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Edward Gibson Lanpher The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project AMBASSADOR EDWARD GIBSON LANPHER Interviewed by: Charles Stuart Kennedy Initial Interview date: June 25, 2002 Copyright 2003 A ST TABLE OF CONTENTS Background Born in Richmond Virginia" Raised in Alexandria Virginia Brown University Entered Foreign Service - 1966 Tel Aviv ,srael - Rotation Officer 1967-1969 Environment Ara. community Six Day /ar Am.assador /alworth Bar.our 0i.erty 1erusalem consulate 2a3a Congressional delegations 0i.reville 2a.on - Political Officer 1969-1971 Biafra war Environment French State Department - Staff Secretariat - 0ine Officer 1971-1973 Functions State Department - Personnel 1973-1975 Counseling duties 7Diversity8 American Political Science Association - Congressional Fellow 1976-1977 Rhodesia Congressional relations 0ondon England - Political Officer 1977-1982 Rhodesia 1 Muga.e Falklands Harare Zim.a.we 1982-1986 Hostages Muga.e Elections /hite settlers USA,D Carter visit A,Ds State Department - Southern Africa Affairs - Director 1986-1989 South Africa sanctions Cu.ans Nami.ia ANC Can.erra Australia - DCM 1989-1991 Relations 0a.or Party Monitoring stations 2ulf /ar Coral Sea work New Zealand Sexism Zim.a.we - Am.assador 1991-1995 Muga.e Somalia Economy Mandel competition A,DS Peace Corps State Department - South Asian Affairs - Deputy Assistant Secretary 1995-1999 ,ndia Pakistan Nuclear programs Sanctions China ,slamic fundamentalism Kashmir Clinton-Sharif meeting Osama bin 0aden U.S. attacks al Qaeda camp 2 U.S. intelligence National Defense University 1999-2000 INTERVIEW ": Today is June 25, 2002. This is an interview with Edward Gibson Lanpher. You go by (Gib.) This is being done on behalf of the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training and I-m Charles Stuart Kennedy. Let-s start at the beginning. Tell me when and where you were born and then we-ll tal. about your family. 0ANPHER: , was born Decem.er 8 19C2 in Richmond Virginia. That is a year and a day after Pearl Har.or. ": /here does the name (Lanpher) come from0 0ANPHER: ,tDs a French Huguenot name. My fatherDs relatives traced it back. They left France for England many years ago and then they were early settlers in Nova Scotia and drifted down the coast of North America and eventually settled in Maine. From there they moved further south over the years. My fatherDs father Henry Staples 0anpher owned granite Euarries at TenantDs Har.or Maine and used to barge FtheG granite paving .locks down FoverG to Brooklyn where he had the contract to pave the streets of Brooklyn around the turn of the last century. My father was born in 1896 in Brooklyn and grew up in New 1ersey where his parents settled. ": Did he go to school0 /hat was he involved in0 0ANPHER: He had a very checkered career. He grew up in Euite a well-to-do family and he and both his brothers went to Brown University in Providence Rhode ,sland. He dropped out in a.out 1916 and went to France with the American Field Service allegedly to drive am.ulances before the U.S. got into the war. He confessed later he drove a lot of ammunition as well. /hen the United States got into the war he came back and , guess through family connections got a commission in the U.S. Navy and became a U.S. Navy pilot in the first world war flying anti-su.marine patrols off the East Coast. ": After the war, what did he do0 0ANPHER: After the war his father died and he inherited a considera.le sum of money. , donDt know how much it was but for those days it was a lot of money may.e H100 000. His mother was then living in Providence and he didnDt like his Providence relatives. They were all conservatives and he was sort of a wild young man. So he took his money and drove to California where he proceeded to lose it over the next 10 years in real estate the Depression and the stock market crash. /ith that he went back to school UC0A and finally got his degree there and went on to get a masterDs and Ph.D. at the 3 University of Chicago. ": /hat field0 0ANPHER: Social work administration. Then he was a professor at 0ouisiana State University. He happened to be teaching at /illiam and MaryDs Richmond campus at the time , was born. After that halfway through /orld /ar ,, he went to work for the Department of 1ustice and retired from there in 1958. ": And your mother-s bac.ground0 0ANPHER: She was born in Scotland in 1910 and immigrated to Canada with her parents when she was a.out 10 years old. Then they moved from Vancouver where they had settled to 0os Angeles and she grew up there. She graduated from UC0A got a masterDs at Berkeley and was working on her Ph.D. at the 0i.rary of Congress when she met my father in the elevator at the 0i.rary of Congress. They were both working on their Ph.D. dissertations. She married my father who was 1C years older than she was. She gave up her Ph.D. and had boys instead. ": /hat was her dissertation on0 0ANPHER: She was a romance language specialist. She was a brilliant linguist spoke five or six languages. ,t was something to do with French , think. ": /as your father moving around or did you stay in the Richmond area0 0ANPHER: My parents moved to /ashington in a.out 19C3 when , was a.out a year and a half old. /e lived first in /ashington and then moved to a house in Alexandria in a.out 19CC or 19C5. , grew up in Alexandria. ": /here did you go to school0 0ANPHER: , started off in school at a very progressive school in Northern Virginia. My parents were among its founders. ,t was called Burgundy Farm Country Day School the first integrated school in Virginia pu.lic or private. , stayed there through grade three and then , switched to pu.lic schools in Alexandria for grades four through eight. Then .ecause of the Euality of the education and , suppose my behavior my parents organi3ed it for me to go off to boarding school starting in 9th grade. ": Let-s tal. about elementary school. /ere there any things you were particularly interested in0 0ANPHER: Ies. , always had an interest in history and biographies of interesting people. /e managed to travel across the country .y car several times and that peaked my interest. , was an early student of American history. Math didnDt do much for me" still doesnDt. 4 ": /hen you were switched over from the country day school to the Ale2andria school, I ta.e it it was 3uite segregated in those days. 0ANPHER: ,t certainly was. And the Euality of pu.lic education in Virginia in the early to mid-J50s was terri.le. Now 50-odd years later Northern Virginia has one of the best pu.lic education systems in the country if not the world. ,n those days Fairfax County was dairy farms. Alexandria was a slow moving segregated southern town. The state and the city didnDt put much money into education. , always remem.er being in sixth grade in a classroom at 2eorge Mason School in Alexandria where there were C6 kids in the class one teacher no teaching assistant. ,t wasnDt a very good education. So when , went off to .oarding school , was ill-prepared. ": /ere you getting a good solid dose of Di2ie in Ale2andria0 /as this a southern school0 0ANPHER: Ies. , had a history teacher in 8th grade. She was from 2eorgia and her ancestors had .een overrun by Sherman. ": My grandfather was an officer with Sherman. 0ANPHER: She and her family had never gotten over it to the point where , was once sent out of the history class for referring to that war as the 7Civil /ar8 as opposed to the 7/ar Between the States.8 ": Here you have two people, one with almost a Ph.D. and the other with a Ph.D. Did you have brothers and sisters0 0ANPHER: , had a half-sister who was a.out 1C years older than , was. She didnDt live at home at least that , recall. She would visit on school vacations. Then , had a younger .rother a.out two and a half years younger than , was. ": /ere there tal.s about world affairs around the table0 0ANPHER: Oh a.solutely. My parents being well educated had a lot of friends around /ashington in the diplomatic service and in the diplomatic corps here in /ashington. They always had close friendships with people in the British em.assy. , learned a lot over the dining room ta.le and my parents always included us in dinners and other social events that theyDd have. , met lots of economists and government workers. ": Did you pic. up the habit as a .id of loo.ing at the newspaper0 0ANPHER: , not only read the newspaper thoroughly but starting at age 9 K and until , went off to boarding school at age 1C , delivered the 7Evening Star.8 , thoroughly read the paper before , delivered it. 5 ": /here did you go off to boarding school0 0ANPHER: , went off to Philips Academy in Andover Massachusetts. ": This is also the home of two of our presidents, including our present one. 0ANPHER: ThatDs right. ": You were at Andover from when to when0 0ANPHER: 1957-1961. ": /hat was Andover li.e at that time0 0ANPHER: /ell it was an all boys school. ,t went co-ed a.out five or eight years after , left. They a.sor.ed A..ott Academy.
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