The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project PETER DAVID EICHER Interviewed by: Charles Stuart Kennedy Initial Interview Date: May 30, 2007 Copyright 200 ADST TABLE OF CONTENTS Background Son of an American oil geologist he was raised in the US and abroad. Mc Gill University University of Pennsylvania Marriage Entered the Foreign Service in 1973 Suva Fiji, General Officer 1974.1975 0onsular district Environment Government Ethnic groups Tourism Duties French nuclear tests Economy Peace 0orps State Department FS12 Afrikaans language training 1973 Pretoria40ape Town Union of South Africa, Political Officer 1973.1978 Family Soweto riots Apartheid Political Parties Government Security Environment Relations 7Black 0onsciousness Movement8 Political contacts Parliament Racial groups US policy 1 0ongressional visits Bantustans Sullivan Principles Nuclear issue Steve Biko Namibia Lagos Nigeria, Political Officer 1978.1980 Environment Living conditions Elections 0had conflict Mohammad Ali visit Moscow Olympics University of 0alifornia Los Angeles (U0LA), Africa Studies 1980.1981 0ourse of study Department of State, Desk Officer for Liberia and Sierra Leone 1981.1983 Sergeant Samuel Doe 0oup Environment Government 1nternational Monetary Fund Program US facilities Liberian visits to US Relations US commercial interests State Department, United Nations Affairs, African Affairs 1983.1985 Seeking African votes in UN Namibia Robert Mugabe 70onstructive Engagement8 South Africa Area issues Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick Personnel 0ubans Angola SAAPO 0airo Egypt, Political Officer 1985.1987 Egypt.1srael relations Taba Achille Lauro hijacking Pan Am flight 103 downing 2 Police riots Terrorists Relations Mubarak US aid programs 1sraeli Embassy Environment State Department, Deputy Director Office of Egyptian Affairs 1987.1990 Taba negotiations Egypt.1sraeli Arbitrations issues Middle East Peace Process PLO American.1sraeli Political Action 0ommittee Bisits to King Hussein and President HafeC al.Assad 1ntifada Personnel involved in Peace Process Palestinian refugee camps Una 0hapman 0oD Fellow, Annapolis Maryland 1990.1991 Gulf Aar Meeting Kuwait Emir in Saudi Arabia Seeking Arab coalition against Saddam Hussein Origins of 0oD Fellowship (1nterruption to serve in Operations 0enter of Gulf Aar Task Force) 0NN as source of information Pentagon and Ahite House centers of activity (Resume Una 0hapman Fellow) Story of Ailliam Palfry Emperor Dead and Other Historic American Diplomatic Dispatches Geneva SwitCerland, Political 0ounselor 1991.1995 UN OrganiCations Human Rights 0ommission Russian and East European attitude change 0hina Resolution UN High 0ommissioner for Human Rights negotiations Aest European and Others Group (AEOG) Helsinki Accords Burma Aorld 0onference 1srael and Human Rights PLO status Arafat 0uba 7Sale of 0hildren8 issue 3 Rwanda SmallpoD virus issue 1nternational Labor OrganiCation (1LO) Environment State Department, Bureau of Democracy Human Rights 1995.1998 and Labor, Special Assistant Dayton Agreement and Human Rights Bosnia Non.Government OrganiCations (NGOEs) 0hina Serious violators of human rights 1nternational 0ovenant on 0ivil and Political Rights (100PR) 0onvention on Economic Social and 0ultural Rights (100PR) Rwanda genocide Arms sales Other human rights issues UN Aorld 0onference on Aomen (Beijing.1995) 7Beijing Declaration8 Hillary 0linton 0ongressional support Retirement 1998. 0omments on career OrganiCation for Security and 0ooperation in Europe (OS0E) First Deputy Director (Aarsaw Poland) 1998.2002 Election observations OrganiCation and functions Former Soviet bloc countries Human rights monitoring Other career missions INTERVIEW Q: When and where were you born% E10HER2 1 was born in Dhahran Saudi Arabia on April 23 1950. Q: I used to register babies in Dhahran too back in 195 to 1960. E10HER2 Fou were assigned thereG Q: -es, I was the consular o..icer. 4 Okay, Peter1 let2s take your father2s side. When and where did the Eichers come from and what do you know about them% E10HER2 Aell the Eichers have been in the United States since before the American Revolution. My grandmother was a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution and could trace our ancestry all the way back to St. Louis King Louis 1H of France as well as a king of the Netherlands. But she was a Boyd not an Eicher until she married of course. Q: What were the early Eichers doing in the 5.S.% E10HER2 1Em not Iuite sure what they were all doing actually. The best records we have are on my grandmotherEs side thatEs my fatherEs mother the Boyd family. The first of my ancestors to reach America came to New Fork when it was still New Amsterdam. They were Dutch. The Eichers came at a later point 1Em not sure when or where. The Boyds came in the 1700Es and eventually they made their way to upstate New Fork. Q: Well, let2s talk about upstate New -ork. When is the first time you are aware o. what your grandparents or your great7grandparents or great7great7grandparents were doing in upstate New -ork% E10HER2 Fou know 1Em not Iuite sure when 1 first became aware. 1 know that my grandmother did proudly keep a handwritten book that showed the family history generation by generation all the way back through these illustrious names that 1 have dropped. 1f 1 recall correctly it was a member of the Dutch royal house of de Graff who traveled to New Amsterdam. 1 remember visiting the main cathedral in Amsterdam once and finding a very old de Graff tomb there, perhaps it was a member of the same family. But at some point a de Graff descendant in America married a Boyd which was my grandmotherEs family. 1tEs her family J the Boyds J who were in upstate New Fork. They were originally a Scotch.1rish family and immigrated to the U.S. in the mid.1700s. One of the early Boyds was a private in the New Fork militia during the American Revolution and later went on to be state assemblyman 1 think and was involved in building the Erie 0anal and 1 think served as a weigh master on the 0anal. As for the Eicher family 1Em not sure eDactly when or where they arrived in the U.S. although it also was before the Revolution. The Eichers were Swiss.German and 1 think migrated to the U.S. by way of Strasbourg but 1 donEt recall the circumstances, 1 believe we have it in the family records somewhere. Q: What do you know about your grandparents on your father2s side% E10HER2 On my fatherEs side my grandfather was a pharmaceutical chemist and he lived in 0hicago although 1 believe he was born in South Dakota. 1 remember him talking about the farm in South Dakota. After they moved to 0hicago and he became a chemist he was in fact the first person to put cod liver oil into a tablet which 1 guess was rather revolutionary at the time. He was never a big businessman but was a reasonably 5 successful small businessman with his own very small factory making pills. He and his family did alright in the Depression since medicines are one of the last things people give up even in hard times. 1 remember liking his stories about when he was a boy how motorcars were still so rare that all the kids would run down the street to see whenever one passed. He also talked about going out to the shores of Lake Michigan to see the first airplanes fly over. 1 used to think that was strange and amusing and now 1 find myself doing the same sort of thing with my grandchildren J telling them about the days when we didnEt have computers video players and such and telling them about watching on TB when the first man landed on the moon. Q: And your grand.ather% E10HER2 That is my grandfather 1Eve been talking about. My father was an oilman a petroleum geologist and micro.paleontologist hence the assignment in Dhahran. He was working for ARAM0O (the Arabia.American Oil 0ompany) at the time. Q: What part o. the oil business was he in% E10HER2 He was a geologist involved in eDploration for oil. He spent many years in the Middle East. He was looking for oil in the Middle East especially in Egypt and the Sahara. During Aorld Aar 11 he was eDploring for oil in the Middle East. He was eDempted from the army because they thought his work looking for oil was more important for the war effort than serving as an infantryman would have been. He was working for ESSO and then went to ARAM0O which 1 think was associated with ESSO. Q: Did the Middle East play much o. a role in the stories in the family% E10HER2 Oh yes. Fou havenEt asked me about my motherEs side yet. She was of Egyptian nationality and was part of a Sephardic Jewish family that has both Spanish and 1talian heritage. Her family was part of the huge community of Jews and other non.Arabs that lived in Egypt and particularly in AleDandria at that point. She worked with the British Army J as a secretary 1 think J during the Aar. 1 remember her stories of 0airo being bombed and of being able to hear the guns during the Battle of El Alamein. She and my father met there not long after the Aar and were married in Egypt in 1947. Q: The Sephardic Jews, how did they get started in Egypt% E10HER2 Ae donEt have good family records on that side perhaps in part because much of the family was in Europe and died in the Holocaust. My motherEs farther was one of 13 children 1 believe and her mother was one of 11 children so weEre talking very large families many of whom didnEt survive particularly on my grandfatherEs side. 1n term of how they got to Egypt 1 believe if may go back to the eDpulsion of the Jews from Spain around 1492.