The Association of Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project AMBASSADOR JEFFREY DAVIDOW Interviewed by: Charles Stuart Kennedy Initial interview date: March 3, 2012 Copyright 2013 ADST TABLE OF CONTENTS Background Born and raised in Boston, assachusetts. University of assachusetts at Amherst: University of innesota: University of Hyderabad, India Entered the Foreign Service in1969. A-100 Course State Department: Foreign Service Institute: Spanish language study 1969 arriage Health issue .uatemala City, .uatemala: Rotation0Political Officer 1910-1912 Sean Holly murder Ambassador Nathanial Davis 4arry Pe55ullo .uerrilla conflicts Security Operations Ambassador 6illiam Bowdler Political reporting Environment 4eo Crampsey 8iolence Cuba American hippies Consular cases Social life 6ife9s activities Birth of daughter Indians Anti-guerilla activity Presidential elections .uatemala relations with neighbors 1 Santiago, Chile Political Officer: 1912-1914 Ambassador Nathaniel Davis Allende Economy Environment .overnment Socialist Party Rich0Poor division Political parties US policy Castro visit Expropriation of American firms —Sandalistas“ Relations with government Anti-Allende parties ilitary Coup (September, 1913) Black market Contacts with government Eduardo Frei Christian Democrats0 ilitary relations Ford Foundation ilitary brutality following coup Pinochet Carlos Pratt Human Rights Allende9s death Allegations of US involvement in coup US policy Contacts ichael Harrington 4iving environment Congressional delegations Embassy reporting State0CIA relations Press Cape Town, South-Africa: Political Officer 1914-1916 Ambassador Aohn Hurd Ambassador 6illiam Bowdler Apartheid Racial environment Reform debate Regional change SO6ETO uprising Contacts 2 Afrikaners De Blerk Bantustans Embassy0black relations andela International communism 4ibya Pretoria Racial environment Annual move to Pretoria 8isits to black townships Extent of white domination Israel Social life Universities Stephen Solar5 4ocal press 4ocal contacts African Homelands Buthele5i African National Congress (ANC) US trade Soweto assacre State Department: Desk Officer, Rhodesia and Namibia Affairs: 1916-191C Office of Southern African Affairs Rhodesia settlement Henry Bissinger Frank 6isner 6ork load .eneva Conference Bill Edmonson Aonas Savimbi Britain0South Africa relations Dick oose South Africa 6hites in Dimbabwe US Africa policy Br5e5inski Rhodesia sanctions Salisbury, Rhodesia: Special ission 1919-19C0 British Operations Environment u5orewa government Family 3 Establishing office Salisbury becomes Harare Schooling 4ondon (4ancaster House) Conference Harare, Dimbabwe: Deputy Chief of ission 19C0-19C2 Ambassador Robert Beeley Steve Solar5 Dimbabwe Independence celebration US delegation Hope for Dimbabwe Aesse Helms Capitol Hill: Congressional Fellowship: (seEuence interruption) 191C-1919 Representative Aim Aeffords Executive04egislative tension Senator ax Baucus American Free Trade Association hearing NAFTA Harvard University, Center for International Affairs 19C2-19C3 Course of study 4ancaster House negotiations State Department: Director, African Regional Affairs 19C3-19C4 Policy planning State Department: Director, Office of Southern Africa Affairs 19C4-19C6 Chet Crocker policies .eorge Shult5 Constructive engagement Congressional views Other Agency views Department of Defense Clark Amendment Aonas Savimbi UNITA South Africa developments Reagan Caracas, 8ene5uela: Deputy Chief of ission 19C6-19CC .overnment Relations Ambassador Otto Reich President 4usinchi 8ene5uela0Cuba relations 4 Democracy Oil Corruption Chave5 Political contacts 4ocal press Cuba relations Caraca5o Columbia drug gangs Columbia border dispute 8isas Environment USAID programs Central America Private investment .uns Drug transit United States Ambassador to Dambia 19CC-1990 Dambia recent history President Benneth Baunda .overnment African National Congress (ANC) Relations South Africa Environment UNITA Facilitator for regional peace negotiations The Freedom Charter ANC hostility to US beki ANC0USSR relations ANC0South Africa relations 4usaka Family inerals AIDS Parliament Dambia relations with neighbors Foreign policy 8IP visitors Economy Diplomatic corps State Department: Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Africa 1990-1992 Operations 5 Environment Eritrea Hank Cohen Baker row 4iberia Civil 6ar Regional embassy crises and evacuations Somali embassy shoot-up and evacuation Aim Bishop o5ambiEue peace negotiations South Africa United States Ambassador to 8ene5uela 1993-1996 Pre-elections government Political environment President Caldera ilitary Political parties US worries of coup Elections Chave5 6ealth distribution Corruption US investment in 8ene5uela 8ene5uela investments in US Oil additive problem 8iolence and criminality 4ocal contacts Embassy USIS programs Haiti Colombia .uyana Drugs State Department: Assistant Secretary for 4atin America 1996-199C Staffing adeline Albright .eneral relations OAS Democracy Charter 6ashington Consensus Economic integration Free Trade Area of the Americas Cuba Area military coups Cuba Helms-Burton legislation 6 Cuba embargo Cuban immigrant policy —Certification process“ exico .eneral Barry cCaffrey Attorney .eneral Reno Colombia yles Frechette Southern Cone Countries President Clinton trip F-16 fighter planes for Chile 6ashington friction environment Ecuador-Peru border agreement Aapanese Peru embassy sei5ure Argentine currency Bolivia Ecuador —almost“ coups —Difficult“ Bra5il exican Nationalism .uatemala Panama Canada Ambassador Bill Swing Haiti Thomas — ack“ c4arty Special Representative for 4atin America in 6hite House Aesse Helms06illiam 6eld relations United States Ambassador to exico 199C-2002 Complication of relations Drug 6ar Sources of friction DEA operations Operation Casablanca Personal relations Embassy composition Consulates Former ambassadors Anti-narcotics Coordinating US Agencies9 operations Embassy operations exican government operations Difficulties in government cooperation Corruption —Decertification“ issue Consulates9 visa load 7 Border crossing cards (—visa lasers“) Americans in trouble PRI ( exican Political Party) exican Drug 4ords PRI (National Action Party) 8icente Fox Bush0Fox meeting Immigration meetings exico0US differences Amnesty0legali5ation Dilemma 4ocal press Consular (protection) issues Border patrol problems Aorge Castaneda exico9s 9011 response exico opposes IraE 6ar Foreign inistry anti-Americanism Rio Treaty Foreign inister Castenada exico0US ties strengthened Embassy political reporting Areas of cooperation exico views on US drug problem NAFTA (North America Free Trade Agreement) Colorado River water Political Parties Universities Harvard University 2002-2003 Teaching, Research, 6riting Retirement 2003 Institute of the Americas, San Diego, Organi5ing Summit of the Americas Cohen Consultancy .roup, U of C, San Diego INTERVIEW Q: Jeff, let&s start at the beginning. (hen and where were you born) DA8IDO6: Boston, on Aanuary 26th, 1944. 8 Q: All right. Let me start on your father&s side and then we&ll move to your mother&s side. (hat do you ,now about your father&s side of the family) DA8IDO6: 6ell, my father was born in Fall River. His two older brothers, just separated from him by a couple of years, had been born in Russia. So the family was new to the States when my father was born. His father died when he was a young boy, about 15-years-old. And he came to Boston, went to Northeastern University 4aw School at night, but graduated in the middle of the Depression and never really practiced law. He wound up running a small business for the rest of his life. y mother was also born in the States. Her family were recent immigrants as well. Q: They were immigrants from where) DA8IDO6: On my mother9s side, they came from 8ienna, but they had probably recently come there from somewhere else in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. And she grew up in Boston, married my father. I have one older sister who was born about six years before me. Q: That&s all right. OK. (ell, let&s tal, a bit about being a ,id, what sort of elementary school and all. (hat school were you going to) DA8IDO6: I went to the Edward Devotion School, which although it sounds like it might have been a Catholic school, was actually the name of public elementary school in the Coolidge Corner area of Brookline. Edward Devotion was one of the early settlers of Brookline. Q: .eah, they had those sort of biblical sounding names. DA8IDO6: That9s correct. Q: (hat was the neighborhood li,e) I mean was it basically Jewish or was it Irish or -- DA8IDO6: Almost entirely Aewish and the homes were a combination of apartment houses and one or two-family homes on sort of leafy streets. It was a pleasant environment actually. Q: Oh yes. .ou didn&t have the three-dec,ers there, did you) DA8IDO6: No. It was a bit more upscale, not by much, than the neighborhoods with triple deckers. Q: How about what were the teachers li,e) DA8IDO6: It9s very interesting. They were almost entirely, in elementary school, spinster 6ASP ladies. There was a great emphasis on discipline. Not, not too much, but there was some of that. And when I think of it, it9s interesting that for these children and 9 grandchildren of immigrants, the teaching was really Euite waspy in a sense, a lot of 4ongfellow and other New Englanders. I remember singing songs like, —The British .renadiers,““ tow, row, row, row,“ that kind of -- Q: Oh yes, I thin, of Ale1ander. DA8IDO6: Ges. I also remember when