The Foreign Service Journal, March 2015

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | MARCH 2015 39 In the face of numerous challenges, diplomacy played a vital role in post-independence Mozambique and the Southern Africa region. BY WI L LARD D E PREE Willard DePree is a retired member of the Senior For- eign Service and a former ambassador to Mozambique (1976-1980) and Bangladesh (1987-1990). He joined the State Department Foreign Service in 1956, serving overseas in Cairo, Nicosia, Accra and Freetown, in ad- dition to assignments inWashington, D.C. W ell before I presented my letter of credence as U.S. ambassador to Samora Machel, president of the People’s Republic of Mozambique, on April 16, 1976, it was already clear that my assignment would be a challenging one. Nine months earlier, on July 25, 1975, the State Department had informed Machel’s government that we wished to send an ambassador to Maputo—yet it took more than three months for him to approve the request. The delay reflected stark divisions within the ruling party, the Front for the Liberation of Mozambique. Many officials were unhappy with the U.S. government’s past support of the Por- tuguese during FRELIMO’s struggle for independence. Others resented Washington’s refusal to take a more active role in press- ing for black-majority rule in Rhodesia and South Africa. Some, including President Machel himself, were also angry about our support of ethnic groups in Angola who had taken up MOZAMBIQUE: WHENDIPLOMACY PAIDOFF arms to prevent FRELIMO’s close ally, the Marxist Movement for the Liberation of Angola, from coming to power. Others feared the CIA might use the embassy as a springboard from which to create problems for Mozambique. They were not the only critics of the diplomatic overture, either. Some members of Congress rallied behind the efforts of Senator Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) to block the opening of an embassy in Mozambique. Their argument could be summed up as: “Why should we spend U.S. taxpayer money opening an embassy in an unfriendly, Marxist country? What cooperation can we expect from a government that refers to the Soviet Union, China, Cuba, Vietnam and North Korea as ‘our natural allies’ and is so sharply critical of U.S. Africa policies?” Secretary of State Henry Kissinger’s determination to proceed FEATURE