Keith, Kenton W

Keith, Kenton W

The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project AMBASSADOR KENTON W. KEITH Interviewed by: Charles Stuart Kennedy Initial interview date: June 4, 1998 Copyright 2 7 ADST TABLE OF CONTENTS Background Born and raised in ansas City, Missouri University of ansas US Navy Entered the Foreign Service in 1965 Beirut, Le,anon- Ara,ic Language Training 1965.1966 Baghdad, Ira0- USIA, 1otation Officer 1966.1962 Environment Soviet bloc 1elations Educational E3change Program Area politics Baath Party 1962 4ar Saddam Hussein Evacuation 5eddah, Saudi Ara,ia- Assistant Pu,lic Affairs Officer 1962.1968 Environment Am,assador Hermann Eilts English Language Center in 1iyadh Saudi students to US Saudi 1oyal family ing Faisal Status of women Saudi receptivity American Cultural Center 1elations with British and French programs Local press Alcohol 1 Istan,ul, Turkey- Cultural Attach9 1968.1922 :5ohnson Letter; resentment :Idea Clu,s; 1elations Anti.Americanism Islam German influence Environment Greece.Turkey issue Tangier, Morocco- 4estern Ara,ic Language Study 1922.1923 Environment ing Hassan 1elations Peace Corps 4estern Sahara Fez, Morocco- Branch Pu,lic Affairs Officer 1923.1924 Environment Culture Program French influence US military facilities 1elations with neigh,ors Damascus, Syria- Pu,lic Affairs Officer 1924.1922 1estoration of diplomatic relations University linkages 1elations Scholarships Cultural Agreement AID program Israel Hafez el.Assad American movies Baath Party Pan.Ara,ism Press Secret Police 4ashington, DC- USIAC- Near East, North African 1922.1928 & South Asian Affairs 1estructuring USIA 4ashington, DC- USIAC- Special Assistant to Deputy Director 1928.1980 Transferring StateBs Cultural Affairs functions to USIAC 2 President CarterBs policies Anwar Sadat visit to Israel COA Israel Smith.Mundt Act Congressional interest USIA.State coordination Educational E3change Program Iran revolution Personnel policies Foreign views of President Carter Brasilia, Brazil- Deputy Pu,lic Affairs Officer 1980.1983 Supervising branch posts President 1eagan visit 1elations Environment Economy Government 4ashington, DC USIA- Deputy Director for Near East and South Asia 1983.1985 Charles 4ick :Enemies List; Israel Engaging Israelis and Ara,s Li,ya Hafez al.Assad Syria relations Saddam Hussein Saudi Ara,ia Iran Paris, France- Senior Cultural Affairs Officer 1985.1988 Congressional views Ful,right Program Ministry of Education 1eagan popularity FranceBs :Third 4ay; Mitterrand Cultural Minister 5ac0ues Lang American Film Festival, Deauville Communists Le Pen American popular culture French film industry 3 Cairo, Egypt- Pu,lic Affairs Officer 1988.1992 USAID 1elations Husni Mu,arak American commercial presence Press relations Anti.Americanism uwait invasion Madrid Peace Conference Middle East Television Network influence Margaret Tutwiler Am,assador to Datar 1992.1995 1elations US commercial interests US military facilities Border disputes Oil Crown Price coup 4ashington D.C, USIA- Director, Near East/North Africa and 1995.1992 South Asia Consolidation, USIA and Department of State Senator Helms AID opts out Pro,lems and 0uestions Consolidation plusses and minuses 1etirement 1992 Islama,ad, Pakistan, 1ecall to active duty to Esta,lish a 2001 Coalition Information Center Countering misinformation Press briefing Accomplishments Future of Afghanistan INTERVIEW %: Today is June 4, 1998. This is an interview with Ambassador Kenton (. Keith. This is being done on behalf of the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training and I+m Charles Stuart Kennedy. I wonder if you could tell me when and where you were born. EITH: I was born Novem,er 12, 1939 in ansas City, Missouri. 4 %: Tell me a bit about your family. EITH: My parents were both musicians at a certain point. My father was a jazz in 1969 musician and my parents met when he was playing sa3ophone in a jazz orchestra and my mother was a singer. He remained a musician all his life. My mother changed professions along the way and became interested in housing issues, ended up working first for the state of Missouri and then for the city of ansas City in various capacities and housing authorities. She is now retired in Phoeni3, Arizona. My father passed away in 1969, %: Could you tell me a little bit about where you were educated and grew up, EITH: I grew up in ansas City and was educated in local schools, including Lincoln High School, which at the time was the college preparatory high school for black students in ansas City. There were a couple of other institutions which were more or less vocational schools. That was before schools were integrated in ansas City. %: Kansas City was pretty much a city of the old south, EITH: It was a city of the border south. Certain aspects of ansas City historically were 0uite close to aspects of southern culture, including racial segregation. But I think it would be inaccurate to call ansas City a pure southern city in the same sense as 5ackson, Mississippi would be, for e3ample. %: (hat about in elementary and high school - what sub.ects interested you the most, EITH: 4ithout 0uestion the su,jects that interested me most were things that had to do with literature, reading, civics, government. I did pretty well in math and science courses, too. But that was a lot more work and drudgery. English and literature have had a deep influence in my life. 4e had a teacher at Lincoln High School named Neil Herriford, a Harvard graduate. He was a man of great learning and sensitivity and he inspired a lot of us. He opened the door to literature. In eleventh grade, we did Mac,eth and that, for us inner.city kids, was a revelation. %: How were the libraries in Kansas City, EITH: Not bad at all. There wasnBt anything that I ever needed that I couldnBt find. Even after I had gone off to university, when I was back on vacation and working on papers of one kind or another, I found that either ansas CityBs pu,lic li,rary or one of its local branches had what I needed. %: (hat type of reading were you particularly interested in, EITH: I was interested in fiction and I was interested in foreign lands. Those were the 1950s and by the time I went off to high school, we had just emerged from the orean war. This was the McCarthy era,. I remem,er being glued to the television for the Army 5 McCarthy hearings. So, I did a lot of reading a,out that. I read a lot of fiction that had some reference to e3otic lands or places far away from ansas City, :Tales of the South Pacific,; for e3ample. %: This was a generation earlier, but did you read 0ichard Halliburton, EITH: Anything that had those themes was of interest to me. And of course we did a lot of movie going in those days. Certain films that left a deep impression (The Snows of ilimanjaro, ing SolomonBs mines, etc.I but the sum total of the films and the books and the articles and the television programs and so on, I seemed to e3tract from all of that a desire to travel, to work a,road, to be a,road, to have a very wide canvas. I didnBt know much a,out what I would find once I left home, but I knew that it was going to be a lot more interesting than ansas City, Missouri. %: Did this in any way influence where you were loo1ing to get further education, EITH: Not really. I was certainly interested in going to school as far away from ansas City as I could. For a com,ination of reasons, I ended up going 0uite close to ansas City. But the University of ansas, where I did eventually go to school, 30 miles from ansas City, was a very interesting place in those days. It was a kind of an island of li,eralism in a conservative sea composed of wheat and ansas farmers. I went for the first time to school with white students and had white teachers. But also there were a lot of foreigners. I had friends who were from South Asia, from Europe, from Africa. I got interested right away in international affairs. Those years and the people I met both in the faculty and among my student peers sealed the issue. I really wanted to know more a,out foreign cultures and governments. I had a very influential professor and counselor named Clifford etzel. He encouraged me not just toward the Foreign Service but specifically toward USIA. %: 2ou were at the 3niversity of Kansas from when to when, EITH: From 1952 to 1961. %: This was the beginning of the civil rights movement. There was Brown vs. the Board of Education in +54. (as this having an impact, EITH: Indeed yes. %: (ere you caught up in this at all, EITH: I was at one point vice president of an organization called the Group for the Improvement of Human 1elations, which was a multiracial civil rights organization on campus. It could hardly be called a radical group, ,ut it was active. Yes, we were out there on the prairie, but what was happening in the rest of the country was very much on our minds. 4e were mostly the children of the Eisenhower years in which very little activism took place. 4e were the 0uiet generation. It was a group of people who were 6 two or three years younger than I who came along and pushed the rest of us in a certain direction. But there were racial issues at the University of ansas and we got very much involved in them. So, yes, that was a period that was increasingly marked by the civil rights movement. %: +7 was the Kennedy campaign, which seemed to touch a core that hadn+t been touched before or since.

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