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About Eugene register-guard. (Eugene, Or.) 1930-1983 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 13, 1963)
V EUGENE REGISTER-GUARD, Sunday, Jin. 13, 1963 Page 11A Career Officer No 'Wheel' But He Makes Them Turn By ARTHUR EDSON Of the Associated Press WASHINGTON The roster of State Department brass lists 242 names.' Nowhere among them is that of Robert Arnold Hurwitch. But without him and his like, the wheels of American diplomacy whether involved in a crisis in Cuba or a cultural ' exchange in Sierra Leona can not turn. Hurwitch is the first to ack knowledge he is no State De partment wheel. But since bis is an important, responsible job and since his whole life is, and ' will continue to be, the Foreign Service, we probably can better understand how the department works by looking at Hurwitch than at some of those perched above him. We sometimes look on diplo mats with suspicion, as wearers of striped pants, as sippers of champagne, as men who if not outright liars are at least truth fudgers. In our stock portraits a dip lomat is bland, urbane, world weary. Robert Arnold Hurwitch doesn't fit the usual preconcep tions. At 42, Hurwitch is a bundle of enthusiasms. Far from being world weary, he lets words like "interesting" and "exciting" dart through his conversation. Our image diplomat is debo nair and tall, or looks tall in full evening dress. No Ivy Leaguer Hurwitch is of average height and his business suit might be that of a skilled machine ope rator, which he once was, going to confer with management, which he once did. Although Hurwitch is from New England ( Worcester, Mass.) that's about as close as he ever got to the Ivy League. His parents were born in Kiev, Russia, and were brought to this country as small children. The Hurwitches were poor, but Robert won a scholarship to the University of Chicago. "I hitchhiked my way out there," he says, "and worked my way through. The usual jobs. Washing dishes. Waiting tables. , "But in my last year I decided I wasn't learning all I wanted to know. And, anyway, I was really tired, so I dropped out I went to trade school and be came a machine operator." He was soon involved in the plant union, became a shop steward and worked on a labor management team. In 1943 the draft caught Hur witch. . . ' He eventually was on his way to the German front as a re placement for a rifle platoon leader, a type that needed fre quent replacing. When he reported for duty, he found a vigorous but incon clusive argument spluttering be tween the brass and a French woman. Hurwitch volunteerd his linguistic abilities in French and German and instantly solv ed their simple problem: The officers wanted to rent her restaurant as a command post, and she was willing. "Do you speak this lingo?" ; Hurwitch was asked. ' ' His Career Changed - This inelegant question was to change his whole career. He ob viously did speak the lingo, and since the outfit's intelligence officer had been bit in the head by shrapnel, a new one was needed. Hurwitch got the job. These coincidences were to have lasting results. For he would stay on in Europe as a part of the military government. work in the denazification pro gram, serve as a liaison officer; to the French and pick up an enduring love for diplomatic; life, return to the University of Chicago to finish work on his degree, pass his Foreign Service examinations and start his slow climb that could end, if he has enough additional interesting coincidences, in an ambassador ship. Hurwitch knew French and German, but thought he should also have Spanish. So he asked for a Latin-American assign ment. . This accounts for his inter hemispheric career, from Lima to Hamburg to Bonn to Bogota. In Washington, he has put in time on the Cuban desk, and now handles Cuban problems for Edward M. Martin, assist ant secretary of state for inter American affairs. Hurwitch reportedly played an important, but character istically quiet, role in helping 0 rL Jerusalem Quiet Following Strike JERUSALEM, Jordan Sector Wl Shops and offices reopened and Jerusalem returned to nor mal Saturday after a tense gen eral strike against replacement of popular Gov. Anwar Nussei beh by a non-Palestinian. Extra security measures con tinued, however, in case of pos sible trouble in the Jordanian sector of Jerusalem, divided be tween Arabs and Israelis. To back up the government's unpopular decision to replace Nusseibeh, King Hussein paid a surprise visit to Jerusalem Fri day night and congratulated the new governor Fadl Dalqamouni, former undersecretary of communications. U.S. Launches 16th Polaris Submarine GROTON, Conn. CB The Navy I than Hale, designed to throw a launched Saturday its 16th Po- nuclear-tipped missile 2,500 laris-firing submarine, the Na-' miles. Lan County Headquarters For ffmV msW Imperial, Chrysler, v- C' J Plymouth Valiant! 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You will be able to freely chat with Mr. Travel himself about your travel experiences, future ambitions, and obtain unbiased and first hand advice and Information concerninf any foreian place. For further Information please call DI 2-1221 or drop in at 812 Olive Street. LEWIS TRAVEL ii& AAvkUtto .4saS Register-Guard Want Ads Get Quick Results AP Newsfeaturea pboto) Giving his notes a last-minute checking, Robert Hurwitch halts outside the office of Undersecretary of State George Ball 7i fr 1 1 'n e ta'e Depal'tment in Washington, VILclI before going in to confer with him. Hurwitch, State Department specialist fs in Cuban affairs, does background work ,02? fr important decisions by the depart 65 ment big wheels. He was one of the few in on the Cuban crisis while it was " still a Washington mystery. to arrange the release last month of Cuban prisoners held in Havana since the ill-fated Bay ef Pigs invasion. During the October ' Cuban crisis, which brought about the momentous confrontation be tween the United States and Russia, Hurwitch also was in ac tion behind the scenes. He isn't about to detail the part he played. But for that whole, hectic week, there was no letup for Hurwitch. "I was pretty beat," he re calls. At one point during the tense crisis, Hurwitch was startled in his office by the ringing of alarm bells. With an embarrassed grin, he remembers: "My first thought was: 'How many bells for an air raid alarm?' " Most of us think of the Cuban problem simply as Fidel Castro. To Hurwitch, it's an unending source of complica tions. i : Hurwitch believes every de partment in the government has come to him with specialized problems involving Cuba. Hurwitch says decisions are mostly the result of combined thinking. r "A problem conies up." he says. "I do the leg work. I suggest several possible solu tions and make my recommen dation: This is what I think. Okay. Fine. . "It goes to Ed Martin. He's got the whole hemisphere to worry about." The final decision not only should work, but it also should not offend another part of the hemisphere or another part of the world. Hurwitch thinks this country is right in trying to steer a course between those who would invade Cuba or at least squeeze it to death, and those who say let's learn to live with Castro. He thinks Castro succeeded because Cubans desperately wanted reforms, and "you don't kill that by force. . "War is the easy thing. You can always go to war. We've got to come out of this with Castro out and with our own in tegrity." . As one of the few diplomats who have ever walked a picket line, Hurwitch may be preju diced, but he, is firmly convinced that the best long range bet in Latin America is a strong, inde pendent labor movement. See and hear with the "WISP-EAR" today at SONOTONE i W. r. 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