The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project AMBASSADOR THOMAS W. SIMONS JR. Interviewed by: Charles Stuart Kennedy Initial interview date: July 22, 2004 Copyright 2013 ADST TABLE OF CONTENTS Background Born in innesota and raised primarily at Foreign Service posts abroad and in the Washington, DC area. Karachi, Pakistan Father(s Foreign Service career )ale University; ,unior year in France; Harvard University; -raduate study in .urope Austrian anti-Semitism .ngagement and marriage .ntered the Foreign in 1012 A-100 Course State Department4 Pakistan-Afghanistan Desk 1012 Accompanying Duke .llington on Near .ast-South 1012 Asia Tour China6India War Kashmir US assistance to India The White House4 Office of the Special Trade 8epresentative; 1014 Secretary of Delegation Christian Herter Kennedy 8ound of Tariff and Trade Negotiations -eneral Agreement on Tariffs and Trade :-ATT) Teams -eneva, Switzerland4 Office of the Special Trade 8epresentative; 1015-1017 Secretary of Delegation6Special Assistant :Kennedy 8ound) French walkout Life in -eneva Chinese students Duties and operations 1 -oals of Kennedy 8ound Trade wars National styles of negotiation Operations British French Canadians ,apanese Treaty accomplishments Warsaw, Poland4 Consular Officer6Political Officer 1017-1071 Ambassador Walter Stoessel Bisa fraud Bilateral 8elations ,ewish eCodus Political environment Communist bloc national antipathies Invasion of Czechoslovakia - 1018 Katz-Suchy visa case Soviet influence Senator Sparkman delegation .Cchange program Catholic organizations6PAE Leszek Kolakowski .conomic reform Polish working class Czech6 -erman relations Oder-Neisse border -omulka -ierek Polish army FSonnenfeldt DoctrineG Poland-West -ermany treaty - 1070 Price 8ises Workers( 8evolt H December 1070 Cardinal Wyszynski Catholic Church Solidarity Polish-American community oczar in Olsztyn Hoover Institution; Council on Foreign Affairs Fellowship 1071-1072 Stanford and Berkeley :U. of C.) campuses Stanford environment Course of study Herbert Hoover 2 .ast .uropean6Soviet economic structures and policies Loss of communist ideology appeal Warsaw, Poland4 Scribe at US-China talks 1010-1071 Soviet Union6China friction Ussuri 8iver Clashes - 1010 NiCon Chinese efforts Ambassador Walter Stoessel US-China talks in Warsaw State Department4 Political- ilitary Affairs4 Office of Disarmament 1072-1074 and Communist Affairs :DCA) AB Treaty and SALT I Interim Agreement F utual and Balanced Force 8eductionsG in .urope : FB8) and FConference on Security and Cooperation in .urope :CSC.) ansfield Amendment Pol- il Bureau personnel changes Senator Henry ,ackson .uropean sensitivities ,onathan :,ock) Dean Donald 8umsfeld State Department4 Policy Planning Staff 1074 Winston Lord US views of Soviet military capacity Averell Harriman ,ackson ant-dItente constituency World food crisis Human 8ights Helsinki Agreement ,ackson-Banik Amendment .ast .urope Policy Ceausescu visit -ierek visit to Washington - 1074 State Department4 Foreign Service Institute :FSI); 8ussian 1075 language study Comments on instruction oscow4 USS8; Political Officer, .Cternal 8eporting 1075-1077 Ambassador Walter Stoessel .mbassy officer personnel DItente .conomy Local contacts Police regime 2 Dissidents Helsinki Final Act World wide issues Africa National Liberation ovements Brezhnev H the Soviet Leadership Soviet views of Carter Operation Berona .mbassy microwaving -eorgiy Arbatov .mbassy views of Soviet power Daughter(s 8ussian schooling Bisits outside oscow Final comments on Soviet society and government Ambassador alcolm Toon State Department4 Foreign Service Institute4 8omanian 1077 language training Bucharest, 8omania4 Deputy Chief of ission 1077-1070 Country history and geography .conomy Bilateral 8elations 8omanian Party r. and rs.Ceausescu ost-Favored-Nation tariff treatment Ambassador Harry Barnes Ambassador 8udolph Aggrey Industrialization Dacia cars ,ewish community Information sources Intellectual life Dissidents Cultural life Soviet-8omanian relations Bessarabia 8elations with neighbors Transylvania Hungarian minority Kiraly Human 8ights Israelis Police presence London, .ngland4 Political Counselor 1070-1081 4 Ambassador Kingman Brewster Operations Dealing with the British .mbassy size .mbassy morale Prime inister argaret Thatcher Afghanistan Invasion British views of 8eagan -eneral operations Labour Party British class society Social Democrats Working with Foreign Office Henry Kissinger Bisits4 ,oan Auten Ambassador ,ohn ,effrey Lewis Anglo-American relations State Department4 Director, Office of Soviet Affairs 1081-1085 Secretary of State Al Haig President 8eagan advisors and policies .uropean gas pipeline DItente balance Divergent views on dItente and arms control 8eagan reluctance to adjudicate Intelligence Paul Nitze Soviet strength and weakness issiles First -romyko meeting - 1081 SALT6STA8T Agreements .uropean views of disarmament Poland crisis - 1081 Intermediate-8ange Nuclear Forces :INF) FJero OptionG Proposal 8eagan .ureka College speech H Ballistic issile 50% 8eduction Proposal 8eagan style 8eagan6-orbachev Haig resignation Korean Airlines Flight KAL 007 Brezhnev death Secretary Shultz Williamsburg Summit 8ichard Pipes National Security Decision Directive :NSDD-75) Soviet 8egime Change principle Policy and ideology 8ichard Burt 5 Human 8ights Nicaragua Nitze(s FWalk In The WoodsG Anatoliy6Natan Sharansky )uri Andropov Soviet arms to Syria 8eagan-Dobrynin meeting H Feb. 1082 Pentecostal families Star Wars US-Soviet negotiations ,udge Bill Clark Opening Consulates agreement Arms control negotiations halted 8eagan6-romyko meeting - 1084 ajor Nicholson shooting Bice President Bush6-orbachev meeting H arch 1085 Pacific Air Safety Agreement State Department Senior Seminar 1085-1081 State Department4 Deputy Assistant Secretary for .uropean and 1081-1080 Canadian Affairs Ukrainian seaman defection Strategic Defense Initiative :SDI) H Star Wars Note-Taker4 8eagan6-orbachev meeting at 8eykjavik H October 1081 Soviet Union decline Predictions re Soviet Union collapse 8eagan6-orbachev Summits :1087 and 1088) Don Oberdorfer -overnors Island meeting - 1088 Shevardnadze Arms control negotiations 8egan Helsinki Speech CSC. - 1088 Bice President -eorge Bush Policy reviews for incoming Bush administration Poland H 1081-1080 Lifting sanctions Bush visit - 1087 Politics, .conomics, 8ound Table Lech Walesa US .ast .urope policy Hamtramck Speech - 1080 -eneral6President Wojciech ,aruzelski )ugoslavia Ambassador ,ohn D. Scanlan Serbian nationalism 1 Croatia Brown University4 Adjunct Professor of History 1080-1000 United States Ambassador to Poland 1000-1002 New Solidarity government under azowiecki .conomic reform .lections Lech Walesa becomes President - 1000 Dealing with eC-Communists Polish Catholic Church Pope ,ohn Paul II Soviet relations4 troop withdrawals Kaczynski brothers Bob Joellick visit - 1002 Social services 8eagan visit - 1000 US and Poland4 popularity, assistance, debt forgiveness 8elations with West -ermany4 Border issues Willy Brandt(s Warsaw visit - 1070 NATO membership Leszek Balcerowicz .mbassy staff increases -eorge arshall Center in -armisch-Partenkirchen Availability of products Polish Diaspora Polish Army -ulf War Polish assistance in Baghdad Intellectuals ,udiciary Nationalism Anti-Semitism State Department4 Coordinator of U.S. Bilateral Assistance 1002-1005 To the New Independent States of the former Soviet Union Strobe Talbott Humanitarian Assistance Personnel and Program4 Fab 5 Congressional support Kyrgyzstan Armenia; Armenian diaspora in US -eorgia Turkmenistan Tajikistan Nunn-Lugar Program 7 Intellectuals -eorge Soros SAIC USAID managed programs Area leaders4 Karimov, Akayev Boris )eltsin Bladimir Jhirinovsky 8ussia 1002 elections Fired and Seeking successor H 1004-1005 Trade and Investment Oversees Private Investment Corporation :OPIC) oldova Aga Khan Foundation 8ichard orningstar United States Ambassador to Pakistan 1001-1008 Frank Wisner Kashmir Covert nuclear weapons program Afghanistan War Islamist threat CIA HLrs. Shooting :by ir Aimal Kansi) Father(s past assignment in Pakistan Pressler Amendment Ambassador 8obert :Bob) Oakley Prime inister Benazir Bhutto - 1004 Benazir meeting with President Clinton India as counterweight to China4 Wisner6Simons letters to Sandy Berger - 1001 8easons for US support of Pakistan New Bureau of South Asian Affairs Indian-American community The Brown amendment US sanctions on Pakistan H F-11 aircraft Drugs Taliban victory in Afghanistan Deobandi madrasas Northern Alliance Pakistan-Taliban relations Pakistan Interservices Intelligence Directorate :ISI) Pushtuns Naseerullah Khan Babar ,ehangir Karamat Sahabzada )aLub Khan Syed 8efaLat Khan Political and commercial corruption Benazir Bhutto removed - 1001 8 Nawaz Sharif Intra-government fighting Turkmenistan to Pakistan pipeline UNOCAL Benazir6Simons relations Attack on US .mbassy :1070) Anti-US FWhispering CampaignG China-Pakistan relations Pakistan .conomy Pakistan nuclear program Berger visit 1001, A. M. Khan Iftikhar urshed Taliban in Kabul - 1001 Osama bin Laden6Taliban connection Tracking bin Laden US policy re assassination .ast Africa .mbassy bombings H August 1008 India, Pakistan nuclear eCplosion, ay 1008, US 8eaction Comments on Foreign Service and academic careers INTERVIEW FAMILY, CHILDHOOD, SCHOOL: THE MIDWEST, THE SUBCONTINENT, DC, NEW ENGLAND, LIBERIA, FRANCE, AUSTRIA (1938-19 3) Q: What does the W stand for& SI ONS4 Winston. Q: Winston.