Jon Krampner - Joe Wilson: What He Didnt Find in Africa

Copyright 2015 by Jon Krampner

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With those two sentences, measured anddiplomatic in tone but transgressive in spirit, Joseph Wilson IVopened What I Didnt Find in Africa, an op-ed piece for The New York Times , on July6, 2003. It would ignite a political, legal and media firestormthat revealed the fraudulence of the Bush administrationsrationale for war with Iraq, demonstrated its corrupt and intimaterelationship with the Washington press and led to the criminalconviction of one of the highest-ranking government officials inU.S. history.

Hardly what you would expect from the scionof a well-established family of California Republicans.

It was in California that I met Joe Wilson,in the lobby of the exclusive Langham Huntington Hotel in Pasadena.Unlike the well-tailored suit he would wear when he and his wifeValerie Plame Wilson took the stage of the Pasadena CivicAuditorium several hours later as part of a distinguished speakersseries, he was wearing a black polo shirt, black pants and mostlyblack running shoes, a look I think of as Ninja Casual.

Its a look that befits a warrior and thedescendant of warriors. As Wilson writes in his memoir The Politics of Truth , his father was amarine pilot during World War II, among the last to take off fromthe deck of the aircraft carrier USS Franklin before it was struckby two bombs dropped from a Japanese dive-bomber, killing more than700 U.S. servicemen. If another plane ahead of Wilsons fathershadnt stalled and been pushed aside, he could well have been onthe desk when the bombs exploded. ()

And during World War I, Wilsons paternalgrandfather received both the British Distinguished Flying Crossand the French Croix de Guerre. ()

Wilsons family has deep Republican roots anda tradition of public service. His mothers uncle, James SunnyRolph, served as mayor of San Francisco from 1912 through 1931 andlater as governor of California. ()

Although born in Bridgeport, Connecticut,Wilson spent much of his youth in California, with stretches inArizona and Europe. His outspoken nature revealed itself even then:at age 9, he wrote a letter to President Eisenhower (and got ananswer). At age 13 or 14, he had a letter to the editor publishedin the International Herald Tribune . Someone had written an article thatwas disparaging of surfers, he recalls. And I took some umbrageat that, being a surfer. ()

At the University of California at SantaBarbara, Wilson majored in history, graduating in 1971 with a 3.0+(B+) average. During his college years, he developed a knack forshowing up where there was trouble: in the summer of 1969, he wasliving in Benedict Canyon, perhaps less than a mile from the sceneof the Manson familys grisly murders at the home of Sharon Tate.His main recollection of that summer: the rock band Canned Heatlived there, its music reverberating up and down the canyon as itpracticed. ()

Then, on February 25, 1970, he and hisroommate at UCSB bicycled over to the Bank of America, not longbefore it was set ablaze by rioting students. The protesters werealready in the bank and were trying to fire it up, he recalls.Theyd taken over Isla Vista and had driven the cops out. I wasestablishment enough to say that wasnt the place I wanted to be atthat time, so we left. ()

After an accident ended his brief career as acarpenter, he chose to pursue his long-standing interest indiplomacy. Wilson became a specialist in Africa, and was posted bythe State Department to Niger, Togo, South Africa, Burundi, theRepublic of the Congo and Gabon and Sao Tome and Principe, servingas U.S. ambassador to the latter three. The most famous stint ofhis diplomatic career was as deputy chief of mission in Iraq,during the 1990-91 Gulf War, when he was acting ambassador and hadto confront its dictator Saddam Hussein under the most trying ofcircumstances. During a career that saw him win a raft ofdistinguished-service awards, he also served as political adviserto the Commander in Chief of US Armed Forces in Europe (giving himthe protocol rank of a three-star general), special assistant toPresident Bill Clinton and senior director for African affairs atthe National Security Council.

Fatefully, his diplomatic career began as ageneral services officer in Niger, from 1976 through 1978. He toldthe State Department officer who would place him in his first postthat he could be of the most help to the United States in France,maybe Paris, Marseilles, Nice or Bordeaux.

Well, son, I think we have just the placefor you, his placement officer responded drily. It is a little tothe south of France, but they speak French there. ()

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In 1991, during the Gulf War, Wilson becameacting ambassador as a result of Ambassador April Glaspie being outof the country when hostilities began. He led a gritty embassystaff responsible for getting many Americans and foreign nationalssafely out of the country. And rather than kowtowing to SaddamHussein, Wilson responded to him with inspired effrontery.

During a meeting with Hussein shortly afterthe invasion of Kuwait, Hussein asked Wilson why he wanted Husseinto open Iraqs borders so foreigners could leave. Do you knowsomething that I dont know about a potential American response?,Hussein asked. Wilson replied, Well, Mr. President, I can assureyou that if I knew something about American intentions, I would notshare it with you. ()

And in September of 1990, the Iraqiscirculated a diplomatic note to all embassies instructing them toregister their citizens with the authorities. Penalty for failingto do so was death, even, it was implied, for diplomatic personnel.Worried that this was a way for the Iraqi government to identifyand locate potential human shields in the event the U.S. and itsallies bombed Iraq, Wilson dug in. On September 20, he showed up ata press briefing wearing a hangmans noose, memorably saying, If(Saddam) wants to execute me for keeping Americans from being takenhostage, I will bring my own fucking rope. ()

Following his service in Iraq, Wilson wasnamed ambassador to Gabon and Sao Tome and Principe. While somehave derided this posting as a comparative backwater, Wilson saysit was fine with him. I was very, very junior to be named anambassador, so it was the right career stepping stone, he says.We were working on the Angola peace process from Gabon, ondemocratization in Equatorial Guinea, and a lot of good stuff.()

On the personal side, Wilson has been marriedthree times. His first wife, Susan Otchis, was a Jewish Valley Girlhe had known at UCSB. She was with him during his early Africanpostings, and bore him his first set of fraternal twins.Frighteningly, Otchis almost didnt survive the arrival of thosetwins, as she developed gangrene when she was back in the U.S. togive birth in 1979. She was at UCLA Medical Center, where JohnWayne was dying of cancer. When the Duke learned of the Wilsonstravails, he sent them a bottle of wine. ()

At one point, Wilsons college roommate fromUCSB was with him to show support. The nurse comes in and says,Your wifes got about a 10 percent chance of survival, Wilsonrecalls. My friend fainted. I said, Well, thats twice as good asthe chances a couple of hours ago. And she said, You dontunderstand. Shes probably not going to make it. But she did. Thechapter (in The Politics of Truth ) on Susan and her problems was probably the mostpersonal and hardest to write, Wilson says. I wrote it for myolder kids. Because I thought they should know how brave she was.She didnt want it in there. I sent her the chapter and got herapproval to put it in. () Otchis wearied of Africa, though, and themarriage ended.