College of Education v University of Hawai‘i at Mänoa 43 Harlan Cleveland Interviewed by Warren Nishimoto (1996) Narrative edited by Hunter McEwan and Warren Nishimoto Harlan Cleveland, political scientist, diplomat, public execu- tive, author of dozens of articles and books, and eighth presi- dent of the University of Hawai‘i, was born in 1918 in New York City. He was the son of Stanley Matthews Cleveland and Marian Phelps Van Buren Cleveland. His father, an Episcopal chaplain, died prematurely in 192. Nursing his father during a long illness had taken a toll on Cleveland’s mother, and the family was recommended to move to a warmer climate. She took Harlan and his siblings to southern Europe where she had spent a part of her childhood—first to the Basse Pyrénées region of France and later to Geneva in Switzerland. Harlan Cleveland’s schooling there gave him a strong foundation in French, and he also picked up some Italian and German. In 191, the family returned to the United States. Cleve- land attended Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts. There, he learned to value the connections between the disci- plines, laying the grounds for his later abilities as a generalist: (UH Photo Archives) “I was always struck with the contrast between a situation in a school or college or university, where all the organization and who had escaped before the outbreak of hostilities. Their job all the power structure, too, is built on disciplines—and the was to determine how to destroy selective pieces of the Ital- communities surrounding it, where everything is organized by ian economy, in some cases by advising the U.S. Air Force on problems.” what they should and should not bomb. After graduation, Cleveland, at age sixteen, was admitted Later, as the Allies gained the upper hand after the inva- to Princeton University. He traveled extensively during summer sion of Sicily, Cleveland traveled to Rome to take up a staff breaks and went to Japan and China in 19 on a study tour. position as assistant to General William O’Dwyer, head of the While in China’s Yangtze Valley, he witnessed some of the Allied Control Commission (ACC) in Italy. His talents as a gen- events leading to World War II, including the Japanese naval eralist and bureaucratic analyst were quickly put to the test in bombardment of Shanghai. calculating the first balance-of-payments estimate for postwar After receiving his bachelor’s degree in 198, Cleveland Italy. Because Cleveland’s work was regarded as a remarkable continued his studies at Oxford University as a Rhodes scholar. accomplishment by his supervisors in Washington, he was, at Oxford provided him with a strong background in Keynesian age 2, appointed to be executive director of the Economic economics. He was active in the Oxford University Labour Section of the ACC. Club and helped organize demonstrations opposing Neville In the early postwar years, Cleveland transferred to the Chamberlain’s policy of appeasement with Germany. United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration His doctoral studies came to an abrupt end with the out- (UNRRA) to continue the work he had been doing for the ACC break of war in Europe, and he returned to Washington to in Italy. In 198, he joined the Economic Cooperation Ad- work as an intern with the National Institute for Public Affairs. ministration, where he first served as director of the China Aid He was not too concerned that he was unable to complete his Program, then developed and managed U.S. aid to East Asia. In doctoral studies as he was not interested at the time in pursuing 192, he became the Washington-based supervisor of the Mar- an academic career: “I thought of myself as a ‘reflective prac- shall Plan for European recovery. titioner.’ That is, a person who would be doing, but thinking Cleveland left Washington in early 19 to become execu- harder about it than most of the doers.” tive editor and later publisher of The Reporter. As a result of his background as a Rhodes scholar, Cleve- In 19, he was appointed dean of the Maxwell School of land secured a paying job in the information division of the Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University. He was Farm Security Administration, a New Deal program designed also professor of political science at the school. to assist poor farmers. However, because the U.S. was in a As dean, he refined his theory that public administration state of war-readiness, much of his work in the FSA involved was informed by the social sciences: “We thought of public ad- the relocation of people displaced by war preparations. ministration as not just how you do the pick-and-shovel work After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Cleveland was assigned in a bureaucracy. I thought of it as a horizontal overlay on the to the “Enemy Branch” of the Board of Economic Warfare. He social sciences.” While at Syracuse he published his first book, was put in charge of the Italian Section, working with a small The Overseas Americans (190): “It developed some theory group of exiles, mainly Jewish intellectuals and businessmen about what was the difference in working abroad and there- 44 Educational Perspectives v Volume 0 v Number 2 fore, what kind of preparation people should have.” violated Lee’s right to due process, an appeal supported by Cleveland was a New York delegate to the 190 Demo- the UH-Mänoa Faculty Senate. Hamilton then announced his cratic National Convention in Los Angeles, and from 191 to resignation and formally left office in May of 198. On April 19 served as Assistant Secretary of State for International Or- 2, 199, the regents named Cleveland to be the university’s ganization Affairs in the President John F. Kennedy and Lyndon eighth president. B. Johnson administrations. Cleveland served during one of the most tumultuous eras Appointed U.S. Ambassador to NATO [North Atlantic of the twentieth century. Across the nation, college students Treaty Organization] by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 19, demonstrated against the Vietnam War and protested societal he continued in that post until the first months of the new Re- injustices such as race and gender discrimination. A unique publican administration under President Richard M. Nixon in culture based on activism, rock music, drugs, and social and 199. intellectual awareness developed. During those years, America Cleveland stepped into the University of Hawai‘i presi- also endured scandals that led to the resignation of its vice dency in the aftermath of a long, bitter dispute between and president and president. The nation’s trust in government and among the university administration, faculty and students re- its leaders were at a nadir. garding the tenure of Oliver Lee, a UH-Mänoa political science Warren Nishimoto conducted eight interviews with Cleve- professor whose strong antiwar views led to the denial of his land in 199 as part of a series of oral histories with former tenure application by the Thomas H. Hamilton administration, University of Hawai‘i presidents. The following edited narrative a decision supported by the UH Board of Regents. Hamilton’s begins at approximately the midway point of the interviews, decision was subsequently appealed on the grounds that it when he assumed the presidency. President Harlan Cleveland (far right) and Vice President Richard Kosaki (second from right) visit Kapi‘olani Community College, 199. (UH Photo Archives) College of Education v University of Hawai‘i at Mänoa 45 Coming to the University of Hawai‘i. Now, one thing happened before that. I was in Wash- What was going on through my mind was that a univer- ington, [D.C.] for a consultation sometime, it must have sity presidency was the one kind of job that I would really been in February. And [Herbert M.] “Monte” Richards and like to tackle because of my professional and academic inter- Monsignor [Charles A.] Kekumano were—I don’t remember est in administration, in how things get done. It seemed to whether Bob [Robert L.] Cushing, who was the chairman of me that being president of a university was the most difficult the Board [of Regents], was in on that or not—were going to form of administration. The staff was not really responsible be in Washington for something. I got word that they would to the so-called boss. A chemistry professor would regard like to meet me. I guess we had dinner together. And I liked himself as much more responsible to the field of chemistry them both very much, and I liked what they said about the nationally than he would as part of the university. An urban university. Well, they mostly described the sort of shape and hospital would be maybe one ratchet more “horizontal,” in size. I hadn’t realized that it [the university] was practically that the faculty there, the doctors, are not even on the payroll the whole of higher education in the state of Hawai‘i, give or of the hospital. They are on the payroll of the third-party pay- take a few small denominational colleges. And it wasn’t for- ers—insurance companies and the like—who pay the tab. So mally a system at that point but it sounded as if it was work- maybe a university wasn’t the ultimate case in “horizontal” ing up to being a state system. They also described that there administration, but it was close enough. And I had already had been a lot of ructions there in connection with Vietnam projected in my thinking, then later projected in The Future and that there were pending cases.