The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project AMBASSADOR RUDOLF V. PERINA Interviewed by: Charles Stuart Kennedy Interview Date: December, 2006 Copyright 200 TABLE OF CONTENTS Background Born in zechoslovakia, raised in Morocco, Switzerland, and the United States University of hicago, olumbia University Foreign Area Fellowship, Munich, (ermany 1970,1972 Marriage .ntered the Foreign Service in 1974 Ottawa, anada0 1otation Officer 1974,1972 Solzhenitsyn visa case 1elations .nvironment State Department0 .uropean Bureau, Military,Political Officer 1972,1978 NATO onference on Security and ooperation in .urope 5 S .6 Belgrade Meeting US and Soviets on Human 1ights Helsinki Final Act 1efuseniks State Department, FSI8 1ussian language training 1978,1979 Moscow, Soviet Union0 Political Officer, .9ternal 1979,1981 Soviet military activities Soviet Afghanistan invasion 1elations Soviets and uba US boycott of Soviet Olympics Sino,Soviet split Harassment Living environment Poland Berlin, (ermany8 Protocol/ Senate Liaison Officer 1981,1985 1 Liaison with Soviets on Berlin Polish aircraft hijackings US Strategic Defense Initiative 1elations with US .ast Berlin .mbassy Terrorist gangs Brussels, Belgium8 NATO Political Officer and Deputy 1985,1987 Political ommittee Nuclear and Space talks Sharing with Soviets SDI and INF deployment National Security ouncil, Soviet issues 1987,1989 Iran ontra fallout 1eagan's "tear down the wall" speech Views on Soviet collapse 1eagan's Moscow visit 1eagan and (orbachev 1omania visit onference on Security and ooperation in .urope 5 S .6 1989 London Information Forum Paris onference on Human Dimension Vienna, Austria0 Deputy Head of US delegation to S .. 1989,1992 Negotiations on onventional Forces in .urope 5 F.6 NATO and Aarsaw Pact Forces Negotiations with Soviets (ermany reunified .uropean Union/US relations The French 1ussians Aarsaw Pact disintegration (ermany and NATO .astern vs. Aestern .urope Senior Seminar 1992,1993 Belgrade, Cugoslavia0 hief of Mission 5 harge D'Affaires6 1993,1992 Bosnian war Dosovo .conomy Aarning Demarche to Milosevic 1elations with Milosevic Vuk Draskovic Srebrenica Milosevic meetings 1ussians Personalities 2 Holbrooke visits Albanians Dayton Meetings .uropeans Negotiating process Anti,US demonstrations Muslim, roat Federation Perina's role in Dayton Meetings The Serbs Milosevic,Holbrooke dialogue Serbs reaction to Dayton Accords Serb Albanians State Department0 Deputy Assistant Secretary, .U1 Bureau 1992,1997 Dayton Accords implementations NATO e9pansion Strobe Talbott Aarren hristopher Madeleine Albright 1ussia and NATO e9pansion .uropeans (ermany Ambassador to Moldova 1998,2001 .thnic groups Transnistrian conflict 1ussian troops and materiel 1omania interest (overnment ommunists USAID Peace orps .conomy Prostitute trafficking Partnership for Peace Special Negotiator for .urasian onflicts 2001,2004 Nagorno,Darabakh International participants Negotiations Dey Aest Approach Minsk (roup Prague Process o, hairs method Armenian goals OS . Negotiating problems US Armenian community Abkhazia 3 onfederation of Independent States 5 IS6 The Friends (roup 1ussian goals South Ossetia conflict Transnistria conflict 1ussian Dozak approach US role in conflict resolution State Department0 Deputy Director, Policy Planning Staff 2004,2002 Duties Influence of NS IraE invasion State,Defense differences Use of NS by Secretaries of State Africa US diplomacy in the Muslim Aorld omments on Secretaries of State Darfur 1elations with .urope 1etirement 2002 INTERVIEW Q: When and where were you born? P.1INA8 I was born in zechoslovakia on Fanuary 3, 1945 in a town called Tabor in southern Bohemia which was the seat of the Hussites in the 15th century. Q: I always think of the Hussites and their armored vehicles. That)s quite a legacy. What do you know about your family on your father)s side? P.1INA8 I see myself as a product of 20th,century entral .uropean history. My father owned a lumber mill in southern Bohemia started by his grandfather in the 19th century. It was a fairly large enterprise that e9ported lumber all the way to (ermany and throughout entral .urope in the inter,war period. He was thus considered a capitalist by ommunists, which came into play after Aorld Aar II. On my mother's side, her father was a civil servant in Bohemia. He was also trained as a lawyer and served as a type of deputy mayor in the town of Tabor. He was during Aorld Aar II one of the many zechs e9ecuted following the assassination in 1942 of 1einhard Heydrich, the head of the (erman occupation of Bohemia and the most senior Nazi successfully assassinated during the war. The well,known destruction of the town of Lidice was one part of the retaliation for HeydrichGs death but in fact thousands of people 4 throughout the country were e9ecuted as well. The (ermans targeted public figures and those suspected of being zech nationalists. My grandfather, as a representative of the town government, and his brother who had been a military officer in the zech army, were arrested within days of HeydrichGs death. They were e9ecuted by firing sEuad on Fune 10, 1942. About 180 other people from Tabor were also e9ecuted over the course of the ne9t few weeks. My mother was 17 years old at the time and learned of her fatherGs and uncleGs e9ecution through the newspapers. It was a defining e9perience for the rest of her life. Q: Would you talk a little more about the town of Tabor and how far back it goes. Where did the town fit into Bohemian history? I don)t know much about that area. P.1INA8 Aell, the name Tabor comes from Mount Tabor, which is referred to in the Bible. The town was founded by the Hussites in the early 1400Gs. The Hussite movement was really a type of religious uprising by followers of Fan Hus who was a precursor of Luther in criticism of hurch corruption. He was invited to meet with representatives of the Pope at the ouncil of onstance in 1415. Though guaranteed safe passage, he was in fact arrested and burned at the stake as a heretic. This sparked other social and ethnic tensions of the declining feudal order and led to a kind of peasant uprising against the hurch and the establishment. The rebellion gained momentum and led to what is known as the Hussite Aars. All of this was, of course, more comple9 than I am making it sound here. The most famous leader of the Hussites was a fellow named Fan Hizka, and it was his followers who established this town of Tabor. He was a brilliant military commander who defeated Papal armies across Bohemia despite eventually losing both eyes in battle. Tabor is very identified with this history and with Fan Hizka, whose statue is on the main sEuare. My motherGs side of the family moved there from the Pilsen region after Aorld Aar I. My fatherGs side of the family, as far as I know, had been in Tabor much further back. Q: Sudetenland or not? P.1INA8 No. It was outside the Sudetenland. It was part of Bohemia and then it became part of the Bohemian Protectorate established by the (ermans. Q: ,iven the Hussite history, was this a Protestant area? What was your family? P.1INA8 Following the Battle of the Ahite Mountain in 1220 when the Hapsburgs defeated the Bohemian forces, there was a counter, 1eformation and most of the country was re, atholicized. So most zechs are atholic but not very good atholics. The hurch does not have the standing that it does in Poland, for e9ample. This applies to my family. Ae were technically atholic but not practicing atholics or particularly devout. Q: What about the education of both your mother and father? P.1INA8 My father was raised to inherit the family lumber business as was the custom 5 of the time. That's why he had the same name as his father, and I'm actually the third 1udolf Perina because it was assumed that I would take over the business someday. My father was educated as a lawyer which is what one studied to go into business. He had a doctor of law degree from Prague University. He grew up in this little village outside of Tabor called Plana nad Luznici where the lumber mill was located on a river bank. Most timber at the time was transported by waterways. My mother studied at a Prague vocational school for secretaries and clerical workers. That is where she was when she learned that her father had been arrested. My mother actually studied some .nglish in this school. My father knew more (erman and Latin, which did not help much later in America. Q: .bviously, you were born in 1012 which was sort of a critical time at the end of the war. How did things go during the war? Then we)ll talk about the Soviet occupation which obviously you didn)t e3perience but you were hearing about. P.1INA8 Aell, during the war my father was allowed to continue operating his business because the (ermans wanted it to continue as a source of lumber and wood. He was able to continue operating, though under all the rules of the Protectorate. My mother's family was in a much more difficult situation because when the father was e9ecuted the family was also condemned to confiscation of property. She had horrible stories of how a carload of soldiers came with a truck to the house a few days after my grandfather had been e9ecuted. They went through the house and took anything of value8 pictures, jewelry, the radio, pieces of furniture etc. They left the family with minimal necessities to survive. This was a family of two daughters and two sons, a mother and four children. They were allowed to stay in the house but they lost title to it, and they were moved to the upstairs of the house, with a (erman family moving into the first floor.