The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project MARGARET D. TUTWILER Interviewed by: Charles Stuart Kennedy Initial interview date: May 4, 1999 Copyright 2001 ADST TABLE OF CONTENTS Background Born and raised in Alabama Finch ollege, University of Alabama (New ollege) Foreign travel (ork with Republican Party, Birmingham, Alabama President Nixon (atergate Gridiron dinner (ashington, D , Private Business Bo alloway Alabama , President Ford-s .lection ampaign , Political Advisor 1012,10xx arter and Playboy interview ampaign George H.(. Bush Houston, Texas , Bush Presidential ampaign , PA 1018,10xx 5im Baker Schedule coordination Bush recognition problem Scheduling aucuses Arlington, 6irginia , Bush 6ice Presidential ampaign 7 Scheduler 10xx,1081 Detroit onvention ampaign issues Reagan,Bush relations Problems Ronald Reagan The (hite House , Assistant to hief of Staff Baker 1081,1082 Transition 1 Duties Personalities Press corps dealings Teamwork Protocol President Reagan Press Secretary .d 8eese 8rs. Reagan 9eaks Appointment process (hite House career staff 6ice President-s role George Bush Foreign Press abinet officers 5ames Baker Deputy Assistant to President (Political Affairs) 1082,1085 Reagan 1082 campaign staff Air Force One Treasury Department , Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs and Public Relations 1085,1080 Plaza Accord (G,1) Treasury Secretary Baker Operations Press Policy making Treasury organization Tax reforms George Bush ampaign 1088,1080 5im Baker-s role Responsibilities Dukakis Reagan and Bush-s staff relations 6ice President as presidential candidate Bush,Baker relationship State Department , Spokesperson 1080 Transition Secretary of State Baker-s style Appointments Soviet relations Soviet Union 2 Gorbachev Administration Duties Press relations ollegial atmosphere Gulf (ar Soviets leave uba Baltic states Shevardnadze German unification NATO Hans,Dietrich Genscher Israel =Background“ briefings Foreign trips 5ackson Hole meeting Soviet spokesmen Soviet press Arms control Yeltsin State,Pentagon relations Soviet Union disintegration Afghanistan 9atin America Tiananmen Square .x,Yugoslavia The French 8itterrand ongressional relations UN Baker resignation The (hite House , Assistant to President for ommunications Issues INTERVIEW Q: This is tape 1, side 1 of an interview with Margaret D. Tutwiler. This is being done on behalf of the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training and I am Charles Stuart Kennedy. To begin with could you tell me when, where you were born and something about your family. TUT(I9.RA I was born in Birmingham, Alabama on December 28, 1050. 8y parents are from two of the oldest families in Alabama. 8y mother-s family, a gentleman named 3 Henry DeBardeleben... Q: (hat does that mean) TUT(I9.RA I just looked it up recently on the Internet and there are DeBardelebens back in Germany until 1150. I don-t know what it means. This gentleman designed the first coke furnaces and did work in the mineral area of Alabama. He is very famous in our state. 8y father-s family, the Tutwilers, were also involved in minerals and real estate. One of the early Tutwilers helped bring in the first railroad to the state of Alabama. His best friend-s name was a 8r. Temple, last name, and there have been four generations of Temple Tutwilers. A woman in our family in the 1800s, 5ulia Tutwiler, was the first female admitted to the University of Alabama, wrote the Alabama state song and was very much into education. She got women separated from men in prison. There is a Tutwiler prison for women in Alabama. The largest dorm on the University of Alabama campus is named in her honor. So, both families within the confines of the state of Alabama have been good citizens and have been successful and contributed to our state. Q: And, also I assume these were examples that you grew up with having them trotted out before you from time to time) TUT(I9.RA I was aware of them. I am very proud of my heritage on both sides. I was raised knowing that I was blessed in many respects and with a real deep sense of duty, paying something back, and love of country. 8y father jumped on D,Day in (orld (ar II. He was in the 82nd Airborne. He was shot but did not take his cyanide pill but crawled into a fox hole and took pictures of the invasion while he lay on the beach. (e went back as a family 22 years later. (hat I saw on that beach was just a beach. But, I knew standing there with my father he was seeing something quite different. In fact, on the day of his jump, his buddies took him into some farmhouse where he passed out unconscious. (e drove around but couldn-t find the farm house. 8y father died in 1082. I actually flew back onto those beaches with President Ronald Reagan for the anniversary celebration. That was pretty unbelievable, to imagine that number one, my father survived the beach and the invasion and number two, that I, his daughter, was flying back there in a helicopter with Ronald Reagan, the President of the United States. It was really quite overpowering. Q: (hat was your father doing when he wasn+t involved in (orld (ar II) TUT(I9.RA He was an investment banker for our family. He did a lot of civic things in our city. He went to an office but didn-t work in a corporation or other business. After the war, his brother who had been fighting in the Pacific was killed in a small plane crash coming home from the war, and his father had recently died and my father had gone to the University of 6irginia and he never went back. He managed all of our family financial affairs. Q: How about your mother) (hat was her bac-ground) 4 TUT(I9.RA 8y mother was a housewife and she used to say that her greatest accomplishment was to raise three good citizens, which I believe she did. She was a wife and a mother. She was patriotic and civic minded but basically she spent her time on her family. Q: (here did you go to school) TUT(I9.RA I actually went to a private school in Birmingham, Alabama that my mother had gone to. It had one teacher in one room and went from first through fourth grades. 8y best friend and I were the entire fourth grade. Q: (as this where first grade was in row one and second grade in row two, etc.) TUT(I9.RA Yes. Q: I went to one of those, too, run by a couple of ladies. TUT(I9.RA It-s true. 8iss 8ay (ard was the teacher. Then I went to a private girls school in Birmingham that at the time was named Brook Hill, today it is coed and has merged with a private boys school and is called the Altamont School. 8y mother had gone there also. I was there from fifth grade through twelfth. DA (hile you were at Broo-hill what were your interests) TUT(I9.RA History, government. It used to be known with all of my friends that I really would not talk on the phone at night when the evening news was on. I was never really interested in local politics or news, but really interested in national and international news. I just have a natural interest in it. Q: How about reading) (hat sort of reading were you doing) TUT(I9.RA (hatever was mandatory. There was one book that spurred even to this day one of my hobbies, the Romanovs, and the book was Nicholas and Alexandra by Robert 8assey. I was fortunate enough to have lunch with 8r. 8assey in the early 1000s. Because when we were in .katerinburg on a trip with Secretary Baker, Secretary Baker knew of my interest for 20 something years in the Romanov family and the Secretary had a private dinner that night with the Governor of .katerinburg. The next day I went to the morgue and went into the room with Secretary Baker and saw all the bones of the Tsar, his wife and children. It was unbelievable, an incredible and fascinating experience. Q: He also wrote a very good boo- called Dreadnought which is a history of British naval expanse. TUT(I9.RA 8asseyE Yes, fascinating. Q: An excellent author. Sometimes I have a feeling that when you go to a place li-e 5 .irmingham you feel li-e you are falling off the edge of the world as far as newspapers go and all that. (ere the .irmingham newspapers covering national and international news) TUT(I9.RA I don-t remember. I remember watching the evening national news, Huntley Brinkley. I am a more visual and verbal person. If someone gives me a huge dissertation to read, I will not retain it as well. I retain better visually and verbally. I read the newspaper and the national magazines. I was always interested in what was going on, but at the same time I had a very normal childhood. I had a boyfriend and friends, cared about clothes, a normal teenager. I don-t want to give the impression that I was a studyholic or bookworm. I wasn-t. Q: I have found, particularly with the men I interview, on as-ing what was their great interest in high school, it was not particularly political science or something, but usually girls and sports. (as the segregation/desegregation crisis a sub0ect of conversation) TUT(I9.RA I only remember one time. 8artin 9uther Fing was either being arrested or was coming back to Birmingham, I don-t remember the specifics. Our family owns property downtown in Birmingham and my father came home and told us that he along with some other property owners downtown were very fearful that the situation would explode into a lot of violence.