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 JOHN H. KELLY Interviewed by: Thomas Stern Initial interview date: December 12, 1994 Copyright 1998 ADST TABLE OF CONTENTS Background Born in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin; raised in Atlanta, Georgia Emory University; Duke University Law School High school teacher Joined Foreign Service in 1964 Adana, Turkey - Vice Consul 1964-1966 General duties Relations with US military Ankara, Turkey - Economic officer 1966-1967 TDY - President Johnson visit to Far East President Johnson's visit to Far East Serving LBJ's needs Duties and rewards Ankara, Turkey - Mutual Security Affairs 1967 Status of Forces Agreements Incherlick military base Dealing with Turkish officialdom US intelligence operations Arab-Israel War (Evacuation/Beirut) - 1967 FSI - Thai language training 1967-1968 Bangkok, Thailand - Political-Military officer 1968-1969 SEATO Laos "invasion" plan US military operations Counter-insurgency efforts 1 Songkhla, Thailand - Principal officer 1969-1971 Communist-led insurgencies US presence in South Thailand Environment Armed Forces Staff College - Norfolk, Virginia 1971-1972 State Department - INR - Office of Strategic Affairs 1972-1973 SALT Duties and issues Bangkok, Thailand - TDY 1973 Department of Defense - Exchange officer 1973-1974 SEATO-Thailand James Schlesinger (Secretary of Defense) Kissinger and State vs. DOD Military "politics" State Department - Political-Military Affairs 1974 SALT negotiations State Department - Special Assistant to Counselor 1974-1976 Counselor Helmut Sonnenfeldt Kissinger SALT I and II Dr. Edward Teller Note-taking "Back channeling" Nuclear Proliferation Treaty (NPT) speech-writing for Kissinger Paris, France - Political-Military officer 1976-1980 Arms control Relations with French military Public speaking NATO and France AWACs French Air Show D'Estaing's disarmament speech Terrorism State Department - Executive Secretariat 1980-1981 President Carter's European visit Foreign Travels (escort) 2 Operations and duties Reagan's assassination attempt Georgetown University 1981-1982 Una Chapman Cox Foundation fellow National security decision-making study State Department - Deputy Assistant Secretary, Public Affairs 1982 Duties and operations Relations with geographic bureaus Historians office State Department - Deputy Assistant Secretary, European Affairs 1982-1985 Meeting Prime Minister Thatcher Foreign meetings and travel The "Pasta War" KAL 003 crisis Arms control negotiations Richard Perle Personnel issues ”Stars Wars” issue Cyprus Office of Policy and Opinion Analysis Public speaking engagements Ambassador to Beirut, Lebanon 1986-1988 Briefings Hostages (a release) Contacts with warring factions Tasks and objectives Lebanese concept of U.S. role U.S. policy confusion Iran -contra Oliver North Kidnappings Hezballah operations “Back-channeling” Secretary of State Shultz’s anger MC Farlane Threats of dismissal “Admonishment” Conflict with Shultz “Ambushed” Bargaining with kidnappers Security 3 Israeli flights Shellings Need for Beirut Embassy Relations with regional U.S. embassies Lebanese presidential elections Embassy morale Pan Am 103 Medical evacuation State Department- Deputy Director of Policy Planning 1988-1989 State Department- Assistant Secretary, NEA 1989-1991 Staff changes Secretary of State Baker Congressional testimony Duties and obligations Israeli settlements issue Arab-Israel violations Madrid conference Dennis Rass PLO relations Mubarak Iraqi violations Ambassador April Glaspie and Saddam Hussein Iraq attacks Kuwait Post-way sanctions Briefing Congress Oil pipeline to Turkey shut Negotiating with allies and others “Arabists” views Kurdish issues Kuwait’s oil fires U.S. objectives in Gulf war Security Assistance Programs Pakistan-India problems Afghanistan war Saudi Arabia Islamic extremism Lebanon policy Hostages policy Ambassador to Finland 1991-1993 Duties and routine Issues 4 Retirement – 1993 INTERVIEW Q: First of all, please accept my thanks, on behalf of the Association for Diplomatic Studies, for giving us the time necessary to conduct this series of interviews. I am sure that your history will be a valuable addition to the Oral History Collection. Let me begin by asking you to tell us a little about your background and your pre-Foreign Service life. KELLY: I was born in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin in 1939. After WW II, my family settled in Atlanta, where I grew up and I consider that to be my home. I went through primary and secondary school there and graduated from Emory University which is also in Atlanta. I majored in history and took some courses in political science, English and Russian literature, but no international affairs. After college, I went to Duke University Law School, but left that institution after one semester to become a high school teacher. I did continue my studies to some extent by taking some courses at Duke on the Asian subcontinent--India and Pakistan. At that stage of life, I was not really certain what I wanted to do. In my teens, I had given a fleeting thought of attending the Georgetown School of Foreign Service, but I didn't pursue that for very long. One day in 1963, I received a form letter from the American Historical Association, announcing that the Foreign Service examination was being given and that if any one was interested, they could fill out a card that was enclosed with the letter. The Association had been requested to send this advertisement to its younger members. In 1963, I didn't know much about careers in the international field. I had had some interest in the subject matter, partly at least as consequence of being a member of a family that held vigorous discussions over the dinner table on all sorts of subjects including international affairs. My father had been in the Navy during WW II; one of my grandfathers had spent considerable time overseas as a member of the US Army. I had always thought that the Foreign Service was reserved for Ivy Leaguers, who had been raised overseas, knew many languages and had independent incomes--a notion that I think many Americans shared at the time. When the AAH's flyer arrived, I talked to my wife. She had two uncles who were career officers with the Central Intelligence Agency. Both were serving overseas at the time. So she had become quite familiar with talk of living overseas and was intrigued by the idea of doing that. I put the application card on my desk with full expectation that I would fill it in and return it to addressee. A couple of weeks later--on a Sunday--, my wife asked me whether I had sent the card in; I admitted that I had not done so and when I looked at it again, I saw that it was due in Washington the following day. I immediately drove to the main post office in Danville, VA and banged on the back door. When someone stuck their head out, I told him that I had to get that card to Washington by the next day and wanted to send a special delivery. After much grumbling, the fellow obliged and sent the application. 5 Apparently, the card arrived in time because three months later I took the written examination in Chicago, IL. We had moved to Niles, MI to teach high school there and Chicago was the closest examination point. The written examination, which I took in September, 1993, took one full day. I passed it and a few months later I was invited to go to Chicago to take the oral examination--on March 21, 1964. During the evening before exam day, a blizzard had broken out. I started towards Chicago and after three hours, I had gone fifteen miles. In fact, I became stuck in a snow drift in South Bend, IN. I called the US Customs House in Chicago where the exams were being given. I told one of the examiners of my predicament and said that I thought I could not arrive at the appointed hour. He very kindly said that if I could make to Chicago at any time that day, they would try to fit me in. I abandoned the car and took the South Shore Railroad which took me to Chicago. I finally showed up at the US Customs building, sometime late in the afternoon. The three examiners, after completing one of their interviews, asked me whether I wanted to join them in a cup of coffee. I did that, and then returned to the examination room where I was interviewed for just an hour--I guess I must have been the last of the day. It didn't dawn on me until later that the coffee session had become in fact part of the examination. In any case, I passed the oral examination as well. I can still remember that the chairman of the examining board was John Hay, who, I think, was the grandson of one of our distinguished Secretaries of State and who ultimately became Consul-General in Strasbourg and had some other similar assignments. The only thing I remember about the other two members of the panel was that their last names also started with the letter "H". I remember clearly what we discussed. There were a lot of questions on economic issues, such as the structure of steel production, vertical and horizontal integration of industries. There were questions about the proper conduct of a Cultural Attaché in an embassy such as Cairo if confronted by a virulent Arab nationalist who accused you of representing a bankrupt cultural society. How would such an American official point to US leadership in the arts? There was also a question about the origins of the Panama Canal Treaty and the "Roosevelt corollary" to the Monroe Doctrine. I was very happy with that line of questioning because I had just been teaching about those Latin American issues. There were a number of questions that I could answer rather easily because I had been religiously reading The New York Times and TIME magazine during the previous year.