[Editor’s note: These two pages of the pdf are in reverse order.]
BB-2-ooo-2
Sharon Amos
Ron Van Dyke
(meeting 3/4/78 Marcie, Mike P, Sharon, Debbie)
-I asked him if he had gotten the paper for us with guidelines for us so we knew if their [there] was a press standoff or not about us and he had said he would talk to Shirley Field-Ridley (his boss) and [Vibert] Mingo about us to see, but we never receivied it
-he said his view is that as long as we did not conflict with the national goals, it was OK. I asked him if he felt we did that, he said well you could run counter to the cultural life, and might inject something into a society that hasn’t built up its pride etc
-we want to build Guyanese culture, he said, that is self-reliant, the former society produced beggers
(Prokes and Marcie said they understood and they saw what he meant)
-he said it was officials fault that they hadn’t briefed us properly and he was trying to be honest
-we talked about wanting only to help with the progress in Guyana
-he said wehad a North American orientation
(by the way he was an hour late for our meeting and he had stood us up on a dinner engagement when we invited him for dinner, he said he was sick and called to apologize saying he had laryngitis) but he didn’t call the evening of the dinner and didn’t call until I went into his office and left a note for him
-he said Guyanese believe what they a are told and that is a problem/ first and foremost they need to determine their own destiny [Handwriting: “Could say: Official suggested this to assimilat etc.”]
-I asked what the problem was with us
-he said “you push your own line” (I went thru the whole bit about the fact that even he the first time had told us we could be a help to Guyana and an inspiration and we had been told to let people know more about us so we wouldn’t be thought of assecretive (on an official level)
-he said that if we do publicize ourself (and he heard of our open invitation of the press (as did Shirley Field Ridley) they should all come at one time/ “The media should reflect the same thing and the content should be the same”
-Marcie said “That makes sense”
-he said “you are pushing too much”/ he said any group that came in from a foreign country would be looked on with suspicion (I told Marcie to hold on to her chair which she did, and warned her that I was going to blast him/ his tone was unfeeling and I didn’t think we should let him get away with this)
-I told him I didn’t even believe he was being straight with us, and who had he been talking to because he had been so encouraging of us the first time we came in. He said he had talked to some (I asked who but he wouldn’t say)
-I told him that if he wouldn’t help us or tell us what we are dealing with he was insensitive since we are socialists living interracially and are a people who never were accepted in the US because of what we stood for and now it seems we weren’t accepted here (I started to cry)
-he said we aretrying to convince people of that what we are doing is good for them
-I said we certainly have not tried to get converts and as far as bringing in an alien culture, it’s quite the opposite, the man in the street is brainwashed thinking America is the land of promise and in rejecting that culture, we are actually affirming the Guyanese culture
-he agreed that was true and started to take a more apologetic tone
-he said it was the fault of administrators whom we have met but wouldn’t specify/ I told him then he should help us since he was the one who had been willing to be direct with us
-first he said he couldn’t advise you, it would have to be regional people/ I asked him if it was they who had complaints and he didn’t answer (over)
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BB-2-ooo-1
Ron Van Dyke pg 3/4/78
-I told him that it was incredible to me that socialists in this world could regard each other as aliens ever when the world was all in conflict and more than anything we needed peace and people working together regardless of barriers
-I told him I was sure Angela Davis also didn’t feel comfortable in the US just as we never did either and where was it you could go and be accepted
-he said we were over-enthusiastic
-I told him that I was sure that people like Lenin had been considered over-enthusiastic
-he told me I wasn’t a diplomat but I shouldn’t change anyway
-he said that what he would do (as i kept pushing him to help us if he disagreed with how we were coming off), is set some time for
-us tomorrow and come over/ and he would call Mingo about us
Dick McCoy 2/4/78 Marcie [Marceline Jones], Sharon, Mike [Prokes], Debbie [Touchette]
-regarding Lynetta’s [Jones] will, he wondered if the will would be probated here or in the US/ if her money is there Charles Garry could take care of it for us and we should contact him
-he wasn’t sure if Marcie would have to be at a hearing or not to deal with her becoming executor
Re Performance
-he said people from his embassy who attended thought it was very good
-Dan Webber Political Officer wondered about the mention of assassination in regard to Pres. Carter (it had been said something about our enemies being his enemies and we hoped he wouldn’t meet the same fate as Kennedy Martin Luther King for his progressive stands
-he took this as political/ Marcie had the speech with her and said what she had said which didn’t exactly mention assassination but I told him that I thought death of a good man would be a moral issue as well
-he said he heard it was a very professional job
-he couldn’t understand why we would explain to Guyanese why we had been thrown out of the US [Handwriting: “This was not said in these terms. Ask Marcie”]
-Prokes said we should have cleared it thru you
-he said “no problem”
-Dan Webber the political officer is a former Peace Corps person in Afganistan/ (political officers Dick said are often thought of with suspect by some people) (CIA I guess)
-a man by the name of Douglas Ellis [Ellice] will replace McCoy, he is a young officer, served in Luxenberg and before that in Manilla
-the Ambassador’s secretrary also attended the performance and another secretary
-he said that something people had thought it would be amateurish and hadn’t attended but it turned out to be quite professional
-he said that he is on first name basis with Dr [Cheddi] Jagan, said when he was in theUS, he looked up Jagan’s children who both live in the US/ one is a permanent resident there/ the daughter was at Moscow University but didn’t like it and left and is now in the US. Jagan goes to the US frequently (he of course has to sign a paper that he is a communist and he does so and McCoy teases him about it, he says Socialism is bankrupt and communism is just a way to perpetuate certain people in power and Jagan just laughs.
-McCoy likes Russian culture (said to Debbie who was writing) “don’t quote me on this” (tho one Russian group that came was very bad and Jagan didn’t like it either
-I teased McCoy for having leftist connections and he laughed and said it is all in the job (a CIA AGENT) has to contact everyone (he didn’t say that of course)