The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project HUGH O. MUIR Interviewed by: C. Robert Beecham Initial interview date: June 2, 2011 Copyright 2012 ADST TABLE OF CONTENTS Background Born and raised in ashington, DC Syracuse University% Columbia University Newspaper e)perience-(1,55-1,../ 0oined the US1A in 1,.. US1A Head2uarters, ashington, DC3 1nformation Officer 1,..-1,., Travel with President 4yndon 0ohnson Operations 5orea D67 1,.8 Presidential campaigns President Richard Ni)on Paris :ietnam talks :ienna 4aw of the Sea negotiations 4ondon, England3 Assistant 1nformation Officer 1,70- c1,72 Operations ireless File Embassy staff Ambassador alter Annenberg ?These United States“ Contacts Ni)on state visit British young Conservatives US tour Coserve State Department3 1ntelligence A Research Bureau (1NR/% c1,72-1,73 Operations Center (Editor/ Operations Political synopsis for Asst. Sec. for 4atin America US1A Head2uarters, ashington DC 1,73-1,7, 1 hite House Ni)on resignation President Derald Ford UN 4aw of the Sea talks ireless File for1,,. Presidential Campaign President 0immy Carter :ice President European travel 6oscow SA4T talks :oice of America (:OA/ Head2uarters, ashington DC3 Editor 1,7,-1,81 Bernie 5aminski Alan Hale Operations Nairobi, 5enya3 Regional Chief, (:OA/ 1,81-1,83 Operations Carjacking and murder Travel Sudan refugees 5ampala East Africa Community Staff Foreign and US media representatives Family Coup attempt Eadhafi interview OrganiFation of African Unity 6engistu Haile 6ariam :OA Head2uarters, ashington, DC% Africa News Desk Officer 1,83-1,,1 Editing TDG to Nairobi (1,8./ Abidjan visit 1ndia Special project Nepal Retirement 1,,1 Reflections Congressional interests Changes President Eisenhower INTERVIEW 2 $: This is C. Robert Beecham, retired Foreign Service officer, tal(ing to an old friend, )ugh Muir, for the ADST ( ssociation for Diplomatic Studies, Oral History Series. The first .uestion I want to as( him is to give us a little rundown about his education and life and wor( e/perience before he joined the 1.S. Information Agency. 6U1R3 6y education. ell, 1 was reading in a newspaper the other day that many college degrees are worthless in the present work environment. And one of the degrees high on the list was journalism. $: Oh, you were a journalism ma0or2 6U1R3 1 was a journalism, and political science, dual-major at Syracuse University. Dot my BA in 1,54 and went on to the Columbia University Draduate School of 0ournalism and got my masterIs there. That was my academic education. But 1 learned that it also was a matter of not only what you know but also who you know. 1 went straight from Columbia to Boston to work for the old United Press JUPK. 1 was hired by a guy named 5urt 5ing, whom 1 had worked for during a summer job in Albany, when he was UP bureau chief there, and who now ran the Boston bureau. 1 worked from four to midnight on radio rewrite, turning newswire copy into radio copy. hen 1 finished my shift 1 took the 6TA J6assachusetts Transportation AuthorityK subway home to Cambridge, turned on the radio and listened to LmyL words come back. Heady stuff for a 22-year-old greenhorn. But UP ran low on money at the end of the summer and terminated by services, and 1 had to look for another job. $: And what year was that2 6U1R3 This is 1,55. $: That3s not when it was 1PI (1nited Press International,, right2 That3s later. 6U1R3 UP bought the 1nternational Press Service, the Hearst news wire, in 1,58, and became UP1. Anyway, 1n September 1,55 and 1 took a train down to New Gork City. 1 had an interview with a classic big-city editor, Bert 6acDonald, of the orld-Telegram and the Sun, the Scripps Howard flagship. 1ncidentally, Hollywood made a newspaper movie a couple of years later called LTeacherMs Pet,L and its main set was a copy of the orld-Telegram city room. The city editor was played by Clark Dable, who for plot reasons is forced to take a journalism course, taught by Doris Day. 1t came out in 1,58, part of my Lacademic journalismL e)perience. Fun film. And the e)teriors were shot at the Columbia 0-School. But 1 digress. $: 5ep. 6U1R3 So 1 sat down with 6acDonald. Right off, 1 made the vanity mistake of wearing my Phi Beta 5appa key on my tie-chain. He (like Dable/ had no use for university journalism students. e talked, but soon he said, L ell, maybe weMll call you.L Fair enough. As 1 got up to leave, however, 1 knew that one of my favorite professors at 3 Columbia -- many of whom were full-time journalists in the city -- was a top feature writer for the Telly. His name was Allan 5eller. 1 spotted him and went over to his desk. After a brief e)change he asked, ? hat the hell are you doing hereN“ 1 said, ? ell, looking for a job.“ ?Oh.“ He said. ?Gou wait a minute.“ He went off to 6acDonald, sat down, chatted with him for three or four minutes. Then 6acDonald motioned me over and said, ?All right, 1Ill give you a chance.“ He paused, and then said, before waving me away, L1 donMt ever want to see you wearing that key in this office again.L 1 have never worn it since. There 1 was a New Gork City newspaperman at the age of 23. For the ne)t 12 years 1 was a street reporter, a writer, and then an editor, and 1 had a wonderful time. 1 covered cops and fires, interviewed Eleanor Roosevelt and 0ohn Dlenn, the future astronaut (when he set a 1,58 transcontinental record as a 6arine jet pilot/. 1 covered the arrival in New Gork of the crippled liner Stockholm after it sank the liner Andrea Doria in a freak collision off Nantucket. 1 was at 4aDuardia Field after the overshoot of a jet liner that wound up in the bay. 1 scribbled notes in the N.0. 6eadowland marshes after a morning commuter train shot through an open bridge into the water. 6y regular beat was the subway system. 1 watched the last pillar of 6anhattanMs ancient Third Ave. Elevated pulled down. After eight years, 1 came inside, to be editor of the TellyMs Brooklyn section for the last four years of the paperMs life. 1n 1,.. economics caught up with newspapers in New Gork City. hen 1 moved to New Gork in October of M55 there were seven major dailies. hen 1 left in April of O.. -- after three major newspaper strikes -- there were three. The Daily 6irror had closed in October 1,.3. On April 22, 1,.., the orld-Telegram, and its Hearst competitor, the 0ournal-American, and the morning Herald Tribune all went down on the same day. Their managements had planned to combine the three into a daily 24-hour newspaper, with round-the-clock publication, to start the following 6onday. But over the weekend the mechanical unions, thinking that the plan would cost them some jobs, went on strike. The three papers were shut down and the merger plan was abandoned. The printers lost all the jobs. The three remaining newspapers in New Gork were, as they are today -- The New Gork Times, the Daily News, and the New Gork Post. Five months later, in September, a daily afternoon paper named the orld-0ournal-Tribune (which soon came to be called the idget/ appeared. But it closed in si) months. 1 had nothing to do with it. 1 had gone back to my hometown, ashington DC. $: To 6ashington2 6U1R3 1 was born and grew up there. 6y father was a proof reader at the Dovernment Printing Office. The son and grandson of coal miners, he had dropped out of school at age 14 to become a printerMs devil, for his small hometown paper in 4onaconing, in western 6aryland. Finally, after being drafted to fight in France during orld ar One, and then work on the Baltimore Sun, he wound up in ashington with the DPO in the 1,20s. So, logically -- noN -- 1 became a journalist. $: 1h7huh. 4 6U1R3 After coming down from New Gork, 1 went to work for The ashington Post as a swing editor, on the copy desk and the business desk. But 1 felt kind of burned out with newspapers and 1 began looking for something else. Dick alton, good friend of mine in New Gork, had been with :OA J:oice of AmericaK when it was based there. 1t had since moved its head2uarters to DC. 1 wondered what radio was all about. 1 went down to :OA, at its present home on 1ndependence Avenue at Fourth Street in Southwest, to the basement where the newsroom first was. $: 6ho was running the newsroom in those days2 6U1R3 Russ Splain. Nice guy, very personable, very friendly and very helpful. Dreat talker. e had a meeting of minds. But it was radio, and 1 had never really done radio. 6y writing stint in BostonN A brief memory. Russ and 1 talked and we agreed to meet again. But it occurred to me, ?Geah, but itMs radio. 1Mm a print guy.L So 1 wandered uptown, to 177. Pennsylvania Avenue -- one of the worldIs great addresses -- at that time the home of :OAMs parent, US1A Jthe U.S. 1nformation AgencyK. $: Did you (now anybody up there2 6U1R3 1 didnIt know a soul. But 1 walked in and knocked on a door. 1 donIt really remember who 1 talked to, but it certainly included Ed Carr, who ran 1PS Jthe 1nformation Press ServiceK newsroom in the Agency.