Fairchild, Albert E
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The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project ALBERT E. FAIRCHILD Interviewed by: Charles Stuart Kennedy Initial Interview Date: January 17, 2012 Copyright 2012 ADST TABLE OF CONTENTS Background Born in Pennsylvania, raised in Pennsylvania and North Carolina University of North Carolina; University of Chicago; Georgetown University Marriage, 1966 Family background Wife’s family background Entered the Foreign Service in 1966 Dakar, Senegal: Central Complement Officer 1967-1969 Publications procurement President Leopold Sedar Senghor Association with France Ambassador William Rifkin Ambassador Lewis Dean Brown Alvin Ailey Dance Company Union Progressiste Senegalaise (Political Party) Mourides French presence Ambassador’s Special Help Fund Islam Vietnam War Environment Joe Cheevers Soviet diplomats Congressional Delegations (CODELs) Consular protection cases Department of State: Staff Assistant, African Bureau 1969 Assistant Secretary of State Joseph Palmer Duties Department of State: Desk Officer; Senegal, Mali and Gambia 1969-1971 President Senghor visit 1 Human Rights UN General Assembly meetings Ambassador’s Self Help Fund Air Mali African American visits to Africa “Negritude” French Embassy Department of State: State Department: Foreign Service Institute (FSI), Farsi 1971-1972 Course of instruction Recent developments in Afghanistan Kabul, Afghanistan: Political Officer 1972-1973 Ambassador Robert Gerhard Neumann Infrastructure Mineral resources Tribal Society Ethnic groups Vendettas Pushtuns Central government Babrak Karmal “Baksheesh” US agriculture and infrastructure aid Opium American “hippies” Dr. Timothy Leary Loya Jirga Political Parties Troubles with Pakistan Helmand River Iranians Soviets Iran Water rights Aid Soviet Union Local travel Government contacts Islam Religious taboos Role of women Royal family Communists International visitors program 2 State Department: Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs 1973-1975 Francophone West Africa Assistant Secretary John Richardson Foreign Francophone African students Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary Assistant Secretary John Richardson Duties Senator Fulbright Henry Kissinger Exchange Program Department of Commerce: Market Research Training 1975 Teheran, Iran: Market Research Officer, US Trade Center 1975-1978 Organizing a Trade Center Wife Family background Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) Staff Jewish community American firms Variety of trade shows Ambassador Richard Helms John Westberg Bribery Doing business in Iran “Good performance bond” Thomas Register The “bazaar” and” bazaaris” Environment Living conditions Shah regime Mujahedin –e-Khalq (MEK) SAVAK Tabriz riots Political climate Universities Ayatollah Khomeini Ashura holiday The Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi European competition President Carter visit (p59) Bangui, Central African Republic: Deputy Chief of Mission 1978-1981 Bill Edmonson 3 Ambassador Goodwin Cooke The French Ambassador Troops Aid program “Emperor” Jean Bedel Bokassa Ritual cannibalism Palace entertainment Official protocol Bishop Oriano Quilici French presence Relationship Human Rights USAID projects Anti-Bokassa coup President David Dacko Relations with French Embassy French aid programs Religious community Muammar Qadhafi Ex-Prime Minister Patasse Tribes Environment Living conditions Diplomatic corps Coup d’état French support Bokassa flees to France Bokassa sentenced to death US interests United Nations issues Peace Corps Medical issues State Department: Deputy Director, Office of Regional Affairs, 1991-1983 Africa Bureau Bureau of State Security (BOSS) Zaire Senator Percy Horn of Africa Libya Foreign visitors French officials Christophe Mitterrand “Constructive Engagement” in Africa South Africa 4 Personnel David Newsom Congressional relations NATO “African experts” Ashraf Ghorbal Mobutu Muammar Qadhafi Chad Aouzou Strip Angola Marxists Cuba Libya’s Gulf of Sidra claim Robert Mugabe American Israel Public Affair s Council (AIPAC) Mengistu Chet Crocker Nelson Mandela Vice President George H. W. Bush Stephen Solarz Howard Wolpe Differing views on South Africa US South Africa policy Southern Africa issues State Department: Bureau of Personnel; Personnel Assignments 1993-1985 “Open assignment system” Bidding Tandem assignments Outside influence in assignments Operations Contesting assignments Niamy, Niger: Deputy Chief of Mission 1985-1987 Ambassador Richard Bogosian Libyan threat Uranium Head of State, General Seyni Kountché Government Embassy personnel Humanitarian issues Sahel Expanding Sahara Tandja Mamadou USAID projects Peace Corps Islam Soviets 5 American community Social life Relations with French Embassy Contacts with government US bombing in Tripoli Niger-French relations UN voting Security Environment Niamey, Benin: Chargé d’affaires 1987 “Minding the store” between ambassadors Joseph Verner Reed visit Government President Mathieu Kerekou State Department: Office of Management Operations 1987-? Foreign Service National Replacement Program “Cleared American Contractor” Special projects Post closings Congressional interest Claiborne Pell Ron Spiers Operations State Department: Bureau of Finance and Management ?-2000 Policy (FMP) Repercussions of collapse of Soviet empire Conference on Security and Cooperation Europe (CSCE) “Limited Career Extension” (Personnel change to Civil Service: Continuing with FMP) National Performance Review Purpose and operations Strategic Planning Process Purpose and operations Performance and Results Act of 1993 (GPRA) State Department: Foreign Service Institute (FSI): Director, 2000-2001 Sub-Sahara African Area Studies program Operations Lecturers Les de Villiers Office of Management and Budget; President’s Management 2001-2004 Agenda (PMA) 6 Office of Management Policy Retirement from the Civil Service 2004 Post-Retirement 2004- Office of Strategic and Performance Planning; Contract Consultant Coordinator for State-USAID Joint Planning Council Ambassador Tom Pickering Comments on State Department organization and function INTERVIEW Q: Today is 17 January 2012. This is an interview with Albert E. Fairchild, and is done on behalf of the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training, and I am Charles Stuart Kennedy. We are doing it on the campus of the Foreign Service Institute. Do you go by Al or Albert or Bert? FAIRCHILD: Well I used to go by Al, but now I am more and more known as Albert. Maybe that’s because of my increasing age, or perhaps because my wife is taking more charge of what people call me and finds Albert more dignified. Q: All right, let’s get started. When and where were you born? FAIRCHILD: I was born in Abington, Pennsylvania on November 1, 1941. We lived in the Philadelphia area until I was about six years old, and then the family moved south to North Carolina. Q: OK, let’s do a little bit of your family. Let’s take the Father’s side, the Fairchild side. What do you know about them? FAIRCHILD: Well, I know they are primarily English and Welsh in origin. My father was from Pennsylvania, the Philadelphia area. His father was an engineer with Westinghouse and had his salary cut in half during the depression, but at least he had a job and some income. My father received a football scholarship to Duke University in the early 1930’s; I guess it was 1932 or 1933. That meant in those days that they gave you a job, in this case waiting on tables in the dining hall. He played a line position, I forget whether it was tackle or guard, on the varsity football team. After graduating and marrying my mother, they moved to the Philadelphia area and my father worked as a metallurgical engineer for companies like Metallurgical Laboratories, the New York Ship Building Corporation. In fact I remember asking him once, “Daddy, what did you do during the war? Which battle were you in?” He said, “I fought the battle of the New York Ship Building Corporation. That is where I was.” He did not volunteer for military service in World War II nor was he drafted. I think his job may have been classified as a special national interest or at least was in a category that exempted him from the draft. 7 Q: Yes, well obviously we had a, particularly with engineers, we had a tremendous production program which was vital to our winning the war. A lot of men were involved in that. FAIRCHILD: My father was always a very pragmatic man, but in later life he became considerably more introspective…as I guess most people do. I remember a conversation we had one evening during one of my visits to my parents after I was an FSO. He noted that ever since he started working professionally he worked on things that killed people. He felt very bad about that, not morose just bad, although I am sure that he felt his work was always in a good cause. He started off working on alloys for torpedo casings and ship hulls. The last thing he worked on was designing and building an assembly line for gold plating the tips of ceramic resistors in a semi- vacuum. The resistors were meant to go into Nike missile guidance systems. Q: OK, on your mother’s side, what about that family? FAIRCHILD: They are a combination of mostly English and some French. In fact the family name Trivette was originally Trevot, and as I recall the first Trevot emigrated from France in the late 17 th or early 18 th Century. My mother was born and raised in Watauga County North Carolina. The nearest town was Boone. Grandfather was a farmer who did a lot of preaching, but he probably would have said he