Digging Into My Archives For Memories, Resources For A Book That Needs Writing--
Chapter 1, Dr. Fredrick Wills
We have been looking back on our lives and work, a natural thing when we get older, and have a few memories worth sharing, being old revolutionaries, which we have been putting out there for our friends and family. . Martha and I had the privilege of knowing and working with Dr. Fred Wills. He was the Justice Minister (equiv. Attorney General) and later Foreign Minister of Guyana, in which capacity he presided at one time over the UN Security Council, and twice addressed the General Assembly. He was a champion of the Non-Aligned movement,, and had deep personal relationships with its leaders worldwide. He helped write the Constitution of Guyana, and was the first 3rd World leader to call for a debt moratorium in a historic speech in 1976. (Pictured here)
Fred stayed with us briefly after a speaking engagement when we lived in Pittsburgh, and I had the pleasure of working with him on politics and a Shakespeare project, as well as a poetry contest, all of which he was passionate about. Also, when he was forced to leave Guyana under extreme circumstances he stayed at Martha's apartment briefly in New York before we met. (Long story, some other time, LFR)
He enjoyed telling us anecdotes about his career and work, and kept us up at night telling us a few things about how the world works. We especially enjoyed his stories about his face to face confrontations with Henry Kissinger, and his yearly pilgrimage to England where he had to meet with the Queen.
Guyana, as an Independent member of the British Commonwealth still had the Queen as Sovereign, and Fred had to brief her on the affairs of State within one of her Dominions. He told us that he would quote Shakespeare to her in order to insult her and bat her around, since his father had raised him to never trust the British, and because she was so arrogant and condescending. She didn't realize he was whacking her while he was riding around with her in her Limo.
The most shocking story was from when he was Foreign Minister, 1976-77 period. He was invited to an urgent meeting at the White House, the details of which were not specified. He arrived and was greeted by Roslyn Carter. She had a private matter she wished to discuss with him, but beforehand asked the President to come out to say hello briefly. Basically, she asked Fred to intercede on behalf of a friend, who was a Reverend from San Francisco, a "Democratic activist", who wanted to relocate his Church and parishioners to Guyana from the US. The Reverend was Jim Jones, of the People's Temple. Fred told us he was introduced to Jones before the move.
He was also later asked to intercede on behalf of rescuing Children of the cult by lawyers representing the families, who eventually became the child welfare cases leading a Congresional delegation to visit, precipitating the shooting of Congressman Ryan and others, and the mass suicide. I don't have the resources to document this story yet, but, knowing Fred and the context of these events, I have no reason to question it. It is well known that Roslyn Carter appeared with and supported Jones publicly, as did leaders of the Democratic Party in California, Willie Brown, Jerry Brown, Harvey Milk, and Mayor Moscone, a huge scandal at the time. Fred was in the middle of all of this. He was forced out of the Guyanese government and into exile in the US. He became a man without a country. He also took a lot of secrets to his grave. Also, there are details to this story which Fred told us that I can't divulge so long as certain people are living.
My point in this story...Fred, like the Civil Rights leaders of the US, never lost sight of his ultimate goal which he spelled out in his UN speech, which was a just New Economic Order that would enable 3rd World development. If the ideas mapped out by him in 1976 had been acted upon, we would be living in a much different world. But, his career was destroyed by the insanity of Jonestown, and its support from the Carter White House. Yet, he kept fighting. And you realize when you get to know people like him, that one person can change history, that we are not powerless. Something to hold onto in these times.
Chapter 2-- The Lifelong Burden of An Old American Spy
November of 2019
Around 15 years ago, I had the opportunity to talk to and raise money from a gentleman who was the owner/publisher and CEO of a major National magazine, that went back to the time of our Founding Fathers. (You would recognize it immediately) He was also a leading member of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) during World War II, which was the precursor to the CIA, which he was also an operative of.
This was a one off conversation, as I was not his principal contact, but, he had some very interesting revelations. He was wracked with a certain kind of guilt and remorse, because of events he was in the middle of after the War ended. He was stationed in China, at a time where the post war order was still evolving, and Harry Truman was being tracked into Cold War Geopolitics by some of his advisors.
This gentleman recounted that he was approached by a representative of Vietnam's Independence movement, which was struggling against the brutality of French Colonial policy, and this person asked for a back channel meeting with the US State Department to discuss the future of US Vietnamese relations going forward. His name was Ho Chi Minh. In the meeting, Ho asked this American spy to deliver a message to President Truman. He wanted it to be known that in spite of his Communist leanings, that he was a great admirer of the United States, and its Declaration of Independence, as the first great Nation to throw off Colonialism. He wanted American help to force the French out, and to recognize Vietnamese Independence. He expressed his desire to become partners of the US, rather than the Soviet Union, which he saw as an Imperial power. He reminded the young American of his partisan movement's role in resisting Japanese expansion during the War.
Our friend reported back to his superiors and the message was delivered. Truman rejected the offer of friendship, and instead took the hardened position of his advisors like John J. McCloy, Dean Acheson and Averril Harriman, along with Churchill and the British that any Colonial people who wanted Independence were a tool of Soviet expansionism, and in the name of the policy of "containment" of Communism, was to be undermined and not supported.
The chain of events coming from that decision led to the destructive Vietnam War. Our friend blamed himself for not doing more, not risking more to get through to his boss General Bill Donovan, and Harry Truman, to get them to negotiate with Ho. He had the death of 58,000 American soldiers on his conscience. So he was a wealthy powerbroker, highly placed establishment figure, and huge success in life, who never got over his failure to speak up when he had the opportunity. This is how History works.
