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53 ChAPTER VIII AMBASSADoR To EL SALVADoR AND LBJ 4 As I sat in my home on River Road in March 1964, I received a phone call from someone identifying himself as Roy Elson.“Do you remember me?” he asked. “Sure,” I replied. Elson was a former Spanish student at the University of Arizona, and I knew that he was now US Senator Carl Hayden’s chief of staff.As chairman of the appropriations committee, Senator Hayden was one of the most powerful members of Congress. Hayden, eighty-seven years old, relied heavily on Elson, imbuing him with a great deal of political influence. Elson asked if I was interested in becoming United States attorney for the district of Arizona. I said,“Well, Roy, I think you have made a mistake. I’m not interested in being US attorney. I’m already a superior court judge, and I see that as a more prestigious position. Besides I have already been Pima County attorney. My idea has always been to move forward, so I can’t accept that position.” He then asked what kind of appointment interested me, and I quickly replied,“An ambassadorship.” I briefed him on my consular service in Agua Prieta,explained that I was familiar with the skill sets required of a diplomat, and urged him to seek an ambassadorship for me. He grew quiet, then said that perhaps an ambassadorial appointment could be arranged and to expect to hear from him in the near future. What prompted this call? In the 1964 election cycle, Roy Elson, who won the Democratic nomination for the US Senate seat vacated by Senator Barry Goldwater in his ill-starred campaign for president, sought my support in his race against Governor Paul Fannin, who won the Republican primary for the US Senate seat. Naturally I supported Elson, but he lost a close election to Fannin. He tried again to win a seat in 1968 only to lose in his second attempt, this time to Goldwater, who reclaimed his seat four years after his bruising loss to Lyndon Johnson in that famous 1964 presidential race.1 Adversity Is My Angel 54 After my phone conversation with Elson, Senator Hayden called and asked if I would consider serving as ambassador to El Salvador. I said that I would, so Hayden called President Johnson, told him he had a favor to ask, and placed my name before him. Johnson said he knew me and recalled a political rally in Tucson in 1960 where we campaigned together. Johnson raised the issue of my name and expressed concern that people might confuse me with Fidel Castro’s brother and Cuba’s minister of defense, Raúl Castro. Johnson, always the politician, feared that this potential misidentification might cost him some votes. Hayden called, explained the problem, and said that the President wondered if I would consider changing my surname to my mother’s maiden name, Acosta. My exasperation was evident to Senator Hayden. I told him the American people were not ignorant;they could differentiate between the Cuban defense minister and me, and I would not abandon my father’s name. If I had to change my name then there was no reason for me to serve as an ambassador. President Johnson finally relented, and I began the deliberate process of Senate confirmation, though Hayden’s influence among his colleagues shortened the length of the review of my qualifications to a significant degree. In fact, at one point during my confirmation hearings Senator William E. Proxmire had to be reassured by the chairman of the Latin American subcommittee of the Committee on Foreign Affairs,Wayne Morse,that I was “not related in any degree whatsoever to the Castro in Cuba.”2 When Senator Hayden informed me that the administration planned to put my name forward and that the notion of moving to El Salvador was real, I had mixed emotions.The excitement of a new adventure coupled with profound change in our lives created a combination of optimism, fear, and sadness.Pat and I loved the River Road property and all of our animals,and suddenly we faced the prospect of parting with them, selling or renting the property, and leaving for Washington, DC, to meet with State Department officials and protocol officers. In the fall of 1964 we began the inexorable process of leaving Tucson and moving to El Salvador. On October 1, 1964, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee confirmed my appointment as ambassador to...

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