Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project AMBASSADOR RICHARD C. BARKLEY Interviewed by: Charles Stuart Kennedy Initial interview date: May 12, 2003 Copyright 2004 ADST TABLE OF CONTENTS Background Born in Chicago Illinois" raised in Illinois Wisconsin and Michigan Michigan State University Wayne University University of Freiberg US Army (ermany Entered the Foreign Service in 19,2 State Department" I.R 0Southeast Asia1 19,2 State Department" FSI Finnish language study 19,2219,3 Helsinki Finland" Rotation Officer 19,3219,5 Finland5s neutrality Communists Politics Soviet relations Environment 6ennedy assassination Relations State Department" FSI Spanish language training 19,5 Santiago de los Caballeros Dominican Republic 7ice consul 19,5219,8 (overnment Revolutionaries Environment Haiti 7isas Columbia University" Atlantic Affairs study 19,8219,8 Campus unrest State Department" NATO Affairs 19,8219,9 Regional Military Affairs State Department" (erman Affairs 19,921981 US military presence in (ermany Ostpolitik Soviet policy Berlin Agreement East (ermany recognition Bonn (ermany" Aide to Ambassador Rush 198121982 Relations (erman neutrality issue Eastern Policy Berlin Soviets Berlin (ermany" Eastern Affairs Section 198221984 Communist Party Contacts with East (erman officials Relations with East (ermany established —Embassy Berlin“ Economy Russian2(erman relationship Environment Intelligence operations Felix Bloch State Department I.R" Pol2Mil European Affairs 1984 Cyprus task force Panama Canal negotiating team 198421988 Contadora negotiations Ambassador Ellsworth Bunker US military bases Torrijos Manuel Noriega Canal operations President Carter5s interest State Department Central European Affairs" (erman desk 198821989 Chancellor Helmut Schmidt Human Rights Western Europe security David Rockefeller East (erman relations The Swiss Oslo Norway" DCM 198921981 Political parties Missiles .ATO military facilities .orth Sea Oil Swedes Relations .orway5s moral stance Environment (overnment Marriage Bonn (ermany" Political Counselor 198221985 Ambassador Arthur Burns Political Parties (overnment (reen Party Berlin East (ermany Powers2Abel exchange —Freedom“ Bridge Reagan5s Bitburg visit Pretoria2Capetown South Africa" DCM 198521988 Apartheid Relations .elson Mandela P.W. Botha —Homelands“ US Ambassadors African National Congress Europeans views on apartheid Steve Biko Business community Sanctions Israel connection Environment Winnie Mandela Ambassador to the (erman Democratic Republic 198821990 East (ermany Berlin document center West Berlin Mission Economy Stasi Erich Honecker Soviets Berlin Wall Environment Media Checkpoint Charlie Security Hungarian2Austrian border opened Tourists Asylum seekers Churches (orbachev Anniversary celebrations Poland5s elections Perestroika and glasnost Family Embassy operations East (erman Army Wolfgang 7ogel Helsinki Accords (rowing popular discontent (rowing political change 7isiting 7IP5s Berlin Wall falls (erman unification Contacts with allies Secretary of State Baker5s visit Potsdam meeting Political parties Soviet troops Elections Modrow Ambassador 7ernon Walters .ATO Currency Berlin embassy closed Ambassador to Turkey 199121994 6urdish problem Relations (reeks and Turks US Military Economy Desert Storm President OAal Armenians Minorities Church Cyprus Palestinians Balkans Abdullah Ocalan Security Operation Provide Comfort Bewish community Syrians Economy Politics Prime Minister Tansu Ciller (erman relations Retirement 1994 INTERVIEW Q: Today is May 12, 2003. This is an interview with Richard Bar(ley, and this is being done on behalf of the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training. Is there a middle initial in there? BAR6CEDE Des a —C.“ Q: Richard C. Bar(ley. All right so, did I mention this is Charles Stuart Kennedy. nyway, you go by Dic(. BAR6CEDE I do. Q: Let-s start at the beginning. Could you tell me when and where you were born, and then we will tal( a little about the family. BAR6CEDE Des I was born December 23 1932 in Chicago Illinois. However the family was living in Rockford Illinois at the time. Mother went to Chicago for the birth because my uncle was a doctor. Q: I was 1.28 in Chicago. Let-s tal( what about the Bar(ley side, you father. Do you (now sort of where the Bar(leys came from and then your father. BAR6CEDE Well so many of us we are not exactly sure how long ago they came over. Obviously they are of English extraction. My father was born in Denver Colorado in 1904. His father I think was born in Montrose Colorado. I don5t have the full records of that. I don5t exactly know the date. But the family had come west from Massachusetts. I don5t know exactly when. Q: 0hat was your family doing in Colorado? BAR6CEDE Well my grandfather was a salesman for the (reat Northern Stove Company. What his father did I do not know. He died very early and my father lived with his grandparents in Denver. (randmother remarried after that and my father went off to sea as a young man. Although he was too young he joined the Navy. When they found out he was released from duty. At that time his mother had remarried and was living in Chicago so he moved to Chicago lived at the DMCA worked first for Western Union and then got a job at the Bohn Hancock Cife Insurance Company as a clerk. He worked for the Bohn Hancock Cife Insurance Company for the rest of his life until retirement at ,3. He died shortly after retirement. Q: 1n your mother-s side, what was your mother-s maiden name? BAR6CEDE My mother5s maiden name was Boddiger Chrystal Boddiger. She was born in 190, in a little town called Polo Illinois which is very close to Dixon Illinois. Her father was a small time farmer but he speculated and did day jobs. Anyway she grew up there and after high school she was a teacher in a little one room schoolhouse near Polo Illinois. Then she went on to be college she studied at Benoit College for a year or so during which time she met and married my father. Q: 2our father had not gone to college? BAR6CEDE No. He didn5t finish high school on time but he did finish high school when I was a young man. My mother actually did not finish college until she was 54 years old when she got her bachelors degree. She became a teacher" she got a teaching certificate and taught on and off throughout most of my life. Q: Then basically you grew up in Roc(ford? BAR6CEDE No when I was born we were living in Rockford Illinois which I think is the second largest city in Illinois right now. Then my father was transferred I think it was about 193, or 538 to Milwaukee. We lived in Milwaukee for seven years and in 1943 he was transferred to Detroit. Housing was difficult to find at that time so my mother my sister and I lived for a year with my grandfather in Polo Illinois. Then we moved to Detroit in 1944 and there I went to grade school high school and then on to Michigan State University. Q: In elementary school, you were going mainly to the Milwau(ee school? BAR6CEDE Well I started off in the Milwaukee school district. Dou know I don5t remember too much about that. The memories really began very strongly when I lived in this little town of Polo from 542 to 544. A small boy in a small country town is pretty wonderful. Q: No schooling there? BAR6CEDE I don5t think anybody thought about it. They had a fairly good school system a very strong emphasis on the basics. Dou had smart kids dumb kids. Dou didn5t have in those days gifted and talented and disadvantaged. Dou just taught everybody. The Detroit school system I think was really Fuite good at that time. I certainly had no complaints. I remember in high school we had some rather advanced kind of a courses. I did very well in high school. Then of course because we were not a particularly wealthy family and my sister was two years older when it came time to go to college we went to state colleges. I went to Michigan State. Q: 0ell in Detroit, do you recall any particular interests that you had in school. BAR6CEDE Oh yeah like every kid I was interested in sports. I was a little guy so being interested in sports was not particularly realistic although I played them with great vigor. But I loved football particularly. I was scrappy but not large enough to be of much use. I went out for football and when it became clear I wasn5t going to excel I became more interested in my studies and I did all right. I particularly liked the liberal arts. I recall that I always loved history and literature. I didn5t particularly like math. Sounds like a foreign service officer. Q: 0ere you much of a reader? BAR6CEDE Always. Our whole family my mother even my father were very intense readers. I hardly recall a time through my life that I didn5t have a book in my hand. Q: 0as your family where did they fit in the political spectrum? Do you recall? 0ere they interested in politics in table tal(, that sort of thing? BAR6CEDE Both of them came very much out of the middlewestern Republican tradition which I think was at that time not unusual. There was a large association even in those days with the Civil War. My great grandfather fought in the Civil War. They were certainly as conservative as they came although they were I think forward moving. When they moved t the city there were some changes as this certainly seemed to be a more fertile area for democratic activities with large minority groups and labor unions particularly in a place like Detroit which was very strongly democratic. I do recall my father at one time telling me that he had voted for Roosevelt but he didn5t talk very loudly about it.