The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project MARK E. MOHR Interviewed by: Charles Stuart Kennedy Initial Interview Date: October 22, 2009 Copyright 20 0 ADST TABLE OF CONTENTS Background Born in New York, raised in New York and New $ersey University of Rochester, Harvard University (China studies) South Korea, Peace Corps- .nglish language instructor 190121909 Koreans attributes Difference from $apanese .nvironment Training program .ntered the Foreign Service 19094 5ietnam protests A2100 Course State Department, Operations Center 1909 State Department, Desk Officer, South Africa 190921910 Replying to incoming mail US South Africa policy Taipei, Taiwan, Non2Immigrant 5isa Officer 191121918 9ork volume President Chang Kai2shek Taiwan ejected from U .nvironment Family Taichung, Taiwan, Chinese language studies 191821914 Hong Kong, Political Officer 191421911 .nd of China;s Cultural Revolution 9eekly events in China China 9atching 1 Information sources Chinese refugees British US Liaison Office (USLO) in China Mao;s death Deng Xiaoping Sino2Soviet split Lin Biao Gang of Four vs. Bhou .n2lai faction China aid to Africa Other China watchers Sino25ietnamese 9ar (1919) Tokyo, $apan, Political Officer- .Cternal section 191121980 Ambassador Mike Mansfield Chrysanthemum club Area reporting responsibilities $apan2China character differences Family State Department, Director, Office of Pacific Island Affairs, .ast 198021981 Asia and Pacific Bureau (.AP) Micronesia Congressional interest State Department, Deputy Director, Office of Taiwan Affairs 198121988 US2China Taiwan arms sales negotiations Diplomatic relations with China American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) US2China normaliEation US2Taiwan relations Secretary of State Haig Human .vents article Limiting arms sale to Taiwan FX fighter plans for Taiwan Congressional Fellowship- Office of Senator $ohn Glenn 1988 Senator $ohn Glenn Senators; views of themselves State Department, Deputy Director, Office of Regional Affairs, 198821984 .ast Asia Bureau University of Maryland, Study Fellowship 198421985 Course of study 2 State Department, Intermediate Nuclear Forces Officer, Bureau 198521988 of Political/Military Affairs 9eapons basing countries US and Soviet inventories 9orld wide protests egotiations for missile reduction US agencies involved in negotiations Richard Pearle .uropean views ancy Reagan involvement HReclamaI Memos US internal agreement problems Reagan and Gorbachev sign treaty Treaty ratification Beijing, China, Deputy Director, Political Section 198821990 Tiananmen Square Ambassador 9inston Lord Relations President Bush visit Fang LiEhi China leadership split China leaders Student protests Gorbachev;s Beijing visit Mao;s popularity swing Government reaction to Tiananmen Beijing Hclosed downI Government suspicions of US involvement H9hy did government shoot studentsKI Scowcroft visit Comments on Chinese and China studies Communist ideology gone MarCism in China .nvironment Surveillance .mbassy local employees Information sources Reporting China;s foreign policy American media Congressional visits Chinese students to US Partial .mbassy evacuation Communist Party State Department, Deputy Director, China Affairs 199021992 8 Chinese nationals in Beijing .mbassy Most Favored ation (MF ) battle Congressional interest in MF Relations China/Taiwan visitors agreement President Bush;s interest in China Family Brisbane, Australia, Consul 199221995 .nvironment Relations Staff Reporting 99II remembered American commercial presence Consulate closing Ambassador .d Perkins Operations The Pentagon, Office of Foreign Military Rights 199521990 Status of Forces Agreements (SOFs) Retirement 199021991 Consultant Company with Tai Kuo Lectures to Chinese groups Advising Chinese on their Image in US Guanghou group State Department, North Korea Desk Officer 199121999 9hen2Actually .mployed (9A.) orth Korean diplomatic style US Policy Light 9ater Nuclear Power Reactors (L9Rs) Agreed Framework Agreement (AF) Disputes over agreement fulfillment Korean Peninsula .conomic Development OrganiEation (K.DO) Lack of US funding Department of .nergy, 199922005 orth Koreans accused of cheating on AF Disputes with North Koreans escalate . Korea becoming nuclear weapons state Kim $ong II Seminars to reduce tensions In Northeast Asia 9oodrow 9ilson Center, Seminar OrganiEer ( ortheast Asia) 200522008 4 China, $apan and Korea scholars Pyongyang Comments on North Korea Retirement 2008 Teaching and study INTERVIEW Q: OK, today is 22 October 2009. This is an interview with Mark E. Mohr. This is being done on behalf of the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training and I am Charles Stuart Kennedy. And you go by Mark* MOHR, Yes. Q: Mark, let+s start at the beginning. ,hen and where were you born* MOHR, Brooklyn, New York, $anuary 5, 1945. Q: OK, let+s take the Mohrs. ,hat do you know about the background of the family* MOHR, My parents were $ewish. Although my mother was born in New York City, her parents came to the United States from Bessarabia at the end of the 19th century. Bessarabia was then part of Romania, and is now the country of Moldova. My mother, who was born in 1900, had a difficult life, as her mother died during the influenEa epidemic of 1919. She was the oldest child, so my grandfather told her, at age 18, that she now had to take care of him and her younger brother. Then my grandfather remarried. He eventually had five more children, and my mother had to take care of them as well. She eventually had to drop out of school because of her responsibilities at home. My father was born in 1908 in Galicia, just outside of Cracow, which was then part of the Austro2Hungarian .mpire, and is now part of Poland. His life was no picnic either. He was a teenager during 9orld 9ar I (99I). The Russians invaded his village, which was south of Cracow, captured the civilian population, and moved the people, including my father, his parents, and his two sisters and brother, to a Russian town called Ufa, which is at the foot of the Ural Mountains, on the .uropean side. He said it wasn;t that bad. There were some Red Cross inspections to monitor that the captives were well2treated, and the only problem, according to my father, was an occasional shortage of food. There was one incident, as told by my father, which scared me. He was walking with an adult who had a loaf of bread. My father heard a shot, and the man fell down, bleeding. H9hat did you doKI I asked my father. HI picked up the loaf of bread and ran,I he replied. At the end of 99I my father and his family were repatriated back to their village. My father was now a citiEen of Poland, as that country became reconstituted following the end of the war. One of the first foreign policy initiatives of the new Polish government 5 was to declare war on Russia. My father received his draft notice. Deciding that he had already been a guest of the Russian government, and recalling he had an uncle in New York City, my father decided to go west rather than east. It was a wise decision. In 1989, when Hitler invaded Poland, the initial point of attack was southern Poland, in the Cracow area. If my father had not departed in 1921, there is little doubt that he would have been killed, most probably in the concentration camps, and I would have never been born. Q: ,hat did your father do* MOHR, Because of 9orld 9ar I, he had no chance at an education. His uncle in New York owned a bar, and after my father arrived, he worked there for several years. Then he decided to learn a trade, and became a paperhanger. He decorated houses with wallpaper. He was quite skilled, and made a good living. My mother was a housewife. If you recall the television show 9elcome Back Kotter, there were shots of an outdoor market as the theme song played at the beginning of the show. That was the 80th Street market in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, where my mother did her food shopping every day for the evening meal. Q: Is that the old Jewish neighborhood more or less* MOHR, Yes. 9e lived on 81st Street, and it was a miCed $ewish2Italian (Sicilian) neighborhood. For whatever reasons, the $ews and Italians got along very well. There were never any fights. My best friend, who lived three houses down from me, was Nicky Manucci. I was always eating at Nicky;s house, which annoyed my mother greatly. However, I definitely preferred Italian cooking to .astern .uropean cooking. In my mind, the latter;s great mantra was Hboil everything.I Q: Let+s talk about the early years. How big was your family* 0our mother and father both died while you were 1uite young. MOHR, I had a sister who was 10 years older than I, and a brother who was 14 years older. So my parents were fairly on in years when I was born. My sister married when I was five. My father died of a heart attack at the age of 52. I was 10 at the time. My mother died, also at the age of 52, two years later, of breast cancer. My sister and brother, unfortunately, are both deceased now as well. Q: ,hat sort of place did you live in* MOHR, It was a lower middle class neighborhood in Bensonhurst. Q: ,as it an apartment* MOHR, Yes, although most places on my street were one or two family houses, we lived in a three2story walk2up, on the first floor, in the back. I think the neighborhood now is 0 mainly Russian2$ewish. After I left, the district was represented by Congressman Steven SolarE. Q: I have interviewed Steve Solar2. MOHR, I also took care of him several times during visits overseas- the last one was to Beijing in 1988. He really liked to do a lot, and it was a bit tiring escorting him on his many appointments. Q: Do you recall as a kid, life in your neighborhood* MOHR, Yes. In the 1950s television was still relatively new, and it was not on all day.