The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project AMBASSADOR DOUGLAS MACARTHUR, II Interviewed by: Charles Stuart Kennedy Initial interview date: December 15, 1986 Co yright 1998 ADST TABLE OF CONTENTS Background avy childhood Education Foreign Service Exam Career as a seaman Vancouver, Canada 1935-1937 Duties at first post Social functions of the Foreign Service Training in political reporting aples, ,taly 1937 Visa fraud France 1937-194. Embassy staff French 0ar preparedness 1erman refugees Embassy to 1erman invasion 2oving the French government Black Forest 194.-1948 Detention France 1944-1948 4iberation of Paris Contacts 0ith resistance groups 5.S relations 0ith de 1aulle Rise of NATO 1eneral Eisenho0er Supporting 1eneral 8eygand 9alta conference Russian support of French communist party 1 4iberating concentration camps egotiations 0ith Russians Brussels 1948-1949 Foreign 2inister Henri Spock 8estern European Division 1949-1951 European Defense Community Relations bet0een State and Defense Departments Paris 1951-1953 8orking for 1eneral Eisenho0er 1reece and Turkey 1erman admission to NATO 8orking 0ith SHAPE staff 5.S relations 0ith Russia 1eneral Ridge0ay Organi:ing Secretary Dulles; trips Counselor of the State Department 1953-1956 Duties and responsibilities Four po0er meetings Dealing 0ith 2inister 2olotov =Positive loyalty“ Secretary of State Dulles and Rusk Foreign policy decision making Decoloni:ation Establishing SEATO Austrian treaty Berlin Conference San Francisco summit 1eneva summit of 1955 Sue: Crisis Hungarian revolt 5.S. attitudes to0ards Far East Japan 1956-1961 Appointment and previous experience 0ith Japan Education, Research, and Development Economic situation Japanese import barriers Prime 2inister Kishi egotiating the Treaty of 2utual Cooperation and Security Kishi;s resignation and Eisenho0er;s visit 1eneral 2acArthur;s legacy . Belgium 1961-1965 Political system Belgian colonies Belgium 1961-1965 Decoloni:ation Foreign 2inister Spaak Taking of hostages in Belgian Congo Operation Red Dragon Reactions to hostage rescue operation Role of C,A Congressional Relations 1965-1967 Appointment Dealing 0ith Congress The need for military forces ,sraeli lobby, Chinese lobby Austria 1967-1969 History of Austrian politics European Free Trade Association Ethnic variations Kurt 8aldheim Conclusion Foreign Service as a career INTERVIEW A ote: This transcript 0as not edited by Ambassador 2acArthur.C $: Mr. Ambassador, you come from a distinguished military family. (our father was a career naval officer) your uncle was a preeminent military man of the 20th century) your grandfather was Arthur MacArthur, the boy colonel, later our man in the Phili ines. -hat sort of im act did this have on your early boyhood. 2ACARTH5R: , think avy families are a little bit like those ladies of easy virtueD they follo0 the ships or fleet around, 0herever it happens to be--East Coast, 8est Coast. So at a very young age, 0e got used to different environments, totally different, East Coast, 8est Coast, e0 England, Virginia, 8ashington. , 0ouldnEt say that one develops a 0anderlust, but one develops a curiosity after a 0hile about 0hatEs happening in the outside 0orld. ,n my case, 0hen , 0as about 1. or 13 years old, my father 0as asked to command a ship that took the Secretary of the Navy on a good-0ill tour to Japan, China. Because the 3 Secretary had a boy my age, he 0anted to take the boy along. So my father 0as invited to take myself and my brother. 8hen 0e came to countries like Japan and China, 0here there 0ere all sorts of ceremonial events and important people, 0e 0ere often left in the charge of a vice consul. This made a very deep and lasting impression on me at that age, because they spoke the language of the country, they seemed to kno0 a lot, and sho0ed us and explained all sorts of things to us about the country. that other0ise 0e never 0ould have understood. That 0as 0hen , decided that , 0ould probably like to be a member of the Foreign Service. $: -hen was this tri ta/en. 2ACARTH5R: 19.1. $: (our brother too/ a different course, didn0t he. 2ACARTH5R: 2y brother, yes. He 0ent to Harvard 5niversity, and then he later studied la0. But , came from a long line, as they say, of soldiers and sailors. 2y other grandfather 0as Admiral Bo0man 2cCall, 0ho led the American contingent to the relief of Peking during the Boxer Revolution, and also fought in several 0ars himself. , think perhaps after t0o generations, , 0anted to break a0ay from a purely military background into something else. 9et, , had been taught in my earliest childhood that the first duty of citi:enship is to be prepared to defend oneEs country in the event of need. That 0as 0hy, 0hen , 0as studying for the Foreign Service at 9ale 5niversity, , took an ROTC course. $: I noticed that you ended u with a commission, didn0t you. 2ACARTH5R: 9es. After several years of active service , ended up as a first lieutenant. , 0ould have gone on in the military reserve, but 0hen the 0ar clouds 0ere breaking out in 1938, the State Department issued an order reFuiring all Foreign Service officers 0ho had reserve commissions to resign. They did that, because they 0ere afraid that if 0ar came along, the people 0ith commissions--and there 0ere a number of us 0ho did have reserve commissions from university ROTC days, 0ould be stripped a0ay, and the Foreign Service 0ould be left fairly bare at a critical time. That ruling 0as repealed t0o or three years later, so that one could get reinstated, but , 0as other0ise occupied at that time and never got around to it. $: -ith this thought of going into the Foreign Service, was this a conscious effort as your schooling moved on, to pre are yourself for this. 2ACARTH5R: ,t 0as. , 0ent to the public school system, East Coast, 8est Coast, up and do0n, until , 0as about 14 years old. After my father died in 19.3, my grandmother supported my schooling my last four years at 2ilton Academy, a very excellent school outside of Boston, 0here , 0as considered a GmonsterG because in my class of 45, , think 44 0ent to Harvard, and , 0as the only one that 0as a heathenD , 0ent to 9ale. 4 $: -hat caused you to go to (ale. 2ACARTH5R: 8ell, , really donEt kno0, except that after four years at 2ilton 0ith people, all 0ith Harvard backgrounds, , felt that , had acFuired enough of a Harvard background, and , 0anted to break a0ay a bit. 9ale seemed like a good place to break to, although today it doesnEt seem that itEs very far from Harvard. $: -hat ty e of courses did you ta/e. 2ACARTH5R: , majored in economics and history. $: Had you tal/ed to any peo le, as you moved on, who were involved in the State De artment, to sort of guide you. 2ACARTH5R: No. No. , took the regular courses that , thought 0ould be reFuired. The Foreign Service examination in those days 0as Fuite different. ,Ell have a 0ord to say about that later on in the day. But one kne0 generally the areas that had to be covered. There 0as one additional area that , did not take at 9ale, it 0as not in the undergraduate curriculum, and that 0as international la0. , took a three-month crash course after , graduated in June of 193.. The examination for the Foreign Service 0as in September, and , took a three-month crash course in international la0 and a refresher in economics and 0orld history. $: Did you ac3uire the habit of e4tensive reading on the outside on various sub5ects. 2ACARTH5R: 9es. ,n the courses that , took at 9ale, my professors and instructors kne0 that , 0as headed for the Foreign Service, and , took more than the reFuired number of courses to cover a larger area of study. But , had some excellent courses, one given t0o nights a month, each three hours, by a Russian HmigrH on the Soviet 5nion. Russia, at that point, 0as largely unkno0n to us students, because 0e had no diplomatic relations in the 19.0s and early Thirties. That came only after Roosevelt came in E33. $: -hat languages did you /now. 2ACARTH5R: Every person taking the Foreign Service examination had to take a 0ritten examination in one language, in 0hich he had to be reasonably proficient. But in addition, he had to pass an oral examination administered by the department after passing the overall 0ritten examination. 2y last year at 9ale , had a very nice French instructor in an advanced course in French. This 0as in the days of the Depression and , used to buy him luncheon once a 0eek so that 0e could talk only in French, to get a familiarity 0ith speaking French, because unfortunately, then as no0, foreign languages are taught abysmally badly in the 5nited States. 8hile one could learn to 0rite and read, the fluency to communicate comes only 0ith the practice of speaking. That, except in most advanced courses, you didnEt get. 5 $: 2ow did one go about a lying for the 1oreign Service. (ou graduated from (ale with the thought of going into the Foreign Service, but how did one do this. 2ACARTH5R: ,n those days, there 0as an application form. , had let the Department kno0 that , 0anted to go into the Foreign Service. ,n fact, 1eorgeto0n 5niversity at that time had a School of Foreign Service, 0here a number of people 0ould go for a refresher course, or even a year or so. One made a formal application to take the examination. The examinations 0ere about three and a half days, and it 0as all in 0riting. The subjects included 0orld history, American history, economics, international la0, mathematics, and the language one offered. The examinations 0ere, , think, extremely 0ell designed.