The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project AMBASSADOR PRUDENCE BUSHNELL Interviewed by: Charles Stuart Kennedy Initial interview date: July 21, 2005 Copyright 2008 ADST TABLE OF CONTENTS Background Born in ashington, D.C. of Foreign Service parents Raised in ashington and abroad University of California (Berkeley)* estern College (Ohio)* University of Maryland* Russell Sage College Temporary secretarial ,ork, Embassy Teheran Rabat, Morocco* Secretary, Office of the Economic Counselor ashington, D.C.* .egal Services programs Entered the Foreign in 1901 State Department* Regional Affairs, Africa Bureau 1901 Dakar, Senegal* 1eneral Services and Budget and Fiscal Officer 190121903 President Abdou Diouf Family Environment Relations Mumbai (Bombay), India* Administrative Officer 190321905 Relations Indira 1andhi Environment Union Carbide and the Bophol catastrophe Religious groups Security 6isas State Department* Foreign Service Institute7 Director of 190521909 E8ecutive Development Creating courses of study Foreign Affairs .eadership Seminar Use of contractors Out,ard2bound type courses 1 Secretary of State 1eorge Shult: Dakar Senegal* Deputy Chief of Mission 190921992 Separatist movement Regional responsibilities Senior Seminar 199221993 Course of instruction and comments State Department* Deputy Asst. Secretary, Sub2Sahara Africa 199321995 Congressional interest AID relationship Somalia UN Peace2keeping missions R,anda massacres Evacuation from R,anda Hutu2Tutsi conflict 6atican non2response Peace Accords Burundi Black Caucus interest French Operation Turquoise Refugees US actions in R,anda Organi:ation for African Unity (OAU) .iberia Meeting ,ith ,ar lord Charles Taylor Meeting ,ith ,ar lord Roosevelt Johnson UN Peacekeeping operations omen@s issues HI6AAIDS United States Ambassador to Benya 199521999 President Arap Moi Corruption orld Bank assistance Culture 1overnment USAID omen@s issues Peace Corps Environment Politics Security Al Caeda Embassy car2bombing 2 Full description of Embassy destruction and casualties Call from President Clinton Benya government actions in bombing International media Evacuation of ,ounded Embassy@s dealing ,ith aftermath Memorial Service Treatment of casualties Role of husband Dick .ocal media reactions Secretary Albright visit and recriminations Suspects captured Muslim community Members of al Caeda cell DDisaster touristsE 1etting Embassy running ashington negative responses Further threats Accountability Revie, Board report Re2opening Embassy State Department* FSI* Spanish language training 1999 United States Ambassador to 1uatemala 199922002 Embassy security AID programs President Portillo Human Rights Presidential 1uard Racism Peace Corps 1overnment Mayas Internal conflict Oligarchs Security Implementation of the Peace Accords Elections Alfonso Portillo Congressional delegations US Military Drug running and alien smuggling Embassy programs Me8ico 6ie,s on 1uatemala@s future 3 State Department* FSI7 Dean, .eadership and Management School 200222005 Diplomatic Readiness Initiative Senior Seminar Training for leadership G Tools Focusing on policy issues Influencing people and governments Crisis management Ambassadorial Seminar 6ulnerability to terrorist attacks INTERVIEW Q: This interview with Prudence Bushnell is being done on behalf of the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training and I)m Charles Stuart Kennedy. Today is the 21st of July, 2005. You go by Pru, BUSHNE..7 Hes. Q: All right. Let)s start at the beginning. Could you tell when and where you were born, BUSHNE..7 I ,as born in ashington, DC in 1935. Q: All right. Let)s tal. a bit first on your father)s side, then your mother)s side. /hat do you .now about the family, /hat was the family name, /as it Bushnell, BUSHNE..7 Bushnell, yes. Q: /hat do you .now about the Bushnell)s as bac. a ways, where they come from, BUSHNE..7 They ,ere upright people of Scotch, Irish, Dutch and British decent. My grandmother ,as smart, though not particularly ,ell educated, and very active in the temperance movement, CTU, not to be confused ,ith the ,omen@s movement. Q: The /CT0, the /omen)s Christian Temperance 0nit. BUSHNE..7 That@s right. She had three children. Her husband died young. Q: /hat was he doing, BUSHNE..7 This and that. He ,as a small2time entrepreneur ,ith mainly failing businesses, including a bakery in the Catskills. He also ran a hack for a,hile and ,orked on the railroad. He died at the age of 30. Q: Do you .now if either of your grandparents went to college or not, 3 BUSHNE..7 Neither of them did. 1ram got an eighth2grade education. I@m not sure ,hat kind of education my grandfather got. Q: How about your father, BUSHNE..7 He got a college education. My grandmother made sure of that. My father ,as the youngest of three, and there ,as a t,elve2year difference bet,een him and the ne8t sibling. So, he ,as the apple of her eye, a darling. Q: She sounds li.e a pretty determined lady. BUSHNE..7 Oh yes, she ,as. My father, 1erry Bushnell, graduated from high school in his home to,n, Oneonta, Ne, Hork, and then ,ent to Hart,ick College ,here his mother ,orked as the housemother of a sorority. Fe, jobs ,ere available during the Depression, so he continued his education at Syracuse University and got a Masters in Education and then a Masters in Public Administration. It ,as there that he met my mother, Bernice Duflo G ,ho ,ent by the name of Dufie all her adult life. My motherIs father ,as a first2generation American. His father, a peasant farmer came from Alsace .orraine, ,as enticed to northern Ne, Hork State ,ith tales of fertile land. hat he found ,as mainly sand. Nonetheless, he married and, ,ith his hard ,orking ,ife, supported eight healthy children on subsistence land ,here the cash crop ,as maple syrup. That ,as it. One of those children ,as my grandfather ,hose first ambition ,as to get the heck a,ay from the farm. He only had about four years of education but ,orked hard, like his father, and did ,ell for himself in the village of .o,ville, Ne, Hork. I used to tell the story of his ,ife, my maternal grandmother, to high school girls and ,omen I ,ould meet in rural Benya and 1uatemala as I did the circuit promoting girls@ education. I ,ould relate that Dmy grandmother had to leave school to ,ork ,hen she ,as 11 years old, because her father died and her mother had absolutely no means of putting bread on the table any other ,ay. She met my grandfather and ,orked ,ith him to fulfill a dream of o,ning their o,n shoe store. From the money they made in the shoe store, they sent their only child, my mother, to Syracuse University. There she met my father. He eventually joined the Foreign Service, and she raised four children in various parts of ,orld. Today, my grandmother@s granddaughter is a United States Ambassador.E At this point I ,ould get great applause from my female audience. DStay in school,E I@d admonish, Dor help your girl child finish school G and someday you (or she) may be the ambassador of your country.J That ,ould dra, more applause. Then ,hen I ,ould introduce my husband, ,ho usually traveled in country ,ith me, as the person ,ho helps me, there@d be a standing ovation. For him, not for me. That@s OB. It ,as a ,onderfully American story that ,omen and girls in fara,ay places could directly relate to. Q: /hat was your grandmother doing, BUSHNE..7 One job ,as separating laundry that came from farmers ,ho neither bathed 5 nor changed their clothes very often. They could go through most of a season before sending their clothes to be laundered. She hated that job. Q: There)s an old story about farmers would be sewn into their union suits during the winter. BUSHNE..7 Right. Hears later she talked about ho, that ,as the ,orst job she@d ever had. She also ,orked at a Five and Dime store 22 loved doing that. My grandfather served as Deputy Sheriff, and ,orked on cars before they had enough money to buy the shoe store. Q: For people who read this, you mentioned a Five and Dime store. That was e3uivalent to a /oolworth)s or a Kres.ies, BUSHNE..7 E8actly. Or the Dollar Store today. Q: Yeah. I use to go to a Five and Dime store with nic.els and dimes and get things. BUSHNE..7 Right, because literally it ,as five and dime. Q: Your mother and father met. Your father had gotten these degrees and all, so what happened, BUSHNE..7 ith a degree in public administration from Ma8,ell School, he found ,ork in the Albany, the Ne, Hork State capitol and then ,as persuaded by members of the group he hung out ,ith, other young men, to come to ashington, D.C 22 this ,as 1931. No,, imagine ashington in 1931. It ,as a boon to,n. Franklin Delano Roosevelt had been in for a number of years, and the federal government ,as DtheE place to be. Degrees in public administration ,ere brand ne,. Q: /ell, the New Deal in essence was winding down, but we were gearing up for the war. BUSHNE..7 This ,as a time ,hen public service ,as enormously respected. Q: Oh, absolutely. BUSHNE..7 And, ashington is ,here people ,ent. That@s ,here the jobs ,ere* and that@s ,here the future ,as. Q: This also was a time when the government girl was 3uite an icon, because /ashington had so many young women for the first time and there were jobs opening up. Mainly, you might say the clerical level, but often 3uite a bit of responsibility. The bureaucracy was growing tremendously. BUSHNE..7 E8actly. Mother also got a job in the federal government. She ,as a secretary and then ,as the supervisor of a secretarial pool at OSS (Office of Strategic 5 Services), the fore2runner of the CIA, during orld ar II.