ambassador rudolf v. perina - Association for Diplomatic Studies and ...

way to go. On the nuclear issue, the Europeans stepped in and tried to start a dialogue.
We did not object to this because it took away pressure from the U.S. to talk to Iran and
showed the Europeans what tough going it was. We did not think the EU effort would
succeed and were irritated that the Europeans did not see that themselves but did we not
try to stop them.
I had some contact with Iranians when I was Special Negotiator. There was a tradition for
the Minsk Group Co-Chairs from time to time to brief the Iranians on the status of the
Nagorno-Karabakh negotiations as a courtesy, since Iran was a neighboring country to
the conflict. The Iranians asked for such a briefing shortly after President Bush’s “axis of
evil” speech, perhaps as a test of whether the U.S. would still have contact with them. I
had to get permission directly from Colin Powell for the briefing but he concurred. The
French Co-Chair organized the meeting in Paris. It lasted about an hour and dealt strictly
with Nagorno-Karabakh and nothing else so it really did not qualify as any sort of
dialogue in a political sense.
Q: Did you get any feel for the influence on foreign policy of Vice President Cheney and
his office?
PERINA: Not really. I was not involved in any deliberations at that level. I certainly
knew the conventional wisdom in Washington that the Vice President was very powerful.
What I did see was that members of his staff participated at more interagency meetings
than I had ever seen with previous vice presidents. I also know that their views were
taken very seriously in the clearance process. This was in some contrast to staff members
of the National Security Council. In fact, within the bureaucracy the NSC was considered
a relatively weak institution compared to its role in other administrations. Many of the
people were junior and did not seek to exert much influence. It is interesting how these
power relationships of institutions transfer down to relationships between people on tasks
like drafting memos.
Q: When did you retire?
PERINA: I retired on April 30, 2006 after almost 32 years in the Foreign Service. I did
subsequently take on some short-term assignments as a retiree, including a two-month
stint as Chargé d’Affaires in our Embassy in Chisinau and a four-month stint as the
Chargé in the Embassy in Yerevan, Armenia. The family links also continued because
three months before my retirement my younger daughter, Alexandra, joined the State
Department as an attorney in the Legal Adviser’s Office. She wanted to work in the State
Department, which I think says something good about my career there, at least as
perceived by my family.
Q: That’s a good way to end.
PERINA: I think so.
Q: Thank you very much, Rudy
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