Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project THEODORE J. C. HEAVNER Interviewed by: Charles Stuart Kennedy Initial interview date: May 28, 1997 Copyright 2 ADST TABLE OF CONTENTS Background Born and raised in Canton, O io Nort western University and (Case) Western Reserve University of Iowa Harvard University U.S. Army - ,orean War Entered Foreign Service - .900 UNESCO .900-.901 Duties State Department - Foreign Service Institute - .902 3ietnamese 4anguage Training Cornell University - Sout east Asia Program .902-.908 Nort versus Sout 3ietnam Saigon, 3ietnam - Political Officer .908-.909 Diem and private armies Relations wit government officials Cinnamon production Ambassador Durbrow 3iet Cong t reat Consular district Duties Ngo Din Can Reporting Cat olic C urc role Diplomatic colleagues Environment 7ontagnards Pleiku 3ietnamese military 1 Tran 3an Don Saigon, 3ietnam - Political Officer .910-.91. 4yndon B. 9o nson visit Ambassador Ale:is 9o nson and Diem ,ennedy;s 3ietnam policy State Department - 3ietnam Working Group .91.-.913 Averell Harriman Counterinsurgency U.S. policy re Nort 3ietnam Strategy options Ot er agency programs Diem regime 3ietnamese loyalties T ieu ,y regime President ,ennedy interest Defoliants Roger Hilsman C ina role State Department - Foreign Service Institute (FSI) .913-.914 Indonesian 4anguage Training 7edan, Indonesia - Consul and Principal Officer .914-.911 Ambassador Howard 9ones Ambassador 7ars all Green Sukarno and communists Anti-U.S. demonstrations Sumatra groups 7ilitary versus communists Coup attempt Information sources Anti-C inese riots Pemuda Ratyat group USIS library Su arto Saigon, 3ietnam - Supervising Political Officer .911-.919 Family separations U.S. presence Environment General Ed 4ansdale Dan Ellsberg Tri Quang interview P il Habib 2 Opposition leaders Budd ists Tam C au Huong Province reporting Situation in .912 Political settlement idea CIA Tet offensive - action and assessment Embassy attacked Ambassador Bunker and President 9o nson Hue Declining ent usiasm for war Press contact Georgetown, Guyana - DC7 .919-.92. Communist Party Prime 7inister C eddi 9agan Prime 7inister Forbes Burn am Racial problem Cuba Soviet relations ip AID program Ambassador Delmar Carlson Ambassador Spencer ,ing 9onestown Environment Britis influence CIA Paul ,attenburg Peace Corps Anti-3ietnam war protests State Department - Indonesian, 7alaysian, Singapore Affairs - .92.-.924 Director Issues 4ee ,uan Yew 3ietnam SEATO 7ars all Green Senior Seminar .924-.920 State Department - Caribbean Affairs - Director .920-.922 U.S. interests Bird of Antigua Antigua military base 3 Base negotiations Barbados military bases 9amaica elections Cuba relations ip Personnel problems State Department - INR .922-.980 CIA Post-retirement - Doctorate, Clinical Psyc ology Ale:andria 7ental Healt Center Freedom of Information A State INTERVIEW $: Today is May 28, 1997. This is an interview with Theodore J. C. Heavner which is being done on behalf of the Association for Diplomatic Studies and I am Charles Stuart Kennedy. Ted is an old friend of mine. We went to the Senior Seminar together. Ted, could you tell me where and when you were born and a little something about your parents, HEA3NER: I was born in .929, w ic as some of us can recall, was t e beginning of t e Great Depression, and I was raised in Canton, O io. 7y fat er;s family were grocers, owning a number of stores at one time, but t ey were pretty well wiped out by t e depression. 7y grandfat er ad only one store by t e time e retired, and my fat er didn;t work at t at at all. He did a number of t ings trying to survive t e depression years. T e longest job e ad was running a string of cigarette and candy vending mac ines, w ic actually became in later years pretty profitable. In college, I spent a few summers filling t ose mac ines, also fi:ing t em w en people put slugs in and jammed t em or kicked t em because t ey didn;t perform correctly. In s ort, I came from a lower middle class background, grew up in t e 7iddle West w ic was very conservative. Religion was very important, and we all knew t at America was God;s country and t at it certainly was t e greatest country t at ad ever been on t e face of t e eart , and would always be. 7y mot er;s family were immigrants from SwitDerland. You don;t t ink of SwitDerland as a place t at people immigrate from, but, strangely enoug , t ere was a little Swiss colony in Canton, O io. 7y grandfat er, w o died before I was born, was a watc maker. He came to Canton to work in t e Dueber Hampden Watc Works t ere, w ic as long since been defunct but at one time was a big enterprise for Canton. I went t roug ig sc ool t ere and t en I went to Nort western University because I t oug t I was going to be a journalist. 4 $: -oing bac. to high school. /ou were going to high school in the middle of a very big thing that was happening out in the world, World War II. Were you following this in the news or was it something very distant, HEA3NER: It was pretty distant. We certainly followed it as best we could wit t e papers and t e radio, but it ardly touc ed my life in t ose years. I was aware only vaguely of ow critical to t e future of my world t at great war was. Canton and O io, for t at matter, was and still may be a pretty insular place. 7aybe t at was part of it. But t e war was a long way off. At least t at was my perception. $: While you were in high school did you get anything about diplomacy, foreign affairs, other countries, HEA3NER: 3ery little. I don;t recall anyt ing muc about foreign affairs. And, t e idea t at I mig t sometime in my life serve abroad as a diplomat never crossed my mind. In fact, I didn;t know until I was in graduate sc ool t at you could get into somet ing called t e Foreign Service by taking an e:amination. T at came as a great surprise to me. $: /ou were at Northwestern from when to when, HEA3NER: I went to Nort western for just one year after ig sc ool because I t oug t I wanted to be a journalist and t ere was a good sc ool of journalism t ere. I decided after t at first year t at t at was a mistake, t at I wasn;t really cut out for journalism and w at I really was meant to be was a professor of Englis literature. $: Just how does one decide they are not cut out to be a journalist, HEA3NER: I t ink t e idea of interviewing people was intimidating and I also didn;t write very well in t ose days. SubseEuently, in t e Foreign Service I came to pride myself on my drafting, but I t ink I must ave learned t at later on, maybe a lot of it in t e Foreign Service. Any ow, I decided journalism was not rig t for me and t at t e appeal of t e academic world was very strong. T at may ave been t e major t ing. I just liked t e t oug t of being a professor. Some of t e professors became eroes to me in t ose years. I really looked up to t em and wanted to imitate t eir erudition and t eir wit. I t ink t at was a factor. Any ow I c anged sc ools so I could be closer to ome, and I went to Cleveland to Western Reserve or w at is now Case Western Reserve and got an undergraduate degree t ere in Englis lit. $: What year did you graduate, HEA3NER: In .90.. T en I went to graduate sc ool at t e State University of Iowa. I 5 was t inking t en t at I would not only be a professor but I would be a great writer. T ey ad a Paul Engel sc ool of fiction, poetry, etc. I t ink t ey still do. $: 2h, it is renowned. Iowa is the place for writing. HEA3NER: It was t en too. So, I went t ere for a year. Walter 3an Tilburg Clark, w o wrote FO:bow IncidentG and FTrack of t e CatG was t ere. I t oug t e was t e most marvelous person in t e world and got to know im Euite well. We corresponded for some years after I left Iowa. He encouraged me to write and I did a lot of it t ere. T en I decided if I was going to get a doctorate and maybe on t e side be a great novelist, probably I s ould ave a first rate doctorate, to get t e best credential available. So, I transferred to Harvard for t eir doctoral program in Englis lit. $: /ou went to Harvard from when to when, HEA3NER: It would ave been .902-03 because I was only t ere a year. You recall, t e ,orean War was going on during t at time, and t e Canton draft board was breat ing down my neck. T e family was running out of patience and I was running out of money because t ey ran out of patience.