The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project Information Series SERBAN VALLIMARESCU Interviewed by: Cliff Groce Initial interview date: May 25, 1989 Copyright 1998 A ST TABLE OF CONTENTS Forced Departure from Tripartite Allied Control Commission Entrance into State Department Family illness disrupts Department of State ser ice, Joins VOA in New York (The Loyal American Underground( House Committee On Un-American Acti ities ,cCarthy uphea als. .orea Recalled to ,ilitary Duty VOA mo e from New York to 0ashington 1234 VOA Romanian Language Ser ice 1233 ,e5ico, Information Officer 1236 E5tra curricular acti ities assigned by Ambassador Hill Presidential isits CODELs Issues Dominican Republic, Public Affairs Officer 1261 Public Affairs Ad iser for Latin American 8ureau 1263 Island of Chami:al Chaos In Santo Domingo Paris, Deputy Public Affairs Officer 1266 Chip 8ohlen Shri er 1 Head Of European Di ision, VOA 1262 Inter-Ethnic conflict VOA Program Director position VOA Correspondents Newspaper Correspondents National Security Council (NSC) 1273 Secretary of State Rogers and Henry .issinger Crisis in Chile VOA, Deputy Director 1274 VOA Director .en Giddens USIA Director James .eogh Deputy Director, USIA, Office of Policy and Plans (IOP) 1273 Edward R. ,urrow Award ,adrid, Public Affairs Officer 1278 (Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation( President Carter's Visit 8uenos Aires, Public Affairs Officer 1282 CODEL O'Neal ,ilitary Rebellions U.S. role in support of Argentine Presidents Retirement 1287 INTERVIEW Q: What were the circumstances, (al, of your joining the international information programB Vallimarescu's Forced Departure From Tripartite Allied Control Commission In Romania And Entrance Into State Department VALLI,ARESCUC 0hen I was discharged from the army in 1243, I had come back from Romania where I had been a U.S. officer as part of the Tripartite Allied Control Commission, and I had gotten married to a Romanian childhood friend, Alice. The Russians PNGed me because I spoke Romanian and I knew too many people in 2 8ucharest. I knew what they were up toD I knew e erybody from the king on down. So they said I was spying and they PNGed me, and I had to lea e within a week. 8ut I had to lea e my wife behind, because the Russians wouldn't gi e her an e5it isa. I arri ed in 0ashington and was discharged at Camp Lee, Virginia, and then got a job with the State Department in the Office of Research and Intelligence. In the meantime, I was pulling all the strings I could to try to get Alice out of Romania. It too about si5 months. Although how she got out may not be pertinent to this, it may be amusing as an indication of how one can deal successfully with the Russians. One day the e5ecuti e officer of our military mission in 8ucharest, a Colonel Farnsworth -- God bless himD he was something of an eccentric -- called into his office the Russian liaison officer we had there, Lt. ,arie . 8y the way, I was delighted to hear later that he defected a few months after that. Anyway, he called him in and said, (Now look Lieutenant, if your people don't gi e ,rs. Vallimarescu an e5it isa within a week, we are going to hold as hostages in 0ashington the wi es of two members of your military mission.( He had no authori:ation to do anything like this. 8ut within 48 hours Alice got her permit to lea e. So that's an indication of how effecti ely this kind of tactic works. Family Illness Disrupts Department of State Ser ice, 8ut E entually Vallimarescu Joins VOA In New York So Alice did arri e in 0ashington. I was working for the Office of Research and Intelligence. And then Alice got sick -- tuberculosis -- and I think I was had then, because I found a doctor who said that surgery was necessary, major surgery. And they took two ribs out of her. She was in the hospital for something like three months. And we found out later that it was really not necessary. That set me back considerably financially. 8ut I was lucky enough that my father had been sent to Norway by .ing ,ichael as Romanian ,inister, chief of mission. He offered to pay for our transportation so we could stay in Oslo for as long as necessary, until Alice recuperated. She had to be taken on board the ship on a stretcher, and she had to lie down all the time across the ocean. Q: Did you take leave from the State Department? VALLI,ARESCUC No, I resigned. I just left the State Department because I didn't know how long it was going to take. 0e spent almost a year in Norway. And then father, being a man of con iction, resigned -- as he had during the Na:i period -- as Ambassador to Norway when Ana Pauker came in as foreign minister and Vyshinsky imposed a pro- Communist, pro-So iet go ernment. He was ob iously going to ha e to go back somewhere, to Argentina, and we had to go back to the States. 0e came back to the States -- no job -- and we stayed with some ery good friends of ours. He was a student at Princeton, and they were li ing in sort of a barracks type of thing, or Euonset hut. 0e stayed with them for about three months, and I was drawing unemployment 3 compensation. Then we mo ed to New York, to a cold water flat, fourth floor, a rather rundown building, and all we had was a hot plate. I was gi en a job of translation by (0ild 8ill( Dono an, who had been my o erall boss during the war when I was with the OSS. He had a law firm, and I was gi en the job of translating from Romanian into English a whole bunch of legal documents in ol ing the Standard Oil of New Jersey claim against the Romanian go ernment for taking o er their installations. I think the General did that just out of, I don't know, consideration for an e5- colleague. In the meantime I heard that there was such a thing as the Voice of America, and I figured that I would apply. I did apply, but I didn't hear a thing, not a word, for almost a year. In the meantime I had opened up my own little translation office. I had on contract a bunch of students from Columbia who could do anything from Hindi to Guarani -- but I ne er had a Guarani translation. 8ut that didn't do too well. I was sharing an office with an old Army buddy of mine who was in the import-e5port business. Then one day I was walking down 0est 37th Street and ran into an old friend who was a Time correspondent -- his name was Shea -- and he says, (Val, what are you doingB( I said, (0ell, I'm trying to get a job with the Voice of America, but I ha en't heard from them.( He said, (The Voice of AmericaB I know the director ery well. I'll talk to Foy .ohler. Gi e me your address, your phone number.( 8y then we had mo ed out of the cold water flat and into a warm water flat, with an ele ator. So, lo and behold -- it pro es that this works here, too, and not just in Latin AmericaC if you know the right people you get the job -- within a week I get a call from the personnel office at the Voice of America, saying, (0ould you like to come inB 0e ha e a job for you in the Romanian Ser ice as translator-announcer.( And I said, (0ould I like to come inF( So that's how I started. About four months later I got a letter in the mail from VOA Personnel, saying, (Your application has been recei ed. Unfortunately, there are no acancies, but we ha e put it on file and as soon as there is an opening we will let you know.( Q: I had e,actly the same e,perience. ./aughter0 VALLI,ARESCUC 0ell, anyway, that's how it all started. I was a translator-announcer, GS-7, in 1242. I had some interesting e5periences during those days. Q: What was life like in a relatively small Service 11 a speciali2ed Service at that? VALLI,ARESCUC It was a small Ser ice. I think there were about -- the two Geider girls, ,unteano, myself, the chief, who was Cehan... Enter One, Paul Deac, The Formation 0ithin VOA Of (The Loyal American Underground.( Troubles 0ith House Committee On Un-American Acti ities, And Ultimately, The ,cCarthy Uphea als. 4 Q: Was Paul Deac there? VALLI,ARESCUC Paul Deac was the producer, but he was in ol ed in many other things, mostly with Cohn and Schine. 0e're talking about 1230, rightB 0hen was the Cohn and Schine ThingB Q: Cohn and Schine came about 452, 453, as I recall. VALLI,ARESCUC All right. 8ut Paul was already on board. He was a lousy producer, by the way. Life in the Ser ice was ery pleasant, because there were these two sisters. I mention them because they played a part in my little encounter with Paul DeacC the Geider girls. George ,unteano was a refugee, as it wereD he didn't yet ha e his green card. It was a ery, ery congenial, pleasant atmosphere. There's one story that tells you a lot about the United States of America.