The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project AMBASSADOR CHAS W. FREEMAN, JR. Interviewed by: Charles Stuart Kennedy Initial interview date: April 14, 1995 Copyright 1998 ADST TABLE OF CONTENTS Background Born in Washington, DC; raised in the Bahamas Yale University; Harvard Law School Entered Foreign Service - 1965 Madras, India - Vice Consul 1965-1968 Caste system Consular cases Ambassador Bowles problems USIS duties India’s educational system Soviet presence State Department - East Asia - Regional Affairs 1968 State Department - FSI - Chinese language study 1969 Tai-Chung, Taiwan - Chinese language study 1969-1971 Kuomintang party Taiwan modernization State Department - Asian Communist Affairs Office 1971-1973 China and “ping-pong” diplomacy Kissinger’s Beijing visit - 1971 Nixon’s China visit - 1972 Differing views on Taiwan vs. Mainland Secretary of State Rogers’ role Drafting responsibilities Interpreting problems Lin Bao incident Nixon-Zhou Enlai conversation Marshall Green role Shanghai Communiqué - February 28, 1972 1 “Renunciation of hegemony” Mao and cultural revolution Nixon’s Guam Doctrine China and Japan US liaison office in China - 1973 Inter-departmental meetings Speaking tours - China subject US Liaison Office - Beijing - TDY 1973 Staff Marines China’s technology State Department - Asian Communist Affairs 1973 Harvard Law School - Instructor and student 1974-1975 East Asian Legal Studies Program Taiwan Relations Act State Department - Deputy Director for Republic of China 1975-1976 (Taiwan) Affairs Vietnam aftermath Taiwan’s future State Department - Public Affairs 1976-1977 Duties Hodding Carter Polls and media contacts USIA 1978 Program Design Management System USIA vs. State FSOs State Department - TDY - China Working Group 1978-1979 Deng Xiaoping visit to US Taiwan Relations Act “The Coordination Council for North American Affairs” Issues China-Vietnam split Leonard Woodcock State Department - TDY - Refugee Affairs Program 1979 Refugee Act of 1980 Vietnamese refugees Patt Derian US Coordinator for Refugee Affairs 2 Bureau of Refugee Programs Mariel boat crisis Dick Clark State Department - Country Director for China 1979-1981 Richard Holbrooke China growth projections Relationship with Taiwan Brzezinski China and Afghanistan (Soviet) invasion China’s military capabilities Tibet issue US-China issues Taiwan’s successes Secretary of State Al Haig Beijing, China - DCM 1981-1984 China-Taiwan unification efforts Educating President Reagan on China US arms sales to Taiwan Ambassador Arthur Hummel Consul issues Staffing Dealing with Chinese officials China-Soviet relations Korea issue Chinese students in US Defections to US Reagan’s visit to China American press Spratlys issue Tibet Bangkok, Thailand - DCM 1984-1986 Drug trade Indochina “watch” Ambassador John Gunther Dean Embassy program organization POW/MIA issue AIDS “panic” Thai characteristics US-Thai commercial relations State Department - Deputy Assistant Secretary for Africa 1986-1989 Swazi king coronation US-South Africa relations 3 Maureen Reagan visit to Africa African tour country by country South Africa’s political elements South African leaders Americans’ concept of Africa South African problems Chester Crocker Ethiopia Soviets in Africa US-South Africa sanctions Mozambique’s political situation South African leadership - an assessment Ambassador (to South Africa) Perkins ANC Secretary of State George Schultz US embassy in South Africa The Mandelas Mangosuthu Buthelezi Fidel Castro’s micromanagement US interests in Africa Zaire and Mobutu Riyadh, Saudi Arabia - Ambassador 1989-1992 Saudi culture Saudi arms requirements US relations - commercial and political Ta’if accord Iran-Iraq war Riyadh - environment JECOR (Treasury) Embassy staff Dhahran Consulate General Child “kidnapping” cases Dispute settlement issue Saudi officials Governing Saudi Arabia Royal family as stability American community Women’s environment Human rights King invites foreign troops Arabic language Social interaction with Saudis Islam in Saudi Arabia Relations with Saudi desk Dennis Rose 4 Saudi Arabian Standards Organization Regional war scenarios Chiefs of Mission Conference (Bonn) Saudi-Egypt relations Saudi relations with neighbors “Ivory Justice” proposal Iraq invades Kuwait 1990 President Bush reaction to invasion US mission to King Fahd “Desert Shield” plan King accepts US forces Indoctrination of US forces in Saudi Arabia American community briefings Chemical weapons issue Liaison with Kuwaiti government in Ta’if Visitor management Paying for Desert Shield operation Allied coalition Relations with General Schwarzkopf Relations with Secretary of State James Baker US troops in Saudi society US press Israeli involvement Uprisings in Iraq Absence of war aims Psychological warfare plans Saudi Scud missile attacks US battle plan Allies’ war aims and plans Secretary of State Baker involvement Allied air attack on Iraq GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) Saudi finances Desert Storm Jordanian attitude Yemen attitude Saudi aid to Armenia “Hundred Hour War” Cease fire - February 28 Safwan meeting with Iraqi generals UN war aims Lack of clear demands on Iraq Colin Powell role British role Arab allies’ role 5 Post Gulf War - Ambassador to Saudi Arabia (until 1992) Prepositioning of US military in Saudi Arabia Prepositioning in the Gulf Shi’a revolt in Iraq Kurdish problem Saudi finances Saudi mistrust of Palestinians Saudi Arabia and Israel Mid-East peace process Saudi relations with Jordan Saudis and POWs and refugees US business promotion Saudi relations with Ambassador Neighbors National Defense University 1992-1994 Distinguished fellow State Department - Comments Failure of State Department in aspects Failure to use assets in diplomacy Contrast with other diplomatic corps US anti-elitism sentiment Lack of professionalism in Foreign Service Department of Defense - Assistant Secretary - ISA 1993-1994 Clinton administration - evaluation Partnership for Peace (PFP) Rio Pact US and Europe Russia and the West Israel NATO expansion Marshall Center at Garmish Baltics Balkans China relations Visit to Beijing Taiwan issue Persian Gulf Defense of Israel Egypt Kurdish problem South Africa Latin America Clinton and US military 6 Peacekeeping mission State vs. Defense operations Comments on the Foreign Service INTERVIEW Q: Can you tell me a bit about your background, when and where you were born and then something about your family. FREEMAN: Sure. I go by Chas W. Freeman, Jr. And the reason for that is, first of all, Chas is an old abbreviation for Charles in my family. But George Bush, when he sent me to Saudi Arabia as ambassador, knew me as Chas, and somehow that ended up on the commissioning certificate. So, since I've never been called Charles, I simply decided that that was a better solution. Legally, I'm still Charles, but for all other purposes, I'm Chas. My background. I'm a typical product of centuries of American miscegenation. The Freemans came to this country in 1621. And there is a family tradition (which may or may not be correct) that the reason for this is recorded in a famous English law case called Freeman vs. Freeman, in which, as I recall, my putative ancestor was a rake and a ne'er-do-well in London (the family was originally from Devon), and was persuaded by a wealthy uncle, having lost all his own money in gambling and drinking, that he should marry a very ugly, overage young lady who was the ward of this uncle. Being a scoundrel, he naturally insisted on a written contract. In return for marrying this girl, he got an annual income and a lump sum. The uncle made it clear to him, orally, that the contract was dependent on his refraining from drink and gambling, and his behaving like a gentleman. He didn't live up to the terms of the contract, needless to say. And this resulted in a lawsuit, in which he tried to enforce the contract against his uncle. He lost. When he lost, he abandoned his wife, went to Holland and became a Puritan, repented of his sins, I reckon, and then moved to the Plymouth Colony. One brother went to the Massachusetts Bay Colony and remarried, bigamously. So that's the start of the line. The family has been around in the United States long enough so that I can count thirteen European nationalities and one American Indian tribe in my background, and some illustrious ancestors -- John Adams and John Quincy Adams among them, and Governor John Winthrop, in an earlier period. My great grandfathers were eminent men. John Ripley Freeman was the leading hydraulic engineer of his time, at the end of the nineteenth century. He was the only man, in history, I believe, to be president of both the American Society of Civil Engineers and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. He was a successful entrepreneur in addition to his engineering prowess, which lives on hydraulic tables that are still used. It also lives on in China, where he taught (he taught also in Tokyo), in the Three Gorges Project, the flood control project on the Yangtze, which he essentially designed. This is alluded to briefly in a book by Jonathan Spence called To Change China. 7 My other great grandfather, whose name was Charles Wellman, after whom I'm named, was apparently one of the inventors or perfecters of the open-hearth steel process, he was a wealthy businessman in Cleveland who was killed at an early age in the wreck of the Twentieth Century Limited. My mother's grandfather, my great grandfather on that side, was Robert Ezra Park, who was one of the founders of sociology in the United States. He took a doctorate at Heidelberg and was instrumental in starting the University of Chicago's social science program. His book with Burgess was the classic sociology text for much of the early part of the twentieth century. And his writings on race are still referred to in the literature. He was, among other distinctions, Booker T. Washington's private secretary, and ghost- wrote a lot of Washington's books. He was the companion of Washington on a visit to the Belgian Congo to investigate atrocities that King Leopold of Belgium had carried out in his private fiefdom. The other great grandfather was from the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, and struggled all his life to hold together a plantation, which he ultimately failed to do. Turning to subsequent generations, my grandfather Hovey Thomas Freeman succeeded his father as president of the Manufacturers Mutual Insurance System, now known as the Allendale System, and lived in Rhode Island. My grandfather on my mother's side was Edward Cahill Park, who was a well-regarded attorney in Boston for many years, and had a role in the defense of Alger Hiss, not the principal role, but participation in his defense, among other distinctions. So that's that generation. My father, Charles Wellman Freeman, was a graduate of MIT, served in the Navy in World War II, and following that, declined to join the family business and struck out on his own, with a G.I. loan, and did exceedingly well at business. My mother was an artist and architect from Boston, Carla Elizabeth Park. The two of them ended up in Nassau, the Bahamas, initially running and then later buying a hotel of some antiquity and distinction called the Royal Victoria, which had been built during the Civil War for the gun and cotton runners of the South. Q: Oh, yes, for their R & R. FREEMAN: For their R & R. So I grew up in the Bahamas. Q: But your parents were American citizens. FREEMAN: Yes, of course. My mother died when I was nine, and my father remarried. 8 Q: You were born in 1943. FREEMAN: I was born March 2, 1943, in Washington, a few blocks from here on Woodley Avenue. At any rate, I went to a school in the Bahamas that was an experimental Presbyterian school, and I was in the class that set the bow wave for the school; we were the oldest. Because there was no curriculum, and because the teachers were drawn from eclectic backgrounds (I'll discuss that in a minute), it was a superb educational experience. When I was thirteen, however, my father thought that I should be re-Americanized, because I spoke with a British accent in school and a Bahamian accent on the street. He insisted on an American accent at home. So I was sent to Milton Academy. Q: That's outside of Boston. FREEMAN: Yes, Milton, Massachusetts, where my mother had gone to school. I passed the secondary education boards for the 12th grade, which was a testimony not to me but to the quality of the education. The teachers at that school in the Bahamas included, as I say, quite an eclectic lot, many of whose backgrounds I didn't know at the time. A history teacher was arrested, in the course of one of my classes, as a war criminal by the British authorities, and returned to Germany for trial. I never knew quite what happened to him. The Latin and Greek teacher, who was an RAF ace, turned out to have been drummed out of the RAF for egregious homosexual behavior. The geography teacher was a South African Communist in exile. My scripture teacher later defected to a job at BOAC as a stewardess, which probably lowered the standards of beauty in that organization, but certainly improved our scripture teaching. Q: Sounds like the Bahamas after the war was Tangier II or something like that. FREEMAN: It wasn't quite that exotic. The only connection to Tangier was the presence of Ambassador Villard as consul general. Of course, he had had a very distinguished career in North Africa. Q: You graduated really at a very early age from Milton, did you? FREEMAN: Well, I dropped back to the 9th grade, which was emotionally the right thing to have done, but intellectually rather boring. It led me into quite eclectic reading -- a great deal of science fiction and French novels of one sort or another that were lying around my grandparents' house. I should say that there is a family tradition, on my mother's side, going back at least to the time of my great grandfather, which would be the late nineteenth century, of conversation twice a week at the dinner table in a foreign language. And each generation chose its 9 language. For my grandfather's generation, it was German, although my grandfather was also bilingual in French, having lived in Strasbourg for a while. For my mother's generation, it was French, although she also knew Spanish. Having Robert Redfield, who was an anthropologist, as an uncle, she had spent a year with the Redfields in Guatemala while they were doing field research. For my generation, the language was French, again. And for my children, it was Chinese. In any event, Milton was boring. I was certainly a student who did very little work and got good grades, and was regarded as a troublemaker and a bender of the rules, which led to my graduation with distinction rather than cum laude. The experience there was an interesting one, though, because Milton is just outside Boston, and Boston, in those days, was a pretty raunchy place. Q: Scolly Square. FREEMAN: Exactly. I remember it well. It was possible to climb down the fire escape, in the middle of the night, from the dormitory and go into town on what is known now as the "T", it was the MTA at that time. And I did that a number of times without getting caught. In any event, I graduated from Milton in 1960. I was seventeen. I was admitted to both Harvard and Yale, but was tired of Boston and went to Yale, which distressed a rather significant number of people in the family who had gone to Harvard or MIT. Q: Sometimes, going out to the Newtons is about as far as the people from Boston go. FREEMAN: That's right. And there's very little reason to go beyond that, actually. At any rate, I went to Yale, and several things happened. First, I should say that my father had succeeded magnificently in business in the Bahamas and had multiple interests -- in addition to the Royal Victoria, another hotel, a rental car agency, a recording company, a nightclub, a restaurant, some supermarket investments in Cuba, which proved to be a bad thing as Castro came along. In 1958, there was a general strike in Nassau, which started with a dispute over taxi service to the airport, but escalated into a racially based, labor vs. management dispute. I remember being present when the leaders of the strike came to my father and apologized for having to include him in the strike, because we were one of the few households that had black Bahamian friends frequently around for dinner, and there was no racial element in his management style. In any event, he was overextended at that time, having just renovated the two hotels, and this brought him down financially. He ended up staying on in Nassau as a real estate agent for several years while he paid off a few million dollars in debt, and then moved to California. The result of this was that the last couple years of my time at Milton Academy were paid 10