John Limbert PDF
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The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project AMBASSADOR JOHN WILLIAM LIMBERT Interviewed by: Charles Stuart Kennedy Initial Interview Date: May 30, 2006 Copyright 2011 ADST TABLE OF CONTENTS Background Born and raised in Washington, DC Harvard University Professor Sir Hamilton Alexander Rosecrans Gibb Sanandaj, Iran: Peace Corps 1964-1966 Stateside orientation Religions Kurds US aid Program (Point IV) Shah’s White Revolution SAVAK Massoud Barzani Harvard University: Graduate study fellowship 1966-1968 National Defense Foreign Language Program Marriage Shiraz, Iran: Asia Institute, Cultural Center; Teacher 1968-1972 Arthur Upham Pope Secret Police Persian arts and society Environment PhD thesis Entered the Foreign Service 1972 Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE); Economic/Commercial 1972-1975 Oil fields Environment Government operations Relationship with US Embassy Kuwait Local Society 1 Royal Family Territorial disputes Local leadership Islam Relations with neighbors Dubai, UAE: Office in Charge (Commercial Office) 1975-1976 Environment Commercial operations US commercial interests Government Gold trade UAE government services Foreign communities Gulf islands controversy Family Relations with Iran Tunis, Tunisia: Arab language study 1976-1977 Environment Jeddah, Saudi Arabia: Political Officer 1978-1979 Ambassador, Governor John West Government US Military Mission Local political issues Wife’s activities Royal family Iran Environment Closed society Teheran, Iran: Political Officer 1979-1981 Shah departs Revolution Family Atmosphere Khomeini Provisional government Embassy reduction Chargé Bruce Laingen Contacts Political atmosphere Iran power struggle Council of Experts Montezeri speech 2 Shah’s US hospitalization Executions and imprisonments Visa applicants Soviets Embassy invasion Contacts with Washington Contacts with Foreign Office US Marines Canadian refuge Iran government inaction Revolutionary Institutions Captivity Khomeini’s dilemma Provisional Government resigns Student revolutionaries Discussions with captors Persian language speakers University graduates Conflicts within coalition UN Mission to Teheran Relations with captors Move to Esfahan Abortive rescue mission Iran-Iraq War Signs of negotiations Algerian delegation Release President Carter’s decision Home Afterthoughts U.S. Naval Academy; Instructor, Political Science 1981-1984 Curriculum Students Djibouti, Somali Republic: Deputy Chief of Mission 1984-1986 Government French presence US Navy Siad Barre Ethiopia US military sales Environment Refugees Family 3 Algiers, Algeria: Political Office 1986-1988 President Chadli Bendjedid Environment National Liberation Front Berbers Economy Underground movement Government Restrictions Algerians Soviets Ambassador Craig Johnstone Algeria/Morocco relations Polisario Algerian diplomacy Ben Yahia Algeria/Egypt relations Tourism Islam Spanish connections Dubai, United Arab Emirates: Consul General 1988-1991 British Palestinian presence Relations UAE composition Iranians Consular operations Persian language Status of women Environment Government Saddam Hussein Gulf islands dispute Saudi relations Gulf War reactions US military presence UAE military US naval visits CNN Gulf War reporting Royal family Dubai/Kuwait relations Kuwaiti refugees Wife’s activities Harvard University: Student, Center for International Affairs 1991-1992 4 Course of study Fellow students State Department: Foreign Service Institute; Chief, Orientation 1992-1994 Orientation components Operations Programs Financial problems Relations with Regional Bureaus Conakry, Guinea: Deputy Chief of Mission 1994-1997 Sékou Touré period French legacy Environment Economy Peulh people US Ambassadors Corruption Embassy facilities USAID mission Finances Security Government Peace Corps AIDS Lebanese Terrorist threat Evacuations Parliamentary elections Humanitarian work Chinese Social life Senior Seminar 1997-1998 Student body Course composition Capitol Hill experience Evaluation State Department: Awaiting appointment as Ambassador to Sudan 1998 US Problems with Sudan Appointment in limbo US Mission to UN General Assembly: Advisor for African Affairs 1998 Operations Committee appointment problems 5 African delegates to UN United Nations staff Problems with Congress Personal living expenses State Department: Interim temporary assignments 1998-1999 Office of Southern African Affairs SADC Conference Iran affairs, INR State Department: Deputy Chief, Counterterrorism 1999-2000 Nairobi Dar es Salaam “Soft” targets State sponsors of terrorism Bin Laden Taliban Afghanistan Outreach program Syria Europe Religious martyrdom Use of military Arab support of Taliban Information sharing State Department’s Coordinator for Counterterrorism Regional bureaus Y2K precaution planning Antiterrorism exercises Ambassador to Mauritania 2000-2003 Appointment process Islamic African Relief Society National Islamic Front Relations Peace Corps Environment Primary issues Special Embassy Program HIV/AIDS USAID Infrastructure Foreign and ethnic groups Government Relations with neighbors French 6 Israelis John Olson 9/11 repercussions al Jazeera Ramadan (Interim Temporary Assignment) Baghdad, Iraq: Cultural Affairs Officer (initially based in Kuwait) 2003 Kuwait Secretaries of State Iraq War decision background Confusion over who was to be boss General Jay Garner’s team composition Dilemmas Military Phase Four Chalabi group State Department role Iraq museum Operations Shiite maneuvers Working with military Environment\ Living conditions Local offers of help Scavengers National Library and Documentation Center Work atmosphere Publications Center Iraqi participation Kurds British Safeguarding cultural property Baghdad security State Department staff Ambassador to Mauritania (continued) 2003 Briefing the Mauritanians on Iraq Aborted Military coup Washington, DC: President, American Foreign Service Officers 2003-2004 Association (AFSA) Organization composition Secretary of State Colin Powell Locality pay USAA 7 Dangerous assignments Public sector unions Eligibility requirements Issues Criticism and controversy Iraq: Temporary mission 2004 Washington, DC: President of AFSA (Continued) 2003-2005 Service in dangerous posts Relations with Human Resources office Representing members in controversy Board of Governors State Department: FSI: Dean, School of Language Studies 2005-2006 Language programs Language proficiency Problems with dialects Defense Language Institute Khartoum, Sudan: Chargé d’affaires 2005 Background of appointment Darfur North-South conflict Robert Zoellick Relations Death of John Garang Violence Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) Naivasha Agreement Vice President Taha Environment Secretary of State Rice visit Andrea Mitchell Jebel Marra Southern Sudanese/Darfurian relations Fragility of peace Disunited Darfurians Al Qaeda European presence Congressional visitors Retirement 2006- U.S. Naval Academy: Instructor, Political Science 8 INTERVIEW Q: John, to begin with, when and where were you born? LIMBERT: I’m a native Washingtonian. My family came to Washington from the Middle West during World War II. Q: When were you born? LIMBERT: 1943. Q: So you were born right in the heart of that one. Okay, let’s just talk first on your father’s side. What do you know about the Limberts, your father’s family? Where did they come from? LIMBERT: Well, they, my father was second generation. His father and mother both emigrated from Eastern Europe, what might today be in Poland or Belarus, and they came during that large wave of migration, around 1900. Q: Were there any stories that you were hearing about where the family or the life they came out of, how they got out and all of that? LIMBERT: Not really. My impression was that it wasn’t just him but his generation felt very American and were very proud of being American. What he heard from his family was so awful that there wasn’t a lot of looking back. Q: Nostalgia was not the name of the game. LIMBERT: No. I do recall my grandmother, she was on my mother’s side and they also, they were part of that same generation, my mother’s father and mother were both immigrants from Eastern Europe and I do recall my grandmother, when I told her that I was going into the Foreign Service, her look of disbelief and her comment was, “And what’s wrong with here?” Q: There’s a lot of people who thought when you joined the Foreign Service, the Foreign Legion. LIMBERT: That’s right. But the idea that anyone would want to leave, because the memories were in fact truly awful from that period and that was of course the period that drove millions of people not only to the United States but to Canada and to Argentina from appalling conditions in Eastern, Southern, and Central Europe. Q: Well what did your grandfather on your father’s side, then on your mother’s side, your grandparents, once they came here, what did they get involved in, working? 9 LIMBERT: Some of them worked in factories. I recall my mother saying that her father worked in the Studebaker factory. He was a leather worker. I think they settled first in Connecticut and then moved to South Bend, Indiana, to work in the Studebaker plants. Other parts of the family I think had small businesses. I believe my father’s family, settled in Cleveland. They had a small business. My mother’s family settled in Indiana. Q: But in the time, your father was working, he was working, were you born in, well you were born in D.C. but where, where had your father and mother been located prior to coming LIMBERT: I believe they were living in Indiana. They were living in the Midwest. He was a Navy officer and was transferred to Washington, came here during the war, and they stayed. Q: How did he become a naval officer? LIMBERT: I don’t know. It was wartime. Q: Had your mother and father gone to college or not? LIMBERT: He had gone to Ohio State. My mother went to the University of Illinois, which made for some very interesting times when Ohio State and Illinois played football. Q: It’s interesting that, coming from the background that your parents did, that they both went to universities. LIMBERT: Well, I have the impression that within the family, the children both were interested and this was something that was possible. Again, these were state universities, so these things were possible to do. My mother recalls that her father always pushed her to get an education and even encouraged her to think about coming East for an education, which in those days would have been very unusual. But she said she went to a football weekend at Illinois, she saw Red Grange play and she said that’s where she had to go. Q: Those were the great days of Midwest football. The Four Horsemen, I guess, at Notre Dame, Red Grange at Illinois. Did you grow up in D.C? LIMBERT: I grew up in D.C. As I said, after the war my parents stayed. My dad got out of the navy and took a job with the U.S. government and I grew up in and around D.C. We lived in various places. It was a very middle class kind of existence. D.C. was very quiet, very southern, very provincial in those days but my parents always said that compared to the Midwest it was still culturally very, very active. We lived in Fairlington for a while. At that time, in the late 40s and early fifties, it wasn’t anything like today’s Fairlington. It was pre-gentrification. It was where the Shirley Highway ended at Fairlington. I believe it’s what’s today King Street was the end of Shirley, or Seminary Road was the end of Shirley Highway. That was all there was. The schools, this would have been about 1949-1950, the schools in Virginia were so bad at the time that my 10
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