W. Walton Butterworth, Oral History Interview—5/28/1970 Administrative Information Creator: W. Walton Butterworth Interviewer: Dennis J. O’Brien Date of Interview: May 28, 1970 Location: Princeton, N.J. Length: 28 pages Biographical Note Butterworth was American representative to the European Coal and Steel Community (1956-1962), American representative to the European Economic Community for the European Atomic Energy Commission (1958-1962), and Ambassador to Canada (1962- 1968). In this interview, he discusses Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr.’s ambassadorship with Great Britain, Butterworth’s relationship to General George C. Marshall and John Foster Dulles, and relations between the United States and Canada during the time that Butterworth served as ambassador to Canada, among other issues. Access Open; portions closed. Usage Restrictions Copyright of these materials have passed to the United States Government upon the death of the interviewee. 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The copyright law extends its protection to unpublished works from the moment of creation in a tangible form. Direct your questions concerning copyright to the reference staff. Transcript of Oral History Interview These electronic documents were created from transcripts available in the research room of the John F. Kennedy Library. The transcripts were scanned using optical character recognition and the resulting text files were proofread against the original transcripts. Some formatting changes were made. Page numbers are noted where they would have occurred at the bottoms of the pages of the original transcripts. If researchers have any concerns about accuracy, they are encouraged to visit the Library and consult the transcripts and the interview recordings. Suggested Citation W. Walton Butterworth, recorded interview by Dennis J. O’Brien, May 28, 1970, (page number), John F. Kennedy Library Oral History Program. Oral History Interview Of W. Walton Butterworth Although a legal agreement was not signed during the lifetime of W. Walton Butterworth, upon his death, ownership of the recording and transcript of his interview for the Oral History Program passed to the John Fitzgerald Kennedy Library. The following terms and conditions apply: 1. The transcript is available for use by researchers. 2. The tape recording shall be made available to those researchers who have access to the transcript. 3; Copyright to the interview transcript and tape is assigned to the United States Government. 4. Copies of the transcript and the tape recording may be provided by the Library to researchers upon request for a fee. 5. Copies of the transcript and tape recording may be deposited in or loaned to institutions other than the John F. Kennedy Library. W. Walton Butterworth Table of Contents Page Topic 1 Kennedy family in London 2 Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr., as ambassador to England 4 Ambassador Kennedy’s relationship with Franklin Delano Roosevelt and other members of the Roosevelt administration 5 Ambassador Kennedy’s relationship with the British government 8 General George C. Marshall 10 State of the Foreign Service in the 1950s 13 John Foster Dulles 15 European reaction to John K. Kennedy and the Kennedy administration 17 Butterworth’s appointment as ambassador to Canada 18 Meetings with President Kennedy 19 Canadian Prime Minister John G. Diefenbacker’s attempts to blackmail the United States with a briefing paper by Walt W. Rostow 20 Storing nuclear materials in Canada 24 Canadian dependence on the United States for military intelligence 25 Controversy about Canada joining the Organization of American States 26 Trade agreements and disputes with Canada Oral History Interview with W. Walton Butterworth May 28, 1970 Princeton, New Jersey By Dennis O’Brien For the John F. Kennedy Library O’BRIEN: When did you first meet Jack Kennedy [John F. Kennedy]? BUTTERWORTH: Well, I first knew him when he was a very young man. I was in the embassy in London, and had been there for several years when his father [Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr.] became the ambassador. So, of course, I met all of the children at that time. In fact, Ambassador Kennedy asked me where would be a good place out of England where he might spend his first summer. I had for some two or three years been going to the Hotel du Cape at Antibes and suggested that he might like to go there, and then from there he could rent a villa. In fact, he did so, and I think the families still go back to Antibes. So I used to see the children at Eden Rock off duty as well as occasionally in London off duty. I really knew the eldest Kennedy boy [Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr.] better than I knew Jack, because he was the eldest and I had great admiration for him. I thought he was a most attractive fellow, and so was Jack Kennedy, too. O’BRIEN: What were the two of them like as young men? Were they interested in public affairs? BUTTERWORTH: I really don’t know how deep an interest they had in public affairs [-1-] at that time. The thing that impressed me about all those children was their intense interest in everything and their competitive spirit which Joe Kennedy tended to foster. Even at the lunch table he was always throwing questions at them and keeping them on their toes and making them interested in various things. Joe, Jr., I think, was more of a natural leader than Jack Kennedy was. Things came very easily to him, and he naturally did them well. He was the sort of person that people tended to follow. You would see the other boys of his age looking to him for the initiative. I don’t think this was as true of Jack Kennedy, probably because he grew up under the shadow of a such an attractive and able elder brother. That’s perhaps why he succeeded so well—that things didn’t come so easily to him. He had an illness when he first went to Princeton before he went to Harvard, and had to leave for a year and stay the rest of the year in London. And then, of course, he had his wartime difficulties. Perhaps this is what makes people; it’s a little adversity, as well as natural ability. O’BRIEN: Right. What was the father like as an ambassador? BUTTERWORTH: Well, I think that Joe Kennedy has been much maligned, that people forget the sequence of events. He has been accused of behaving improperly in London and undermining the British government when Great Britain stood alone and so on and so forth. This really isn’t the fact. The fact was that as long as he was in London, although he had his opinions, I remember on a number of occasions his saying that England was the greatest short sale he had ever seen. As a matter of fact I argued with him on this because that was contrary to my view. It wasn’t until he got to the United States…. He had a telegram from Mr. Roosevelt [Franklin Delano Roosevelt] saying, “Don’t talk to anyone until after you see me,” and it wasn’t until after he got to the United States, after he’d seen Roosevelt, that he began to give interviews, advertently or inadvertently, and make speeches which were of an isolationist nature and which were really…. From the point of view of propriety, it was not a very desirable thing for the American ambassador who had just left his post in London to then be criticizing the British government in a time when they were in desperate need. While he was in London he conducted himself with propriety, and he was a good ambassador after his fashion. O’BRIEN: Was there a difference in his thinking and the thinking of the political sections of the embassy in regard to what the policy should be towards Britain in those years? BUTTERWORTH: No, I don’t think so because I don’t think there was any…. As events unfolded there was no desire on the part of the people in the State Department or people in the embassy who were professional to be involved in the war initially. Then we had this phony war period, which was one of more or less inaction, and then these series of catastrophic military defeats beginning with [-2-] Norway and going through the fall of France. England was then left alone. I don’t think at any point was there any active sentiment that I knew of in the State Department or in the embassy of military intervention per se. There were those of us who though that the British were not going to collapse, that this rearguard kind of action was the kind that the British character is almost designed for. All through British history they have on numerous occasions lost many battles and won the war by this ability to hang on.