The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project AMBASSADOR RONALD D. PALMER Interviewed by: Charles Stuart Kennedy Initial interview date: May 15, 1992 Copyright 1998 ADST TABLE OF CONTENTS Background aised in PA and Washington DC Howard University and Johns Hopkins (SAIS) Studied in France IN , Far ,ast 19.701910 FSO 19.7 Operations Center Djakarta, Indonesia 191001912 Political4,conomic officer 5ocal politics Ambassador Howard P. Jones Sukarno ,mbassy reporting 8uala 5umpur, 9alaysia 191201913 ,conomic (Commodities) officer Health problems 5ocal conditions Chinese influence Communism Vietnam influence Department of State 19130191. Operations Center Vietnam and Diem Staff Assistant Youth Committee Cultural Presentation Program 5ucius Battle 1 Copenhagen, Denmark 191.01917 Cultural Affairs officer West Point 191701919 Faculty member Views on Vietnam ,A, Philippine Affairs 191901971 Deputy Director US bases issue 9anila, Philippines 19710197. Political 9ilitary officer 9arcos regime Ambassador Byroade 9artial law Ambassador Sullivan Philippine military Fall of Saigon Humanitarian Affairs 197.01971 Coordinator =Selling“ Human ights policies 5ome, Togo 197101978 Ambassador President ,yadema US policies and relations Peace Corps P, 197801981 Deputy Assist Secretary Foreign Service training 9inorities Discipline in Foreign Service Acting Director General 8uala 5umpur, 9alaysia 198101983 Ambassador US relations and interests Vietnam refugees Narcotics issue AS,AN Prime 9inister 9ahathir 2 Center for Strategic Studies 198301981 Diplomatic0In0 esidence Port 5ouis, 9auritius 198101989 Ambassador US interests INTERVIEW Q: This is May 15, 1990. This is an interview with Ambassador Ronald D. Palmer at his office at George ,ashington -niversity. The interview is being done on behalf of the .oreign Affairs Oral History Program and I am Charles Stuart Kennedy. Mr. mbassador I wonder if you would give me something about your bac1ground22where you come from, where you were educated, etc.3 PA59, A I am from southwestern Pennsylvania. 9y fatherBs family comes from Fayette County and my motherBs family from Westmoreland County. 9y paternal grandmotherBs family is from German Township which, as the name implies, was settled by Germans. Her family dates from 1710 in the region, my motherBs family comes from FauCuier County in Virginia and settled in Pennsylvania in about 1900. I was actually born in Uniontown, Pennsylvania. This was an area through which the Underground ailroad went from the early part of the 19th century until the end of the Civil War. Of course, some people say that the Underground ailroad did not eDist until it was officially declared to eDist by William 5loyd Garrison or someone like that. Q: 4ut it had to have been going for a much longer time. PA59, A Oh, Cuite, Cuite. I think I may have mentioned that I have been doing some family history research and it is Cuite interesting to see the waDing and waning of the black population. You see families in the census which were simple farmers and ten years later they have slaves and free folk. It is Cuite clear that people are escaping from Virginia and coming up into that area from the South. This area of southwest Pennsylvania was the area through which the old national highway went. Q: The 1820s was... PA59, A Yes, that is right. Before the railroad. Q: ...the big public wor1s of that period. 3 PA59, A Yes. And indeed, the area can rightly be called the first frontier. Certainly from the time of the founding of the epublic, probably until the time of the railroad in the 1830s. So my family is a product of that frontier. Certainly there were African Americans but there were also Indians, Germans, Irish and at least one French progenitor. Of course this was also French territory. Q: The period before Fort Pitt was put in. PA59, A That is right. Well, Fort Pitt was Fort DuCuesne. It is also an area of considerable interest to historians because, George Washington made two trips through that region before he accompanied General Braddock in 17... Braddock was defeated terribly. Washington was lucky to escape with his life. Then, of course, Washington came back to Fayette County with General Forbes in 17.8. Forbes had a larger and better organiFed force and, as you know, the French simply withdrew from Fort DuCuesne and it was taken by the British with their colonial helpers, after which that area was definitely British. There was terrible Indian fighting, as you are probably aware. Indeed, you may recall PontiacBs War which followed the end of the French and Indian War in 1713. PontiacBs War ended in 171. and was the last major effort on the part of the Indians in the ,ast. Pontiac, of course, came from the 5ake 9ichigan area. Following the defeat of the Indians at that point, the real fighting then increasingly shifted West with the second frontier. Q: This is very interesting, but let5s move on to your career. Could you tell a little bit of how you grew up3 PA59, A Actually, I was coming to that. Q: O1ay. PA59, A Where I grew up, at the time I grew up, was still very much an area that was influenced deeply by the 19th century. Q: 6ou were born when3 PA59, A I was born in 1932. I remember very well, of course, that those were the days before electricity, indoor plumbing, etc. So my early life, as I think back on it, has certainly resonances of life as described in GHuckleberry Finn.G I was the young man out with his dog walking across the countryside, etc. I went to a number of schools because my parents separated when I was young and I lived with grandparents. But I was fortunate to be an intelligent child, one whom librarians and ,nglish teachers liked. So I was always the first one to be given access to the new books that came along in that period. E I want to make the point, not withstanding the Depression, that the schools in Pennsylvania were Cuite good, Cuite vigorous. I left Pennsylvania in 19E2 to come to Washington, DC to live with an uncle who was a doctor and who had come from the same region. So I was able to make comparisons between country Pennsylvania schools and Washington, DC schools. At that time Washington schools were Cuite good. Certainly, as I look back the Pennsylvania country schools were Cuite good too. I went to a 30room country school in which initially I was in the third grade in a room with three grades. Then upon being promoted from the 3rd grade I went to another room where Eth, .th and 1th grades were. I was in the Eth grade which was a row of children. NeDt to that row was another row which was the .th grade and the 1th grade was the last couple of rows. Q: I went to a school at one point li1e that. PA59, A So, of course, the good student in the Eth grade, which I was, could complete his work and participate in the work of the .th grade and possibly even the 1th grade. It was the Oak Grove School outside Standard Shaft Number One of the Henry Clay Frick Company which was a small mining camp of about 30 or E0 families. It was a good school. I had to walk a couple of miles or so. Of course, in those days one didnBt think anything about it. 5ife has become more compleD in contemporary times. Through grade and high school I would say that the important thing to me was that I was always a reader and I suppose an obedient child. I was the sort of child who responded well to teachers...I responded well to good treatment. When I was given bad treatment I responded badly. In high school I discovered athletics and became a miDture of athlete and student. ,ventually I came down here to Howard University, Washington, DC, in December 19E9 and began studying...19.0019.E. Q: ,hat was your field3 PA59, A I was working on a laundry truck so I started university in night school taking whatever they had to offer. Initially the courses that were available were language courses. I did French. Then eventually I started taking other things such as accounting and the like. For a while I thought I was going to be a business student. The combination of working full time and going to school part time didnBt work so eventually I turned it around to being a full time student and working part time. I still donBt see how I managed it. You heard me say that in the beginning I was taking one or more courses and somehow I graduated in four years with two majors and a handful of minors. 9y majors were French and economics. And I had minors in Spanish, government, and accounting. I finished in 19.E. Q: Sounds li1e you were ripe for military service or something li1e that. PA59, A Well, that is very interesting. One thing I didnBt mention was that Howard was under the 5and Grant system and as a conseCuence I had to take OTC. So, as long as one was in OTC, one was not drafted. I was in OTC from 19.00.2. 9y last two years of college I was probably protected by some very nice ladies at my draft board who were aware that I was struggling, that I was a good student. They seemed to have found a way to fill their draft Cuota with people who were making, I must assume in their eyes, less of an effort than I was making because, although I was prime for the draft during the 8orean War, I was never drafted.