The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project AMBASSADOR WILLIAM ANDREAS BROWN Interviewed by: Charles Stuart Kennedy Initial interview date: November 3, 1998 Copyright 2004 ADST TABLE OF CONTENTS Background Born and raised in Massachusetts U.S. Marine Corps, Korea Harvard University (Chinese studies) Entered Foreign Service - 1956 Hong Kong - Passport/Commercial Officer 1956-1959 Fraud cases (citizenship) Citizen verification Quemoy-Matsui Communist Asia commerce Environment Citizenship fraud cases Taichung, Taiwan - Chinese Language Training 1959-1961 Political situation Singapore - Political Officer 1961-1964 British Politics Federation of Malaysia Kuching, Sarawak (Malaysia) - Principal Officer 1964-1965 Indonesia Federation developments Economy State Department - Foreign Service Institute [FSI] 1965-1966 Russian Language Training Moscow, USSR - Political Officer 1966-1968 China 1 Travel Environment Security Economy KGB Lumumba University New Delhi, India - Political/Economic Officer 1968-1970 Dalai Lama Soviets Svetlana Stalin Bhutan Sikkim Indira Gandhi U.S. visitors China State Department - Bureau of East Asian Affairs - Office of Asian Communist Affairs [ACA]- Deputy Director 1970-1972 Taiwan Warsaw/Geneva talks China relations Kissinger’s China visits Congressional China visit China contacts open National War College 1972 China Leeds, United Kingdom - Mongolian Language Study 1972-1974 Mongolian communist history publication U.S. embassy (Mongolia) proposal Environmental Protection Agency - Executive Secretary 1974-1977 U.S.-Soviet Environmental Agreement Soviets Russell Train Expo 74 - Soviet Pavilion Soviet environmental disasters Travels worldwide Moscow, USSR 1977-1978 Ambassador Malcolm Toon Relations Dissidents 2 Human rights Carter-Sakharov message Congressional visit Sharansky Environment Corruption Arab-Israeli relations Brezhnev Microwave radiation scandal China relations Soviet contacts Soviet society Economy Embassy fire Information sources Taipei, Taiwan - Deputy Chief of Mission 1978 U.S. recognizes China Break in relations Anti-U.S. demonstrations Congressional delegations Office organization Taiwan Relations Act Official visitors Taipei, Taiwan - American Institute in Taiwan - Trustee 1978-1979 Organization Japanese Nuclear issue Elections canceled Reporting Language School Tel Aviv, Israel - Deputy Chief of Mission 1979-1982 Geneva Peace Conference proposal Ambassador Sam Lewis Jerusalem consulate relationship American Jewish community Begin Phil Habib “shuttle” UN resolutions Iran hostages Lebanon Iraq nuclear reactor Ariel Sharon 3 Palestinian autonomy Sinai force Golan Heights Israeli invasion of Lebanon Egyptians PLO Syria Arafat Camp David Christian sects Israeli pressure Israeli religious groups Israeli-Americans Human rights University of New Hampshire - Diplomat in Residence 1982-1983 Arab-Israeli relationship course University of Pennsylvania - China course Environment State Department - East Asia and Pacific Affairs – Assistant Secretary 1983-1985 Paul Wolfowitz Meetings White House relationship China/Taiwan ANZUS Nuclear (navy) issue Discussion of Women in the Foreign Service Hong Kong consulate general Forced resignation Female ambassadors Discussion of Relationship of Career Officers and Political Appointees State Department - East Asia and Pacific Affairs - Assistant Secretary (continued) 1983-1985 China/Taiwan VIP visits KAL flight downed (1983) Assassinations Chinese spies Pakistan nuclear issues Australia 4 Pacific Islands Fishing Philippines ASEAN Refugees Vietnamese Thai military Government U.S. agency presence Narcotics Relations Visas Environment Cambodia Ethnic groups Congressional visits MIA/POWs Khmer Rouge Economy ASEAN Bali meeting Sex trade AIDS Textiles Aircraft sales State Department - Temporary Duty - Moscow Embassy Security 1987-1988 Marine guards and KGB Congressional hearings Security options Accountability and responsibility U.S.-Soviet meetings Moscow chancery Recommendation report Israel - Ambassador 1988-1992 PLO dialogue Arafat Intifada Relations Government “Land for Peace” process Jerusalem/embassy issue Israeli settlements U.S.-Israeli discussions Baker-Israeli talks 5 Economy Russian Jews Saddam Hussein/Israel Gulf War Jewish lobby Teddy Kollek Syria Iraqi threat to Israel UN Resolution 425 Missile systems Jordan SCUD attacks PATRIOT missiles Israeli military Retirement 1992 Private banking “Senior Review Panel” Ambassador to Israel (continued) “Operation Shlomo” Falasha community Madrid Peace Conference Rabin Indyk (group) Israel visit Senior Review Panel Black Hebrews Ed Djerejian Oslo talks Jewish settlement Retirement (Second) 1994 Senior Review Panel American Institute in Taipei Special envoy on Burma Comments on the Foreign Service INTERVIEW [Note: This interview has not been edited by Ambassador Brown.] Q: This is an interview with Ambassador William A. Brown. It is being done on behalf of the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training. I'm Charles Stuart Kennedy. Well, 6 Bill, let's start at the beginning. Can you tell me when and where you were born and something about your family? BROWN: Alright. I was born on September 7, 1930, at the hospital in Winchester, Massachusetts, because there was no hospital in Lexington, Massachusetts, where I grew up. My family and I considered that Lexington, Massachusetts, was, indeed, “the birthplace of American liberty” - which was the town slogan. We thought that this was more than a slogan. The place of my birth imbued me with certain attitudes, given the fact that we considered that we were at the center of the American Revolution and that it all began there. In my early years I didn't realize that the Revolution began in other places as well and about at the same time. Secondly, I would say that I grew up on the wrong side of the tracks. That is, I grew up in East Lexington, Massachusetts. There was quite a divide between the center of the town of Lexington, where the more affluent, establishment people lived, and those of us who were from East Lexington, on the Arlington County line. I just addressed my 50th high school reunion and mentioned this. My reference to it in these terms touched those others who were from East Lexington. I grew up in unusual circumstances. My parents were divorced when I was a baby. My father was from a nouveau riche family which had suffered reverses in the Depression. My mother was the daughter of a Danish immigrant workingman. Given the social attitudes of the time, my mother had no recourse, due to the Depression and so forth, but to move in with her widower father, who was a sort of surrogate father to me, a hard- working Danish man from the working class. So, although I had a formerly wealthy widowed grandmother who lived in the more affluent town center, I grew up in a working class milieu, in an area which was significantly Irish Catholic and Italian-American. This Italian section of Lexington was called, “Guineaville.” On the fringes of this area there was a small, Jewish community which was very poor and was called “Jewville.” So I grew up in the midst of all of these stereotypes, ethnic, religious, and so forth. Q: Were you raised a Catholic? BROWN: No. Q: I was going to say that there must have been quite a divide between the Catholic... BROWN: There was. Remember, this was not just Catholic. It was Irish Catholic in the Boston sense. That is to say that Jesuit priests visited the families of the parish. When I was a kid, I remember hearing stories about this. The Jesuits reportedly thundered from the pulpit of the Catholic parish that they knew that some of their parishioners were murderers who practiced contraception. Abortion wasn't even mentioned in those days, but people who used contraceptives were considered murderers and were considered guilty of sin. 7 There was a very strong, anti-British background to all of this. This was very interesting to me when, much later in life, I dealt with British diplomats and lived in Leeds England for over a year. I went through Lexington High School. I didn't know this at the time but, for those conservative days, Lexington had a rather progressive school system. My classmates, once I reached high school and discovered the whole town, included the sons and daughters of some very accomplished people. They were professors at the universities in the Boston area, such as Harvard College, MIT [Massachusetts Institute of Technology], Tufts College, and so forth. So there were some remarkable people around Lexington. I said that I came from, shall I say, the wrong side of the tracks. Looking back on this time, I originally thought that I was going to be a military officer. An Italian neighbor of ours had fought in World War I. He had sons, but they didn't quite measure up to his standards. This neighbor had been impoverished between World Wars I and II but had been in the National Guard or the Army Reserve. When World War II came, he suddenly rose from the status of being a butcher in civilian like to that of full Colonel in the United States Army. He came back from World War II in glory and picked me as a sort of surrogate son in this respect. He was determined that I was going to go to West Point [U.S. Military Academy]. Q: May we go back just a bit? When you were in grammar or elementary school, what were your interests at that time? BROWN: I was quite sports-oriented. I was fortunate, through my mother and her friends, to become fond of reading quite early. Lexington was still significantly rural, although a suburb of Boston in those days. So there were plenty of woods and open fields in which to play Cowboys and Indians and so forth. In those days tennis was a popular sport, but the people I knew didn't play tennis. That was a wealthy man's sport. I was a caddy at the golf course, but I didn't play golf. I carried the golf clubs of the wealthy. [Laughter] So the sports I played included baseball, football, basketball, and track. Q: I assume that quite a bit of this was also organized, was it not? BROWN: Yes. Q: You didn't have Little Leagues and things like that... BROWN: There was no formal organization. It was sand lot baseball. I still bear a scar from playing ice hockey. That was played outdoors. In those days there was no easily available, indoor hockey rink. Lexington had quite a sports reputation, including championship baseball, basketball and ice hockey. We were very good in track and in baseball and football. Q: What sort of books were you reading? 8 Q: Somewhere my mother had obtained a copy of the old “World Book of Knowledge,” published in about 1905. I still have it. Q: It consisted of about 20 volumes. I read it all the way through. BROWN: It was extraordinary. Early on, I became interested in military history. By the time I was in junior high school I was reading a great deal about the history of the American Civil War. Of course, Lexington had its own history and held annual parades on April 19 to commemorate Paul Revere's ride. Houses were marked with signs saying that this was where Paul Revere stayed, and this was the old tavern he visited. Lexington was steeped in history, and there were artifacts from the period of the American Revolution in the buildings and so forth. History was very much in my reading. Q: The statue of the “Minute Man...” BROWN: Oh, yes. Q: Must have permeated the atmosphere of the place. Although there was still some anti- British feeling, you must have been old enough to begin to feel the impact of World War II. How did that affect you? BROWN: At my age World War II meant that my mother went to work. Remember, my parents were divorced. My mother and I were living with my Danish widower grandfather, who was a hard-working man. With the manpower shortage at the time, my mother went to work in a cookie factory, on a cookie assembly line. I myself was able to find work, and I started out making 15 cents an hour, working on local farms. That was a real taste of farm work. The years from 1941 to 1944 involved rough farm work, when I worked down on my knees, weeding. The employers really pushed us. As I said, I started work at 15 cents an hour and felt damned lucky to get that. World War II meant that my grandfather, like other neighbors, worked for the Office of Civil Defense. He was issued a helmet, an arm band, and a shovel. Meanwhile, my father, whom I rarely saw, was in his late 30s. He was so gung ho in support of the war that he managed to get a commission as a chemical warfare officer. All of the males of the right age went off to military service, including Dickie Cook, a guy who was a sort of role model for me. Dickie was the son of the local fire chief. He lived about two houses away from us. Dickie Cook got a commission in the Army Air Corps right out of high school. He had the right stuff, and they rushed him through mathematics and so forth. He became a Bombardier. He came back, years later, with a different attitude toward the Air Force. On a bombing run over Japan his plane was attacked. When it gained maximum altitude to evade the enemy he froze, and suffered severe nerve damage. During World War II one was filled with patriotism. As the war continued, I remember getting summer jobs at a Boys' Baptist Camp on the southern coast of Maine. That's 9 where I was when the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki took place, and the war came to an end. I was then 15 years old and just itching, almost dying to get into combat. Thank God I didn't! However, I was influenced by the other neighbor I mentioned who came back to Lexington as a full colonel He reinforced an emerging mindset. I wanted to be a military officer, go to West Point, and so forth. Indeed, my high school yearbook said, “We hope that Bill Brown does as well at West Point as he did, playing the piano.” Both of these objectives faded, with the passage of time. Q: I was wondering. For many members of our generation, although I was two years older than you, World War II was the greatest course imaginable in the geography of the world. We read about places like Rostov [in the Soviet Union], Caserta [in Italy], and Iwo Jima [in Japan]. Did you follow the war closely? BROWN: Yes. My Danish grandfather, although he did not have much of a formal education, was a reader. So, like millions of other Americans, we gathered around the radio in the evenings for a real ritual of listening to the news. My grandfather subscribed to the “Boston Globe.” Yes, we followed the development of the war in great detail. Q: How did this turn out in terms of your experience? Were you much interested in girls? Usually, I've found that with Foreign Service officers it usually turns out, when I ask what they majored in, they say, “Sports and girls.” [Laughter] BROWN: Well, I had a girlfriend. I met her once again at the 50th reunion of my high school class, after the passage of 50 years. Because of my working experience at the camp on the coast of Maine, where I worked in the kitchen and so forth, I also met a girl from the Bronxville, New York, who was really something. So I had a romantic attachment there. I was also heavily into music. I was into classical music and then I turned to jazz. For a while there it looked as if I might make music a career. All of that faded away, but I was in a band, circulating around and making some money, playing musical engagements. I was pretty heavily into sports and was determined to get a college degree. I thought that I was going to West Point. There was one other thing. I was inducted into the DeMolay organization and became the head of the local DeMolay group. Q: The DeMolay organization is the Masonic youth organization. BROWN: It's an affiliate. I don't know how they are now, but Masons were sort of our mentors and sponsors. DeMolay was an independent organization for young men. There was a counterpart organization for girls, called the “Rainbow Girls.” So I had something to do with that as well. Q: You were getting ready to graduate from high school, which would have been about 1948 or so? BROWN: Yes. Then came the shock of realizing that I couldn't get into West Point [U.S. 10