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TI: I'm going to go back, back to that first tour. In my notes I have you saying that you had some temporary duty trips to Korea during this time period?

LH: Correct.

TI: So what would that be about? Why would you be going -- because this is during the Korean War.

LH: Yes. Well, a lot of that, again, had to do with the building up of the Japanese industrial might, which included munitions and armaments, and working with the Korean, South Korean government and the utilization of whatever we were able to provide to ensure it got into the right channels. I want to mention, though it may not be completely germane to what we just discussed, 'cause I traveled to other countries in Asia during this period. And I was a consultant to a joint effort by the U.S. Army, Navy, and the Central Intelligence Agency. The Department of State was not a member of that group, I was there only as a consultant. But I throw this out to you because so many people think that civilian of the military or so-called -- we civilians include Department of State, and of the Central Intelligence Agency, are on a free ride overseas, living well, earning lots of money. But I can tell you, as I've told so many people, it isn't just cocktail parties and nuzzling up to other diplomats and having a good time. Because this group was trying to collect intelligence on other foreign countries that they called "denied areas," areas that we didn't have either diplomatic relations with or close diplomatic relations. And two members of that group were actually captured and held prisoner for longer than any other American in the history of our country, for over twenty-one years. And so obviously I knew these two individuals, one quite well, because I was a consultant to this group for a long time, and he was there from the very beginning of this particular operation. And to this day, I'm still in touch with him. And I was sad to see him when he came home -- of course, we were all pleased as punch that he came home. But the first year, we didn't know that, we thought they were both dead. Then a year later, we found out, no, they weren't dead, they were held prisoners. It was over twenty years before they came home again. And they both managed well and did well in life. In fact, one of them came to our son's wedding last January. But I just throw that out to let people know that it isn't all (a bed of) roses and, you know, a good time like so many people think diplomats have.

TI: Right.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2008 Densho. All Rights Reserved.