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Ned Brown | Thoughts on a past US ambassador

Published:Sunday | November 10, 2019 | 12:00 AM
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Gleaner Photographer
1969: Vincent de Roulet (right), the new United States ambassador to Jamaica, pictured with Governor General Sir Clifford Campbell at King’s House after presenting his credentials.
Gleaner Photographer
1969: The new ambassador, Vincent de Roulet (second left) and his wife, Lorinda (centre) speak with Ray Hadeed (left), Opposition Leader Michael Manley (second right) and Abe Issa.
Gleaner photograph
1972: Mrs David Jones (left), wife of the managing director of Machado Tobacco Company Ltd, is seen presenting the Benson and Hedges Gold Cup to Vincent de Roulet, United States ambassador to Jamaica, at Caymanas Park. At centre is Lorinda de Roulet, the ambassador’s wife. The seven-furlong race for the trophy was won by Monte’s Stitch, owned by the Shelter Rock Stables, the syndicate of which Mr and Mrs de Roulet are members.
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Sometimes, the relationship between Jamaica and the United States (US) can become strained. Hopefully, the US has a skilled ambassador in place to ameliorate the situation, and chart a course to smoother waters. And sometimes, presidential appointments of wealthy donors have the opposite effect. Here was one such instance … .

In 1969, US President Richard Nixon appointed as the new US ambassador to Jamaica, Vincent de Roulet. The Black Power movement of the time in America was pushing for a black US ambassador to Jamaica – many qualified candidates were available. Maestro Leonard Bernstein, who had visited Jamaica and a Black Power supporter, advocated for the same; de Roulet couldn’t be further from that option. De Roulet’s only accomplishment in life was to marry into two family fortunes: his wife, Lorinda, was the daughter of Joan Whitney, and her father, Charles Shipman Payson. De Roulet had equally dubious qualifications for his Foreign Service post: he was Nixon aide H. R. ‘Bob’ Haldeman’s roommate in college, and de Roulet allegedly donated over $100,000 to Nixon’s 1968 campaign. De Roulet made the contribution with the understanding that he would get a prime European ambassador posting, but National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger nixed that after the election. Former State Department employees, who served with de Roulet in Kingston at the time, gossiped that the ambassadorship to Jamaica was the first ‘full-time’ job de Roulet ever held.

ALIVE AND WELL

If American diplomacy, and its role during the late ’60s, required a deft hand and subtle political skills, a newly confirmed US Ambassador Vincent and Mrs de Roulet would have none of that. In de Roulet’s mind, the Jamaican plantocracy he had read about in Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels was alive and well. He and Lorinda arrived in Jamaica aboard their 90-foot luxury yacht, Patrina, and docked it conspicuously in the Kingston harbour during their entire tenure at the embassy. For de Roulet, his ‘official’ work schedule in Jamaica was appropriately laissez-faire; he spent most days at the Caymanas Park racetrack watching one, or more, of his 17 horses run. Ambassador de Roulet also kept a needlepoint pillow in the back of his gray Checker limousine with the inscription, “This is my car, and I sit where I want”. While more than 30 per cent of Jamaica’s 2.5 million citizens were unemployed, America’s envoy to Jamaica was hardly of mind to send a message of empathy or concern.

Michael Manley, then prime minister in 1973, eventually had enough, and expelled the buffoon de Roulet from Jamaica for meddling in the country’s election – not to mention his general unpopularity with the Jamaican populus.

- Ned Brown is a Washington, DC-based political consultant, author, and is currently working on a book on Jamaican tourism from 1947-1962.