The Foreign Service Journal, October 2008

named consul general in 1961. In 1961, he was called on to assist Adlai Stevenson, then representing the U.S. at the U.N. He became director of the Office of Atlantic Political- Military Affairs in 1962, and was named deputy assistant secretary of State for international organizations affairs in 1965. Mr. Popper was named ambas- sador to Cyprus in 1969; assistant sec- retary of State for international orga- nizations in 1973; ambassador to Chile in 1974; and special representa- tive of the Secretary of State for Panama Canal Treaty Affairs in 1977. He retired from the Foreign Service in 1980. Ambassador Popper’s eventful diplomatic career included a brush with Senator Joseph McCarthy, a public contretemps with Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and a contro- versy surrounding a Chilean intelli- gence scheme to assassinate foes of the regime. During the early 1950s, at the instance of unnamed accusers, he was summarily suspended from the State Department. Some time later, just as summarily, he received an order to go back to work: “You have been investigated and you are cleared.” As ambassador to Chile in 1974, Mr. Popper arrived in Santiago four months after Gen. Pinochet’s military coup overthrew socialist President Salvador Allende. While serving there, he was featured in a front-page New York Times story by Seymour Hersh based on a leaked State Department cable, in which Amb. Popper had reported on his efforts to educate the Pinochet regime about human rights. In the margin of that cable, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger had written: “Tell Popper to cut out the political science lectures.” In the resulting flap, Kissinger was heavily criticized by human rights advocates. In 1976, the assassination of Allende’s former foreign minister, Orlando Letelier, in Washington, D.C., prompted further controversy. Following his retirement, Amb. Popper helped found the American Academy of Diplomacy, serving as one of its first presidents. He also taught at Georgetown University, and ghostwrote former U.N. Director General Kurt Waldheim’s memoirs, In the Eye of the Storm . The book appeared in 1986, at the same time that allegations of Waldheim’s involve- ment in Nazi war crimes surfaced. Mr. Popper, who was Jewish, was shocked by the revelations but said Waldheim had been cordial to him, family members told the Washington Post. Mr. Popper’s wife of 56 years, Florence, died in 1992. His compan- ion of 14 years, Olie Rauh, died in February. Mr. Popper is survived by four children, Carol Popper Galaty of Washington, D.C.; Lewis Popper of Kansas City, Mo.; Katherine Popper Kraft of Charleston, S.C.; Virginia Popper of Cambridge, Mass.; 11 grandchildren; and four great-grand- children. Memorial contributions may be made to the U.S. Association of the National Capital Area, 1808 Connecticut Ave., NW, Suite 101, Washington DC 20009 (www.UNAN CA.org ). Eddie W. Schodt , 93, a retired FSO, died on May 26 in Charlot- tesville, Va. Mr. Schodt was born on Dec. 12, 1914, on a farm near Luverne, N.D., to Danish immigrant parents. He was the seventh of eight children, and the first born in the United States. After matriculating from the Baldwin Con- solidated School in Barnes Coun- ty, N.D., he enrolled at State Teachers College, Valley City, N.D., and gradu- ated in 1938 with a B.A. degree in his- tory. He subsequently earned M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in American histo- ry from the University of Colorado at Boulder. In 1942, after working at the Office of Facts and Figures in the Office of Strategic Services in Washington, D.C., and following his marriage to Margaret Birk of Boulder, Colo., the same year, he was inducted into the U.S. Army. He completed basic train- ing at Camp Roberts near San Luis Obispo, Calif., and was accepted into the Counter Intelligence Corps of the U.S. Army. In 1943, he shipped out to England. He saw service in Belgium, Luxembourg and, from May 1945 to March 1946, along the German bor- der with Czechoslovakia. He demobi- lized at Fort Dix, N.J., in 1946 and, on the following day, re-entered the U.S. Army as a reserve officer. Mr. Schodt was hired by the Department of State in 1946 as an analyst for Scandinavia in the Office of Intelligence Research, where he became chief of the Northern European Branch of the Division of Research for Western Europe. In 1954, he joined the Foreign Service and, a year later, was posted to Oslo as an economic officer. This was fol- lowed by postings in Canberra; in Tokyo; as diplomat-in-residence at the University of Montana-Missoula; with the Foreign Service Inspection Corps to the Office of the High Commis- sioner in Okinawa; and to Bangkok. From 1968 to 1971, he served as U.S. representative on the advisory committee established to oversee preparations for the reversion of Okinawa to Japan. He retired in 1974 after 30 years of service with the U.S. government, of which nearly 20 were spent overseas. O C T O B E R 2 0 0 8 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 81 I N M E M O R Y u u