars Retirement Freedom of Information USIA speaking tour Books on India and Pakistan-US relations INTERVIEW Q: I would like to make clear at the beginning of the interview that people need to read your book, "India and the (nited States, 1941-1991, Estranged Democracies," which was published in 1993, because I do not intend to repeat or ask you ,uestions about material which you have already covered in that book. That book and, presumably, the one which you are writing on (. S. relations with Pakistan should be read in con/unction with this interview. 0et me then start with the usual ,uestions about your background - where you were born and your education. I would also like to know how you became interested and involved in the foreign affairs field. ,UG: I was born in England on August .., .9I.. My father had come there from Austria in the late .920's. He was a stockbroker and shifted from London to New York in .9I2. In .9II my mother crossed the Atlantic to the United States with a little baby--me. So I arrived in New York City and the US in .9II. As a kid, even when I was eight or nine years old, I had already become a news 2freak.2 I was always interested in what was happening in the world, reading newspapers and listening to the radio. I remember the .940 Republican Party convention and listening to 4 the proceedings on the radio. I was then nine years old and was fascinated by it. Then the United States entered 3orld 3ar II in .94., and I followed what was happening throughout the world. I knew that I wanted to be involved in some way in news events-- though not necessarily in foreign affairs. This interest continued. I went to high school in Riverdale, in New York. There were a lot of foreign students there. My father's relatives had come over as refugees from Austria after Hitler took over in .9I8. So I was always around people who were interested in international affairs. I debated in my own mind whether I should get involved in international affairs, domestic politics, or teach history, which was my major. I didn't really resolve this question while I was in college at Lafayette in Pennsylvania. 3hen I graduated in .902, I sent off three different sets of graduate school applications--one for international affairs, one for law schools, and one for further study of history. Then I went into the U. S. Army, as one did in those days. That eFperience really tipped me toward the Foreign Service. For me, personally, the US Army was a good eFperience. I started in the Infantry and ended up in Intelligence. I had been in the ROTC JReserve Officers Training CorpsK, so I was lucky and wasn't a private, but a Second Lieutenant, which made a hell of a difference. Until I joined the Army, I was very much an insulated New Yorker. The Middle 3est was New Bersey, and the Far 3est was Ohio. 3ashington, DC was the Deep South. My universe was pretty circumscribed. The Army miFed you up with people from all over the country and from different sorts of backgrounds. It was good for me. Bust before entering on active duty in the summer of .902, I took the written Foreign Service eFam. I wasn't sure I wanted to join the Service, but felt there was no harm in trying the eFam. A government professor at college, Eugene Parker Chase had worked in the State Department on United Nations affairs and urged me to try. Then I remember an appealing recruiter from the State Department coming around and making the Foreign Service sound alive. In those days, the eFam was a three and a half day ordeal. There were three days of essay questions--three hours in the morning and three hours in the afternoon and then a half day on foreign language. I took the test in the Federal Building in Atlanta, 5A, as I was going to enter the Army in nearby Fort Benning. It was August and very hot. There was no air conditioning. I really suffered as I was not used to Southern style heat. I think that just getting through the ordeal was a major achievement. I can still remember sweat pouring down my arms as I took the eFam. The eFam was given in one of those old schoolrooms, where you shared a combination wooden desk and bench with someone else. There were, maybe, 20 or 20 persons. Some of them dropped out by the time the ordeal was over. It was a pretty rigorous affair, consisting of history, economics and English writing sections. I remember 2boning up2 on economics. The foreign language part was not so difficult. It just involved reading comprehension. I passed the eFam, somewhat to my surprise. 5 As I said, I started off in Ft. Benning J5AK. I was there for three months for basic training. Then I was transferred to California to Camp Roberts as an instructor in the 1th Armored Division. It was also a basic training camp. From there I went to Ft. Riley, ,S, in Banuary or February of .90I where I enrolled in the Intelligence School and was trained as a prisoner of war interrogator. I think that I was on leave in the summer of .90I, before going to ,orea when I came to 3ashington to take the Foreign Service oral eFam. In those days everything was done in 3ashington, and you had to travel there at your own eFpense. That was not too difficult from New York. However, I didn't pass the oral eFam. You either received a pass, a fail, or a 2try again.2 I got the latter. My main recollection of that test was that 3alter McConaughy, later Ambassador in Pakistan and Assistant Secretary for the Far East, was one of the eFaminers. It was given in one of the apartment buildings near the 2Old New State2 building where the State Department used to have offices. Then I went overseas to ,orea, and that really 2tipped me2 towards the Foreign Service, because I discovered new worlds in Bapan and ,orea. I had the opportunity to travel around ,orea a lot because I was in an 2odd ball2 unit--20 or 20 people in a 2prisoner of war2 interrogation platoon. There were four or five officers. A captain, who had more eFperience, was the commanding officer of the platoon. There were three or four second or first lieutenants, like myself, who were in their early 20's. The enlisted men were mostly Bapanese or Chinese Americans. I was very lucky.