The Foreign Service Journal, September 2013

26 SEPTEMBER 2013 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL Paraguay, Peru and Venezuela. He also played a crucial role in resolving a controversy between the United States and Canada over acid rain in the late 1980s, personally assuring then-Prime Minister Brian Mulroney that Washington was working hard to address the problem. Amb. Landau’s wife, Mary, predeceased him in 2010. He has two sons, Robert and Christopher. Foreign Service Journal Editor Steven Alan Honley inter- viewed Amb. Landau at his home in Bethesda, Md., on April 20. w FSJ: Congratulations on your award for lifetime contribu- tions to American diplomacy, Ambassador Landau. What would you say have been your main strengths as a diplomat? GWL: First, I would say that I’ve always been able to understand and deal with the cultures of other countries. While I served only in the Western Hemisphere and Europe, I feel very much at home wherever I am, and I get along well with people. FSJ: I understand you followed a unique path into the For- eign Service. Please tell us about that. GWL: I was born in Austria and grew up there, but had always been interested by what I read about America. As a little boy in Vienna I once saw a documentary: “America, the Land of Unlimited Possibilities.” It impressed me greatly and turned out to be absolutely accurate. When Hitler annexed Austria in 1938, it became quite clear that staying there was a no-win situation for me. Unfortu- nately, I had no friends or family in the United States; but we had some contacts in Colombia, so I emigrated there. I spoke no Spanish when I arrived, but I learned it quickly. After a succession of various jobs, from running an ice cream parlor to managing a photo store, I obtained a position in the Bogota office of Otis Elevator. The American manager, who knew of my desire to live in the United States, transferred me to the company’s interna- tional division in New York City. I arrived there on a regular immigrant visa in 1941, and made $25 a week while my future peers were finishing junior or senior year in college. I also went to night school at New York University, but all I remem- ber about that now is my constant struggle not to fall asleep in class. It was a hard life, but I was glad to finally be in America. In 1942 I was drafted into the U.S. Army. After basic train- ing, I attended Officer Candidate School, and after graduating was transferred to the Military Intelligence School at Camp Ritchie, Md. There I learned the tools of the trade for interro- gating prisoners of war and analyzing photographic intel- ligence. When World War II ended, I was stationed in Paris at the Military Intelligence headquarters. I was eventually trans- ferred to Austria. FSJ: Was that an unsettling experience after being away for seven years? GWL: No, not at all; I still knew the country and the play- ers. I was assigned to the Special Interrogation Center in Gmunden near Salzburg. Some of the prisoners we inter- rogated there were later sent to Nuremburg to the war trials court. After a while, my duties were changed and I started to interview the steady flow of refugees from the Soviet Union, U.S. Ambassador to Paraguay George W. Landau, left, visits Mennonite farmers at the Friesland Colony, October 1974. Photo courtesy of G.W. Landau