The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project JAMES M. WILSON, JR. Interviewed by: Charles Stuart Kennedy Initial interview date: March 31, 1999 Copyright 2 ADST TABLE OF CONTENTS Background Born and raised in China missionary parents China environment American School Shanghai Swarthmore College Geneva School of International Studies Fletcher School U.S. Army World War II Europe and China General Truscott Harvard Law School Washington, DC law practice Washington, DC U.S. Air Force 1,4. 1,51 Policy Planning Division Disarmament negotiations 0SC 1. Paris, France Department of the Air Force 2epresentative 1,51 1,52 Base rights agreements Paris, France and Bonn, Germany US2O 1,53 1,54 Embassy personnel Dealing with the French 6oroccan bases EDF failure West German agreements Washington, DC Department of Defense Office of 6ilitary 2ights and International Security Affairs Director 1,55 1,5. Turkey missile agreements 6ilitary base agreements worldwide 1 Department of State Office of 6utual Security Coordination 1,57 1,11 Country program reviews Douglas Dillon 6adrid, Spain Economic Counselor 1,11 1,14 Air programs Franco U.S. bases Ambassador 2obert Woodward Bangkok, Thailand DC6 1,14 1,11 Deputy 2epresentative to SEATO Ambassador Graham 6artin Indochina wars Thailand bases 8ietnam Government Laos CIA 2oyal family Corruption Embassy staffing 2elations with Saigon embassy Gulf of Tonkin incident 9he San attack Diplomatic community 6anila, Philippines DC6 1,11 1,70 President 6arcos and Imelda 6anila Conference Embassy staff U.S. base problems Fidel 2amos 8isa problems Lyndon B. Johnson visit The 9aiulani gift 0ixon=s Guam doctrine Huk insurgency SEATO ASEA0 Sabah issue Symington Committee Ambassadors State Department East Asian/Pacific Affairs 1,70 1,72 2 Deputy director 6arshall Green Cambodia Lon Nol Thailand Pentagon Papers task force 6arcos declares martial law Health problems White House 6icronesia Task Force 1,72 1,74 U.S. trusteeship in 6icronesia negotiations U0 Trusteeship Council Congressional interest Paul Warnke 2elations with State Department and NSC U.S. military interest 6arianas State Department Office of Humanitarian Affairs 1,75 1,77 Human rights issues Dean Brown 6IAs Personnel Human 2ights 2eports to Congress Henry 9issinger Security Assistance Program and human rights Foreign reaction to reports 2elations with regional bureaus Patt Derian State Department Foreign Service Inspector 1,77 1,7. Post 2etirement Inspection Corps Author: Diplomatic Theology, an Early Chronicle of Human 2ights at State INTERVIEW $: Today is the 31st of March, 1999. This is an interview with James M. )ilson, Jr. This is being done on behalf of the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training. I am Charles Stuart Kennedy. Do they call you Jim* WILSO0: Yes indeed. 3 $: Jim could you tell me something about when and where you were born and something about your family* WILSO0: I=m a China brat. I was born there of American missionary parents and grew up there. $: )here were you born and when* WILSO0: I was born in a mountain resort outside of Hangchow in 1,1.. $: )hat type of missionary were your parents* WILSO0: 6y father was an architect/engineer who went out to China in 1,11 to build various things for the American mission boards. He built hospitals, schools, houses, and churches all over China. As a matter of fact, the book on the coffee table right in front of you that I just got from the Old China Press has a piece in it on my father. $: It sounds like they were moving you all around ,uite a bit* WILSO0: We lived first in Hangchow, where my father also taught engineering and math at Hangchow College. Then we moved to Shanghai. $: -ow old were you then* WILSO0: Let=s see, we were in Shanghai from 1,25 to mid 1,21 and then came back to the States while there was some political unpleasantness in China. $: In .26, what was this* )as this the Kuomintang* WILSO0: Yes, it was the 9uomintang forces, coming up from Canton and taking over rather turbulent years. $: It is often a period forgotten I think when people look at China. The Kuomintang was also revolutionary. WILSO0: 8ery much so. This was in the days before the great split between 6ao and Chiang 9ai shek. $: Do you recall those first years* How did you live* WILSO0: We lived very well on a college campus in many respects, as you might on a college campus anywhere else around the world. When we moved to Shanghai, my father went into partnership with a fellow American architect and they planned to take over a lot of the construction that had previously been done by his engineering office in Hangchow. $: )hat was your mother0s background and your father0s, too* 4 WILSO0: He was a graduate engineer from the University of 9entucky and then got a masters in architecture. She was a Phi Beta 9appa from Wellesley, also from 9entucky. During the time that Father was building things, she was usually teaching first in Hangchow and later on at St. John=s University there in Shanghai. $: )hat was she teaching* WILSO0: English literature. $: Do you recall sort of life at home* Did you have any brothers or sisters* WILSO0: Yes, I had three sistersA two older and one much younger. We had Buite a number of friends and acBuaintances. 6any of my pals ended up in the Foreign Service later on. $: )hen you left Shanghai in .26, you had already gone to school for a year or two hadn0t you* WILSO0: Oh, yes, both in Hangchow and in Shanghai at American schools which were in both places in those days. $: -ow long were you back in the 1nited States* WILSO0: Almost four years. $: )here did you go to school* )here did you live* WILSO0: In 9entucky, that=s where the family is from. $: Did you find that Kentucky was ,uite a change from China* WILSO0: It=s hard to try to Buantify that or Bualify that either way. I was rather young, something like eight years old when we came back and 11 when we departed. $: 2ou went back to China* WILSO0: Yes. $: This would have been 193 * WILSO0: 1,30, yes that is right. $: )here did you go* 5 WILSO0: Back to Shanghai. 6y father had gone back to China a couple of times during the period when the family was in 9entucky. Interestingly enough, one of his assignments was with Curtis Wright Aviation, where he had a major hand in building what is now the HangChou Airport in Shanghai. When we went back in 1,30, the Episcopal 6ission Board had asked him to build a major new replacement for St. Luke=s Hospital in Shanghai, along the lines of St. Luke=s Hospital in Tokyo. That he tried to do manfully for Buite a number of yearsA but as you know, there were many trials and tribulations in Shanghai in the 1,30s, including Japanese occupations in 1,32 and 1,37. This caused all sorts of difficulties. $: 2ou were about high school age when you got there in 193 . WILSO0: Yes. I went to SAS, the Shanghai American School. $: )hat was the American School in Shanghai like* WILSO0: It was very much Dand deliberately soE like a private school here. SAS was conceived as a preparatory school for American children going back to college in the States. It has now come back to life, enrolling many more nationalities than just the children of Americans, as it did in my day. $: )ere there any Chinese going there* WILSO0: 8ery few. They were almost all Chinese American. $: Did you feel as though you were living a somewhat separate e3istence in those days* WILSO0: Of course. This was in the days when so called extra territoriality was flourishing. The Fwhite man=s burdenG mentality was still very evident. $: )hat about the presence of the Japanese when they came in, how did that catch you* WILSO0: As far as family was concerned, it didn=t bother our living arrangements especiallyA but in terms of my father=s duties it was catastrophic, because the area which had been chosen for his hospital was right in the line of fire for the Japanese troops. It was finally decided to move the entire operation out of the Japanese Cone of occupation and start from scratch. $: )hen did you leave Shanghai* WILSO0: In 1,35 to come back to college. We came back via the Trans Siberia 2ailroad and Europe. $: At the American School, what were your favorite sub4ects or most interesting sub4ects* 6 WILSO0: I guess English and history. $: )as there much Chinese history or was it more the European-oriented history* WILSO0: 6ostly European, but I took a couple of courses in Chinese history. They also had courses in Chinese language which, I regret to state, I did not take. $: It wasn0t really pushed at that time, was it* WILSO0: Not really. The name of the game in those days was to teach the Chinese how to speak English. $: )hat were the various communities called, cantons* WILSO0: Settlements. $: Did you get involved with the French or the British* WILSO0: Not really. There were two different governments in our day in Shanghai, in the settlements that is. There was an international settlement which was made up of what had been the British, American and German concessions, and then there was the French settlement or concession. The French ran theirs, and an international municipal council ran the international settlement. In 1,32, when the Japanese came in, however, they took over a large part of what had been the old American settlement.