Newspaper Page Text
Ambassador Bennett Writes From Portugal
Tough Hide, Sense Os Humor
Needed To Be AU. S. Diplomat
(Editor’s Note: ft. Tap.
ley (Tap) Bennett, a native
of Griffin, is serving as U.
S. ambassador to Portugal,
an assignment he took last
July. It is one of the posts he
has filled during the last 10
years as a career diplomat.
In the following article, Am
bassador Bennett recalls
some of his experiences in
the diplomatic service.)
By W. TAPLEY BENINETT, JR.
Ambassador To Portugal
My last 10 years abroad have
been active ones and have co
vered a wide range of geogra
phy and experience. I went to
Austria in 1957 and had several
interesting years in the Em
bassy in Vienna. That was Just
after Austria had regained her
independence following World
War II and the occupation troops
of the United States, Great Bri
tain, France and the Soviet Un
ion had departed.
Austria’s location is a strate
gic one, with two-thirds of its
frontiers bordering on commu
nist countries, and Vienna it
self is only 20 miles from the
mined fields, armed guards and
watchdogs of the Hungarian
border.
As a sensitive spot, most of
the press correspondents cover
ing Eastern Europe made their
headquarters in Vienna. We had
many interesting evenings with
people like John Mac Cormack
of the New York Times, who
was the dean of the corps, Sey
Freidin of the old New York
Herald Tribune, John Chancel
lor of NBC and now head of the
Voice of America, Dwight Mar
tin, then of Time and now of
Newsweek, and others.
MUSICAL CITY
Vienna is one of the great mu
sical cities and opera stars of
ten participated in those even
ing proceedings. The Soviet Em
bassy was also very active in
Vienna.
From Vienna we went on for
a short time in Rome. The Ita
lian capital offers all the legen
dary attractions which have giv
en it the well-deserved title of
“the eternal city.” From Rome
we went on for three memorable
years in Greece.
Surely an assignment in Gree
ce is one of the great experien
ces in life. There is all the his
tory and beauty of the past —
from Greece’s golden age with
the Parthenon and the earliest
principles of democracy and
self-government, through the re
minders of Saint Paul and his
stay in Greece in the early
Christian era, the remains of
the Roman and the Byzantine
empires, the castles and vanish
ed courts of the Crusaders and
the Venetian strong points of
empire, and the influence of 400
GRIFFIN
DAILYW NEWS
MAGAZINE
Griffin, Ga., 30223, Sat. and Sun., April 1 -2,1967
years of Turkish rule — and the
stimulation and effervescence of
modern day Greece.
Greece occupies strategic real
estate in the Eastern Mediter
ranean. It faces three commu
nist neighbors on its thousand
mile frontier on the North. At
the time I was there each of the
three countries was communist
but each had different and com
peting loyalties — marking the
schisms of world communism
to come.
Albania inclined to Red Chi
nese leadership, Bulgaria was
very loyal to Moscow, ani Yugo
slavia had its own Tito-brand of
communism.
SIXTH FLEET
We saw a lot of our own
Navy’s Sixth Fleet there in the
Eastern Mediterranean as it pat
rolled constantly in its mission
ot protection for the free world.
We also had a great deal of air
traffic, both civilian and mili
tary, since Athens is on the
main travel routes to the Mid
dle East and a junction point
for traffic with Africa. Politics
began in Greece, and Greek
political life today is as active
and intense as our own.
After Greece came my two
year Embassy in the Caribbean.
My time of duty in the Domini
can Republic happened to coin
cide with a particularly unsta
ble period in the life of that tur
bulent country, and in April 19G5
there exploded one of the most
critical revolutionary out
breaks of recent decades in La
tin America.
Fighting raged, with the death
toll mounting beyond 2,000 as
normal life broke down comple
tely in Santo Domingo and con
ditions of civil war took hold.
The danger to the lives of Am
erican citizens became acute
and exploitation of the situation
by the forces of the extreme left
became dangerously evident.
CRISIS
As crisis degenerated into
chaos, American forces were
landed, to be joined soon there
after by troops of five Latin
American countries. Long mon
ths of tortuous and often mis
understood negotiations were fi
nally successful, and American
policy objectives were achiev
ed.
American lives, and the lives
of other nationals, were saved—
more than 5,000 individuals from
46 countries were evacuated on
their request by the superb ac
tion of the United States Navy,
while the United States Mari
nes and the Army’s 82nd Airbor
ne Division held the lines on
shore.
There was no communist take
over as had seemed a real th
reat at one stage of the revolt.
A provisional government was
finally formed in September
lilt (’
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■L
1965, and in June 1966 a free el
ection was held with the Domini
can people choosing their own
leadership.
We can take pride in the fact
that through our action and with
Inter-American cooperation we
helped a neighboring people
back from chaos and onto the
road of self-government.
BEAUTY
My family and I have now
been here in Portugal since last
July. This is a country of great
beauty and diversity, with a his
tory dating back to Phoenician
and Roman times. The Crusad
ers passed through here also and
there are wonderful churches
dating from that time and the
early Gothic period in the 14th
and 15th centuries. Portugal has
been a unified state as long as
Ambassador W. Tapley (Tap) Bennett, Jr.
any in Europe and, with its in
terests overseas in Africa and
Asia, it maintains an active in
volvement in world affairs.
A charter member of the Nor
th Atlantic Treaty Organization,
Portugal has a strategic location
of first importance, with respect
to the Atlantic ocean routes and
on the point where the Mediter
ranean meets the great ocean
sea. Columbus and Magellan
ventured into the Atlantic and
on around the world from Por
tugal’s coast, and similarly to
day there is heavy air and mar
itime traffic through Portugal
to North and South America, to
Africa and to the East.
Both our Navy and Air Force
find a hospitable welcome in
i Portugal, and the number of
American visitors has increase
enormously in recent years a
more and more people ha v
come to discover the beauty an
variety of this country.
DIPLOMACY
Diplomacy is an active life L
these post-war decades. Thei;
is very little of the striped troir
sers and top hat which was at.
long the caricature of a diplo
mat. Today it means represeik
ting America’s strategic defense
interests, promoting the export
of American agricultural pro
ducts and manufactured goods,
and trying to increase educa
tional exchange and better un
derstanding of American pol
icies and objectives.
The procedures of diplomacy
Continued on page eight