The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project JOHN J. HELBLE Interviewed by: Thomas F. Conlon Initial interview date: April 5, 1996 Copyright 2018 ADST TABLE OF CONTENTS Background Born and raised in Wisconsin University of Wisconsin Entered Foreign Service in 1956 State Department - Passport Office 1956 Adjudicator duties State Department - FSI - Spanish language 1956 Puerto La Cruz, Venezuela 1957-1959 Background of Mrs. Joan Helble Consular duties U.S. interests - oil industry Environment Perez Jimenez overthrow "Rescue at sea" State Department - FSI - Vietnamese language training 1959-1960 Saigon, Vietnam - political officer 1960-1961 Duties Kong Le Press relations Diem coup d'état - 1960 Colonel Nguyen chanh Thi - coup leader William Colby Vice President Johnson visit Hue, Vietnam - consul 1961-1964 AID (USOM) American community 1 Environment Ngo dinh Can Political "listening post" Visitors Father Luan MAAG Travel experiences ACIA Security Strategic Hamlet Program Catholics vs. non-Catholic communities Montagnards Home leave consultations Family tragedy Buddhists demonstrations (and "Bonzes") U.S. misconceptions Martial law "White Paper" story Diem ousted by military - 1963 Ngo dinh Can execution Dang Sy's execution North Vietnam army units south of DMZ MACV (Military Assistance Command Vietnam) General Westmorland "U.S. forces on the ground" issue University of Chicago - Fellowship grant 1964-1965 Professor Hans Morgenthau Department of State - Vietnam Working Group 1965-1967 Internal political developments Staff ARVN split General Thi Working conditions Visits to Vietnam Duties - speaking engagements Lake Geneva (Wisconsin) meeting Anti-Vietnam involvement sentiment in U.S. General Ed Lansdale President Johnson meeting with President Thien and Prime Minister Ky in Hawaii Department of State - Personnel 1967-1968 Career planning at 750-5 level 2 Richard Holbrooke Tony Lake State Department - FSI - Indonesian language training 1968-1969 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - political officer 1969-1973 Political situation Chinese riots Tunku Abdul Rahman Vice President Agnew visit Ambassador Jack Lydman Environment Household and family "crises" Saigon, Vietnam - TDY - political officer 1973 International Commission for Control and Supervision Duties Logistical support requirements Paris Agreement provisions State Department - special assistant to Assistant Secretary 1973-1976 for East Asia Grievances Ambassadorial nominations MacGodley Assistant Secretary Roger Ingersall Dealing with Ambassadors Phil Habib SS Mayaguez seizure Ambassador John Gunther Dean Ambassador Graham Martin vendetta Moose-Meissner Vietnam report Congressional Vietnam visit Phnom Penh falls Saigon embassy evacuation Laos situation Vientiane visit Thailand situation North Atlantic Council East Asia briefing State Department - country directory for Thailand and Burma 1976-1977 China opening issue Drugs Richard Holbrooke 3 White House Narcotics Policy group Aircraft to Burma issue State Department - Inspector General's Office 1977-1979 FOIA inspection Country inspections Inspection issues Jonestown (Guyana) massacre Personalities Dacca, Bangladesh - DCM 1979-1982 Ambassador David Schneider Environment Religion U.S. interests Local problems Partial embassy evacuation American Club President Zia al-Haq assassination Honolulu - political advisor - CINCPAC 1982-1985 Issues and duties Soviet interests U.S. military presence Philippine bases Travels Admiral Long Admiral Crowe New Zealand and "nuclear free zone" issue Observations INTERVIEW Q: Today is April 5, 1996. This is an interview with retired Foreign Service Officer John J. Helble on behalf of the Foreign Affairs Oral History Program. I am Thomas F. Conlon. John, could you begin, as we usually do, with something about your background- -where and when you were born, where you went to school, how you got interested in the Foreign Service, and so on. HELBLE: I was born on August 4, 1934, in Appleton, Wisconsin. I spent my childhood and school days there and graduated in 1952 from Appleton High School. I went on to the University of Wisconsin in the fall of 1952 and did a two-year program of integrated 4 liberal studies under a project that they had at the University at that time. Then I followed a major in international relations. I became interested in the Foreign Service as a result of my father's influence. He was a public servant during his entire life and had a deep interest in government. He was interested in foreign affairs and, to the extent that his means permitted, he liked to travel abroad and read extensively about it. He frequently talked about his experiences and shared his knowledge with me on foreign affairs. So when I started on my major in my junior year at the University of Wisconsin, I undertook to focus on the potential of the Foreign Service--despite considerable concern from a number of my professors, who thought that my grades would not make it possible for me to enter the Foreign Service. Q: John, what year was this? HELBLE: It was 1954-1955. My professors generally thought that, in view of my performance during my first two years, I would not be successful in passing the Foreign Service exam. However, I persisted. I took the Foreign Service written exam as a junior and missed passing it by one point. Q: Did you take it in Madison, Wisconsin? HELBLE: I took it in Madison. I put another year of education into my program and in my senior year I took the written examination again and was successful. I took my oral exam in Chicago in the spring of 1956. I passed it and was accepted into the Foreign Service in August, 1956. Q: Do you remember anything about the Foreign Service written exam? Was it still the three- day exam or had it been reduced to one day by then? HELBLE: It was a one-day exam at that point. I do not recall a great deal about that exam, except that there were areas in which I had very little knowledge to share in answering the questions. I don't really recall many of the specific questions. I recall a little bit about my oral exam, which was conducted by a panel of three. Q: Who was the chairman of it--do you remember? HELBLE: No, I do not remember. It was a panel of three people from the State Department. There were several other candidates being examined that day. In fact, I believe that there were three candidates, one of whom had a Ph. D. I had not yet received my Bachelor of Arts degree. One of the other candidates was doing his thesis for his Ph. D. Q: Do you recall who it was? Did they ever serve in the Foreign Service with you? 5 HELBLE: No. Neither of the other two candidates was successful in passing the oral examination that day. This puzzled me a great deal, since they knew so much more about the world than I did. However, in any event and for whatever reason I was the only successful candidate of that group of three. I recall one of the questions asked. Fortunately, on the train from Madison to Chicago I read the latest issue of "Newsweek." Some question on economics was asked by one of the examiners which bore directly on an article I had read barely two hours before. So I "lucked out" on that one. I was asked why, since my father had been President of his national fraternity and had been a very devoted fraternity man, I did not join the fraternity at the University of Wisconsin. I said that I had found that the fraternities at Wisconsin were essentially "beer drinking societies." I did not drink beer and had no interest in paying for other people to drink beer, when I wasn't going to participate. So I stayed away from the fraternities. I was immediately asked if I had some problem with alcohol. Was I against drinking? I said no, I didn't have any problem with that. I just didn't want to pay for other people's alcohol when I wasn't drinking. [Laughter] That seemed to satisfy the Oral Board, since they passed me. I spent that summer of 1956 working in a factory. Q: What factory was it? HELBLE: It was a wire factory. Q: So you began your career by "pulling wires"? HELBLE: No, I began in the machine shop courtyard, where there was a large stack of rusty steel I-beams. It was my job to take a wire brush and scrape those I-beams down so that they could be painted. Then I painted them. I was on that job about a week, and my knuckles were all raw and red from rubbing against the rust. Then one day the President of the company came through the courtyard. His son and I had been very close friends when we were growing up. He recognized me immediately and said, "Say, John, didn't you just graduate from the University of Wisconsin?" I said, "Yes, I did." He said, "Then what are you doing down here in the machine shop, scraping I- beams?" I said, "Well, it's where I was assigned, and I'm happy." He didn't say anything but left. An hour later I was summoned to the front office of the factory. The President of the company told me that he wanted me to work with his son, who had just graduated from Dartmouth College, on a project to remedy a problem in their production pipe line, assess what the causes were, and come up with a recommendation. His son was something of a ne'er-do-well. He had been raised in a very wealthy family and did not regard summer employment in his father's factory as the way to spend his time. He was enjoying the brand-new Jaguar which his grandmother had given him for graduation and rarely appeared on the job.