The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project AMBASSADOR PETER W. GALBRAITH Interviewed by: Charles Stuart Kennedy Initial interview date: March 19, 1999 Copyright 2013 ADST TABLE OF CONTENTS Background Born in Boston, son of a renowned economist and Ambassador Schooled in the U.S. and abroad India European travel Harvard University; Oxford University Language studies at Monterey Institute for Foreign Studies Windham College; Instructor 197511.72 3ermont politics Student tuition fraud scheme Marriage ,apitol Hill4 Staff, Senate Foreign Relations ,ommittee 1.7211..3 Frank ,hurch Refugees ,laiborne Pell Mc7overn Amendment Drafting legislation Developing relationships USIA Senate operations Ira89:urd genocide Laos visit U. S. Mission to United Nations Israel Division of portfolios Issues of importance to ,ongress Afghanistan UN Environment Program Jesse Helms American1Israel Public Affairs ,ommittee (AIPA,) 1 Israel and UN Specialized Agencies ,harlie Wick Jean ,laude (Baby Doc) Duvalier Judy Siegel State Department budgets Pakistan military assistance Ira81:u ait1:urdistan visits Iran1Ira8 War Tehran embassy hostage taking Ira8 visits (1.24, 1.22) Saddam Hussein Arms for Iran Prevention of 7enocide Act of 1.22 ,hris van Hollen SaddamAs :urdish genocide Dead bees Ira8 chemical eapons Ira8 credit rating Ira8 International La and ,ompliance and ,ompliance Act Senator Dole Nancy :assebaum Ira8 War use of force vote ,ongressional Mid East visit ,NN ar coverage :urds visit controversy :u ait visit :u aitAs ar devastation Saudi Prince Turki :urdistan visit (Duhok) Talabani April Fools Day joke Palmyra Battle zone :urdish insurrections Nightline :u ait Palestinians Patriotic Union of :urdistan :urd documents Erbil Ira8i atrocities Barzani Provide ,omfort :urdish Mar(ists (P::) 3OA :urdish Service Ernest Lefever 2 Leslie Lenko sky Ira89:urdistan trips ,hemical eapons in ,roatia Joe Wilson Former Bugoslavia visits ,roatia Mike Einik Warren Cimmerman Macedonia 7reek paranoia Montenegro Dubrovnik Jamie Rubin Sarajevo attack Bosnic Muslim and ,roat ethnic massacres Press reporting Detention9Refugee camps US policy :osovo National borders Policy dissentions Banja Luka Senator Moynihan visit to Sarajevo US arms embargo United Nations troops Serb9,roat9Slovene balance :osovo Liberation Army (:LA) President Tudman Milosevic United States Ambassador to ,roatia 1..311..2 US Policy Humanitarian issues Bukovar 3ance Plan UN protected areas ,roatian1American community Embassy staff Sanctions Muslim ,roat War Sarajevo ultimatum DART team 7overnment officials Regional Wars Refugee programs 3 UN Mission Prospects for settlements 3isits to refugee camps and villages State Department backing US policy Muslim1,roat War United Nations 7ermany Arms embargo Split meeting ith Bosnian1,roat leader Prisoner release International ,onference for the Former Bugoslavia European Union 3ance1O en Plan Federation of Muslims and ,roats Brijuni TitoAs villa Reggie Bartholome ,huck Redman Mate Boban Negotiations Warren ,hristopher Bosnian9,roatian9Bosnian ,roat federation negotiations March 1, 1..4 Bosnian9,roatian agreement Mostar Bridge International criminal tribunal Territorial changes Russian mediation effort :rajina Republic Plitvice meeting Cagreb 4 Arms embargo Tonty Lake Lake9Holbrook relationship Russians C14 plan European Union David O en Muslim refugees Siege of Bihac United Nations Protective Force (UNPROFOR) ,arter cease fire 1 1..4 Intelligence sources Supreme Allied ,ommand Europe (SA,EUR) Srebrenica 4 Cepa Bombing option John Shattuck ,roatia MI7s Bugoslav Serbs ,roatia9:rajina Serb ar 7albraith9Tudman meeting :rajina destruction9evacuation 7albraith official activities Human rights violations European embassy support Settlement issues Holbrooke Mission 7oraDde Death of US negotiators National Security ,ouncil Peace Plan Warring elementsA objectives and tactics Dayton participants Shuttle diplomacy, 1..0 ,roatia Peace Process ,roatian constitution Serb9,roat (Erdut) agreement Dayton negotiations and agreement ,hristopher Jac8ues :lein President ,linton visit ,ommerce Secretary Ron Bro n visit and death Muslim ,roat Federation Arms flo to Bosnians Intelligence Oversight Board Holbrooke plan Mira Baratta Henry Hyde committee allegations Strobe Talbot ,IA Lee Hamilton ENo instructionsF instructions Press reporting scandal Station chief European role ,roat offensive in Bosnia 7reece9Turkey parallel Ethnic Serbs return to ,roatia Tudman illness and death ,hristian ,hurch 5 ,ouncil of Europe ,roatia control Brian At ood Administration support United Nations Transitional Administration to East Timor 1...12001 Director for Political, ,onstitutional and Electoral Affairs Indonesia take1over (1.70) and ithdra al Bernard :ouchner United Nations Peace :eeping Force Emergency food rations ,limate Legislation National ,onsultative ,ouncil Staff Timorese umbrella resistance movement (,NRT) UN tasks Objectives ,abinet Minister role E(ecutive cabinet proposal ,onstituent assembly elections Operations Non1government organizations (N7Os) Human rights ,onstitution Language diversity Female participation FRETILIN Budgets National parks Timor Sea Treaty Australia negotiations La of the Sea ,onvention Ta(ation Indonesia relations Elections 3IP visitors 7us Dur National Defense University 1..211... INTERVIEW 6 [Note: This interview was not edited by Ambassador Galbraith.] Q: Today is March 19, 1999. This is an interview with Ambassador Peter W. Galbraith, that’s G.A./.0.1.A.I.T.2. The interview is being done on behalf of the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training and I-m Charles Stuart Kennedy. ,ell, to begin with, could you tell me where you were born and then let-s tal4 about your family and growing up5 7ALBRAITH4 Okay. I as born December 31, 1.00 at the Boston Lying1in Hospital in Boston. My parents are John :enneth 7albraith, thatAs my father and :atherine At ater 7albraith is my mother. My father as born in ,anada and gre up there on a farm and came to the United States in 1.2.. He had gotten his degree at the Ontario Agricultural ,ollege in agricultural economics. He ent to the University of ,alifornia at Berkeley and had cultural economics and 8uickly finished up his Ph.D. in 1.33 hen the Roosevelt administration came in and there ere all of a sudden jobs. He came to Washington and ent through the security clearance. At the time that ould have consisted of going up and seeing the postmaster general Jim Farley ho didnAt ask if he as an American citizen because he asnAt, but only if he as a democrat, hich he said he as. He served in the Roosevelt administration and as eventually in charge of the office of price administration and then fired, an economist, noted riter and adviser to democratic presidents and presidential candidates. His other government e(perience as being U.S. ambassador to India from 1.I1 to JI3. *: He-s written a boo4, Ambassador-s5 7ALBRAITH4 AmbassadorAs Journal, hich as published in 1.I2. *: It-s an e6cellent boo4. 7our father is of course e6tremely well 4nown and a very influential man. 7ALBRAITH4 Also very influential, ho ever, is my mother. *: That-s what I was going to say. I mean I want to go to the source of power. 7ALBRAITH4 My great grandfather, her grandfather, Wilbur Olin At ater, as a noted American scientist at Wesleyan University and he actually as the person ho invented the calorie, but ait, not invented the calorie, invented the calorimeter, the ability to measure the calorie. My grandfather At ater as a la yer, he died, all my grandparents died before I as born and my mother as the eldest of three children born in 1.12. She had a scholarship at Smith and studied French and 7erman literature. She spent her junior year abroad in 7ermany at the beginning of the Nazi period and she has many onderful stories including being in the same omenAs dormitory as Unity Mitford hen Adolf Hitler ould come and call. *: So, these are the famous British Mitford sisters5 7 7ALBRAITH4 E(actly. *: 8essica, 9nity. 9nity was the Na:i one, wasn-t she5 7ALBRAITH4 She had had apparently a romantic relationship ith Hitler and opposed the ar bet een 7ermany and England, but I donAt think she as a Nazi and she put a bullet in her head and lived for a long time in a semi comatose state. Anyho , my parents met at Harvard here my father as an instructor and my mother as orking to ard her Ph.D. as as typical in those days, didnAt get. *: ,hat was her Ph.D. in5 7ALBRAITH4 It as going to be in, it as in comparative literature, comparing a French and 7erman riter, IAm not sure hich ones. So, sheAs been the companion, support of my father for no I guess theyKve been married more than I0 years. *: Do you have brothers or sisters5 7ALBRAITH4 I have t o brothers. One ho as born in 1.41 and ho is a la yer here in Washington, a partner at Williams and ,onnolly and a brother ho is a year younger ho is a professor of economics at the University of Te(as at the LBJ School and ho orked here in Washington as the staff director of a ,ongressional ,ommittee. *: Can you tal4 a bit about home life and you 4now, I mean, here you've had two sort of intellectual powerhouses, what was it li4e at home, particularly when you were a small 4id5 7ALBRAITH4 Well, it as a very stable upbringing. My parents lived in the same house that they still live in. They bought it in ,ambridge three days after I as born, a big brick house. The household had a stream of political figures, Roy Jenkins of Britain' various Americans, Adlai Stevenson, John F. :ennedy and that ould have been hen I as little. Then of course the generations that follo ed in the JI0s and J70s, Pat Moynihan and later generations. Almost invariably the discussions, the dinner table discussions dealt ith public affairs, politics, and international affairs. I donAt think it ever occurred to me that people ouldnAt talk about such things at dinner. My parents ere fairly traditional and their children ere not al ays at the dinner table. ThereAs a onderful housekeeper named Mrs.