Frank Maria

The Analysis.
This highly detailed published information was doubtless useful to Frank during his weeks in Paris and afterwards, as resource material on the Middle East. More valuable, however, were his face-to-face contacts with the leaders of Middle Eastern nations—Kuwait’s Hassan Ali Dabbah, Inspector for the Department of Education, and Abdul-Aziz Hussein, Director-General of Education; Libya’s Mahmoud Bestry, Minister of Education and Chairman of the Delegation, and Mansur Othman Mansur; Tunesia’s Mahmoud Messadi, Secretary of State for Education and Chairman of the Delegation, Moncef Kedadi, Embassy Counselor, and Tahar Guigua, Head of the Social and Cultural Service and Secretary-General of the National Commission for UNESCO. Some of the contacts Frank made will reappear later in the book.

When Chairman Thayer wrote home to the Secretary of State, halfway through the conference, he felt obliged to call special attention to this activity: I do want to say a word of particular praise for Frank Maria. He has done a remarkable job of liaison with the Arab States. Being of Arab extraction himself, and  speaking Arabic, I gave him full charge of these groups. He has worked night and day in getting to know them all personally and has built up a very fine relationship for us. He organized an  excellent lunch which I gave to all of the leading Arab delegates and as a result of his work we have been getting support from the Arab States in a large number of our battles.He deserves special commendation for this work and I am most grateful for your assigning him to the delegation.33

This same evaluation was offered by Michael G. Kelakos, Deputy U.S. Permanent Representative to UNESCO, who afterwards penned a testimonial letter about Frank’s participation. I understand that his knowledge of Arabic and familiarity with the Arab World resulted, in the words of the Representatives from the Arab Member States of Unesco, in a greater mutual understanding of the respective positions of the United States and the Arab States than at any previous Conference of Unesco. This testimonial reflects the profound impression which Frank Maria makes on whomsoever he meets by his human approach to solutions of problems and his rarely-found emphatic understanding of other peoples.34

The Return
 ....  Frank first made his way across southern France to the fashionable resort of Cannes on the Riviera, where he boarded the S.S. Constitution on 20 December. It was already halfway through its “Sun Lane Cruise” to New York. After his first night at sea, Frank awoke in Barcelona, the second largest city in Spain. The passengers enjoyed a full day and the early part of the evening strolling the famed Rambla from the harbor to the Plaza de Cataluña, and exploring the narrow, crooked streets of the medieval walled city. That night and the following day they steamed along the coast of Spain, and paid a half-hour call at Algeciras to pick up passengers. There was no time to enjoy its popular beaches and mineral springs or to view the nearby Moorish ruins, for the Constitution’s next major port of call lay twelve hours away, beyond the Straits of Gibraltar, at the famed port of Casablanca. There the passengers whiled away 23 December before venturing into the Atlantic. Christmas Eve passed at sea, except for a four-hour stop in Madeira, an island 700 miles southwest of Portugal, where seven passengers had been vacationing. Christmas and the last week of 1960 passed at sea, in the atmosphere of conviviality and non-stop planned activities that mark resort cruises. Shortly after dawn on 30 December 1960, Frank saw the Statue of Liberty as his ship steamed into New York Harbor, ending a momentous two months abroad. He spent his forty-seventh birthday at home in Lowell.

The Boston Globe the day before had headlined, “No Governor Ever Faced Tougher Task Than Volpe.”36  Frank expected to be instrumental in helping him achieve his primary goals: putting through a “standard code of ethics for all public officials in Massachusetts,” restructuring the MDC, DPW, and MTA, and redistributing the tax burden. His inaugural day four days later was far brighter than these headlines. It marked the end of Governor Furcolo’s political career, whose defeat in the U.S. Senate race Frank, unlike virtually all the pollsters, had correctly predicted.

Frank was riding high on the praise of the U.S. Government for his UNESCO service. Thayer extolled the fine contribution you made to our combined effort. I am particularly appreciative of all you did to develop and improve contacts between our own and other delegations at the Conference. I am indeed grateful that you were willing to devote so much of your time and energy to the Delegation’s activities at no little cost to your personal interests and duties. I trust, however, that the importance of UNESCO’s work, especially in the newly developing areas of the world will give you a lasting sense of satisfaction in your service with the Delegation. Thayer rated the Eleventh Conference “one of the most memorable in its history,” for “there was also the heartening evidence of how successfully the Conference was able to carry forward its heavily increased responsibilities. 37  A few weeks later, Frank was informed by Robert Gray, Secretary of the Cabinet, about the President’s particular pleasure at how he had helped elucidate for the U.S. delegates the “policies, positions, and aspirations of the Arab Member States,” which was “unusually helpful not only in the formulating of well balanced and well considered United States positions, but to many of us in the Administration as well.”
“You have,” he concluded, “made a contribution of  unprecedented and outstanding value.”38

32 Ibid., pp. 42-43.
33 Thayer, Letter to Christian A. Herter (2 Dec. 1960).
34 Paris: UNESCO, 26 Nov. 1960.
...
36 Kilgore, pp. 92-3.