The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project HOWARD K. WALKER Interviewed by: Charles Stuart Kennedy Initial interview date: November 14, 2001 Copyright 2004 ADST TABLE OF CONTENTS Background Born and raised in Ne port Ne s, Virginia University of Michigan; Boston University U.S. Air Force Central Intelligence Agency Entered Foreign Service - 19.9 State Department - African Affairs 19.9 /agos, Nigeria - Political Officer0Consul 1910-1913 Biafra revolt Environment 4o an Tribal politics U.S. interests British State Department - African Affairs - /iberia and Sierra /eone Desk 1913-1915 U.S. interests Relations Amman, 8ordan - Political Officer 1915-1911 Ambassador Pickering Syria Israeli-Arab relations Security Palestinians Environment Relations 9ing Hussein U.S. visitors :ater issues 1 Dar es Salaam, Tanzania - DCM 1911-1919 Environment Economy /ibyans Nyerere Zimbab e European socialists International programs Zanzibar Chinese Pretoria, South Africa - DCM 1919-1982 Apartheid Relations Contacts Environment Embassy operations Mandela U.S. interests Political elements Economy ANC U.S. administration change ?Constructive engagement“ Namibia State-Embassy relations /ome, Togo - Ambassador 1982-198A Eyadema Relations Population Peace Corps Environment Una Chapman CoB C4rantD 1985 Policy StudyE Public Attention to Foreign Policy State Department - :est African Affairs - Director 1985-1988 Samuel Doe C/iberiaD State Department - Inspection Corps 1988-1989 :orld ide inspection Cuba interests section Madagascar - Ambassador 1989-1992 Relations 2 4overnment Economy Soviets Ratsiraka Human rights issue State-Embassy relations The French Boeing Peace Corps Soviets National Defense University - Vice President 1992-199A Rome, Italy - NATO Defense College - Deputy Commandant 199A-1991 French attitude Transatlantic relationship Chechnya /ectures INTERVIEW Q: Today is November 14, 2001. This is an interview with Howard K. Walker. This is being done by the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training and I*m Charles Stuart Kennedy. You go by Howard, :A/9ERE Fes. Q: Let*s start at the beginning. Could you tell me where and when you were born and a little about your parents, :A/9ERE I as born in Ne port Ne s, Virginia, in 1935. At that time, my father as teaching mathematics and chemistry at a local high school. My father as from Ne port Ne s. My mother as from :illiamson, :est Virginia. They had met hen he as still at Ho ard University, here he graduated magna cum laude in civil engineering and business management, and my mother as living in Philadelphia. They married and settled in Ne port Ne s. Q: Where did the Walker family come from, :A/9ERE Ho far back shall e goG My father as born in Ne port Ne s. His father as an attorney there, and had originally come from Charlottesville. His mother as from Culpepper, Virginia. Q: Where did your mother*s family come from, 3 :A/9ERE She as born and gre up in :est Virginia. Her father came from Italy, and her motherHs family ere 4erman and Irish. Q: Did she go to college, :A/9ERE She ent for a hile in :est Virginia, but didnHt finish. Q: 1.30. You were born just when the Depression was really kicking in. But your father had a job. Where was he teaching, :A/9ERE He as teaching at a high school in Ne port Ne s, Huntington High School. Q: Did you grow up in Newport News, :A/9ERE Shortly after I as born, e moved to Hampton, neBt door. My father got a job as a manager of a ne , eBperimental public housing project. That as very interesting. It as one of the projects of the Ne Deal and as targeted at shipyard orkers ho had come up from North Carolina and other neighboring places. This housing project developed into an interesting thing. The brick houses ere individual units ith half an acre plots. Those ere the days of victory gardens in :orld :ar II. Everyone had one, along ith chickens that ere kept in chicken houses on each plot. There as an agricultural eBtension agent to sho people ho to raise these gardens and chickens. There ere nurses to help people improve their health and health facilities. So, it as a real community, sort of like 4reenbelt, Maryland. Q: There were a number of 3reenbelt communities around. :A/9ERE ThatHs right. Aberdeen 4ardens. Q: Was the Navy a big part of your life, :A/9ERE Not directly, but maritime affairs as important to anyone gro ing up around Ne port Ne s and Norfolk because of the Norfolk Navy base and the Ne port Ne s shipyard hich as the major industry there, building arships and then launching a liberty ship almost every month, as. But no one in my family as a naval person. Q: Where did you go to school, :A/9ERE The local schools. I ent to elementary school in Aberdeen and for the .th grade in Ne port ne s. Because my birthday is in December, I had to ait until I as nearly 1 before I as allo ed to begin the school system in Aberdeen, and I changed to the Ne port Ne s school system in the 1th grade, because they allo ed me to skip a grade and catch up ith my age group. Then I ent to Huntington High School in Ne port Ne s. After ards, I ent to the University of Michigan. 4 Q: At the elementary school level, do you recall any teachers or sub1ects that struck you, :A/9ERE Not really. I never felt challenged there. Q: How about in high school, :A/9ERE In high school, I as very much influenced by the English teachers, Charles 8ones and Ms. Peace ho introduced me to good literature, good poetry, and hard ork. There as a coach, Thad Madden, ho as football and track coach. I as never big enough to play football, but he as a sort of hero because he as one of the best of his kind. I didnHt play football, but I played on the tennis, baseball, and basketball teams. Q: What were your interests, :A/9ERE 4irls. Q: Many of our Foreign Service officers ma1ored in girls and sports. :A/9ERE I think I as even at that stage interested in things far a ay. I had never heard of the Foreign Service. I had heard vaguely of diplomacy. But one of the things I can remember in high school as thinking I anted to get out of Ne port Ne s and see hat else as in the orld. My a areness of and interest in the orld at large, international affairs, really didnHt get started until I ent off to university. My earliest memory of being a are of international affairs as hen I as five to seven years old and kept a map on my bedroom all of Europe and Asia and plotted the advances of the ar. But my first real memory of having interest in foreign affairs as in the .th grade. There as a teacher, Ms. Dorothy Palmer, ho taught a civics course. :e had to memorize all of the acronyms of the ne United Nations organization and hat they did. I memorized those and got to kno something about them. I have memories of seeing hungry people in India, for eBample, but nothing substantive. Q: How about reading, Were you a reader, :A/9ERE I asnHt a big reader hen I as young B ne spapers, magazines, but I canHt think of a favorite author. Q: You were getting ready to graduate high school about when, :A/9ERE 1953. Q: You said you went to the 6niversity of Michigan. Was this to get away from Newport News, :A/9ERE In large part, yes. As an Afro-American, I could not attend the University of Virginia at that time, and other local colleges that ere after me ere not appealing. One man ho I admired very much in the community, a medical doctor, a thoracic surgeon, 5 :aldo Scott, had studied in Ann Arbor. He as a friend of the family and a member of the school board. He talked about it a lot to me. It had a great football team. Those t o things - a good academic record and a fun guy like :aldo Scott, hose son is a member of Congress no - and a ish to get a ay for a hile and see some other parts of the orld led me to Ann Arbor. My mother tried to get me to apply to Harvard and Fale, but no one in my high school did, and the importance of those places in getting a step up in adult life did not register ith me at the time. Q: Were you there for the full four years, :A/9ERE I as in Ann Arbor for four years and stayed on there another year for an MA. Q: What were you taking when you went back, :A/9ERE I ent there originally to begin a premed career. I ent to my first chemistry class and said, ?My goodness, these people have studied things t o years beyond hat I studied in my chemistry course in Ne port Ne s.“ I took chemistry and physics and all the hard courses my high school offered at the time, but I as so far behind others at Michigan in that. So, I s itched my major. I as taking a political science course at the time and found that absolutely fascinating. So, I dropped the chemistry and took geology as my science course. Michigan as a huge university. I as in a huge geology class.