The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project PAUL K. STAHNKE Interviewed by: Thomas J. Dunnigan Initial interview date: June 1, 1994 Copyright 199 ADST TABLE OF CONTENTS Background Germany Hamburg Kiel 1951-1953 Italy Palermo )enice 1953-1954 Refugee Relief Program ,-R Italian Affairs 1955-19.0 -ni0ersity of 1alifornia 19.0-19.1 ,conomic studies 2apan Tokyo 19.1-19.5 ,conomic Officer ,3-I4 Bank ,A 2apanese Affairs 19.5-19.8 Base Negotiations Na0al 7ar 1ollege 19.8-19.9 Somalia 4ogadishu 19.9-1981 ,conomic Officer 1oup Denmark 1openhagen 1981-1984 ,conomic 1ounselor Greenland fisheries 1ongressional Relations 1984-1988 ,conomic legislation 1 France Paris O,1D 1988-1982 Oil shock Thailand Bangkok 1982-1988 ,S1AP AS,AN INTERVIEW Q: This is an interview on behalf of the Oral History Program of the Department of State and of (eorgetown )niversity. The date is June 1, 1994. I will be speaking this morning with Paul Stahnke who had a long and interesting career in the Foreign Service. Paul, I would like to begin by asking you what interested you in foreign affairs and in a career in the Foreign Service- STAHNK,: It all began long before I joined the Foreign Ser0ice while I was looking for a subject on which to write a 0ocational theme in my last year in high school. A friend ad0ised me that the school library had some 0ery good books on diplomacy so I checked them out and was particularly influenced by Ambassador 2oseph Grew=s book on Diplomacy as a 1areer. I wrote my essay and became so enamored by >diplomacy? that when a small biography of me was published in the school newspaper it noted that my ambition was to become Ambassador to the 1ourt of St. 2ames in London. 4uch happened in between. I went on to uni0ersity and then the military the Air Force in the 4editerranean theater. 4y interest in the Foreign Ser0ice was renewed by an in0itation to lunch by Ambassador Kirk Athen Ambassador to Italy) at his palatial residence in the PalaCCo Barbarini in Rome - a >family? affair which included se0eral ,mbassy officers and a couple who had just flown in from 1airo. I was impressed by the collegial spirit and by the answers I recei0ed to the many Duestions I raised about life in the Foreign Ser0ice. It seemed to me to be the kind of ad0enturesome life I would like. After my military discharge I continued my studies at the -ni0ersity of 1hicago studying under Euincy 7right=s 1ommittee on International Relations recei0ing an 4A in 1950.. 7hile I was preparing my 4aster=s thesis I missed the Foreign Ser0ice eFam but joined the Foreign Ser0ice anyway as a staff officer. 4y first post was Hamburg in the then British-occupied Cone of Northern Germany as a 0isa security screening officer. This position was distinguished from that of a 0isa officer as being responsible for interpreting the Internal Security Act A4c1arran Act) which had just recently been amended to make it workable. The law reDuired us to determine whether any 0isa applicant had been a >0oluntary? member of the NaCi Party or one of its affiliates. Neither 1ongressional intent or Department instructions ga0e us much guidance on interpreting >0oluntary? 0ersus >in0oluntary? membership. 7e were thus faced with an interesting challenge which 2 made this position much more interesting than that of a 0isa officer. 1ollecti0ely with officers in similar positions as mine in other 1onsular posts in Germany we in effect wrote the law=s interpretation 0ia submissions of >reDuests for ad0isory opinion? to the Department. 7ith the law now >clarified? we could begin issuing immigrant 0isas to those Germans who were Gin0oluntary members of the NaCi Party and its affiliates.G Shortly before arri0ing in Germany I had heard Gian 1arlo 4enotti=s opera >The 1onsul? in which the 1onsul was 0isible only as a shadow at his closed door to the desperate 0isa applicants in the waiting room. I was determined to be more humane but the eFperience was often 0ery painful such as that with a 0ery normal middle-aged lady who wanted to join her married daughter in the -S. I was forced to declare her ineligible because she had admittedly been a 0oluntary member of the Frauenschaft Athe NaCi Party=s women=s auFiliary). Because no political moti0ation seemed to ha0e been in0ol0ed I ad0ised she ha0e her daughter seek a pri0ate bill which would wai0e the law in her case. 4y most challenging case was that of a distinguished lady professor of theology who had recently escaped from the So0iet Hone. She had also been a member of the Frauenschaft and after the war became a member of the 1ommunist Party. She was able to pro0e to both my and the Department=s satisfaction that she had been an >in0oluntary? member of both. Handling a 0ariety of politically-charged 0isa cases for a year ga0e me an eFcellent insight into the German psyche and prepared me for my neFt assignment as political officer in residence in Kiel. The official title of the position was >Deputy -S Land Obser0er Land Schleswig-Holstein?. The 1onsul General in Hamburg was officially the >Land Obser0er? with two deputies one in Kiel and the other in Hanno0er. The initial intent was for the deputies to be attached to the British Land 1ommissioner=s offices in Kiel and Lower SaFony respecti0ely. Howe0er by 1952 the role of these positions in the >German Occupation? had become a mere formality. Our responsibilities were mainly to report on political de0elopments in our respecti0e areas. Suddenly after just a year in the Foreign Ser0ice I was in effect in charge of my own )ice-1onsulate with a staff car dri0er and representational residence. Although I maintained close and 0ery friendly contact with Brigadier Hume the British Land 1ommissioner for Schleswig-Holstein I was mainly on my own in dealing with the three principal problems in the Land of interest to 7ashington: A1) de0elopments on the political eFtremes - both left and right A2) political and social aspects of the large group of refugees from ,ast Germany and A3) the Danish minority issue. The elections of 1930 in Schleswig-Holstein had pro0ided the NaCis with their first significant political 0ictoryI hence our sensiti0ity to any post-war NaCi re0i0al in that Land. 7hile a few hot head neo-NaCis spent considerable time trying to whip up sentiment for the >good old days? they pro0ed to be an insignificant political element. The 1ommunists of which there were a few were eDually insignificant. Therefore aside 3 from periodically attending some of their meetings and talking with their leaders I had little to report in this area. The refugee issue was much more interesting. The population of Schleswig-Holstein had been approFimately doubled by the post-war influF of refugees mainly from ,ast Prussia and Pomerania areas that had been taken o0er by Poland. 4ost were housed in primiti0e barracks at the outskirts of se0eral cities including Kiel. Our concern was that their natural longing to return to the homeland could become the spark for re0isionist sentiment and more generally incenti0e for political eFtremism. They had a political party the Bund der Heimants0ertriebenen und ,ntrechteten ABH,) which literally translates into >association of persons dri0en from their homes and deri0ed of their rights? clearly an organiCation that needed close watching. The 1hairman of the BH, and member of the lower house of parliament 7aldemar Kraft li0ed two blocks from my residence and I made it a point to establish a personal relationship with him. After I obtained his confidence we spent many hours together discussing BH, objecti0es. He e0entually con0inced me that his public statements were matched by his personal thoughts. He said that he and most members of his party recogniCed that the Polish anneFation was permanent and that they must learn to deal with the new reality. He said it was his ambition to de0elop an atmosphere of trust with the Poles so that the two nationalities could li0e together in peace. 7hile this was not possible so long as ,ast-7est tensions eFisted he wanted to be optimistic for the future - a future he ne0er saw. Although not taking his words at face 0alue I was impressed by his sincerity and lack of sub0ersi0e intent. 4y relationship with Kraft pro0ed to be professionally useful. He refused to talk with our High 1ommission Alater ,mbassy) officers in Frankfurt Alater Bonn) so that to find out his position on issues they had to phone me to reDuest I ask him. By 1952 the Danish minority was becoming a receding issue howe0er with an interesting historical background. Schleswig together with much of 2utland had been taken from the Danes in the late 19th century through one of Bismarck=s little wars. Denmark regained a part after 7orld 7ar I but was disappointed in recei0ing no border adjustment after 7orld 7ar II. So they started a cultural campaign by offering anyone who could pro0e that at least one of his ancestors was Danish periodic food packages a most attracti0e offer to the hungry Germans. The many who Dualified registered their Danish ancestry and became known derisi0ely to other Germans as >Speck Daener? ABacon Danes). As economic conditions in Germany impro0ed Aparticularly after the currency reform of 1950) the food packages became less attracti0e. Therefore during my three years in Kiel the small Danish minority political party and related social organiCation were fighting rearguard actions. In my freDuent contacts with officials in these organiCations I learned one principle of such groups in decline which was to ser0e me also subseDuently when I dealt with the German minority in the Italian north AAlto Adige/Sued Tyrol) - i.e.