Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project AMBASSADOR RICHARD FUNKHOUSER Interviewed by: Charles Stuart Kennedy Initial interview date: February 2, 1988 Copyright 1999 A ST TABLE OF CONTENTS Background Born and raised in Trenton, N Princeton University Private oil companies U.S. Air Force - World War II Paris, France 1945-1947 Acting ,egional Petroleum office ,esumption of European oil flo. State Department - Desk officer - Syria, Ira/, and 0e1anon 2osco., USS, - Economic counselor 1934-1935 Soviet Five 4ear Plan disaster Soviet agriculture CIA Soviet military tilt Cu1an 2issile Crisis ,elations .ith officials Am1assador Thompson Paris, France - Political counselor 1935-1938 Am1assador Bohlen 8ernon Walters Staff President Charles de 9aulle :ue1ec, NATO, and 8ietnam ;Where is de 9aulle?“ 0i1reville, 9a1on - Am1assador 1939-1970 8ietnam - AID 1970-1972 1 Edin1urgh, Scotland - Consul 9eneral 1972-19?? Comments on Foreign Service Footnotes INTERVIEW ": Mr. Ambassador, how did you become attracted to the Foreign Service' FUNKHOUSE,A I suppose it started .hen my grandfather had a set of BNational 9eographics.B I .as born and raised as a young man in Trenton, Ne. ersey, and, .himsically, I used to look at the BNational 9eographicsB and figure out the farthest place I could get from Trenton, .hich turned out to be Outer 2ongolia, in the country of the yaks, and I resolved that I .ould get there. I pursued that goal reasona1ly consistently through my prep school and university. ": (hat type of preparation did you have in school' FUNKHOUSE,A Well, I had the usual li1eral arts in Taft School. And perhaps there I got my best foundation. As the Duke, our English teacher in Honors English, told usA .e .ould pro1a1ly never kno. more a1out English literature and history in our intellectual careers than .e did .hen .e .ere seniors at Taft School. I found that I basically got my 1est foundation there. At Princeton, I started off in History and English, but my father .ent broke during the depression, and I had to aim at getting a jo1. So, I .ent from the li1eral arts into engineering. But I found that I disliked engineering and .ent back into li1eral arts. The only .ay I could get back there .as through geology, in the Arts CandD not CtheD Science curriculum. So I thought I might get a jo1 .ith an oil company .hen I got out of school. Indeed, that turned out to be the case so that my background is not as much history and political science as it might have been. I got high marks, became a Phi Beta and got on .hat Princeton called the BNo-course Plan,B .hich .as for those students .ho had top grades. And I .orked very, very hard. IEm not all that intelligent, but I .orked like a dog to keep my scholarship. Then I .as allo.ed to take any courses I .anted in my senior year. So I could sit in on history, art, science, architecture, any courses I .ished, .hich proved to be reasona1ly useful in later years in my Foreign Service career. ": (hen did you move to the Foreign Service' FUNKHOUSE,A After I got out of Princeton in E39 and .as offered a jo1 by Nelson ,ockefeller, .ho had attended a 4ale-Harvard-Princeton Conference .here I spoke. He passed the .ord on that Standard Oil might give me a jo1. 2 I .ent to South America for Standard Oil of 8eneGuela. In those days I had read all of the literature on ho. to get into the Foreign Service. They didnEt teach languages at that time to the extent they do no., and they urged young men .ho .ere interested in foreign affairs to try it out first. And to try it out, not at government expense, but at private industry expense. Commercial activities .ere very important, as you kno., in the Foreign Service in those days. We .ere encouraged to go .ith private industry a1road to learn the languages, to find out .hether .e .ere truly interested in life overseas, and if a foreign environment .ould find us useful. I al.ays had in mind taking my FSO exams. But then the .ar broke out. I .ent into the Air Force follo.ing Pearl Har1or, several of us young geologistsIengineers .orking for Standard Oil Company in 8eneGuela resigned to volunteer for the Army Air Corps, despite our exemption from military service for the duration. Aside from youthful patriotism and vision of becoming a pilot, it .as for me a chance to change careers from industry hopefully to diplomacy. I .ent to Burma, India, China. Came back. Went to the State Department, asked .hen the exams .ere being given. Standard Oil had promised me a jo1 and a house (I .as married during the .ar) in 8eneGuela at a good salary. But I al.ays .anted to get in the Foreign Service. When I arrived at Old State they told me at the desk that the examinations had just been given the day before. I asked, BWhen .ill the next ones be given?B BOh, next year.B Needless to say, I had to earn a living and .as a1out ready to go back to 8eneGuela .ith my young bride .hen the receptionist said, BWell, there are other .ays of .orking overseas. 9o do.n and see our Personnel Officer do.n in the basementB of .hat is no. the Executive Office Building. I .ent do.n there and, believe it or not, a classmate of mine, Findley Burns, .hom you undou1tedly kno., .as the young Personnel Officer. He said, B4ouEre an oil expert, arenEt you?B I said, BNo.B He said, B4ou .orked for an oil company, didnEt you?B I said, B4es.B He said, B4ouEre an oil expert to the State Department.B I said, BOkay.B He said, BWe and the British are both trying to get the oil industry back on its feet. Not only the industry, but get oil moving to all the destroyed countries of Western Europe.B ": (e're talking about what, 19,5' FUNKHOUSE,A WeEre talking a1out 1945 in Septem1er. And Findley told me that both 3 the Americans and the British Foreign Service .ere trying to get a fe. people to go to key oil industry centers such as Paris .ith responsi1ilities for Western Europe and French North Africa, 0ondon and the empire as it .as, Cairo and all of the 2iddle East, and Tokyo for the Pacific area. What .e .ere assigned to do .as to be contact .ith government officials .ho .orked on oil pro1lems and energy (they didnEt have departments of energy then), Foreign Office people .ho .ere trying to handle political pro1lems in oil-producing countries, andIor Treasury reps. We .ere having great pro1lems .ith .hat .as called then and became the Bdollar-sterling oil pro1lem,B .herein the British .ould produce oil from the 2iddle East and sell it for sterling to countries that had built up great pound de1ts during World War II. The British .ould sell them Bsterling oilB .hich they could get at a much cheaper price than .ith American dollars. No one had dollars, everyone had sterling. And so these .ere pro1lems .hich had to be .orked out in Western Europe. 0etEs take, for example, tank cars. The 9ermans stole the French tank cars, then the ,ussians stole the 9erman tank cars. And .hat a Petroleum Attache had to do .as try to get the tank cars back from .herever they .ere. 2any .ere destroyed, but tank cars are pretty tough, too. And pipelinesL .e had a lot of pipelines in Europe such as .ere laid do.n during the .ar from 2arseille up the ,hone 8alley. The pro1lem .as to dispose of those pipelines. They .erenEt meant to last very longA they .ere a1ove the ground and the one from 2arseille had so many holes in it from French peasants trying to get gasoline for their tractors that they .erenEt .orth a great deal. But there .ere pro1lems of negotiation .hich even as a junior Foreign Service officer Class Six I handled. I became the focal point in the em1assy for trying to get the flo. of oil moving. This .as my first jo1. I had the title of Acting ,egional Petroleum Attache until I took the exams and became a Third Secretary. A secondary but significant responsi1ility for me .as to allocate and distri1ute to the Americans in France coupons issued by the French government for rationed gasoline. I sometimes .ondered .hy .e as a naive, young couple seemed to be so popular and so often invited by businessmen to the 1est black market restaurants?M In retrospect, I am also struck by ho. lucky I .as to learn my first diplomatic ropes from such outstanding officers as Douglas 2acArthur and 0ivingston 2erchant. Coming from three years in the oil fields and t.o years piloting a plane over the Hump, I .as una1le to draft reports or speak in meetings effectively. Doug redrafted my diplomatic notesL 0ivy .as a model chairman of staff meetings .here he could brilliantly summariGe disparate vie.s so as to make each participant believe his contri1ution .as included. No one in my career could match him. This .as undou1tedly .hy our Am1assador, efferson Caffery, .ho strangely enough .as em1arrassingly inarticulate in large meetings, sent 0ivy to Washington to sell the N500 million aid package for France .hich preceded and pro1a1ly inspired the 2arshall Plan. ": I would like to dwell on this, but we're going to concentrate sort of on your more senior time.