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George L. West's Oral History

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George L. West's Oral History The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project GEORGE L. WEST Interviewed by: Charles Stuart Kennedy Initial interview date: February 9, 1990 Copyright 1998 A ST TABLE OF CONTENTS Background Early interest in foreign affairs Far East trip ork for Standard Oil of California Assignment in Saudi Arabia Entrance into Foreign Service Assignment in indsor, Ontario Godthab, Greenland 1940-1942 Establishing consulate at Godthab Cryolite mine issue Establishing bases in Greenland Stockholm, S,eden 1942-1943 Problem of travel to S,eden Difficult living conditions Helsinki 1943-194. Peculiar Finnish position in ,ar Situation in Finland 1943 message to break relations ,ith Finland /atyn massacre and continuation of relations Progress of ,ar in Scandinavia ork ,ith Netherlands and Nor,egian delegations Southern European Division 194.-1941 2.S. interests in Bulgaria and 4ugoslavia 2.S. relationship ,ith 4ugoslavia Danube Conference 5ie, of Soviet 2nion at State 6u7embourg 1941-19.0 1 Charg8 Admiral /irk The estern European 2nion Perle 9esta assigned as minister Perle 9esta as ambassador Frankfurt/Bonn 19.0-19.3 Public affairs program 6arge American presence in Frankfurt ork for High Commission Reestablishing the German Foreign Office Problems in dealing ,ith allies Office of estern Europe ( E) 19.4-19.7 Director of Franco-Iberian Affairs Origin of assignment 0orth African Affairs French relationship ,ith Spain 2.S. military relationship ,ith region Appointment as Deputy Director of E Importance of military relationship France and NATO Role in 5ietnamese negotiations at 2.N. Paris 19.7-19.9 Political Counselor Dealing ,ith military issues 9ilitary assistance issues 2.S. relations ,ith Portugal George Ball Conclusion: Inspection Corps French policy and 5ietnam INTERVIEW A0ote: This transcript ,as not edited by 9r. estB ": Mr. West, I wonder if you could give us a little about your bac(ground before we get you into the Foreign Service. EST: ell, I guess start ,ith birth. Born in Seattle in Canuary 1910. I ,as removed to San Francisco ,ith my family during the First orld ar. ent through grammar school 2 in San Francisco. Then ,e moved do,n the peninsula to Burlingame. I ,ent to high school there for a year. And then I ,ent to a preparatory school in 9arin County just north of San Francisco, from ,here I graduated in 1921. 2pon my graduation, my godmother, ,ho gave me a part of a ticket to a, not a ticket, but a... She had been planning on going on a tour of the Far East under the auspices of a man named 2pton Close AD of ashington HallB. She decided not to go and transferred it to me. I had been admitted to Stanford and ,as planning to go there. Then I began to talk to various of my fatherEs friends. 9y father had spent a certain amount of time in the Far East. An apparent opportunity came to go to ,ork for British-American Tobacco in HangFhou, ,hich I e7pected to visit during the course of this trip. ell, I ,ent out on that trip. This ,as summer of E21. And ,e ,ent to Capan and /orea (then Capanese-occupied), 9anchuria, and met the last Emperor there. Then ,e ,ere in Peking for an e7tended stay, because ,e couldnEt continue on to HangFhou by train. There ,as one of the many civil ,ars going on bet,een the various ,arlords, and the bridge ,as out on the 4ello, River. But, fortunately, I had a distant relative ,ho ,as the ,ido, of one of our ministers to Peking. And a colleague of mine on this trip also had a cousin ,ho ,as married to a 9arine language officer. ell, ,e spent the ,inter in Peking, thereabouts, the tour having proceeded by another route out. Finally, ,e did get through to HangFhou. I ,ould say that Peking very definitely stimulated my interest in the Foreign Service. I sa, a lot of the legation people in those days, played polo ,ith them, and just generally became interested. Arriving in HangFhou, it proved that just as the ,ars had prevented going through to HangFhou from Peking, so they had rather upset British-American Tobacco, called BAT (they made a cigarette called Golden BAT). Their plans to gro, tobacco (they felt they could gro, better 5irginia tobacco in the surrounding area there than they could in 5irginia or Rhodesia), but that had gone out. So they paid me for a month of doing nothing much. Then ,e proceeded do,n the 4angtFe, ,ith various stops, to Shanghai. Then, this is spring of E29, I got meningitis and ,as evacuated to Capan. Then I came back and ,ent to Stanford, entering around September or October, E29. I graduated in E33. It happened that the ne7t door neighbor in Burlingame had been acting secretary of State years and years ago, bet,een Hay and Root, and ,as the diplomatic advisor to the 3 Standard Oil Company of California. I ,ent to ,ork for them ,hen I got out of college. At that time they ,ere not giving any Foreign Service e7aminations. ": Because of the Depression. EST: Right. Roosevelt came in on a, ,e forget it, an economy program. 4ouEve talked to some of the old-timers, so you kno, ,hat it did, ho, people had to pay their ,ay to their posts -- the ne, appointees, ,ho had been ,aiting three years, some of them, to get an appointment. At any rate, I ,ent to ,ork for them and ,as put in the Foreign 6and and 6ease Division of the Production Department, the foreign part of ,hich ,as sometimes referred to as the companyEs diplomatic service. Standard Oil of California had been a large domestic producer, but had not gotten too much involved abroad, e7cept for 9e7ico, Columbia, and 5eneFuela, under the Richmond Petroleum Company. But ,hen I ,ent to ,ork, they ,ere trying to get concessions in the Netherlands East Indies by buying up a fe, small fello, oil companies there in Cava. I thought perhaps IEd be going out there, but, actually, before IEd gone to ,ork the company had taken over a Gulf Oil Company concession on Bahrain Island. This ,as a concession that an Australian prospector, named 9ajor Frank Holmes, had gotten in return for drilling a couple of ,ater ,ells for the Sheik of Bahrain. The Gulf geologists gave sort of noncommittal finding of it. Gulf at that time ,as one of five American companies that ,ere in the IraG Petroleum Company. The IraG Petroleum Company had ,hat they called a redline or purple agreement that ,ent around the Arabian Peninsula, including Turkey, ,here it ,as agreed that none of the participating companies ,ould go in on their o,n, that any development should be by the IraG Petroleum Company. ell, on the day I ,ent to ,ork for the company, in Culy of E33, Standard Oil of California signed an agreement ,ith the Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia (,ho ,as then continuing to conGuer most of the Arabian Peninsula) for an oil concession over in the East, El Hassam. The company, after they got a petition sho,ing in Bahrain, the geologists put their heads together and began to ,onder ,here the oil had started from. In those days, Bahrain ,as noted for its pearl fisheries and then they had lots of divers. They used to get fresh ,ater by diving ,ith goat skins off the coast, bringing up fresh ,ater. ell, they figured that the fresh ,ater must come from the mainland. ": There's a big aquifer that runs under there. 4 EST: 4es, and they figured that the oil must have come from the same place. So, ,ith the assistance of Harry Sinjun Richard Philby, ,hom ,eEd put on our payroll, and he had discouraged the British, thatEs a long story in itself, Philby... ": This is not Kim Philby, but his father. EST: ell, at any rate, it turned out I ,as sent to Saudi Arabia to be the assistant to our representative to the Saudi government. Remember, at that time there ,as no American diplomatic or consular representation there at all. ": Where were you assigned. EST: I ,as assigned to Ceddah, ,here the various legations of other countries ,ere. At that time, the co-capitols ,ere at 9ecca and Riyadh. Our geologists, and later our petroleum engineers, ,ere of course ,orking on the other side of the peninsula. So I ,ent out there in the spring of E34, spending over si7 ,eeks in our 6ondon office. Our 6ondon office ,as run by a 9r. 6loyd Hamilton, ,ho had been the primary negotiator of the agreement. He ,as maintained by Standard Oil of California in a 6ondon office on 6ombard Street. And I ,orked there. I might mention that my ne7t door neighbor, ,ho had advised me about the Foreign Service and told me basically that I couldnEt afford it, had put Hamilton on the track of Philby. Philby played Guite a role, at least a negative role, in knocking the British interests off. Philby, himself, is Guite a story. IEd like to get together sometime ,ith some of these people ,ho have ,ritten about /im Philby, like Paul Ignatius, 4oung Ignatius. At any rate, I ,ent out there, and it ,as, of course, a fascinating assignment. I had agreed to go for t,o years. I did Guite ,ell financially, at least considering I came out in the Depression years. But, I returned to the 2nited States as soon as I could in E36, ,ith the idea of preparing for the Foreign Service e7aminations, ,hich I did.
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