F OCUS - American Foreign Service Association

then took the Foreign Service exam
and passed it. In fact, I did that before
I joined the Air Force in 1956.
FSJ: Was that a difficult transition
in any way?
TDB: No, I really enjoyed my time
with the military. In those days, of
course, everyone served, one way or
another, so I knew what I was going to
be when I grew up. I learned that
military power is obviously relevant to
diplomacy, and the military was a
bureaucracy just like ours. So it was
good preparation for the Foreign
Service. I’d estimate that 95 percent
of the guys in my A-100 class — and
they were all guys, except for one lady
who subsequently resigned — came
in out of the military.
FSJ: Your first posting was as a
vice consul in Antofagasta, Chile,
from 1959 to 1962. I assume that
was a small consulate?
TDB: Yes, I was the number-two
guy in a two-man post. The consul
went away and never came back, so I
wound up being the principal U.S.
diplomatic officer in the northern third
of Chile — three huge provinces —
my consular district. Because I was
the senior American, I got invited to
everything, all the receptions, and met
all the local VIPs, including Senators
Salvador Allende and Eduardo Frei.
Then a new lieutenant colonel
came to town to command the
“Septimo de la Linia” (Seventh of the
Line): the infantry regiment that basically
conquered Bolivia and Peru in
the 1879 War of the Pacific. The
Chilean Army always sent a real upand-comer
to serve as commander of
that regiment, and this time was no
exception: His name was Augusto
Pinochet.
So as a 20-something JO, I got to
know the next three presidents of
Chile. First Frei, a Christian Democrat,
who served as president from
1964 to 1970. Then came Allende, a
Socialist, followed by Pinochet. I
knew them all personally. Allende was
a notorious boozer and skirt-chaser
and, accordingly, was very good company.
He was a bon vivant, while Frei
was very stern, proper and Swiss, and
Pinochet was very quiet, almost timid.
FSJ: You returned to Chile in the
mid-1970s to serve as deputy chief of
mission, not long after Pinochet came
to power. What were your impressions
of the changes in Chilean society
over that period?
TDB: Pinochet remembered our
times in Antofagasta and I received
special attention. That was sometimes
awkward but always useful.
Throughout my three years in
Santiago, I kept trying to persuade
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