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The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project DENNIS L. WILLIAMS Interviewed by: Peter Eicher Initial Interview Date: August 5, 2007 Copyright 2018 ADST TABLE OF CONTENTS Life before the Foreign Service Birth, childhood in Illinois 1946 North Central College, Illinois 1964-1968 Defense Industrial Security program, Department of Defense 1968-1969 U.S. Army 1969-1971 Fort Polk, Louisiana; Fort Holabird, Maryland Army Intelligence training Japanese language Training, Monterey, California Assignment to Camp Zama, near Tokyo, Japan 1972 Military Intelligence Defense Industrial Security program, Department of Defense 1973 Butler University, Indiana Hired by Diplomatic Security (SY), Department of State 1974 Training Special Agent, Washington Field Office 1974-1976 Background investigations Protective security for Deputy Secretary Chuck Robinson Protective security, methods of operating Travels to Australia, Africa Armed courier to Cairo Protective security details: Imelda Marcos UK Foreign Minister Pym Ariel Sharon Yasser Arafat (1980s) Chinese Delegation to U.S. Nancy Kissinger Relationship with the U.S. Secret Service Protective Security at the United Nations General Assembly Detail to China at time of opening of U.S.-China relations 1 Tokyo, Japan, Assistant Regional Security Officer 1976-1978 RSO work in Japan Investigations Embassy protection Fire on the embassy compound Life in Japan Visit by President Jimmy Carter and Zbigniew Brzezinski to Japan Kingston, Jamaica, Regional Security Officer 1978-1981 Ambassador Fred Irving removed from post Serious crime problems Drug problems and relations with the Drug Enforcement Agency Passport and visa fraud investigations Relations with the Michael Manley government Rioting in Kingston Installation of first embassy access security procedures Official visits to the Bahamas and Cayman Islands as RSO Armored vehicles Security violation program – “pink slips” Hurricanes and the RSO role as “embassy hurricane officer” Foreign Service Reserve Officer Unlimited (FSRU) system Department of State, Special Programs and Coordination office, SY 1981 Physical and residential security Increased overseas security threats Lack of coordination with regional bureaus Impediments to developing department guidelines on residential security Department of State, Deputy Director, Office of Protection 1982-1985 Decisions on who gets protection and what type Structure of security details Coordination with RSOs in the field Relations (and tensions) with the Secret Service Establishing the Protective Liaison Division Female agents Relationship with field offices Security protection for: Williamsburg Economic Summit Prince Charles Ferdinand Marcos 1984 Los Angeles Olympics Princess Anne Prince and princess of Japan Protective security procedures Cairo, Egypt, Regional Security Officer 1985-1988 2 Assignment process, family preparations, training Ambassador Nick Veliotes Fire at Williams’s residence Administrative Counselor Nick Baskey Organization and duties of the Regional Security section Relations with Egyptian police Relations with Israeli embassy Incident in which a Marine killed a local guard Marine Security Guards Achille Lauro incident Desertion by a Marine Security Guard U.S. bombing of Libya Police riots Visits by Secretary of State Shultz Terrorist threats to the embassy Terrorist attack in which Williams and others were shot Additional terrorist threat to embassy, NAMRU-3 Family matters Department of State, Director, Office of Professional Development 1988-1990 Creation of a Diplomatic Security training center Federal law enforcement training in Georgia Development of training for Diplomatic Security agents Department of State, Director, Physical Security Programs 1990-1992 Developing standards for embassy construction and protection Effects of downsizing the Foreign Service Master’s degree program Embassy Moscow construction scandal Major changes in the Bureau of Diplomatic Security Armored vehicles Improving perceptions of Diplomatic Security Department of State, Director of International Programs 1992-1995 Service as Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary, 1992 Bureaucratic structure of DS Political appointees Daily bureau operations Assistant Secretary Tony Quainton Head of Protection for President Aristide, Haiti, 1994 Recruiting and training Haitian protection force Recruitment of American protection force Moving Aristide and equipment to Port-au-Prince Establishing security at the Presidential Palace Relations with the U.S. military Impressions of President Aristide 3 Retirement 1995 Paucity of promotions in the Foreign Service Independent consultant 1996 Reemployment by the Inspector General’s Office TDY to Saudi Arabia MVM, Vice President of Government Operations 1997-2000 Security for DC public schools Contracts for security for government programs Unhappiness with private business Independent consultant 2000 Budapest, Class Coordinator, International Law Enforcement Training Center Brussels, NATO, development of new headquarters building Department of State, Office of Security Technology (contract) 2000-2016 Developing remote monitoring for U.S. embassies September 11, 2001 in Costa Rica “Lock and leave posts” Designing and establishing the DS Command Center Teaching at American University INTERVIEW Life before the Foreign Service Q: Today is August 5, 2007. This is Peter Eicher. I’m interviewing Dennis Williams for the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training oral history program. Dennis, say a couple of words. WILLIAMS: Good afternoon, Peter. Thank you for the glass of white wine. Let’s get going. Q: Maybe you can start by saying a few words about where you were born and a little about your background. WILLIAMS: Born September 24, 1946 in a little town in northern Illinois called Freeport, Illinois. It always had to be described as that little city 20 miles west of Rockford, which was the city 100 miles west of Chicago, so 120 miles due west of Chicago almost, very close to Iowa, and a typical small farm town. The town itself was the county hub, a typical small town with maybe 15 to 20,000 people, close knit, and only a small number of schools; one high school, that kind of stuff. My parents were both blue 4 collar workers and I was raised there and stayed there until I went away to college at age 17. Q: When you were growing up did you know or care much about foreign affairs? Did you ever talk about it at the dinner table for example? WILLIAMS: Rarely. Truthfully…rarely. I think one of the hallmarks of the Midwest is almost apathy as to what is going on in other parts of the world. It’s simply not their concern. They were much more concerned about whether the corn was growing and whether or not the drive-in was going to stay open for another season. So no, there was not a great deal of discussion, if any discussion, of foreign affairs, or of foreign politics. I, however, on a personal level had much more of an interest in it primarily from school. I was a voracious reader all of my life, and even more so back then. I didn’t know where I was going to take it, but spent a lot of time reading, all kinds of things, and that continued on into college. However, as I said, there was not a whole lot of discussion in Freeport, Illinois on international politics. Q: Were you actually living on a farm? WILLIAMS: No. My father, by trade was a butcher although eventually he would leave that and join the school board, to be a maintenance guy at one of the schools. My mother was essentially a retail store clerk for a while, but then joined a company called First- McNess, where she took over the mail department and ran that for 20 or 25 years until she retired. She was actually a smart and capable lady. My father, I think, never finished high school but my mother did graduate from high school. So I did come from a blue collar background, where college-level education was unknown. In fact, I was the first person anywhere in the extended family to go to college. Q: Where did you go to college? WILLIAMS: North Central College. It’s about 30 miles outside of Chicago, actually a small Christian college…for small Christians, as we liked to say, actually a very good school. It was a small private college of less than a thousand students distributed among the four classes. At that point it was only an undergraduate school. It was not a graduate level school then, although it is now. It has gotten quite big. In fact, it’s huge in comparison to what it was. It is amazing when I go back now and see it, but it has always been a very good school, and I always felt like I got a very good liberal arts education. I truly believe it provided me the essential foundation for later in life accomplishments and successes. Q: When was this, about 1964? WILLIAMS: Yes, 1964 to 1968. I started out as a science major, because that had been my forte in high school. I’d been very, very strong in sciences and math. Then somewhere in my sophomore year, I realized how much it bored me. It absolutely bored 5 me to death. So while I was pretty good at science and mathematics, they were not something I wanted to do for the rest of my life. The truth of the matter is, I remember standing in the chemistry lab in November 1965, waiting for something to precipitate out of solution. Remember that term? Q: No. WILLIAMS: Trust me, it’s a chemistry term, something to precipitate out of solution. Coagulate, that might be another way of phrasing it. The damn thing wouldn’t precipitate, and it was like 10 degrees outside of Chicago. It was snowing, and I said to myself, “What the hell am I doing here? What am I doing in this lab?” I immediately switched and became a political science major. I said, “I’ve got to find something more interesting than this. I cannot sit here and crunch numbers and play with test tubes. That is not me.” So poli-sci it was.