MOROCCO COUNRY READER TABLE OF CONTENTS A ... - ADST

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Ambassador Richard B. Parker was born in Kansas in 1923 and received a bachelor’s degree in 1947 and a master’s degree in 1948 from Kansas State College. His Foreign Service career included positions in Australia, Israel, Jordan, Washington, DC, Libya, Lebanon, Egypt, and an ambassadorship to Morocco. Ambassador Parker was interviewed by Charles Stuart Kennedy in 1989. PARKER: I said, "I would like to go some place in Europe." "Well, there is nothing open in Europe. There are two posts coming open, Rabat and Tunis." I said, "Well, I have been to Rabat. I would much rather go to Tunis." But the Department, in its wisdom, decided to send me to Rabat thinking they were doing me a favor. I left to go back to Beirut from consultation thinking I was going to Tunis in the following spring. What happened was the Department pulled me out and sent me to Rabat in October. Sooner than I was ready to go and quite unwillingly. I didn't like the way the king treated ambassadors. Rabat is not an interesting town. I didn't want to go back. I didn't really know that I was the man for the job, and I wasn't because it turned out very badly. The king, after initially giving agrément, apparently didn't realize that I had been there during the two previous coup d'état attempts in which he suspected the Americans had some role. I think he became convinced that I had been sent by Jimmy Carter to pull the plug out from under him as he thought Jimmy Carter had done with the Shah. Q: This is the Shah of Iran. PARKER: Shah of Iran, yes. Q: Just about that time. PARKER: Yes, in early 1979, he arrived in Rabat essentially as a refugee. To make a long story short, in effect, the king asked for my recall, and I left there in June of '78 -- Q: '79. PARKER: '79 after eight months. And that was, in effect, the end of my career. Q: Was this such a short time or were there any themes we should try to develop while you were there? PARKER: Well, it's an interesting case study in what happens to an area specialist in a place like this.
The big issue when I got there was arms. People in the Department, the Assistant Secretary Hal Saunders and my predecessor in Rabat, Bob Anderson, thought they had settled it in a conversation with the king during the summer. The question was arms for use in the Sahara. When I was talking about Algeria, I should have mentioned the move of the Moroccans into the western Sahara in 1975. The Algerians opposed this and began supporting the Polisario guerrilla against the Moroccans, and the Moroccans found themselves bogged down in a guerrilla war which was getting nastier and nastier and quite serious by 1978. They had gone in the Sahara, I am convinced, with encouragement from Kissinger. I think the historical record will show that some day. The Carter administration came in. Vance came in. We got a regional approach as opposed to Kissinger's global approach. The regionalists in the Bureau of African Affairs were very concerned because the African countries were concerned about this Moroccan expansionism into the western Sahara. They opposed the use of American arms -- and we'd long had an arms supply arrangement with Morocco. They opposed the use of these arms in the Sahara. The legal advisor of the Department, Herb Hansell, who has been a member of my board in the Association for Diplomatic Studies, issued what I call a fatwa or decree; it is what a mufti issues. It was a decree saying, in effect, arms we supplied under our military assistance program for the defense of Morocco could not be used in the Sahara because we did not recognize Moroccan sovereignty over the Sahara yet because there had been on act of self-determination for the Saharan people. I had no idea this rain cloud was gathering when I went to Morocco. But it burst almost as soon as I got there over an issue of helicopters ordered from Augusta Bell, the Italian helicopter company that manufactures helicopters under license from Bell U.S.A. And because they are under license from an American company, our munitions control people still had a veto over their final export. The Department, in its wisdom, had informed the Italians that these helicopters could not be exported to Morocco unless the Moroccans gave us the commitment they would not be used in the Sahara. This made the king very unhappy. At one point, he summoned me and the Italian Ambassador to Marrakech. Pretending he was talking to the Italian Ambassador -- the two of us in the same room with him, sitting on the same couch -- but actually talking to me saying in effect, if the Americans didn't give him these helicopters, they could forget about any kind of military cooperation with Morocco. Although I had earlier opposed the Moroccan move into the Sahara, I thought it had been a mistake and I thought we should have opposed it. I knew Secretary Vance -- because I had heard him say it -- like Secretary Kissinger, thought that the creation of another mini-state there would be a mistake. And I felt, as long as I'm working for the Secretary, I've got to support his position. I am going to be a good soldier about this. After this conversation with King Hassan I sent a telegram saying, "You know, you people are expecting the Moroccans to do this and that for you. You are expecting them to send troops to Zaire to support Mobutu. You are expecting them to give security advice and training to people in the Persian Gulf area. You want some limited
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MOROCCO COUNRY READER TABLE OF CONT
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Charles L. Daris 1975-1979 Politica
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British who, of course, manned the
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FRITZLAN: That was '42. Childs came
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wanted to buy land because you know
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court. The foreign exchange regulat
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JOSEPH JOHN JOVA Political Officer
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documentation for that. The same me
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and Tangier suddenly was invaded by
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And it's true that you could see Sp
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Q: Were you under any restraints? C
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Q: Okay. So anything particular hap
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home leave after two years. I had a
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NORLAND: That's true. And the minis
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time. We were trying to find out wh
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Oufkir became suspect in later year
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But, it was what was going on in Fr
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level? NORLAND: As usual, there are
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asked to help interpret. At the off
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eading him as far as Tunisia and Mo
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NORLAND: And, of course, there were
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negotiated and which the inspector
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I said, "Well, we can see if we can
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But, anyway, the next day, the Alge
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The majority of the others may have
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Ambassador Leonardo Neher was born
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Spanish living in Tangier, 10,000-1
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Whatever opposition there was to th
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WILLIAM E. SCHAUFELE, JR. Political
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the leaders of its constituent unio
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Washington and said that you don't
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Morocco was pretty well served by r
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Q: Did they wear Moroccan dress? SC
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Q: Now, since about the ninth centu
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learned in Moroccan Arabic was the
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adical group. And the United States
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His first government was led by Mor
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established the school. It is now s
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the States. Tangier had been a gift
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PRATT: Well it is hard to tell. The
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with Spanish and also has a lot of
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why it wasn't working. Q: It was a
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So he did. And he was right, becaus
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Ambassador Alan W. Lukens was born
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Q: You went to Tangier in 1963, and
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Q: What was the situation? Where di
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They then handed me the victim's pa
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Winifred S. Weislogel was born in N
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have a book allowance. We got books
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WEISLOGEL: They are, they can be, y
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They used the building because they
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could play the traditional Sherifia
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"We're going to have to suspend it"
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Q: This was 1965? DUNCAN: Yes. They
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The Algerians had so many expropria
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word in because he couldn't think o
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to try to calm the situation in tha
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had a wide-ranging discussion with
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Q: From within the embassy, from yo
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LLOYD: I suspect that because of th
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would almost show him to be a pries
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Q: Did we have a Peace Corps there?
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them. Q: Yes, yes, including the fa
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diplomats were there, and some…wh
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Q: I’ve heard sort of mixed repor
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ADAMS: I had a Ph.D. and all that k
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BEN FRANKLIN DIXON Economic Officer
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they called Abayung, which is when
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Regis du Tabac. They have tobacco i
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however, said, well, you know, the
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And I said, "That's because I'm giv
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and out. He'd committed, oh I know
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WEISLOGEL: But I enjoyed working fo
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WEISLOGEL: Oh yes, which Morocco ne
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disappointment to a lot of Moroccan
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An example of the type of problems
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work. Dr. Becali was very much take
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weren't doing anything. When I arri
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Q: Do you remember anything about,
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BIRNBAUM: It's a long time ago. It
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CHEEVERS: Nine times out of ten, we
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CORREL: A very low profile one of m
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Mission, we were assigned a multi-s
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That would take us to August of 197
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WHITE: That’s right. We disassemb
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But there was a lot of corruption i
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did you have any instructions or an
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elements, the student people. So I
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ROCKWELL: That's right. Q: Was ther
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Q: We have a consulate in Tangier,
Page 181 and 182: assistance projects more than the G
Page 183 and 184: KEITH: I guess the best two Maghreb
Page 185 and 186: KEITH: As branch PAO. Q: What was F
Page 187 and 188: you’re lying for reasons of state
Page 189 and 190: Portuguese. Q: When you got to Moro
Page 191 and 192: as did some others. He did what amb
Page 193 and 194: Q: Did you find in your economic wo
Page 195 and 196: HAYWOOD RANKIN Vice Consul Tangier
Page 197 and 198: treatment, which they did and they
Page 199 and 200: already had...I didn't believe in b
Page 201 and 202: Political Counselor Rabat (1974-197
Page 203 and 204: steam, while they were closely watc
Page 205 and 206: Palestinians, at the time you were
Page 207 and 208: were using Arabic a lot in Rabat or
Page 209 and 210: fine. But let's see if there's anyt
Page 211 and 212: An amusing story on Melilla and Gib
Page 213 and 214: ANDERSON: Yes. Well, we wanted to g
Page 215 and 216: MOFFAT: Because major players in th
Page 217 and 218: leaders come over to be given the t
Page 219 and 220: ewards were far less than in other
Page 221 and 222: WARD: Yes, it was run through the g
Page 223 and 224: consultants. They may know their fi
Page 225 and 226: few years and the program understan
Page 227 and 228: Q: It was sort of tolerated by the
Page 229 and 230: old), he has kept his finger on the
Page 231: evaluation operation in AID/Washing
Page 235 and 236: Morocco who had gone there; his pho
Page 237 and 238: support trade. For example, we saw
Page 239 and 240: ROGERS: I wasn't aware of that. Of
Page 241 and 242: ROGERS: No problem, quite pleasant.
Page 243 and 244: Q: One of the things that I've gott
Page 245 and 246: times. Aeroflot used the same hotel
Page 247 and 248: discuss whether the ambassador from
Page 249 and 250: MARSH: Not really, I think I’d ju
Page 251 and 252: dinner and let the two principals g
Page 253 and 254: forgot that. Even in my day, 25 yea
Page 255 and 256: expected everyone to work around th
Page 257 and 258: dame.” And literally the words we
Page 259 and 260: illiant, and the new administrative
Page 261 and 262: aised my blood pressure as well. He
Page 263 and 264: in the sense that ordinarily visito
Page 265 and 266: know too much about Jaguars - and i
Page 267 and 268: that I really was thinking about le
Page 269 and 270: the East European, the Radio Free E
Page 271 and 272: Political Counselor Rabat (1983-198
Page 273 and 274: that many of his detractors, includ
Page 275 and 276: to inform the King of strongly nega
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Page 279 and 280: Q: Dick, what you’re saying sound
Page 281 and 282: JACKSON: Morocco was represented at
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Q: When you were in Rabat and Casab
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problems, say in Saudi Arabia, wher
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substantive talks with the Moroccan
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JACKSON: They met only with King Ha
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JACKSON: Well, of course, we were o
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agricultural in its thinking and ma
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country while Rabat is the politica
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KIRBY: In April of 1984 I went to R
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United States. In an uncertain worl
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KIRBY: Nobody in Morocco took the m
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many other issues at that time that
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KIRBY: I had and have great respect
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happened to the King. I said, “Ju
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You had all the navy coming through
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all in English to me, which he spea
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state. They were supported by the A
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Q: Any problems with our military g
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Q: Speaking of going to Morocco, wh
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We were very aggressive in protecti
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SCHIFFERDECKER: They were very clos
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tried to assist some of those small
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GRAVES: We were worried because man
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GRAVES: Yes. I had known him earlie
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the Chinese, even though the Chines
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GRAVES: I didn't know Sidi Mohammed
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people in an American embassy or co
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in Paris. But the director of NEA,
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HUFFMAN: I didn’t get into that v
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I arrived on the scene. What was le
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lake or an ocean. Q: How about the
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just cut our numbers more. And as I
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factly, but I knew in his mind he w
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USSERY: The Moroccan elite started
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amounts of aid, being a developing
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engagement, we never did anything m
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spending. I don’t know what Moroc
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unique in that he conducted himself
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those were my two competitors. I wa
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where I was very active trying to g
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high level visits. Secretary of Sta
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full confidence in the judiciary in
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candidates. Of course I wouldn't ta
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the western Sahara with our embassy
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Q: I was wondering whether this rep
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for calling them a terrorist group.
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PLAISTED: I always think of my tour
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CARY: I was the consul general. Q:
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airplanes. Now the Middle East peac
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on. Nobody was named and there were
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ecame independent, well, the pirate
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The Department was, and is, also in
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working for an ambassador. This sai
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dashing about (sometimes in uncerta
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under liberalism as practiced by Si
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They had worked for the family in B
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Switzerland. He helped me pack out
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Q: Oh, yes. GOOD: I really could ha
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and it had gone to the States and c
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society, but generally within the F
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ecause of his Jewish heritage but b
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The idea of universal education, li
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American tourists who go to Morocco
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Q: Was there any discussion at that
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over over a period of a couple of y
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USREY: Yes. Q: I interviewed her. U
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permanent member of the UN Security
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USREY: A good question. The terms o
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USREY: The only way to do it was to
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Q: Was he in ill health when you we
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viewed as aimed against them, which
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USREY: No. Q: Well, then in 1998, y
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GABRIEL: Well, I started dealing wi
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Q: When you say the peace process,
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who were interested in what transpi
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that Israel and the Palestinians we
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Our strategic planning process had
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to arrest the eventual key witness
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confidence develops between the two
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King Hassan took a country in disar
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promotion of a moderate brand of Is
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cause for concern for the United St
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Q: What was in it? Keeping prisoner
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year, 2002, Baker went to Rabat to
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ased on building a “democratic, p
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policy. He was also developing tact
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GABRIEL: That’s a great question.
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the Consulate during my time did no
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going to tell a senator it’s just
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King is going in the right directio
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