SLOVENIA COUNTRY READER TABLE of CONTENTS Samuel G
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SLOVENIA COUNTRY READER TABLE OF CONTENTS Samuel G. Wise Jr. 1964-1967 Political Officer, Trieste, Italy Ro ert Rackmales 1967-1969 Consular Officer, $agre , Yugoslavia Thomas P.). Dunlop 1969-1972 Consular Officer, $agre , Yugoslavia Warren $immerman 1989-1992 .m assador, 0elgrade, Yugoslavia Ro ert Rackmales 1989-1991 Deputy Chief of 2ission, 0elgrade, Yugoslavia Johnny Young 2001-2004 .m assador, Slovenia SAMUEL G. WISE, JR. Political Offic r Tri st , Italy (1964-1967) Samuel G. Wise Jr. was born in Chicago in 1928 and educated at the University o Virginia and Columbia. He entered the Foreign Service in 1955. His career included posts in Palermo, New Caledonia, Moscow, Trieste, Prague and Rome. He was interviewed by Charles Stuart Kennedy in 1995. -. Today is the 22nd o August, 1995. Sam, you were in Trieste from when to when0 WISE5 Trieste from the summer of 1964 until the summer of 1967. -. What was the situation in Trieste at that time0 WISE5 .t that time, it was still a standoff situation between Italy and Yugoslavia over the order5 the so-called 78ones . and 0,7 which represented a temporary solution of border claims after World War II. One of the purposes of the work of the Consulate was to watch the situation ecause it was considered a potential hotspot, where hostilities could break out if conditions were right. So, this was one of our jo s5 to watch the activities of the Slovenians who came into Trieste. 2any Slovenian families actually lived there, but there was a lot of across-the- order activity as well. -. How big was the Consulate0 WISE5 We had a out five Officers, three secretaries, and a out seven or eight local employees. -. That was 1uite a good si2e, wasn3t it0 WISE5 It was and, as I say, I think it represented the :nited States; concern that this could be a potential hotspot. -. What was your position in the Consulate0 WISE5 I was Deputy Principal Officer. -. Who was the head o it then0 WISE5 I'll have to tell you as it comes to me. -. How did you 4eep an eye on the situation0 WISE5 We were in touch with all the political leaders of the area. In addition, tried to get out among the population at large, to find out if there were resentments or concerns building up that might have led in a dangerous direction. We would occasionally go over into Yugoslavia, just to see the situation over there. I guess the nearest Consulate on that side was in 0elgrade in those days. -. No, Zagreb. WISE5 Excuse me. Of course, $agre . There was nothing in L9u l9ana. I think there might have een a :SI. post5 a li rary or something like that. It was a fairly sta le situation. The press would try to fire up some things. On the Italian side, the 2essini, the so-called 72SI,7 the ex- fascist types. .nd then there were some on the Slovenian side5 newspapers that would try to heat up the scene. 0ut, in general, the situation during my time there was fairly quiet. I did have one or two experiences that might be useful to mention. When I first arrived from 2oscow (I arrived in the summertimeA, as is the custom, people were taking leave and transfers. I found myself, I think may e from the first day or shortly thereafter, as .cting Principal Officer. out the first thing that happened, a month after my arrival, we had this tremendous disaster in our Consular District5 a dam disaster, where a couple of thousand people were wiped away in a couple of seconds, or a couple of minutes at most, including a few .merican citi8ens, so I got involved in that and had to up and deal with the situation, and keep in touch with the Em assy in Rome. Of course, they were very interested in it. It was quite an experience just to be arriving at post. -. Did you have any dealing with the German or Austrian minority in Italy0 WISE5 We watched it from the newspapers primarily. We occasionally made it up there and there were the occasional incidents over the years. 0ut I don't recall any ma9or incident. Our attention was focused on the Italian-Slovenian border. -. How did the Italians treat the Slovenians who lived in the Trieste area0 Schools, housing0 WISE5 Not too badly. There were complaints. You wondered how many times these complaints were fostered by outside forces trying to stir up some trou le. 0ut they lived in certain areas and they weren't as wealthy as the Italians. 0ut, on the other hand, there were some that had succeeded quite well in Trieste, in Italian society. There may have been some discrimination, but I don't think it was as bad as it was portrayed sometimes by the Slovenians. ROBERT RAC,MALES Cons.lar Offic r /a0r 1, Y.0osla2ia (1967-1969) Robert Rac4males was born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1937. He studied history at Johns Hop4ins University and graduated in 1958. He received a Fulbright Scholarship to Germany and this in luenced him toward his entry into the Foreign Service in 1963. He had twice served in Nigeria, Yugoslavia and Italy at various rotations. He was interviewed by Pro essor Charles Stuart Kennedy on May 11, 1995. -. Today is the 22nd o May 1995. What was the responsibility o the consulate general in 5agreb when you were there0 We3re tal4ing 367 to 369. R.CC2.LES5 We had the normal responsi ilities of any constituent post including protection and welfare of .merican citi8ens. Our consular district, which consisted of the two repu lics of Croatia and Slovenia, and we provided the full range of consular services including visas. We did political and economic reporting. Dor a constituent post, we were pretty well staffed. We had a consul general, we had two political-economic officers, we had two consular officers, although only one was a real consul. We had an admin officer, and of course a well staffed DSN group as well. E5 Now it3s an embassy. R.CC2.LES5 The basic staffing has stayed almost the same. E5 Who was the consul general when you were there0 R.CC2.LES5 0o Owen. 2y tour coincided entirely with his. )e stayed four years and I think I arrived in his second year and left at the end of his third year. E5 What was your particular assignment there0 R.CC2.LES5 I was chief of the consular section, so I oversaw all of the range of consular responsi ilities that we had. E5 I 4now one o the things that gave me great pleasure was the fact that the autos trade, the so- called main highway between Croatia and Serbia when I was consul general in essentially Serbia was that you had two-thirds o the autos trade because a lot o accidents on the highways so you got a disproportionate number o the accidents as your responsibility, which did not give me any great heartache. R.CC2.LES5 .ctually, I have to say that tragically I lost a good friend who had gone through language training, )anna Woods. E5 Yes, I 4new Hanna. That was a terrible automobile accident, a very dangerous highway. What were the main consular things that you had to deal with0 R.CC2.LES5 We had very active visa issuance. There were a lot of Croatians who traveled to the :nited States, and the immigrant visa operation was also fairly busy because of the large num er of Croatians who had immigrated after the war, so there were a lot of family petitions. .nd then we had protection cases, a few of them come to mind as having taken a lot of time and effort. E5 I3d li4e to get a feel for what this meant. R.CC2.LES5 I guess the most dramatic one was a man who was a writer, in fact had won the National 0ook .ward in the early '50s, but had suffered from paranoia, and I believe some drug addiction as well. )e was living in Rome, and was involved with a 7clinic7 that was apparently eing used as a drug center. The granddaughter of the first post-war president of Italy, Luigi Einaudi, became involved with this individual and in the drug scene. Partly ecause of her involvement there was an Italian crackdown on this group. The writer got wind of it, and hopped in his car and fled because he knew that if he were picked up in Italy he would be put away for a long time. So he drove across the border into Slovenia. This was at night and since his lights were defective he was picked up by Slovenian police and had his passport taken. )e started calling the em assy for assistance, and started trying personally to reach the am assador, and I think the em assy very quickly recogni8ed that this was not a normal individual and it was going to be very complicated. )e wanted to go down to 0elgrade but, of course, they said, 7No, you're in the $agre consular district.7 )e got down to $agre , and then we began a period--it seemed like months, perhaps just a month for all of this to play out, but it seemed intermina le. )e did have money, so he was staying at the Palace )otel, coming into the consulate every day and spinning fantasies a out how the CI. and every ody else was out to get him, and becoming increasingly agitated.