Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project COLE BLASIER Interviewed by: Peter Moffat Initial interview date: January 28, 2002 Copyright 2004 A ST TABLE OF CONTENTS Background U.S. Navy - World War II University of Illinois% Columbia University Entered Foreign Service - 1951 State Department - FSI - Serbo-Croatian ,anguage Training 1951 Belgrade, .ugoslavia - Consular/Political Officer 1951-1950 Tito Foreign relations Environment Ambassador 1eorge Allen Ambassador 2ake Beam Communist Party Other agencies Economy Soviets Bonn, 1ermany - Economic/Commercial/Political Officer 1950-1957 Economy 2ohn Foster and Eleanor Dulles Detailed to Soviet studies in Oberammergau State Department - I R - Soviet Studies 1957-1958 7osco8, USSR - TD. 1958 Intervie8s of Russians Escort duty State Department - I R 9continued: 1957-1958 Education reform Academy of Science 1 USSR collapse Appraisal of intelligence CIA Policy ;errors“ Resignation - Colgate University 1958 Reasons for retirement Embassy 7osco8 Ambassador Thompson 7issions to Russia INTERVIEW Q: Cole Blasier is an outstanding academic who started his career in the Foreign Service. Can you tell us how, and when and why you joined the Foreign Service? B,ASIER: 7y interest in U.S. foreign relations and in the Foreign Service began 8hen I 8as a Supply Officer in the Pacific during World War II. I served on PT Boat Bases 21 9 e8 1uinea: 8hich launched attacks on the Philippines and PT Boat Base 17 in Samar, P.I. 8hich prepared for the invasion of 2apan. 7y Navy memoirs are contained in a book published by PT Boats, Incorporated 7emphis, Tennessee. During that time I read everything I could lay my hands on about U.S. foreign relations, and particularly relations 8ith the Soviet Union. This reading stimulated my interest in the Foreign Service. In order to establish a firmer career base, I decided to 8ork for a doctorate in international relations 8ith a Russian emphasis. I intervie8ed 7erle Fainsod at Harvard University and Professor Philip E. 7osely of Columbia. 7osely impressed me greatly and I decided to go there for graduate 8ork. 7ean8hile, in the fall of 1906, 8hile I 8as finishing undergraduate 8ork at the University of Illinois, I read an announcement about Rotary International Fello8ships. At the same time I had become interested in ne8s from Chile that the Communist Party had 8on its biggest electoral victory in the Americas and 8as participating in the President's cabinet. I applied and 8as a8arded a Rotary Fello8ship for Chile. On the grounds that Eastern Europe 8as enough to master so early, 7osely advised me not to go to Chile% to come immediately to Columbia so I could 8ork on central issues related to 1ermany and Russia. But I 8ent to Chile any8ay and spent a year in Santiago researching the Communist Party through pamphlets, ne8spapers, and intervie8s. When I came back to Columbia, that study helped me meet graduate degree reAuirements and I 8rote an article for the Political Science Buarterly entitled CChile: A Communist Battleground.C 2 7ean8hile, some of my fello8 students 8ere going off to the Foreign Service, and I applied as 8ell. I passed the 8ritten, but 2oseph 1reen deferred my candidacy on the grounds that I did not kno8 enough about American history. He 8as right, and I spent every spare moment during the neDt year reading up on American history, and passed the second oral eDamination. I continued graduate study in international relations and Soviet studies at Columbia, completing residency reAuirements and the oral eDamination for the Ph.D. in international relations and la8. No8 all that 8as reAuired for the doctorate 8as the Ph.D. dissertation. Ho8ever, I broke off 8ork on the dissertation and entered the foreign service in October 1951. Q: Do you thin, it was very difficult to get into the Foreign Service, in the early McCarthy period, or- B,ASIER: .es, to a point. Though not necessarily because of 7cCarthy. There appeared to be a ceiling on recruitment of FSO 6s, that is at the bottom. Instead, the Department 8as hiring eDperienced officers from civil service and other lists. 7ore young people 8anted to come in and fe8 FSO 6 slots 8ere authoriEed. 7y problems related to 7cCarthyism occurred not in getting into the foreign service but 8ith respect to promotion during my second post in Bonn. In 1950-55 the State Department personnel office attempted to block a list of about a doEen officers from FSO-6 to FSO-5. No reason 8as given to me at the time but later I 8as told that Interpol 8as after me for having crossed from Chile into Argentina illegally. I eventually found my passport 8hich sho8ed an Argentine stamp for the border crossing. This 8as a threatening situation since 8e 8ere all on probation. 7y unsubstantiated eDplanation is that somebody in State thought my interests in the Chilean Communists and the Russian language 8ere suspicious. ,ate in 1955 that list of officers, me among them, 8as promoted on a separate recommendation to the congress. I 8as promoted t8o more times before my resignation. Q: .ell, we may be getting ahead of ourselves. .hen you entered the Foreign Service, your first post was Belgrade. B,ASIER: .es. In preparation for Belgrade I 8as assigned to the Foreign Service Institute and Serbo-Croatian language training. 7y kno8ledge of Russian helped 8ith Serbian. At that time, 2anuary 1952, .ugoslavia 8as one of the most strategically important countries in Europe and in the middle of the Soviet-American confrontation in the Cold War. Tito openly challenged Stalin's leadership of the international Communist movement. .ugoslavia and the Soviet Union, once allies, 8ere involved intermittently in sporadic armed skirmishes along .ugoslavia's eastern borders. Stalin had lost a hoped for a 3 8indo8 on 8estern Europe and the Adriatic and faced an upstart political model threatening his control of communist countries in Eastern Europe. Tito had to defend his borders and, potentially, the 8hole country from Soviet Bloc hostility, even attack. In 1952 he had not yet firmed up relations 8ith the United States and other 1reat Po8ers and had territorial and political rivalries 8ith his neighbors, Italy and 1reece. Our main job in Belgrade 8as strategic, to keep .ugoslavia and Tito from returning to the Soviet bloc. There 8as vocal opposition to this policy in the United States by minorities, partly on the grounds that Tito had a bloody record in consolidating his po8er, and that he 8as and remained a staunch communist. One of our jobs in the Embassy 8as to monitor Tito's foreign relations 8ith respect to negotiations 8ith foreign governments and their domestic repercussions. The Ambassador and senior members of the Embassy did the monitoring, but negotiations tended to be conducted through Washington or by special envoys. I follo8ed them Auite closely, and my assignment 8as to report .ugoslav reactions, especially as sho8n in the local press or through contacts 8ith foreign embassies. 7y most interesting 8ork, ho8ever, 8as to report on .ugoslav domestic politics. In order to refurbish his credentials as a Communist, symboliEe his repudiation of Stalinism, and strengthen his hold on the country long term, Tito reorganiEed the nation's political and economic structure as a ne8 form of Communism. We follo8ed this 8ith great, if some times skeptical, interest. The specifics included assigning the Communist Party 8ith a mainly CeducationalC role 9it 8as mostly 8indo8 dressing:, the decollectiviEation of agriculture 9a form of partial privatiEation:, and the establishment of 8orkers' councils 98orkers CmanagementC of industry: - all an anathema to Stalinism. Q: And you were assigned in what capacity in Belgrade? B,ASIER: First, I 8as assigned as a visa officer in the consulate. After siD months in the consulate I joined the political section in 2une 1951, and remained there for t8o years, the latter including a siD months eDtension. Q: And your ambassador was /eorge Allen? B,ASIER: 1eorge Allen, that's correct, and much later 2ames Riddleberger. Q: And Ja,e Beam as Allen0s deputy? B,ASIER: That's right. Q: .hen you were in the consulate, you must have polished your Serbo-Croatian in visa 4 wor,? B,ASIER: .es. With the help of my previous academic preparation in Russian and Serbian and t8o months eDperience 8ith help from the consular staff in visa intervie8s, I 8as able to intervie8 independently in Serbo-Croatian. I also hired a tutor and got up every morning before 6:00 A.7. for a t8o hour lesson. 7y 8ife joined me at first and then took up French. Actually she learned to speak Serbian Auite 8ell on her o8n, and dealt 8ith our maids and tradesmen in Serbian. Q: .ell, can you situate this for us? It must have been at least two years after Tito0s brea, with the Soviets and about the time of Tito0s brea, with his most charismatic lieutenant, Milovan Djilas. B,ASIER: .es. Belgrade still sho8ed a lot of 8ar damage in the 8inter of 1951-52. It 8as dark, unpainted, gloomy city, bullet ridden do8nto8n, and very short on housing for everybody, including all the diplomats that 8ere there. And, there 8as some mutual suspicion bet8een the .ugoslavs and the 8estern diplomats. 7y 8ife and I lived in the EDcelsior Hotel for siD months in a single room. We had a private bath and took our meals in the dining room. And then Peg 1lassford, the future 8ife of 2ake Beam, 8as reassigned and 8e moved into her house 8here 8e 8ere very happily settled for the rest of our tour. By this time a lot of the U.S. domestic political opposition to our collaboration 8ith Tito had passed.