Ogden Williams - In Memoriam

        Ogden Williams died March 30, 2004.  A staunch friend of Vietnam, he played a significant role in U.S. - Vietnamese relations, first coming to Vietnam in 1956 and in later years returning to work with the AID mission.  During that period, Oggie, as he was called by friends, served as interim head of Rural Affairs, giving it wisdom and stability during a difficult period.   Later, he led U.S. efforts to support the Chieu Hoi program, a crucial effort that offered amnesty and resettlement to Viet Cong defectors.  Ogden leaves behind a host of American and Vietnamese friends from his Vietnam days, as well as other years of service.  He has our deep affection and fond memories.
        Below are recollections by Rufe Phillips and Bert Fraleigh, and an overview of his life prepared by his sister, Hope W. Wigglesworth, with input from Oggie himself.                                                                                                    
        I first knew Oggie when he came out to replace Joe Redick as Ed Lansdale's assistant and interpreter in 1956, as part of the Saigon Military Mission.  He stayed on a year after Lansdale left and was the only American who kept up close personal relations with  Vietnamese in the Diem government and outside the Diem government.  Oggie  really had his heart in the Vietnamese nationalist cause, understood how to work with the Vietnamese as a friend, and was very unselfish about the way he served.  He was of considerable help to Rural Affairs initially as an assistant to USAID Director Joe Brent, when he handled a number of liaison functions very well and was very supportive.  He also became the USAID representative to the population control committee – and  kept bizarre ideas in check about how to win the war primarily through population control, which would have given our efforts the wrong emphasis.  After I left, he replaced me for a time as head of the Rural Affairs program.  He later came back to keep the Chieu Hoi program going.                    
        He will be sorely missed.
                – Rufe Phillips
        
        Oggie and I worked closely together for more than two years in Saigon and saw each other quite often thereafter in various places around th world. He was a very, very good and totally decent person and he contributed so much to whatever America and Vietnam were trying to accomplish.
        Oggie was a great competitor athletically and he and I, who were about the same size and  age, would always see who could do the most pushups at every cocktail party, or even meeting, we attended to the cheers and guffaws of those present. I hate to admit that he usually won!
        He was a very levelling influence who would question intellectually most of our "bright" ideas and this was very helpful. He enjoyed life and adventure though he easily got bored and needed new challenges and stimulations to keep him interested. He usually arranged those himself. I admired his gumption to travel to the ends of the earth, particularly Alaska where I had trekked and survived the Arctic Sea mosquitoes in WW II.
        The world is a better place today because Oggie made it that way!                       – Bert Fraleigh


 

Ogden Williams - 1920 - 2004

 

        Ogden Williams, a retired Foreign Service Reserve Officer formerly of Arlington, Virginia, and Baker, West Virginia, died peacefully in Ipswich, Massachusetts on March 30, 2004.  He was 84. 
        He was born in New York City, graduated from Princeton University in 1942, joined Pan American Ferries, Inc., as a navigator and delivered bomber aircraft from Miami, Florida via the South Atlantic to the British in West Africa and to the Russians in Abadan, Iran.  On November 1,1942, he was commissioned a First Lieutenant in the U.S. Army Air Forces and served for three years on the North and South Atlantic runs to Europe, Africa and India.   
        He graduated from Harvard law School in 1948 and worked as an attorney for Carter, Ledyard & Milburn, 2 Wall St., New York from 1948-51.  In1951 he joined the CIA, serving in Germany, Vietnam and India.  He resigned in 1962 and joined the Agency for International Development from 1962-74, serving as Deputy Director of USAID, Tunisia and two tours as Associate Director, USAID Vietnam.  From 1966-69 Mr. Williams was director of U.S. aid to South Vietnam’s Chieu Hoi (“Open Arms”) program.  During these years alone, some 60,000 Viet Cong, including 48,000 armed men, accepted the amnesty offered by this program.  Mr. Williams received U.S. and South Vietnamese awards for his work, including the South Vietnamese National Order.  After retirement from AID in 1974, he returned as a private citizen to Vietnam in 1975 and helped Vietnamese friends to escape to the U.S., after having urged U.S. Congressmen in vain against their abrupt cutoff of aid to South Vietnam, which he regarded as dishonorable.
        After 1975 Mr. Williams was a freelance writer on refugee and environmental affairs.  He served as Washington director of the Afghanistan relief committee in 1981-82, and as a famine relief consultant in Chad in 1985-86.
        An avid outdoorsman, Mr. Williams enjoyed hiking and canoeing, frequently traveling to climb mountains in Alaska.  Between travels, he took great pleasure in life on his farm in West Virginia.
        He is survived by his sister, Hope Williams Wigglesworth of Ipswich, Massachusetts; his sisters-in-law, Phyllis Gerry Williams of Gladwyne, Pennsylvania and Edith Derby Williams of Vashon Island, Washington; and many other relatives, including four nieces and six nephews.  His two brothers, John and Andrew Williams, predeceased him.
        Contributions maybe made in his memory to the Alaska Coalition, c/o Alaska Conservation Foundation, 441 West 5th Avenue, Suite 402, Anchorage, Alaska, 99501; or the Mathias-Baker Voluntary Fire Company and Rescue Squad, P.O. Box 59, Mathias, West Virginia, 26812.