Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project EDWARD R. PIERCE Interviewed by: Charles Stuart Kennedy Initial interview date: August 12, 1997 Copyright 2002 A ST TABLE OF CONTENTS Background Born in Lexington Miss. raised in Washington D.C. area Messenger U.S. Patent Office and State Dept. State Dept. environment Pay standards (eorge Washington University Wilber Carr Miss Delaschmidt John Farr Simmons International Telecommunications Conference Cairo 19.7019.1 Mosco2 USS34 clerk 19.101950 7Bro2n 7Code8 Travel in Na:i (ermany Homosexuality Atmosphere Security Angus Ward Henry Antheil story Ambassador William Bullitt Marjorie Post Davies Embassy Personnel gossip Spies Dacha cro2d Ambassador Bohlen Code compromised Tyler Kent Ambassador Steinhardt Molotov03ibbentrop Treaty Eugene Pressley Cambridge (roup 1 (enoa Italy 1950 Henry Antheil State Department Passport Office 1950 Caribbean (destroyers for UK base rights) Mission Nassau Bahamas duty 1950 World War II Comments Homosexuality in the government J. Edgar Hoover INTERVIEW ?Note: This intervie2 2as not edited by Mr. PierceA ": Today is August 12, 1997. This is an interview with Edward R. Pierce. This is being done on behalf of the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training. I' m Charles Stuart Kennedy. Why don't we start, Could you tell me when and where you were born and a bit about your parents, PIE3CE: Sure. I 2as born in Lexington Mississippi the county seat of Holmes County in the Delta region on September 2C 1911. My father 2as educated at Danderbilt as a teacher and had come do2n to Lexington on assignment after graduating from Danderbilt. He headed the school system in Lexington. He met my mother 2ho 2as the daughter of a prosperous doctor Dr. Watson 2ho 2as also a cotton man and Euite 2ell off. They got engaged. My father comes from a missionary family. His parents had served in India before as missionaries but it 2as in the family blood sort of. One of his brothers Uncle Harry 2as offered a job in the big education program that the United States 2as just starting in the Philippines after 2e acEuired the Philippines. So here 2as the offer that 2as made to my father by his brother: FCome on 2ith me to the Philippines for t2o years as a teacher F and he had that experience. Any2ay he 2ent. But he 2as engaged to my mother. He came back in about a year he didnGt stay there t2o years. But he did have that experience. He came back to Lexington and practiced la2. Actually he 2asnGt too fitted for it and he shortly moved up to Washington D.C. ?About the timeA World War I ?broke outA he took and passed the Foreign Service exam and 2as appointed as a consul or vice consul I forget the title. He 2as sent up to Charlotteto2n Prince Ed2ard Island Canada as consular officer. The only thing 2as that he liked it but they had been married for Euite a fe2 years and had six children of 2hom I 2as the fourth. My younger sister Alice 2as born in Canada. So there he 2as 2ith seven children and the pay you kno2 yourself in those days... 2as particularly ?skimpyA. So he gave it up after four years or less and came back to Washington and 2 2orked in the U.S. Patent Office. He had a good background for that. Everything 2ent along Euite 2ell. Except by the time he 2as early fifties he had terrible asthma 2hich ran in the family. He really 2as just knocked out and couldnGt 2ork. Well by that time the family situation 2as that 2e had lived very briefly in Washington after coming back from Canada then moved out here to Cherrydale Dirginia briefly and then right here to Falls Church. IGve lived here ever since. Of course IGve traveled a lot been here and there but I gre2 up right across 3oute 7 2here you see the tall trees thatGs no2 Falls Church City Park. That 2as our home and later on ?I boughtA this place. Actually IGve lived in Falls Church since 192.. ": -oodness. .ou went to school here, PIE3CE: I 2ent to school in Washington. Because 2ith my father 2orking for the government you 2ere permitted to go to D.C. schools in those days. It 2as a pain in the neck sort of because of ?traveling back and forthA but my mother and father thought it 2as beneficial because the schools 2ere better. I 2ent to school in (eorgeto2n grade school then to Western High School no2 Duke Ellington School for the Performing Arts and I managed to skip t2o grades in grade school. I graduated from high school early I 2as 16. I 2ent over to Baltimore. I 2as reading BohlenGs book by the 2ay he mentions that after he got out of Harvard he 2ent on a tramp steamer and 2ent around the 2orld. Most people donGt kno2 that about him I didnGt either. ": We're tal/ing about Charles Bohlen and his boo/ Eyewitness to History. PIE3CE: I spent four months on a U.S. Shipping Board ship out of Baltimore 2ent across to the British Isles and back very slo2 ship a freight ship. I didnGt find out until I retired many years later that that 2as the beginning of my government career. Because the program of hiring young American guys 2as to beef up American0trained seamen. Hopefully one 2ould stay in and rise on up to captain. Of course I only made that one trip. I came back to Washington 2ent into a job as a messenger in the U.S. Patent Office 2here my dad had 2orked. ": When did you go to the Patent 2ffice, PIE3CE: That 2as 1921029. I made the voyage in 1921. I 2as in the Patent Office in 1929. I 2as 17 by then. Then you get one of those big jumps in pay if you move from one job to another. I think it 2as about I.00 a year. I moved up to the State Department. I just simply heard a rumor from some of the guys in the Patent Office or some of the other messengers that they 2ere hiring people at the State Department. I just stopped by there one day 2ent in asked for a job I got it. As a mail0room messenger. You canGt get much lo2er than that. I have to say IGll never forget ho2 impressed I 2as by going in the front entrance. ": This is what later became /nown as the State3War4Navy building. PIE3CE: The enormously ugly but very nice old building. Next to the Patent Office. 3 ": It's now the E6ecutive 2ffice building ne6t to the White House. PIE3CE: So I 2alked do2n the hall filled out the necessary forms and I got a job 2ithin a couple of 2eeks. Much simpler in those days. There 2ere less than seven hundred people on the payroll in the Department of State IGm not ?countingA the Foreign Service ?officersA 2hen I got on the job. So impressive 2ith all those portraits on the 2alls. Well that 2as the beginning of my employment ?2ithA the State Department. ": When you were a messenger did you see Secretary Hull, PIE3CE: Hull came later. ": Who was the Secretary when you were there, PIE3CE: Kellogg. Incidentally the War Department had offices in that building too. But sure I sa2 everybody. As a messenger and also as a rather brash young kid 2ho had taken that trip to Europe I didnGt feel...IGll tell you the honest truth. My father being incapacitated had a lot to do 2ith my personal attitude in employment and 2ork and everything else. My brothers all 2ent to 2ork too and my older sister 2e had to keep the family going. That makes you sort of independent. That sort of influenced my attitude. But no2 that I look back on it it 2as absolutely fortunate because I could have 2ound up in something Euite different and not really as interesting. ": What was the atmosphere in that building at that time, PIE3CE: At the time I 2ent in it 2as very dignified and impressive. It 2as considered if you 2ere going to be in the Civil Service clerical administrative and fiscal ranks ?CAFA if you 2ere going to be in CAF it 2as considered the best place in Washington to be for prestige not necessarily for money. But it carried a lot of prestige because the personnel people rejected 19 out of 20 people that came in looking for jobs. The atmosphere 2as also very stratified. In this sense: That the amalgamation of consular and diplomatic Foreign Service people came I think in 1925. ": 1925 the 3ogers Act. PIE3CE: Well this 2as after 1925 but the strata system 2as still in effect very much so. Up at the top 2ere the really big shots the Secretary and the Under Secretary and the Assistant Secretaries. The desk people in the geographic divisions 2ho had to deal 2ith foreign embassies in to2n and then overseas and all that. Well they 2ere one group of people. Then under them next strata 2ere the junior Foreign Service people still Foreign Service 2ho held other jobs in the geographic divisions mostly. Then you had the clerks and accountants and 2hat not. It really 2orked that 2ay because in that building you could go from the absolute bottom up and youGd be going up by grade all through ?schoolA. 4 The atmosphere 2as really dignified. It 2asnGt particularly 2arm because there 2as still this...and if you 2ere perceptive and at all inclined to be a little bit rebellious...thatGs the thing about it..