The Foreign Service Journal, December 2019

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | DECEMBER 2019 29 HJC: We had to cope with some crises. For example, there was a major genocide in the Republic of Burundi in 1972. Minority Tutsis, who were in power, became frightened by educated persons in the majority Hutu community who were demanding political equality. They started to murder educated Hutus, as vividly reported by Embassy Bujumbura at the time. What astonished me was that there was so little interest in this unfolding tragedy. The press, the U.S. Congress, the nongov- ernmental organizations were indifferent. I was going crazy trying to galvanize higher levels. Finally, I persuaded the president of neighboring Tanzania to cut off Burundi’s railway to the port of Dar es Salaam. That ended the genocide. But there was a follow-up. Congressional hearings, at which I was the chief witness, resulted in legisla- tion in 1976 requiring the State Department to produce an annual human rights report on every country receiving U.S. development assistance. That annual report still exists, and is as important as ever. FSJ: You helped guide U.S. policy toward Africa, both at the National Security Council and then as head of AF. Could you compare those experiences? HJC: In the NSC, I was special assistant to President Ronald Reagan for Africa. I had to be careful not to let it go to my head. There was the State Department assistant secretary for Africa and counterparts from every agency. I decided to coordinate policy, rather than make policy. That worked out very well, with a major achievement in the December 1988 accords resulting in the inde- pendence of Namibia, the departure of both Cuban and South African troops from Angola. I found President Reagan to be very smart about foreign policy, and quite willing to listen to advice. FSJ: What would you identify as your main challenges and achievements during your four years as head of the Bureau of African Affairs? HJC: There were four major civil wars going on in four important African countries when I arrived to head up the Africa bureau in April 1989. We decided that nothing good