The Foreign Service Journal, September 2013

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | SEPTEMBER 2013 29 FSJ: By this point, you had already been promoted to the Senior Foreign Service, correct? GWL: Yes, I was promoted to O-1 in 1969. After wrapping up the Portuguese base negotiations, I was considered for appointment as the first American ambassador to newly independent Ban- gladesh in 1971, but that fell through for complicated reasons. So my first ambas- sadorship was in Paraguay, in 1972. FSJ: What were some of the challenges you faced during your first posting as a chief of mission? GWL: With the benefit of good training from Ambassador Robert F. Woodward, for whom I had worked previously, I already knew a lot about how to run an embassy. So I think I did a creditable job; at least, I hope I did. My main instruction from the White House and from State was to deal with the heroin trafficking portrayed in the movie “The French Connection.” My predecessor in Asunción had been able to get the main trafficker, Auguste Ricord, extra- dited to the United States; but the Justice Department could not make a case against him without members of the Para- guayan military as witnesses. There was one particular sergeant we needed to testify, but President Alfredo Stroess- ner kept turning down our requests to have him travel to the United States. Finally, I persuaded the president to let the sergeant go to Washington. Ricord was convicted and served 10 years, which broke the back of “The French Connection.” By citing congressional interest in such cases and hint- ing that Washington might cut off military aid, I convinced Stroessner to go along with other requests, including the release of various political prisoners. By the end of my five years in Asunción, I had developed a reputation for being able to deal with dictators, which is prob- ably one reason I was sent as ambassador to Chile in 1977. FSJ: You played a key role in bringing to justice the person behind the assassination of Chilean opposition leader Orlando Letelier in Washington. Please tell us about that. GWL: That was probably my main accomplishment during my five years in Santiago. But my involvement with the Lete- lier affair actually dates back to my time in Paraguay. One day in 1976, Pres. Stroessner’s private secretary called to tell me that Chilean President Augusto Pino- chet had asked Stroessner to obtain U.S. visas for two Chileans who wanted to travel with Paraguayan passports to New York to visit the sales office of Codelco, the Chilean national copper corporation. (I later dis- covered that neither president was involved at all—this was between the Chilean and Paraguayan intelligence services.) I told him that I couldn’t authorize the issuance of such visas. He replied, “Look, you don’t understand. I’m telling you this as a favor. I could have sent those passports over as we George W. Landau, right, greets Prince Juan Carlos of Spain on his arrival in the United States in 1971. USIS Photo Lab “Mymain instruction from the White House and from State in Paraguay was to deal with the heroin trafficking portrayed in the movie ‘The French Connection.’”