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

spent some time in the Central Command working on something called Operation Bright Star,
which were the original dress rehearsals for moving troops and tanks into the Gulf. And so I
knew quite a lot about that. It’s a credit to the American engineers of the ‘40s and ‘50s that the
airstrips needed no repair or maintenance. They were magnificently constructed. But the fueling
pumps and ramps, obviously, all that had to be changed.
On the VOA front, the U.S. was able to expand the Tangier relay station, again a huge strategic
asset for us, because they’re used for not only broadcasting but they’re used for other types of
communication. And that was very fortunate because Liberia went down the tubes not too long
after that.
Finally, the King, at our urging, helped with the first tentative contacts between Israel and the
PLO. And I think, before I got there, and before he died, Moshe Dayan actually came over to
Morocco for a secret meeting. The King was able to do that because he had a network of palaces
around the country with jet airfields so that visitors and officials could fly in and out without
going through some civilian airport. That was a very, very interesting operation. It continued
while I was there. It’s still, I think, fairly highly classified, so I really don’t have too much more
to say about it. I will say that I think it did lay the groundwork for Baker’s visits in Madrid,
which were in the mid-‘80s, late ‘80s.
We did have a lot of visitors, and I want to mention several of them.
The first major visitor group that I remember, and I remember it particularly acutely because of a
problem I caused, included Henry Kissinger, Phil Habib, Ambassador Robert Neumann, and Neil
Armstrong. They all came at the same time, and they all wanted to see the King. I don’t think
they wanted to see him all at once, but it was set up so they all had to go together. And the King
usually had his audiences at one in the morning, which is very trying for potentates like
Kissinger and Habib and so on. Neumann had been ambassador there, so he was not so uptight.
Anyway, everyone was sitting around the ambassador’s residence getting increasingly edgy
about the appointment. And Joseph Reed, as often is the case, vanished. I guess he went over to
the Palace. At about 12:30 or quarter of one in the morning, I really thought it had gone on a
little bit long. We kept being told, “Another 15 minutes, another 15 minutes.” So I called one of
the people I knew really well at the Palace, a really nice guy, a colonel in security, and I said to
him, “You know, things are getting a little sticky here. Can’t we figure out a way to get this
cavalcade moving.” He said, “Well, I promise I’ll get back in five minutes and tell you.” So in
five minutes, he called back, and he said, “Go out to the commander of the motorcycle team, and
I’ll give the order, and you’ll hear it.” So I went out, and you know, I heard his voice saying “Get
moving.” Of course, everybody got in the cars, and off they went. So I went home to have a
shower and a Scotch, and while I was in the shower, my daughter, who was living with me the
first year I was in Morocco, rapped on the door and said, “You better come to the phone.
Somebody’s very upset.” So I ran dripping to the phone, and it was the stammering protocol guy
at the Palace, and he said, “General Moulay Hafez wants to talk to you.” So the general came on
the phone, and he read me up and down. He said, “I’m the only one who gives permission for
motorcades. Who told you to send the motorcycles?” I said, “Oh, well, it’s entirely my fault. I’m
so sorry.” “Oh, you’re going to be more than sorry. I’m going to fix it so you never, etc...” Well,
you know. He was just absolutely about to have a stroke. Anyway, you can imagine it really