The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project AMBASSADOR THOMAS N. HULL III Interviewed by: Daniel F. Whitman Initial Interview Date: January 8, 2010 Copyri ht 2012 ADST TABLE OF CONTENTS Background Born in New York, raised in Massachusetts Educated at Dickinson College and Columbia University Sierra Leone: Peace Corps Volunteer; Primary school teacher 19681c1.22 ,illage environment Living conditions Ambassador Robert Miner Fellow Peace Corps volunteers Fianc5e Columbia (niversity: Student, Education and International Affairs 1.2211.23 Degrees: International Education and International Affairs African studies ew York City, NY- Institute of International Education 8IIE9 1.2311.26 Fulbright Program Senator Fulbright :oined the Foreign Service: (SIA 1.26 Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo: Public Affairs Trainee 1.2611.22 Mobutu and Mama Mobutu Program officers (SIA staff and operations (SAID Security Belgians Environment Closeing Consulate Kisangani 8former Stanleyville9 Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo- TDY Public Affairs Officer 1.22 Communist government 1 Concerts Kinshasa, 8Continued9 1.2211.20 Environment Mobuto’s Zairian art collection Feccan Fair Personnel issues Pretoria, South Africa: Assistant Cultural Affairs Officer 1.2011.00 Effects of Soweto riots Apartheid Afrikaners on1Afrikaner whites Cleveland International Program Crossroads Africa (S policy International ,isitors Program Ambassador Edmonson Ambassador Bowdler Personnel Black entrepreneurs Official entertainment Foreign Service Nationals Official and social contacts (S South Africa Leadership Exchange Program 8(SSALEP9 Prominent Blacks Fulbright grantees (SASouth Africa relations South Best Africa South Best Africa People’s Organization 8SBAPO9 South Africa, a nuclear power Speakers Program Housing Embassy personnel Police presence Family Ouagadougou, (pper ,olta: Public Affairs Officer 1.0011.03 Coups Captain Sankar Ambassador :ulius Balker Peace Corps Cultural Programs Personnel Ambassador Thomas Boyatt English Teaching Conference 2 Environment (SAID projects Local media Mrs. Deorge Bush 8Barbara9 visit Mogadishu, Somalia- Public Affairs Officer 1.0311.06 Dictator, Sidi Barre, Ambassador Robert Oakley Charles E. Bick English teaching program (niversity of South Carolina program Ogaden dispute Dovernment Relations Berbera air facility Strategic location Ethnic Somalis Staff Islam Somali language American library EthiopiaASomali relations Yemen Cultural programs Bashington, DC: HeadEuarters, (SIA: Executive Assistant, 1.0611.0. Office of the Counselor Borking environment Director Chares Bick tales Reagan falls asleep at meeting Operations ReaganADorbachev meeting Personnel changesAassignments State Department: Foreign Service Institute, Czech language study 1.0.11..0 Prague, Czechoslovakia: Public Affairs Officer 1..01 Prague city Communism Living environment Anti1(S radio broadcasts Ambassador Shirley Temple Black Ambassador Black’s press interviews East Derman refugees Best Derman embassy Red Cross 3 Derman communism collapse Staff Surveillance Relations Secret police operations (S war memorial monuments Bratislava film exhibit ,aclav Havel Dissident mass demonstrations Dovernment changes ,isiting ,IPs Cestmir Suchy Claiborne Pell Film program AmericanACzechs (SIS historic building Cultural programs Czech cultural personalities Prague Castle Katherine Draham Czech and Slovak Republics formed Alexander Dubcek Lagos, igeria: Public Affairs Officer 11..5 (SIS divisions and operations Dovernment Ambassador Billiam L. Swing Elections annulled Ambassador Balter Carrington Press freedom Cultural programs Environment (SAID Abuja Internal travel President Yar’Adua Family Fulbright program Obasanjo Lagos city Environment Security Local press Brain drain igeria as Hthe giant of AfricaI Population 4 MuslimAChristian conflicts Bashington, DC: (SIA HeadEuarters- Area Director for Africa 1..511..2 Budget austerity Post closings (SIAASTATE amalgamation negotiations ,ice1President- Bi1 ational Commissions Foreign post travel Pretoria, South Africa- Minister Counselor, Public Affairs Officer 1..212001 Ambassador :ames A. :oseph Bi1national Commission Ambassador Delano Lewis Embassy personnel Consulates elson Mandela ,ice President Mbeki Dennis Hastert Cultural programs Peace Corps Dovernment Relations ,IPs (S policy African ational Congress 8A C9 HTerrorI Lekota ,ice President Dore (SAID (S Dovernment assistance CE TE Fulbright Commission (niversity of Pretoria Center for Human Rights Dill :acot1Duillarmod Cleveland International Program Foreign Service Nationals Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: Deputy Chief of Mission 200112004 Ambassador Tibor Nagy HeadEuarters, African (nion Chinese (S Foreign Commercial Service (S commercial presence J Organization of African (nity EthiopiaAEritrea border conflict Prime Minister Meles (nited Nations Mission for Ethiopia and Eritrea .A11 Borld Trade Center attack 5 Status of Forces Agreement 8SOFA9 Al Kaeda in Africa Regional terrorist attacks President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief 8PEPFAR9 Food distribution Deorge McDovern Famine Ethiopian Protocol Human Rights (S AddisAAsmara Embassy relations Inter1Dovernmental Authority for Development 8IDAD9 Communist Derg EthipiaASomalia relations :ama Ali :ama Somaliland Siad Barre (nited States Ambassador to Sierra Leone 200412002 Local staff Embassy Cell phones Turk subcontractors Ambassador Chavez Corruption Electoral Commission Truth and Reconciliation Commission President Kabbah Anti1Corruption Commission British Anti1Trafficking in Persons legislation Dovernment Human Rights Council (nited Nations Peace Keeping Organization 8( AMSIL9 Ambassador Mwakawago (nited Nations Aid Funds Elections ational Elections Commission on1Dovernment Organizations 8 DOs9 ,ictor Angelo (nited Nations Development Program 8( DP9 International Military Assistance Team 8IMATT9 Duinea Regional elections Special Court of Sierra Leone Charles Taylor FBI 6 Bar crimes cases Consular services (SIS operations :ohn Billiams Taylor library (SAID Ambassador Dirls’ Scholarship Fund Highly Indebted Poor Country process Human Rights Press freedom Bunce Island Fourah Bay College :ohn F. Kennedy Building Ambassador’s Fund for Cultural Preservation Military assistance Chimpanzee reserve Bruno the chimpanzee Female genital mutilation 8FDM9 HI,AAids Tribal chiefs Traditional tribal courts Ambassadors as managers Role of the ambassador Political asylum African talent drain Retirement 2002 Simmons College, Boston MA: Barburg Professor of International Relation Comments on the Foreign Service INTERVIEW $: We will first identify ourselves. I am Dan Whitman and am interviewin Ambassador Tom Hull. We are sittin in a town in Southwestern New Hampshire. Ambassador Hull what is the name of this town) H(LL: It is Drantham, New Hampshire. $: Grantham, New Hampshire. H(LL: Eastman ,illage, Drantham, New Hampshire. $: Today is January 8, 2010 and the new decade. Ambassador Hull can we start at the be innin , and can you tell the reader somethin about your family bac, round. 2 H(LL: Sure. I was actually born in upstate New York in a little town by the name of iskayuna because my father was working there in the Second Borld Bar. $: Can you spell that for the transcriber) H(LL: Sure, Niskayuna which I presume is an old Indian name near Schenectady. My father was there in that part of the world because he was working on the first American jet engine as an engineer for Deneral Electric during the war. He was actually from Oregon and northern California. My mother was from Massachusetts. Her family was an old Mayflower family going back to :ohn and Pricilla Alden. Interestingly the family for generations never moved more than 15 miles or so from Plymouth, Massachusetts, until my grandfather in the early 1.00’s moved to Boston. My mother grew up there. As soon as my parents could move after the war, my mother wanted to go back to the Atlantic Ocean, so we moved back, and I grew up in Marblehead, Massachusetts. I then went off to boarding school up in Maine at the Hebron Academy where I am currently on the board of trustees. From there I went off to college at Dickinson College in Pennsylvania. After that I joined the Peace Corps and went to Sierra Leone and thus begins my career of international service. $: E.cellent. Well let/s get this full juice out of the fruit here. Do you have any recollections that stand out at Hebron Academy or Dic,inson that comes to mind as either out of the ordinary) What was the type of e.perience you had in Secondary school and in colle e) H(LL: Bell at secondary school it was an all boys school, so it was a rather miserable experience without any girls around. A lot of hard academic work. Maine is a very cold place, but there was a lot of joy skiing and playing soccer and all the things you like to do at an adolescent. I was not a classroom star. In college I gave little attention to academics and a lot of attention to meeting young women whom I had not had the pleasure of meeting in high school, and socializing. Although ironically about three years ago Dickinson named me one of their 25 most influential alumni over their last 200 and some years of the school’s history, including me with people like :ames Buchanan who was a disaster as president, and other people. I thought that was consistent- another was Chief :ustice Roger Brooks Taney who was also a disaster. But they were influential in negative ways. As I said to the college, I take my nomination to represent the fact