Abroad for Her Country

Jean M. Wilkowski

Description

"In Abroad for Her Country, Jean M. Wilkowski shares the story of her extraordinary career in the U.S. Foreign Service during the last half of the twentieth century. Born in an era when few women sought professional careers, Wilkowski graduated from Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College and the University of Wisconsin and then rose through the ranks at the Department of State, from Vice Consul to the first woman U.S. Ambassador to an African country and the first woman acting U.S. Ambassador in Latin America.

During her thirty-five-year diplomatic career, Wilkowski was sent first as a vice consul to the Caribbean during World War II, when the Department of State was "even taking in 4-Fs and women." She moved on to more challenging assignments in Latin America and Europe. For much of her career, she specialized in protecting and promoting U.S. trade and investment interests in such posts as Paris, Milan, Rome, Santiago, and Geneva. She also served during a revolution in Bogotá, attacks on the U.S. Embassy in Tegucigalpa, and the war between El Salvador and Honduras, when she called in U.S. humanitarian aid for 50,000 war-displaced persons. In 1977 she became coordinator of the U.S. preparation for the 1979 United Nations Conference on Science and Technology in Vienna. She worked closely with Notre Dame president Theodore Hesburgh, head of the U.S. delegation, and accompanied the delegation on its fact-finding visit to the Peoples' Republic of China.

Sujets

• Personal Memoirs
• International Relations
• POLITICAL SCIENCE
• Women
• Diplomacy
• Biography
• United States Foreign Service
• Woman
• United States Department of State
• Latin America
• The Women
• Autobiography
• Diplomatie (homonymie)
• Département d'État des États-Unis

Informations

• Publié par: University of Notre Dame Press
• Date de parution: 01 avril 2008
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780268096571
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 17 Mo

Extrait

Abroad for Her Country

An ADSTDACOR Diplomats and Diplomacy Book

J EAN M. W ILKOWSKI

Abroad for Her Country Tales of a Pioneer Woman Ambassador in the U.S. Foreign Service

University of Notre Dame Press

Notre Dame, Indiana

Copyright © 2008 by University of Notre Dame Notre Dame, Indiana 46556 www.undpress.nd.edu All Rights Reserved

Manufactured in the United States of America

Title Page art courtesy of Cavallini Papers & Co., Inc.

The views and opinions in this book are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training, Diplomatic and Consular Officers, Retired, Inc., or the United States Government.

Library of Congress CataloginginPublication Data

Wilkowski, Jean M., 1919– Abroad for her country : tales of a pioneer woman ambassador in the U.S. ForeignService/JeanM.Wilkowski. p. cm. — (An ADSTDACOR diplomats and diplomacy book) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN13: 9780268044138 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN10: 0268044139 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Wilkowski, Jean M., 1919– 2. Ambassadors—United States—Biography. 3. Women ambassadors—United States—Biography. 4. United States— Foreign relations—1945–1989. I. Title. E748.W683A3 2008 327.730092—dc22 [B] 2007051042

∞The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources.

This work is dedicated to all the new and coming generations of Foreign

Service officers of the twentyfirst century, the roughly three hundred in

telligent young men and women carefully selected from among 20,000

applicants each year to be sent abroad to represent their country through

out the world. They are among the best of America’s government servants.

The foreign posts they go to—Moscow, Prague, Manila, Bujumbura,

Jidda, Seoul, Pretoria, and Kinshasa—are as diverse as their own family

names, home states, backgrounds, education, and experience. They will

observe, analyze, report, and act in defense of their country’s vital na

tional interests overseas.

May these young officers be helped by the experiences of all those who

went before them, remain true to the principles upon which this great

country was founded, and find support under the wing of that Great

Spirit who watches over and protects those on missions of justice and

peace.

C

o

n

Preface

t

e

n

t

s

O NE Early Years, 1926–44

T WO Trinidad, BWI, 1944–46 (Vice Consul)

T HREE Bogotá, Colombia, 1947–48 (Third Secretary—Economic)

F OUR Milan, Italy, 1949–51 (Vice Consul)

F IVE Paris, France, 1953–56 (Deputy Commercial Attaché)

S IX Santiago, Chile, 1957–59 (Second Secretary)

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3

18

44

71

99

132

viii

S EVEN Interim Assignments: GATT Tariff Negotiations, 1960–61; Senior Seminar,1962–63;DiplomatinResidenceinCalifornia,1976–77

E IGHT Rome, Italy, 1963–66 (Second Secretary), 1969–72 (Commercial Counselor;Minister/CounselorforEconomicAffairs)

N INE Tegucigalpa, Honduras, 1966–69 (Deputy Chief of Mission; Chargé d’Affaires a.i.)

T EN Lusaka, Zambia, 1972–76 (U.S. Ambassador, Chief of Mission)

E LEVEN To State and the United Nations, 1977–80 (Father Ted, China, and Vienna)

T WELVE Later Years, 1980–2000

Epilogue

Index

Contents

151

172

201

234

300

319

340

341

Preface

The following thoughts are said to have been drafted by Bishop Ken Un tener of Saginaw, Michigan, and first spoken by John Cardinal Dearden of Detroit, though they are often incorrectly attributed to Salvadoran Arch bishop Oscar Romero. These words have become a prayer (“The Long View,” cited in part below). It reminds us of how little can be accom plished in life without our Creator’s assistance.

The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts,

it is even beyond our vision. We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of the magnificent enterprise that is God’s work. Nothing we do is complete. . . . . . . . . . . This is what we are about. We plant the seeds that will one day grow. We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise.

We lay foundations that will need further development.

We provide yeast that produces effects beyond our capabilities.

We cannot do everything, and

there is a sense of liberation in knowing that.

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