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

is there from that trial?” I thought for a minute if it was a trick question because the
answer was of course very simple. I said, “None. There's no appeal from the results of the
trial.” So I think they were satisfied that I at least knew the basics of the Constitution.
The oral went very well. I think I hit it off with the board. I found out subsequently that I
scored very high on the oral, and this was the main reason why I got a letter very shortly
afterward that I had been accepted and that they were starting the security investigation. I
was somewhat worried about my heart murmur, which had kept me out of the draft, but
during my physical exam it did not seem to be any problem for the State Department. I
was in the Foreign Service, I think, within a few months. It went amazingly quickly.
Q: So in 1974 you came into the Foreign Service?
PERINA: Yes, November 1974.
Q: You want to talk a little about your initial impression of your class and how you felt
about the Foreign Service?
PERINA: Well, I was very happy to come into the Foreign Service because in the first
instance I was happy to have a job. My wife was pregnant, and the first thing we checked
was if the medical benefits covered pre-existing pregnancy. They did so we were
relieved. I was also very happy because writing my dissertation I had grown a little tired
of academia. I grew tired of the specialization and increasingly narrowing focus. Though
I was determined to finish the dissertation, and eventually I did, I was excited about being
in something new and different like the Foreign Service. It was viewed as prestigious by
my friends and family, it was more competitive to enter, it actually paid better than an
entry-level job in academia, and I particularly looked forward to the adventure of living
overseas. I felt well qualified for the Service: I knew other languages, had lived overseas
and so on. So I was quite enthusiastic about it, and my wife was also. She had lived as an
exchange student in Berlin, spoke German, also enjoyed being overseas, and of course
was relieved that I had finally gotten a job. We came down from New York, lived in
Arlington Towers which is where the Foreign Service Institute was at the time, and met
our class which was about 35 people or so.
Then I started negotiating my first assignment. This was, of course, before open
assignments existed, so it was like a poker game because one had to try to figure out first
what was available and how often one could say no before the offers got worse rather
than better. I learned very quickly how one has to watch out and negotiate in the
assignments process. During my first assignment meeting, the counselor said, “We're
going to make you a principal officer.” I could not believe that as a new officer I would
be a principal officer. I said, “Where?” And he said, “Bukavu,” in the Congo, a consulate,
a one man consulate and I would be principal officer. I looked at him and said, “Do you
know I have a pregnant wife?” He said, “That’s why you're perfect. There's no school
problem.” So I learned very quickly to be careful of what assignment counselors try to
sell. I held out and in the end was offered a rotational assignment in Ottawa, Canada.
This wasn’t the most exotic place to go but I concluded that with a child on the way and
still trying to finish a dissertation, it made a lot of practical sense. Certainly more so than
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