The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project ASSISTANT SECRETARY JULIUS L. KATZ Interviewed by: Charles Stuart Kennedy Initial interview date: May 12, 1995 Copyright 1998 ADST TABLE OF CONTENTS Background Born and raised in Ne York City U.S. Army, World War II (eorge Washington University State Department - EU, 1.50-1.12 Eastern Europe - Communist bloc Soviet e4ploitation 5end-5ease negotiations ith Soviets Iron curtain realities Tito and Yugoslavia 6migr7 communities in the U.S. Hungarian revolution - 1.51 C8ech gold Effect of Bay of Pigs on relations ith East bloc (eorge 9enyan Wilbur Mills ,elations ith Poland State Department - Economic Bureau 1.12-1.7. Deputy Director - Office of International Trade 9ennedy ,ound negotiations EFTA and Common Market (ATT Trade issues - agriculture Trade E4pansion Act of 1.12 "Chicken War" UNCTAD conference - 1.15 U.S. - Canada Trade negotiations Congressional interest in trade negotiations Special Trade representative Alliance for Progress 1 Commodity issues - coffee Petroleum issue - 1.72 embargo OPEC negotiations James Akins 9issinger and the Arab Oil embargo Washington Energy Conference - 1.74 French obstructionism Soviet oil Energy Department creation Me4ican relations U.S. goes off gold standard - 1.71 Ni4on's "Ne Economic Program" - 1.71 Foreign government reactions Japan and "Trading ith the Enemy" Act Tokyo ,ound - 1.75-7. Secretary 9issinger's involvement in trade negotiations Common Fund and UNCTAD Andy Young Office of Special Trade ,epresentative Deputy Secretary Warren Christopher State Department's role diminished ,esignation - Private Sector 1.7. Commodity trading company (overnment ,esearch Corporation Canadian negotiations Deputy Director to Special Trade ,epresentative 1.AA Negotiations ith European Community North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTAC Carla Hills Uruguay ,ound - Background Agriculture negotiations - Duad meetings and E.C. (-7 Economic Summit - Houston CommuniEu7 problems (eneva meeting ith E.C. Brussels conference 9ohl - Mitterrand cooperation ,eagan proposal to eliminate agricultural tariffs World commodity problems Negotiations ith E.C. - problems U.S. - E.C. summit meeting - the Hague - 1..1 Dunkel draft report Continued E.C. - U.S. negotiations Ne U.S. administration - effective negotiations 2 "Peace Clause" Blair House meeting - oil seed issue North American Free Trade Agreement 1..0-1..2 "Fast Track" negotiations Me4ico's attitude - background President Salinas initiative Intellectual property issue Consultations ith U.S. sectors Canadian position Environmental issue Energy issue "Tariffication" Provisions of NAFTA ,oss Perot opposition Negotiations ith ,ussians 1.A. (rain shipments (romyko Trade negotiations - 1..0 ,elations ith China 1.7.- ,esumption of Diplomatic ,elations - 1.7A ,ole of U.S. Embassies in negotiations Comments on resolutions and agreements INTERVIEW Q: Today is May 12, 1995. This is an interview with Julius L. Katz, being done on behalf of the Association for Diplomatic Studies, and I'm Charles Stuart Kennedy. I wonder if we could start by at the beginning. Can you tell me when and where you were born, and a little about your family, to begin with, 9ATF: Yes, I as born in Ne York City in 1.25. I lived there until I as 1A. I left then to go to ar. I returned late in December of 1.45 and in September of 1.41, I ent off to attend The (eorge Washington University. Q: -hat was your father, 3 9ATF: My father and mother ere immigrants. They came to the United States, I think in 1.14. Q: A good time to get the hell out of Europe. 9ATF: Just ahead of World War I. They came from an area hich as called Bessarabia, hich at the time as Austro-Hungary and later became Poland and ,ussia, and maybe ,omania, and no maybe Moldova. They lived in a little community that no probably no longer e4ists. I could never find it on a map. Q: -hat did your father do, 9ATF: He as a carpenter to start ith, and then became a milliner, and they ere very much middle class, or orking class. Q: Pretty much the immigrant, wor0ing one's way up. 9ATF: Hery much so. Q: -here did you go to high school, 9ATF: I ent to high school in Brooklyn. I spent most of my youth in Brooklyn. I as born in Manhattan, but then the family moved to Brooklyn hen I as very young. I ent to 5afayette High School and ent to Brooklyn College for one year right after the start of the ar, ith my mind else here, not terribly serious about it, ondering hy I as going at all. I as in a pre-engineering program for hich I as eminently ill-prepared. For some reason, I enrolled in the summer session at the end of the first academic year, and just barely got through that before I entered the army. Q: 1ou went in the army when, 9ATF: In August of 1.42. Q: It was very hard for any man of your age to ta0e anything seriously, when you 0new that the military was going to ta0e over. 9ATF: In fact I had applied earlier, just before I as 1A, for a meteorology program, in the Air Force, and I as about three eeks too young to get into that, so I ended up being drafted, and ent to South Carolina for basic training. I as accepted for ASTP, the college training program, had my bus tickets and orders, and the day before I as to leave those ere canceled and just before Christmas of 1.42 ent on home leave and then reported to Fort Di4 for transport to Europe. I spent t o or three months on top of a hill in Corn all, in England, a aiting the invasion of France. Q: -ere you assigned to a particular unit, 4 9ATF: Infantry. Q: -hat division, 9ATF: Well, I as a replacement. I as in one of the early replacement packages right after D-Day. I think I landed on D plus five and reported to the .0th Infantry Division. Q: -hat was the 90th Infantry, -as that a ... 9ATF: It as a Te4as and Oklahoma division, but I think that as World War I. By World War II, it as really Te4as to the Dakotas. It as basically a Mid est division. And by the time I joined it, I as in the second replacement package, so there ere not very many of the original people left. The unit had been just about decimated hen e got there. My regiment, the 25.th, landed on Utah Beach as a backup regiment for the 4th Infantry Division, and so they ent in on D-Day, and there eren't very many left of them by the time e got there. We fought through the Hedge ,o country of Normandy. We ent through St. 5o, after the massive bombing, and participated in the closing of the Falaise (ap, hich trapped thousands of (erman troops. After the breakthrough of the (erman lines e sped across France, alking and being trucked until e reached the south of Paris. We then ent on to ,ennes. We crossed the Saar ,iver and fought bitterly to maintain a slender foothold over the river, but just as e began to iden our penetration e ere pulled back to go up to the Battle of the Bulge. Q: -ere you with Patton, 9ATF: Yes. Mostly ith the 2rd Army, but there as a time hen e ere ith the 7th Army. We ent up to the Bulge to relieve some units there, and then ultimately crossed into (ermany. Although e mostly raced across (ermany, there ere pockets of resistance and little battles and skirmishes. And then e found ourselves on our ay to attack Pl8en hen the ord came that the ar as over. We had moved into C8echoslovakia. We had stopped just before that to take the surrender of a Pan8er armed division hich as fleeing from the ,ussians, and after e had finished that, e ere moving on to ard Pl8en hen the ar ended. Q: Did you stay, or were you moved out rather 3uic0ly from Europe, 9ATF: No, I stayed there and the Division moved into Camp (rafen ohr, hich as a huge pre ar (erman army camp, and, I believe, still e4ists. I stayed there until just before Christmas. In fact, e ere an4iously a aiting ne s about the ar in the Pacific and some people had begun to be transferred there and I asn't particularly looking for ard to that. But the Division stayed intact and then ere demobili8ed in (ermany, and then got back home right after Christmas. 5 Q: The end of 1945. 9ATF: Yes. Q: Then what happened, 9ATF: By then I had decided that I as interested in the Foreign Service. Q: How did that come about, 9ATF: Well, I guess I as lying in my bunk one night and hearing advertisements on Armed Forces ,adio, AFN. There as an announcement about an e4am for the Foreign Service and I thought, ell, that sounds like it might be interesting. Of course, I had virtually no college at that point. So hen I got back home I ent to the Ne York Public 5ibrary and started going through college catalogs and found three schools that had foreign affairs or foreign service programs. One as 5afayette College, another as (eorgeto n, and the other as (eorge Washington. (eorgeto n just didn't seem rightI I didn't kno hat a Je ish boy from Brooklyn ould be doing at a Jesuit school, hich it turns out as a rong judgment. Q: It's li0e today, President Bill Clinton was a Baptist boy from Ar0ansas, and ended up here too.