The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project Foreign Affairs Series MARK C. LISSFELT Interviewed by: Charles Stuart Kennedy and Richard Jackson Initial interview date: May 22, 199 Copyright 2000 ADST TABLE OF CONTENTS Background Born and raised in Pittsburgh Ha erford College Touring in the U.S. U.S. Army - CIC - Germany 1954-1956 French language studies - Paris, France 1956-1957 Fletcher School .aster at Deerfield Academy Entered Foreign Ser ice - 1960 State Department - Staff Assistant, Deputy Under Secretary 1960-1961 2aymond Hare Frank .eloy 3ennedy atmosphere Ale4 5ohnson Cuban .issile Crisis 6ondon, England - 7isitors Bureau and Administrati e Officer 1961-1964 Da id Bruce Operations of 7isitors Bureau Congressional isitors 8ayne Hayes British staff Tel A i , Israel - Staff Aide9Commercial Officer 1965-1967 Phantom aircraft Ambassador 8alworth Barbour ;6ocalitis“ Consul General 5erusalem-Embassy Tel A i ri alry 8eizmann Institute Hostility towards embassy En ironment 1 Political reporting Pro-Israeli lobby Si4 Day 8ar - prelude Israeli preempti e strike on Egypt 2esident Americans> reactions to war Ambassador Barbour>s Defense .inistry briefings USS 6iberty attacked Israelis capture Golan Heights 8est Bank captured Ben Gurion Golda .eir Nasser Bamako, .ali - Economic-Commercial Officer 1967-1969 En ironment .odibo 3eitz Anti-American atmosphere French influence State Department - Israeli Desk 1969-1971 Speechmaking Assistant Secretary 5oseph Sisco U.S. press reporting Zionist organizations 3issinger-2ogers relationship 2oy Atherton State Department - IN2 1971-197A Photo-intelligence Foreign strategic capabilities 8ashington intelligence community Inter-agency operations CIA, e aluation of Brussels, Belgium - NATO - Assistant Director 197A-1976 5oseph 6uns Paul an Campen Ambassador Donald 2umsfeld Cyprus crisis - 1974 NATO-French relations Ambassador FranBois de 2ose Frank .eloy and 6ebanese assignment State Department - Office of the Director General - E4ecuti e Assistant 1976-197C Eagleburger-6aise relationship Ambassador Strausz-HupD 2 Art 8ortzel Carol 6aise, Director General State Department - European Bureau - 8estern Europe 197C-1979 France Personnel 2uth 8hiteside National 8ar College 1979-19C0 State students Curriculum Eastern Europe field trip Bonn, Germany - Political Officer 19C0-19CA Embassy staffing Political-military affairs Stoessel demarche Chancellor Helmut Schmidt Ambassador Arthur Burns Helmut 3ohl U.S.-Germany relationship Turkish laborers German reunification Berlin, Germany - Deputy to .inister 19CA-19C6 .inister Nelson 6edsky Computer links issue Spies and e4changes 2elations with French and British Berlin en ironment 6aBelle Disco bombing .ajor Nicholson assassination State Department - Greece-Turkey-Cyprus Affairs 19C6-19C7 Greece-Turkey disputes Papandreou go ernment 2ichard Perle and DECA Greek lobby Ed Derwinski Paris, France - Deputy Chief of .ission 19C7-1991 Ambassador 5oseph 2ogers 5ob description President Bush-.itterrand relations Ambassador 2ogers-.itterrand relations .ilitary communications system issue 3 Ambassador Curley ChargD d>affaires Inter iew with Curley Goals and objecti es e4ercise Curley-Bush relationship Contacts with Foreign .inistry Terrorism cooperation Attack on Eadhafi 2unning the embassy Social responsibilities Security Efficiency reports Other agencies 6ocal employees State Department - Foreign Ser ice Institute - 6anguage School - Director 1991-1995 Teaching 61 languages O erseas language schools Duties and responsibilities Comments 2ole of the wife E4perience for children 8orld Affairs Council in Boston INTERVIEW ': Today is the 22nd of May 199 . This is an interview with Mark C. Lissfelt. This is being done on behalf of the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training, and I,m Charles Stuart Kennedy. -ell, could we start. -hen and where were you born. 6ISSFE6T: I was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsyl ania, 19A1, 5une 1C, was raised there, went to public high school, stayed in Pittsburgh until I left to go to college in 1950. ': Could you talk a bit about your family, in ,32 sort of growing up in Pittsburgh at that point. 6ISSFE6T: 8ell, I was the third of two boys, born in 191C, 1919, and 19A1, Depression days, to my parents, both of whom were teachers. .y father taught German and French at the Uni ersity of Pittsburgh, but he also was the music critic for the Pittsburgh Sun1 Telegraph, the Hearst newspaper there for more than 15 years, and he also taught pri ate piano lessons in our house. .y mother taught pri ate oice lessons and coached most of the people for the Pittsburgh opera and for the churches in Pittsburgh, also in our house, which incidentally contained at one time three pianos, none of which my brothers or I 4 learned to play. ': 2bviously, the ne3t 4uestion is was there much of a musical pass1down from these things. 6ISSFE6T: To the great frustration of my parents, I suspect they were disappointed in their offspring. .y two older brothers were e en more remote from music than I, who only used music as part of the Glee Club at Ha erford College during my four years there (1950-1954). ': 5rowing up in Pittsburgh with a family who is engaged in music and teaching and all, was there much interest, as you were a kid, in the world around you outside of 0ittsburgh. 6ISSFE6T: Ies, I guess you could say we were steeped in it. .y father--first of all born on the south side of Pittsburgh, where his first language was German, li ing in a German community, the family running the local grocery store--knew e erything more in German than English and had studied at the 6eipzig music conser atory as a young man after the First 8orld 8ar. 8e heard nothing but these stories about tra els and Berlin and Salzburg Festi al and things like that, all our li es. And we had people at our dinner table, from Fritz 2einer, the conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony at the time, on up and down. Some of the stars from around the world would come because my father was a critic and friendly with them and also spoke German as well as French fluently. So, we had this constant stream of the outside world, ery much so. ': 6ou were still young, but did the Depression hit you. Does that ring a bell. 6ISSFE6T: 8ell, you know, it must ha e been a terrible time to bring three young children into the world. And you can imagine a family that was li ing on pri ate piano lessonsJ The first thing people ga e up in tough times was the pri ate piano lessons for their offspring. So it must ha e been ery tough for my parents, and they were ne er considered a wealthy family - if I can understate the fact - in terms of monetary assets. But, you know, I ha e nothing but ery happy recollections: a house full of music all the time, often to the distraction of young boys who wanted to go off and play baseball and do things like that (also, my father was an a id gardener, not sympathetic to football in the backyard). ': -hat about -orld -ar II, your father having this strong connection to 5ermany. 6ou were at an age when you were reading and all that when -orld -ar II started. Did that leave any particular impression with you. 6ISSFE6T: 8ell, sure. First of all, my father was 41 years old when he got married, so he was beyond the age of being drafted and being part of the armed ser ices of the United States, though he did ser e in the Army in 8orld 8ar I. But teaching German at Pitt, he early on became part of what was called the ASTP, the Army Specialized Training Program, a wonderful program that trained these ery talented young men right out of 5 college taught German, French, and other languages before they went o erseas. So we had this constant stream in our house of young men in uniform brought home for a good meal or the chance to use a washing machine in the basement. The other thing that we all participated in was collecting scrap iron tin cans and foil and things like that. .y brother was an assistant air raid warden. 8e still ha e the metal hat that he would wear when he went out after dark. And some of our best friends won a prize for ha ing prepared their basement best for a bombing raid, ha ing knocked e ery inch of plaster off the ceiling and stocked water, sand, and food.. This was in Pittsburgh - far from enemy bombsJ ': I am four years older than you, and I was scanning the skies during my summer holidays in Annapolis, Maryland, waiting for those 5erman bombers, maybe even Japanese bombers, to appear over the hori7on, which, oddly enough, they didn,t. 6ISSFE6T: They didnKt, and fortunately. 6ong after I had joined the Foreign Ser ice, my father told me this story of his own consideration early in his life of joining the American diplomatic establishment. He was ery interested in international affairs, tra eled to Europe regularly, had at least two languages under his belt, French and GermanL but he told me as a young man that, in his generation, if you didnKt ha e pri ate wealth you had to dismiss any consideration of coming into the American diplomatic ser ice. So it was remarkable how things ha e changed in one short generation, as witness my father and me. ': -hat about when you weren,t going out and being a kid and playing ball and all that, did you do any reading. Did any particular thing sort of grab you. 6ISSFE6T: 8ell, I wish I could tell you that I was struck by certain books, but I was ne er a good reader, and thatKs all my life. I still read terribly slowly and retain ery little, so I canKt claim any intellectual stimulation there.