The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project Information Series WALTER ROBERTS Interviewed by: Cliff Groce Initial interview date: September 10, 1990 Copyright 1998 A ST TABLE OF CONTENTS Entry into government ork 1942 Office of Coordinator of Information Origin of title: ()oice of America* Creation of Separate Austrian Service triggered Mosco declaration 194, Differences in programming emphasis bet een .erman and specifically Austrian broadcasts Robert0s ork ith delegations preparing Austrian State Treaty leads to his transfer to State Department Austrian desk 1910 Robert goes to )ienna and organi3es transfer of information and cultural activities from Military High Commission to State Department control Transfers ne ly created 4.S. information agency as policy officer in Office of European Affairs Change in 4SIA Area Office Functions from initial policy only to line operation responsibilities Roberts assigned as country PAO: 6ugoslavia 1970 Preliminary discussion of events during Robert0s period as acting Director, European Affairs Office Ne 6ugoslav press la nearly puts 4SIS out of business 1970 Robert Designs (:alkan Solution* to circumvent press la (Pregled* 4SIS publication in 6ugoslavia takes a bath in Danube 1 Tito0s visit to 4.S. and subsequent visit to American Embassy in :elgrade 197, Story of getting a Fulbright exchange program established bet een 1974 4.S. and 6ugoslavia Averell Harriman0s visit seeking Tito0s acceptance of role of mediator, )ietnam 1971 Diplomat in residence :ro n 4niversity 1977- 1977 .eneva 1977 Public Affairs advisor to 4.S. ambassador at 4N Roberts appointed Deputy Associate Director 4SIA for research and assessment 1979 Later becomes Associate Director Friction bet een Media/Area Affairs and Research officer Roberts offered position ith center for Strategic International Studies, accepts and retires INTERVIEW 1942: Entry Into 4.S. .overnment Information Aork Office Of Coordinator Of Information (COIC ": Walter, what were the circumstances of your joining the International information program' RO:ERTS: In 1941, I had a position as research assistant at Harvard La School, and if my memory serves me ell, shortly after the outbreak of the ar--meaning, of course, the 4nited States entering the ar on December 7, 1941--I ran into a professor of history hom I had met before, Ailliam Langer. Langer apparently as at that time associated ith Col. Ailliam Donovan, ho as then the head of the Office of the Coordinator of Information. He asked me hether I ould be interested in joining the Coordinator of Information in a .erman-language capacity. He said that they ere looking for .erman- born people ho ere American citi3ens. Aell, I had to tell him, number one, I as not a born .erman but a born Austrian and, number t o, that regrettably I as not yet an American citi3en. He nevertheless seemed to persevere, and ithin a fe eeks--I ould say early in the year, 1942--I received a letter from the personnel office of the Coordinator of Information asking me hether I could come do n to Aashington for an intervie . I remember that I took the night train from :oston to Aashington. I as 2 intervie ed, and apparently things ent ell. A fe eeks later, I as told to report to Aashington. That as--if my memory serves me right--later changed: I should report to Ne 6ork. I joined the COI in the spring of 1942, and my first assignment, to the best of my recollection, as not in the program department but rather in hat I think as called the propaganda analysis section. My first job as to reconstruct the directive that the propaganda ministry in :erlin issued to .erman ne spapers and radio stations. The instruction as for me to read not only the .erman ne spapers but also the transcripts of .erman domestic and foreign language broadcasts. :ased on hat I read, I reconstructed every eek the .erman propaganda directive and gave that directive to Dames Aarburg, ho I recall as COIEs main policy officer. The .erman directive ould read something like, FStress to .erman audiences that the ar is going ell, that e have achieved these victories in the 4-boat ar and in the air, and that e are inning battles in North Africa.F Or, FTry to minimi3e shortagesF, and so on. Aarburg then used that directive to formulate the daily guidance notes to the )oice of America, and the eekly directive, hich as more encompassing. As I said, that as the first job I had. Some time in 194, I as transferred to the .erman-language section. My recollection is that hen the .erman-language service as started in February 1942, there ere no special broadcasts to Austria. In April 1942, ho ever, one broadcast eekly directed at Austrian orkers as instituted. The first head of the .erman desk as a man ith the name of Hoellering. ": Who was an Austrian. RO:ERTS: I donEt think so. I believe he as a former .erman. He as, I think, later succeeded by Hans Meyer. ": What about William Harlan Hale' Houseman lists him as the first director of the German service. RO:ERTS: I thought that :ill Hale had a position one notch higher than head of the .erman desk. ": Well, of course, Mr. Houseman's memory failed him on several counts, too. RO:ERTS: It is a fact, of course, that :ill Hale as the first broadcaster in .erman. His .erman as almost fla less. And as you kno , there as at that time a very vivid debate, both ithin the ::C and the )OA, as to hether it as a good idea to have .erman-born announcers. The ::C persevered much longer in letting only :ritishers speak--some of them spoke .erman very ell, like Lindley Fraser--so that the .erman listener as a are that it as an Englishman ho as talking to him or her and not an emigre. 3 ": That was Houseman's position, he says in his boo,, regarding -.A, too. He wanted to use Americans who had a trace of an accent, so as not to be thought to be a /traitor./ Origin Of Title: F)oice Of AmericaF RO:ERTS: Exactly. And on February 24, 1942, Ailliam Harlan Hale as the one ho broadcast in .erman. At that time, nobody referred to the )oice of America yetG this as not a designation that had yet been created. It as the international broadcasting service of the Coordinator of Information. ": The first German show said, /We bring you voices from America./ RO:ERTS: Exactly. And the ords that ere used ere FStimmen aus Amerika.F Then later on--here my memory is not very firm--somebody suggested the designation F)oice of America,F hich then became permanent. ": The script I have of that first broadcast has four different voices on it, including Artur Schnabel's son reading a 0uote from Stalin. There was a man named Winter, and one named Kappel, and William Harlan Hale. RO:ERTS: To come back for a minute, you may very ell be right that at the beginning :ill Hale may have been head of the .erman desk and Hoellering perhaps the editor in chief. As I said, I as then in another department. ": Bauer says Hale was never chief of the German service. RO:ERTS: 4nfortunately, :ill is dead. One cannot ask him. :ut these things can be checked. Creation Of Separate Austrian Service Triggered Mosco Declaration Of October ,1, 194, The most important date in terms of establishing an Austrian service as the Mosco Declaration of October ,1, 194,, in hich the foreign ministers of the 4nited States, .reat :ritain and the Soviet 4nion declared that Austria as an occupied country that deserved to be liberated after the end of the ar--Fprovided,F et cetera and so forth. I remember at that time there ere about three or four of us ho ere doing Austrian material, but al ays under the guidance of the chief of the .erman section, Hans Meyer. I had the highest respect for Hans intellectually--a very good editor and riter. :ut Hans as an emotional person, and so ere a number of other people, particularly Martin Fuchs, ho as later to become the first head of the Austrian desk. He and Meyer often disagreed regarding the thrust of the broadcasts to Austria. I remember after the Mosco Declaration Martin Fuchs proposed that a separate Austrian desk be created, and indeed some time in 1944 the Austrian desk as established as a separate unit, but still ithin 4 the .erman section. The people I remember ho orked on the Austrian desk ere Martin Fuchs, Robert :auer, myself, and, on a purchase order basis, .eneral Dulius Deutsch -- ": A general on purchase order' RO:ERTS: A general on purchase order. He had been a general of the Social Democratic para-military organi3ation, the Schut3bund, and one of the leaders of the Social Democratic resistance in 19,4 against the then authoritarian Austrian government. The Austrian government on out over the Social Democrats and he left Austria, ent to Spain and became a member of the general staff of the Spanish Loyalists. After they ere defeated in the Spanish Civil Aar, he came to the 4nited States, I think via Paris. I have a little anecdote. It as late May 1944, and e ere all certain that there ould very soon be an invasion of Aestern Europe, the so-called Second Front. I as a youngster at that time, in my t enties, and I reverently asked Deutsch one day, ith map in hand, here he thought the Allies ould land in Aestern Europe.