The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project JOHN W. MCDONALD Interviewed by: Charles Stuart Kennedy Initial interview date: June 5, 1997 Copyright 2 3 ADST TABLE OF CONTENTS Background Born in Ko lenz, Germany of U.S. military parents Raised in military bases throughout U.S. University of Illinois Berlin, Germany - OMGUS - Intern Program 1,4.-1,50 1a2 Committee of Allied Control Council Morgenthau Plan Court system Environment Currency reform Berlin Document Center Transition to State Department Allied High Commission Bonn, Germany - Allied High Commission - Secretariat 1,50-1,52 The French Office of Special Representative for Europe General 6illiam Draper Paris, France - Office of the Special Representative for Europe - Staff Secretary 1,52-1,54 U.S. Regional Organization 7USRO8 Cohn and Schine McCarthyism State Department - Staff Secretariat - Glo al Briefing Officer 1,54-1,55 Her ert Hoover, 9r. 9ohn Foster Dulles International Cooperation Administration 1,55-1,5, E:ecutive Secretary to the Administration Glo al development Area recipients P1480 Point Four programs Anti-communism Africa e:perts African e:-colonies The French 1and Grant College Program Ankara, Turkey -CENTO - U.S. Economic Coordinator 1,5,-1,63 Cooperation programs National tensions Environment Shah of Iran AID program Micro2ave projects Country mem ers Cairo, Egypt - Economic Officer 1,63-1,66 Nasser AID program Soviets Environment Surveillance P1480 agreement As2an Dam Family planning United Ara ic Repu lic 7UAR8 National 6ar College 1,66-1,6. State Department - International Organizations - Bureau of International Affairs 1,6.-1,.4 Deputy office director/office director for Office of Economic and Social Affairs UN specialized agencies UN Population Fund UN volunteers Geneva meeting Peace Corps Disaster Relief Organization UN Environment Program 6omen@s Conference Press International 1a or Organization - Deputy Director General ADetailed by USG) 1,.4-1,.8 6omen@s Bureau and Conference AF1-CIO Organization CRovingD Am assadorial Assignments 1,.8-1,83 Kenya Geneva Group Buenos Aires Conference - 1,.8 Group of .. INTE1SAT Conference - 1,.8 UN treaty on hostages Conference on Aging UN Industrial Development Conference - 1,80 State Department - Board of E:aminers 1,83 6omen@s Conference - Nairo i Maureen Reagan State Department - FSI 1,83-1,8. Complaint panel Programs Pu lications Citizen diplomacy George 6ashington University - Professor of 1a2 1,8.-1,88 Io2a Peace Institute - President 1,88 Grinnell College - 1a2 Professor 1,88-1,,2 George Mason University - Distinguished Eisiting Professor 1,,2 INTERVIEW 7Note: This intervie2 has not been edited by Mr. McDonald8 %: Let's start at the beginning, could you tell me when and where you were born and something about your parents* MCDONA1D: Certainly. First of all, let me say ho2 pleased I am to be a part of this program and am looking for2ard to our interaction in the time ahead. I 2as born in Co lenz, Germany, a product of the First Army of Occupation, on Fe ruary 18, 1,22. My father 2as a Major in the occupation force from 1ouisville, Kentucky, and my mother 2as an American from Brooklyn, Ne2 Gork. They met in Co lenz and married there. I 2as born there. %: How did your mother end up in Coblen,* MCDONA1D: 6ell, that is Huite a story in itself. She 2as a pu lic stenographer in Ne2 Gork City, had her o2n business, and decided 2hen 6orld 6ar I came to an end that she 2anted to be a part of the re uilding process. She 2anted to be a part of the action, I guess. She 2ent to the GMCA, the Goung Men@s Christian Association, in Ne2 Gork City, 2hich 2as recruiting people to go to Co lenz, the center of the First Army of Occupation. They had opened some ne2 offices there. She talked her 2ay into going and got on their payroll as a secretary/pu lic stenographer. 6hile she 2as there, as I remem er the story, she 2ent to a fancy dress ball and she, for some reason, got dressed up as a jockey. And my dad, 2ho 2as a cavalryman, 2ho had been on the Me:ican border fighting Pancho Eilla, and then 2as in the 6orld 6ar I occupation, I guess, fell in love 2ith her at first sight. Here he 2as, a cavalryman in his boots, and there she 2as a jockey, in her boots, and any2ay one thing led to another and they married and I 2as born there. He 2as 46 years in the military, so I 2as 2hat 2e call an Army brat, I moved around 2herever he moved and 2herever they moved. He lived to be ,2 and my mother, ,0, so they 2ere around for Huite a 2hile. %: -hen did your family leave Coblen,* MCDONA1D: At the end of 1,22, I guess I 2as a out si: months old. He 2ent 2ith the military first of all to Fort Riley, Kansas, and then Fort 1eaven2orth, Kansas, to the Army General Staff School. So 2e 2ere in Kansas, I guess, for the ne:t si: or seven years. %: -here did you go to high school* MCDONA1D: 6ell, I 2ent to high school in several different places actually. He 2as assigned to Culver Military Academy, Culver, Indiana, and then 6ashington, DC. I 2ent to Hall 9unior High School in 6ashington, DC. At Fort Bliss, Te:as, I 2ent to t2o years of high school in El Paso. And the last t2o years I 2ent in the Ha2aiian Islands. I graduated from Roosevelt High School on Honolulu, because my father 2as posted there. I graduated in 1,3,. %: So in 1939 you were out o. high school. -here did you go* MCDONA1D: 6ell, from Honolulu my dad 2as posted to the University of Illinois in Champaign-Ur ana, Illinois, as Professor of Military Science and Tactics. I thought I 2as going to Dartmouth, but 2hen he got posted there as professor, it 2as free tuition, so he said, CBoy, you are going to Illinois.D Gou kno2, 2e don@t have the same choice in those days as you do todayI I didn@t apply to ten universities. So I 2ent to the University of Illinois. My sister, 2ho is a year and a half younger than I am, also 2ent there. 6e liked it, so 2e just stayed. My folks moved a year later to Fort Kno:, Kentucky, and other places. I took my undergraduate degree in Political Science at the University of Illinois. 6as out for t2o years and then 2ent ack and got my 1a2 Degree there in 1,46, and 2as admitted to practice la2 and the bar in Decem er 1,46. %: -hen you graduated in 1903, I assume the military got hold o. you* MCDONA1D: No. I had had 2hen I 2as eight years old something called osteomyelitis, 2hich is a bone disease. I 2as declared 4-F because the la2 said any ody 2ith osteomyelitis 2as e:empt, so I 2as very frustrated by that because I had 2anted to follo2 in my father@s footsteps, actually. I had taken ROTC 7Reserve Officer Training Corps8 in high school, I had taken it in college, and I thought I could talk my 2ay into it, but it didn@t 2ork. So I left school and 2ent to 2ork in Chicago in the summer of 1,43 at a defense plant, making ullets for the armed forces. I became a mem er of the Machinists Union, 2hile I 2as there. Then the plant shut do2n in @44, a year or so later, and a doctor said I 2as anemic and needed an outdoor jo so I became a laundry truck driver on the South side and the 6est side of Chicago. I did that for a out a year, a year and a half. That 2as fascinating, actually, because it turns out 2e 2ere the only non-union laundry in Chicago. The Teamsters decided to change that 2hile I 2as there, so everything bad you@ve ever heard a out the Teamsters is true. I lived through it. T2o thirds of my route 2as Black, and one third 2as Polish and it 2as a 100 percent paid by ho2 much business you rought in. Actually, I did very 2ell because I 2as fortunate in that I really didn@t have racial prejudices, having gone to school in El Paso, Te:as, and then in Ha2aii, so I didn@t have the prejudices my fello2 truck drivers had. So my access to the Black community 2as dramatic and I did very 2ell and save up enough money to go back to la2 school. %: -ell, why did you turn to law school* MCDONA1D: 6ell, I decided 2hen I 2as, I guess, a sophomore in high school that I 2anted to e a diplomat. There 2as never any Huestion in my mind that that 2as my goal and that 2as 2here I 2as directed. 6hen I got out from undergraduate school access to the Foreign Service 2as zero, because they 2eren@t taking any people in during those si: or more years during the 2ar period. So I decided the best thing to do 2as to get an advanced degree, 2hich 2ould make me more eligi le, I hoped, for access to the Foreign Service. So that 2as my driving force. I 2asn@t particularly interested in practicing la2I I just 2anted to have that as another tool for my diplomatic career. %: -hat caused you to focus on diplomacy* MCDONA1D: It@s amazing ho2 one talk can make a difference in a life.