Library of Congress Interview with Terence A. Todman The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project AMBASSADOR TERENCE A. TODMAN Interviewed by: Michael Krenn Initial interview date: June 13, 1995 Copyright 1998 ADST This is an interview being conducted with Ambassador Terence A. Todman. The interview is being conducted by Michael Krenn. The date is June 13. 1995, and the interview is being held in Mr. Todman's residence in Tampa, FL. Q: Ambassador Todman, let's start out with some of your background: where you were born,, your parents, education and so forth. If you could give us sort of a thumbnail sketch of your background prior to your service in the State Department. TODMAN: Sure. I was born in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands in 1926; that goes back quite a bit now. My mother worked as a laundress and as a house maid. My father was a grocery clerk, general groceries and also worked occasionally as a stevedore. St. Thomas was a large shipping port and so we had ships of all the nation coming in there. This gave a certain cosmopolitan sense to growing up in the islands. Right from boyhood I was accustomed to the idea of people of different nationalities being around. Tourism was just then getting started, but it was mostly ships that were coming in there for coal. St. Thomas was a coaling station. And, so, we had the exposure to that: goods and peoples from other countries. Interview with Terence A. Todman http://www.loc.gov/item/mfdipbib001183 Library of Congress Growing up was the usual thing. I started our early in kindergarten and learned to read very early, so that by the time that I got to the other grades I was doing pretty well. I had a very strong religious aspect to my upbringing also. In fact, the kindergarten I went to was run by a minister, so I got, as well as the education in reading, writing and arithmetic, a lot about the Bible and about Christianity as a whole. I was very, very fortunate in high school to be exposed to a teacher, J. Antonia Jarvis, who had a very international sense, a view of the world. And so we found ourselves doing studies on different countries, obviously at a high school level, but nevertheless you got exposed to the fact that there were other places, other people, other things happening. So, with the movement of people in and out and with that kind of intellectual academic preparation, it made for a consciousness of a world outside and of the need to deal with other people. I graduated from Charlotte Amalia High School, second in the class, salutatorian, and went on from there to the Polytechnic Institute of Puerto Rico in San German. There was no university in the Virgin Islands at that time, so if you wanted to get a higher education you had to go away. So, I went to the Polytechnic Institute. Interestingly enough, that was being run by the Presbyterians, so I got a very heavy dose of the Christian side of things. As I recall, we had chapel three days a week, plus compulsory on Sundays. You had to take a course in Old Testament, a full semester, and a full semester of New Testament, and then one elective. I took Comparative religions. There again, living with another set of people, although I'd been exposed to Hispanics, from the large numbers of Puerto Ricans and Dominicans in St. Thomas, nevertheless, here I was living in the midst of a different group. So again, there was an exposure to a totally different culture and set of people. And then while at the University I got “greetings” from “Uncle Sam,” who asked me to come and serve. So, I was drafted. I went into the Army and served a couple of years in Puerto Rico and decided to take the Army Officers' Exam. My commanding officer led me to believe that if he could be an officer then surely I could be one. And so I took the Exam, and I passed, and I went to the Army Infantry School at Fort Benning, Georgia. And after Interview with Terence A. Todman http://www.loc.gov/item/mfdipbib001183 Library of Congress that then I went to Aberdeen Proving Ground, the Ordnance School, and specialized in ordnance, and then served in Japan. I think that it's the experience in Japan that probably led to what I did afterwards. I learned to speak Japanese, and was responsible for a small district. We were supervising the first elections ever held in Japan, which were for school boards and encouraging people to vote, telling them what it was all about, telling them they had a right to do this. But, going around and living among the Japanese and spending a lot of time with them, I was appalled at the strange, false ideas that they had of Americans, totally removed from reality. And then back on the base, dealing with my fellow Americans, who didn't go around didn't know much about the Japanese, it was amazing to get all sorts of erroneous, totally ridiculous views of what the Japanese were like. And I found myself serving as very much of a bridge between the Japanese and the Americans, just explaining, trying to correct misconceptions from one side to the other. It became very obvious to me that there was a great need for that kind of a thing to be done. And I think that's where the idea of the Foreign Service was really born. Well, in the Army, after I had completed four years, I was offered the opportunity to go to Japanese language school in Monterey, provided I would agree to serve two years after the completion of the school, at least two years more. The school was two years, and I had to agree to serve two years more, I did not want to make the Army a career. I had already served four years by that time, that would have been eight guaranteed, and then you go automatically for twenty. And so I said no thanks, and I was allowed to leave the service. I was discharged. I suppose it's the most fortunate thing that happened to me, because the Korean War broke out shortly after I left. And my unit in Japan was picked up and sent in to go fill the breach. And they became cannon fodder. I met with a couple of my fellow officers later, and just about every other person that I asked for had been killed in Korea. We had about a fifty percent loss from my unit. So, I just missed that. But when I got out of the Army it was a question then of getting to work, and so I went back to the university, the Polytechnic Institute of Puerto Rico, and finished, got my bachelors degree, summa cum laude. And went on from there to graduate school in public Interview with Terence A. Todman http://www.loc.gov/item/mfdipbib001183 Library of Congress administration, because I was still thinking of public service. I was not quite sure on the diplomatic side. Q: And that was at Syracuse? TODMAN: At Syracuse, yes, Maxwell School. After I got a degree from there, I passed the Federal Entry Exam and got some very good offers. The OMB, the Bureau of the Budget, the Office of Personnel Management, the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the State Department. And the State Department was sort of what I had been thinking about, so once I got that opportunity I entered the State Department. And then the following year, I passed the Foreign Service Examination, but I had already started working by that time. So, that's how it all started. Q: And that would have been? TODMAN: 1952. Q: And then the following year you took the Foreign Service Exam. TODMAN: Yes, but I started working before that, based on the Federal level entry exam, because that was an exam given for all the Federal government. Q: I read in one of the brief biographical sketches of yourself that you did some government work in the Virgin Islands. TODMAN: Yes, during the summertime. I was assistant to the Director of Personnel, during the summer while I was still in the University. Q: Was that before or...? TODMAN: That was a little before, because that was while I was at the university in Puerto Rico. That was before the Maxwell School. Interview with Terence A. Todman http://www.loc.gov/item/mfdipbib001183 Library of Congress Q: In terms of the State Department, did you in 1952, 1953, did you know at that time, with a certainty that this is what I want my career to be? TODMAN: Yes, yes. That's why I selected that out of four offers. And I took an enormous amount of flak from the Director of the Office of Indian Affairs, because he was very upset. And he said that with all the problems we have here in the United States, he couldn't understand why I would want to be going to work on international affairs, dealing with foreigners, instead of helping to do something about American problems. He was very, very serious about it. Getting into the State Department is something that, I think it's worth saying a word about, because although I had passed the exams and I was told that I was in, the day that I reported for work, the Chief of Personnel said, “He's was very sorry but State couldn't hire me.” When I asked, “What was he talking about? I had turned down everything to come to do this and I had been told that I was accepted.