The Us Foreign Service: From New Frontier to War on Drugs

By John W. Stahlman

This is an account of an unusual journey through life, from a modest beginning as a lad in Ohio in the 1930s to experiences with high government officials as a member of the US Foreign Serviceeven with a ruling kingextending to 28 countries around the world, in 28 years. As a youngster, he had worked as a farm hand, print shop assistant, home improvement helper, railroad gandy-dancer, union laborer (age 15), union operating engineer on construction machines (16-20), machine press operator, and as a young adult, a tire builder, carpenter, union brakeman, deliveryman, postman and typistto name some of his work experience on through high school and college. He served as an Airborne Ranger in the US Army during the Korean Conflict and was discharged (with a disability) as a Captain.1 Working his way through Kent State University, he majored in law, business and languages (one year of Spanish and three years of Russian). Following discharge from the Army in December 1956, he enrolled at Georgetown University (School of Foreign Service and Graduate School) earning another degree. While serving in the US Foreign Service, the Department of State assigned him to Johns Hopkins Universitys School of Advanced International Studies, where he majored in economics. From 1959 to 1986 he served as an officer in the Foreign Service, with assignments in South and Central America (four countries), the Middle East (two countries), Southeast Asia (four countries) and India. In 1962 he was detailed to the Peace Corps for two years, initially as Executive Secretary, then as Deputy Director for Programs in five Latin American countries.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Nov 2, 2007
• ISBN: 9781465328618

Book preview

Copyright © 2007 by John W. Stahlman.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in

any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,

recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission

in writing from the copyright owner.

This book was printed in the United States of America.

To order additional copies of this book, contact:

Xlibris Corporation

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

[e-mail]

39119

Contents

FOREWORD

INTRODUCTION

An Overview

CHAPTER ONE

QUALIFYING FOR THE FOREIGN SERVICE

CHAPTER TWO

ASSIGNMENT COLOMBIA—FIRST TOUR, 1960-62

CHAPTER THREE

PEACE CORPS HEADQUARTERS, 1962-64

CHAPTER FOUR

JORDAN, 1965-67 AND WAR

CHAPTER FIVE

NEXT POST—BOMBAY, INDIA, 1967-68

CHAPTER SIX

WASHINGTON ASSIGNMENTS: Near East/South Asia, 1969-70

CHAPTER SEVEN

DACCA—MAYBE; SOUTHEAST ASIA, 1971-72

CHAPTER EIGHT

OVERLAND TO US EMBASSY, PANAMA, 1973-76

CHAPTER NINE

CENTRAL AMERICA—HONDURAS, 1976-79

CHAPTER TEN

DHAHRAN WINS OUT OVER KIEV, KABUL AND TEHRAN, 1979-81

CHAPTER ELEVEN

RETURN TO LATIN AMERICAN AFFAIRS, WASHINGTON, 1981-83

CHAPTER TWELVE

COLOMBIA, 1983-86: THE DRUG WAR MAKING A DIFFERENCE

APPENDIX ONE

APPENDIX TWO

APPENDIX THREE

APPENDIX FOUR

I would not have been able to complete all of these tasks without the help and encouragement of my wife, Mary Lou.

Old Russian Proverb: A man has not fulfilled his destiny on Earth until he has planted a tree, built a house, raised a family and written a book.

FOREWORD

I dedicate this book to my deceased parents, June Mae (Berentz) and Russell E. Stahlman, who provided encouragement and guidance through my formative years. Also, I wish to credit the following persons from whom I received inspiration during those early years to dedicate my life, as best I could, to world peace and understanding in the service of God and Country.

George Bowman, President, Kent State University

John Reed Spicer, Dean, School of Liberal Arts at Kent State

Dr. Leslie Garnett, International Affairs Officer and UNESCO Coordinator at Kent State

Ballard I. Brady, Principal, Kent State University High School and Superintendent of Orange District Schools, near Cleveland, Ohio

To Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and Graduate School, and in particular to Professor Carroll Quigley whose course Development of Civilizations gave me a broad understanding of ‘the big picture.’

The opinions and characterizations in this book are those of the author and do not necessarily represent official positions of the United States Government.

INTRODUCTION

An Overview

This is an account of an unusual journey through life, from a modest beginning as a lad in Ohio in the 1930’s to experiences with high government officials as a member of the US Foreign Service—even with a ruling king—extending to 28 countries around the world, in 28 years. As a youngster, he had worked as a farm hand, print shop assistant, home improvement helper, railroad ‘gandy-dancer’, union laborer (age 15), union operating engineer on construction machines (16-20), machine press operator, and as a young adult, a tire builder, carpenter, union brakeman, deliveryman, postman and typist—to name some of his work experience on through high school and college. He served as an Airborne Ranger in the US Army during the Korean Conflict and was discharged (with a disability) as a Captain.¹ Working his way through Kent State University, he majored in law, business and languages (one year of Spanish and three years of Russian). Following discharge from the Army in December 1956, he enrolled at Georgetown University (School of Foreign Service and Graduate School) earning another degree. While serving in the US Foreign Service, the Department of State assigned him to Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies, where he majored in economics. From 1959 to 1986 he served as an officer in the Foreign Service, with assignments in South and Central America (four countries), the Middle East (two countries), Southeast Asia (four countries) and India. In 1962 he was detailed to the Peace Corps for two years, initially as Executive Secretary, then as Deputy Director for Programs in five Latin American countries.

His was not the typical Foreign Service career. Strangely, wherever he was assigned, violence or disaster lurked or soon occurred. In Colombia, his first and last assignments, it was long-festering ‘violencia’, increasing insurrection by leftist guerrilla groups, insecurity and corruption promoted by drug mafia and natural disasters. For example, the snow-capped Mt. Ruiz volcano erupted just five months after he scaled the then 18,500 foot peak in 1985. Over 20,000 victims perished in the eruption. While directing the US Drug Control Program in Colombia, terrorists—at the behest of the drug mafia—attacked the Ministry of Justice, killing 11 justices of the Supreme Court and destroying drug prosecution files. The US Embassy and Information Service Library were bombed four times, as violence surged. While assigned to Panama, mobs attacked the embassy twice. In Central America it was revolution and border incursions. He witnessed the 1967 Middle East War while in Jordan. The Indo-Pakistan War erupted when he was merely ‘pointed’ at Dacca which was bombed by the Indian Air Force just three days prior to his scheduled flight to that city, capital of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). While at Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, the Iran-Iraq War threatened the area of this post on the Persian Gulf. While on a special roving assignment in the so-called ‘domino countries’ of Southeast Asia in 1972 the war in Vietnam was approaching a disastrous climax.

This officer was beginning to wonder whether there was something innately dangerous about him—like ‘Joe Bitslfk’, Al Capp’s Lil’ Abner character who, wherever he went, disaster struck around him. The day after he flew over Cuba en-route from Colombia to Miami in an old DC-3, the abortive ‘Bay of Pigs’ invasion occurred. And, while under consideration for posting as Consul General to Kiev in the USSR, where he could employ his Russian language training, that prospect was ‘nixed’ by Moscow. The US and the USSR had earlier agreed upon the mutual opening of one Consulate General in each other’s country. Moscow broke the agreement when it was miffed over President-elect Reagan’s calling the USSR the Evil Empire. Once, again, the mere possibility of assignment to Ukraine may seem to have had unfortunate effects, including the Chernobyl Nuclear Plant disaster, which occurred not long thereafter.

With the prospect of a Kiev posting gone late in the assignment process, there were few so-called ‘desirable’ postings available: just Kabul, Afghanistan; Tehran, Iran; and Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. While Afghanistan and Iran held out the prospect of interesting experience, he sensed the presence of ingredients of risk, so he elected to go to Dhahran, on the Persian Gulf, as Deputy Consul General. How fortunate that decision was! Shortly after he arrived in Saudi Arabia in 1979 on that assignment, violence broke out in both Iran and Afghanistan! Also, the Iran-Iraq war erupted, and Iran sent terrorists into the Dhahran area in attempts to disrupt Saudi oil production and to incite insurrection by Shia living in the area. Morehead C. Mike Kennedy, whom he knew from their earlier assignments in the Bureau of Economic Affairs at the State Department, was at the airline counter in State’s Travel Section when he went there to pick up his tickets to Dhahran. Kennedy was picking up his tickets to Tehran. He wished him well on his assignment to Iran, because he had a foreboding sense of trouble there. Unfortunately, he and over 50 of his Tehran colleagues were taken hostage by radical Islamists in an attack on the embassy and held under intolerable conditions for 444 days!

Meanwhile, the officer who accepted the Kabul Embassy post had a short, precarious experience there. The embassy was raided by radical Islamists and soon closed, and our ambassador was kidnaped and killed by his captors.

CHAPTER ONE

QUALIFYING FOR THE FOREIGN SERVICE

Candidates for career officer commissions in the US Foreign Service must prepare themselves thoroughly in several areas of the social sciences and management in order to successfully pass a rigorous written exam, an oral interview and a group interactive experience (the latter was added to the selection process in recent years). Decades ago the written exam emphasized American and world history, politics, economics, literature, art, geography, current events and analytical ability. A candidate achieving a certain level of ‘rights’ on the written exam was invited to an oral examination before a panel of three State Department and other senior officials—a subjective quizzing on general knowledge, geography and American and international events. A candidate was later informed of the outcome. For decades the Foreign Service was considered ‘pale, male and Yale,’ perhaps because New England schools attracted more applicants from families with international interests. Since the 1950’s the Department of State has given some weight to regional and social factors of applicants. When I passed the written exam in 1957 and the oral exam in 1958, 3,959 individuals had taken the written exam, of whom 676 passed; 94 passed the oral, and only 74 were eventually hired—less than two percent. A ‘squeaky-clean’ personal history is also a must for entry into the Foreign Service.

Anxious for assured employment (being married and with our first child) I had applied at two other agencies. Apparently, all three of them were performing background checks on me, because friends and family in Ohio and Wyoming asked what kind of trouble I had gotten into in Washington to warrant such thorough investigation.

The number of applicants has steadily risen since 1958, but until recently, fewer than 250 a year have been hired. The 9/11 attack on New York prompted a recognition of the need for expanding the Foreign Service to meet the need for increased reporting from abroad. Congress responded by substantially increasing funding and employment levels. Applications rose to nearly 20,000 in 2004, with nearly 4,500 passing the written exam, of which about 3,800 took the orals, and the Department was expected to hire about 400. Even though I was approved for a commission in the Foreign Service in mid-1958, there was a backlog of approved candidates owing to a lack of funding for new hires at the time. There was funding, however, for an increasing demand for passport and citizenship processing at the Passport Office, which is part of the State Department organization. Foreign Service officers employed in the consular function overseas perform citizenship determinations and process passport applications. Anxious to begin full-time employment, I was one of about 25 approved candidates who accepted this interim employment in January 1959.² I was relieved when I was scheduled for the July 1959 Foreign Service Training class at the Department’s Foreign Service Institute. Next came intensive Spanish language training from October to December. Thomas Boyatt (who later became an ambassador) and I comprised this small class. He had a remarkable ability to learn the language, perhaps due to an apparent photographic memory. I struggled, trying, but not quite able, to keep pace with him. Nevertheless, we completed it together, and I received a favorable skill rating. Interestingly, 27 years later, while assigned at the US Embassy at Bogota, Colombia, as Director of the US Narcotics Control Program, the same instructor, Ms. Blanca Russell, rated my Spanish proficiency highly. A Hispanic American FSO on my staff was perplexed that I received such a higher rating than he. After all, he grew up in a bi-lingual, Spanish-speaking neighborhood of New York City. Our instructor explained that I had demonstrated a good vocabulary and an ability to use the subjunctive, conditional and other grammatical intricacies of the language.

CHAPTER TWO

ASSIGNMENT COLOMBIA—FIRST TOUR, 1960-62

When I learned that my first overseas assignment was to the US Consulate at Medellin, Colombia, I had never heard of that city. Comparing notes with my Spanish classmate, Tom Boyatt, neither of us had heard of either of our postings. His was to the consulate at Antofogasta, Chile. As it turned out, I believe I benefitted greatly from being assigned to Medellin. I’ll get to the reasons why, later in this chapter.

Having spent over two years in Washington while preparing for government service (with applications at the National Security Agency and the Central Intelligence Agency, as well as the State Department) my wife and I observed that real estate was a very attractive, long-term financial prospect. So, upon having been assured of a job for me, and with her employment as a Public Health Officer at the National Institutes of Health (both positions salaried at $5,850 a year) we decided to purchase a house to occupy upon our possible return to the US after the Colombia assignment. We had closing settlement on one near Georgetown Prep School, northwest of Washington, just two weeks prior to departing for Colombia and plunged into refurbishing it inside and out, adding shutters, driveway fence with carriage lamp, fresh stone to the driveway, moving overgrown shrubs and adding some. Our bank had delayed closing until close to our departure, saying our combined incomes were insufficient! The purchase price was only $20,000! Somehow, we were able to satisfy the bank, close on the house and to contract a renter.

Our flight to Colombia was a pleasant respite from our near-frantic real estate venture, and we had traces of paint on our fingers from the hurried redecoration of the house. We were delighted that our flights to Miami and Panama were in first class on Pan American Airline’s constellations, due to the unavailability of standard seats at the time. We relished the upscale dinners with wine and champagne served on BOTH legs of the trip to Panama. Our two-year old son found it to be a great experience, too. Rarely did we ever again enjoy first class service. (The only other time that I recall was on Pan American’s ‘red-eye special,’ non-stop from Dhahran to New York City in a short-bodied 747—a 15-hour flight, depending on the wind.) We stayed at the new Panama Hilton for two days while awaiting our onward flight to Medellin, giving us an opportunity to more fully recover from the pressure of closing on, and refurbishing the new house.

We felt fortunate to have been assigned to the US Consulate in Medellin. The city was one of the country’s more advanced in industry, agriculture and finance. Textiles, coffee and light manufacturers were its main products. It is the capital of the department (state) of Antioquia, and Antioquenos were considered more industrious than most other Colombians. This entrepreneurial flair might explain why, in the 1970’s the