The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project AMBASSADOR JOHN A. MCKESSON, III Interviewed by: Arthur Day Initial interview date: May 7, 1990 Copyright 1998 ADS TABLE OF CONTENTS Background arly life/education in France Navy service in WWII Failed orals because not 'American( enough ntrance into Foreign Service Reykjavik 194,-19.1 Consular 0ork/Deputy Chief of CA mission Work in CA mission 1.S. troops in Iceland Berlin 19.1- conomic officer Berlin before and after the 0ar Crossing to ast Berlin Problems 0ith movement of goods from West to ast Bonn 19.3- Political officer Transition from occupation to independence Impressions of 4erman democracy in 19.3 Saigon 19..-19., Political officer Aftermath of French defeat Peaceful period for country Factional disputes Terrorist activity mergence of Diem as major political figure Impressions of 5ietnamese officials Nature of 0ork Attack on hotel and rescue of Perle 6esta 1 Paris 19.,-1980 Internal political affairs section 4aullist election success 6ilitary mutiny in Algiers Impressions of de 4aulle French reaction to de 4aulle State 1983-1984 Personnel Operations Division National War College :ecutive Secretariat Impressions of Dean Rusk and 4eorge Ball Failure of American leaders to understand Foreign Service Senegal 1984- Deputy Chief of 6ission Impressions of 1.S. Africa policy Senghor and Diouf Dakar 1988-1988 Deputy Chief of 6ission Ambassador 6ercer Cook Dispute over aid Impression of French in Senegal Bureau of African Affairs 1988-19,0 Director for West African Affairs Joe Palmer and David Ne0som Lack of White House interest Dealings 0ith Kissenger Turnaround in relations 0ith 4abon Ambassador to 4abon 19,0-19,3 French interest in 0armer relations Recovery of 4abonese relations after coup and invasion Nature of 0ork as ambassador 1.S. business interests in 4abon Forgery of CIA documents Bongo(s visit to Washington Lack of human touch in American diplomats Conclusion Role of Foreign Service in 1.S. foreign policy 2 INTERVIEW Q: We will want to concentrate in the end on your more senior posts, but perhaps you could begin by giving an account of your entry into the service and on into your first post. 6CK SSON: 6y parents moved to France 0hen I 0as quite young so I had part of my early education in France up to the French baccalaureate and then came back and entered Columbia as a junior and got my AB at 19 and 6A at 20, 0hich 0as a good thing as the 0ar had started and I entered the Navy in 1942 and spent four years in the service. I took the Foreign Service e:am 0hen I 0as still in uniform, passed the 0ritten, and 0as then told at the orals that I did 0ell e:cept that I 0as not American enough, because of my earlier French education. I 0as told that I 0ould not have to take the 0ritten e:am again but could take the oral the ne:t year if I could go out and BAmericaniCeB myself. I 0as not sure 0hat I should do. It 0as the summer of 1948, and I decided to participate in the election campaign in Ne0 Dork City against 5ito 6arcantonio, 0ho 0as a very left-0ing member in the 1. S. Congress in those days. Then I 0ent out to Akron, Ohio 0here I got a job 0ith the 4oodyear Tire and Rubber Company, studied American history, came back a year later, passed the orals and entered the service in 194,. Q: Was your first post in Berlin) 6CK SSON: 6y first post 0as in Reykjavik, Iceland 0hich turned out to be a very interesting assignment. I did consular 0ork there to begin 0ith. Then the 6arshall Plan 0as started. An CA mission 0as set up in every country in Western urope, including Iceland. As it 0as such a small country they named the minister, 0ho 0as the head of the legation there, as the head of the CA mission, and he needed only one assistant. I happened to be chosen, and I became the deputy chief of the CA mission, the information officer, the finance officer, etc. I 0ould go back and forth to Paris about every other month during the rest of my tour in Iceland for the various meetings Eprogram, information, finance...F. I even attended t0o or three chiefs of mission meetings 0hen the minister 0as too busy 0ith his other responsibilities to go to Paris for CA. I 0ould sit at the table, as a brand-ne0 FSO, 0ith people like David Bruce, Gellerbach, Hoffman and Harriman. They 0ere all, I think, as amused as I 0as. Q: hat was before Iceland became so much involved in the American defense perimeter) 6CK SSON: Iceland, of course, had become very important during World War II 0hen first the British sent troops there, and then 0e did. We had troops there all during the 0ar. We pulled them all out at the end of the 0ar, but then they came back 0ith NATO. During the 0ar 0e had as many troops as there 0ere male Icelanders so that did cause some problems. We tried to keep our troops totally on the base, a0ay from Reykjavik, so they 0ould not disrupt the local community too much. 3 Q: You went from there to Berlin) 6CK SSON: From Iceland I 0ent back to Washington briefly in the Director 4eneralHs office, then I got into the 4erman area training program 0here I spent some time in Washington and 6iddlebury College, and then I had a full academic year of 4erman studies at Columbia. Follo0ing that I 0as assigned to Berlin for three years and then Bonn for t0o years. Q: 1951) 6CK SSON: 19.1 I 0ent to Berlin. Q: hings were still ,uite primitive then) 6CK SSON: 5ery primitive. I had been to Berlin in H3, as a child. 6y parents had taken me there, and I still had recollections of a city that 0as thriving, full of energy, and storm troopers marching in the streets, shiny cars all over, great activity. Of course the Berlin I sa0 0hen I got there in H.1 0as a totally dead city, block after block had been laid completely to rubble. Dou might have one or t0o houses standing in the 0hole block, and the rest 0ere all in ruins. The streets 0ere virtually empty. The fe0 of us 0ho had cars could park any0here because there 0as no traffic. Q: You could cross to the east without trouble) 6CK SSON: Diplomats could go to ast Berlin 0ith no problem. I even got to LeipCig for the fair there on one occasion. Berlin 0as beginning to pick up by 19.1. The spirit of the Berliners 0as amaCing. There 0as a great esprit de corps among the Allies and the Berliners, more than at any of my other posts. The French, the Americans, the British, along 0ith the West Berliners, 0e 0ere all, in a sense, behind the Iron Curtain together. Q: What was your assignment there) 6CK SSON: I 0as doing economic 0ork. Part of the time I 0as in commercial 0ork, reporting trying to help local firms that 0ere setting themselves up in West Berlin. I 0as also involved in ast-West trade. That 0as the only occasion 0hen I got involved in the Cold War. This 0as after the blockade, and it looked for a 0hile as if the Russians might be starting trouble again. The Soviets and the ast 4ermans began refusing to give permits for goods moving bet0een Berlin and the West. There 0as a document called a Wahrenbegleitschein and they 0ould approve some and disapprove some. The number they approved and disapproved varied from month to month. It 0as a stranglehold on the city, reducing supplies 0hile at the same time never really cutting it off. The situation never reached a dramatic stage threatening 0ar, but it 0as causing real problems. Q: At that point, I suppose, the -erman government, such that it was, in Bonn, the nascent government, really played no real role in Berlin at all. 4 6CK SSON: No, not at all. Of course it 0as very interested in it, but it 0as strictly the three Western Allies running the sho0 in the West. The fiction of a quadripartite Berlin had already broken do0n 0ith the Soviets running ast Berlin. Q: Did you have much contact with the American military) 6CK SSON: No, not much at all. Of course 0e had a military general 0ho 0as the top commandant for our sector, then Cecil Lyon 0as the senior civilian as his deputy. Q: hen you went on to Bonn in 195.) 6CK SSON: I 0ent on to Bonn. I 0as transferred to the political section 0here I did the 0ork again mostly on 4erman activities in urope, 0ith the British and French. That 0as one of my only regrets in my many years in 4ermany, that I never really got to 0ork 0ith 4ermansI I 0as mainly 0orking 0ith my British and French colleagues. 6y 0ife and I tried to complement that by going to the theater a lot and meeting 4ermans outside. Q: his period you were there was really the transition from occupation to independence) 6CK SSON: It really 0as, e:actly. Just at that point the High Commission became the embassy and things turned gradually back to normal relations. 4ermany 0as picking up very fast thanks to all the 1. S. help and assistance. Q: /ow did that affect your wor0) Was it essentially the same as it was under the occupation) 6CK SSON: Des, it really did not affect my 0ork at all.