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

I will always remember that staff meeting because it was so predictable how everyone
tried to protect his or her bureaucratic turf. However, it was all for naught because the
reaction from Jimmy Carter was very, very strong and we ended up doing all of those
things and more. When it became clear that this was inevitable then of course certain
people in the embassy became tougher than ever on the Soviets. I remember at a later
staff meeting, after the decision had been made to boycott the Olympics, one person even
suggested that the Embassy staff be instructed not to watch the games on TV. This of
course was rejected by Watson as unenforceable and privately ridiculed throughout the
Embassy. But it illustrated the mood that developed. The interesting thing was that for the
rest of my time in Moscow, even though there were very bad bilateral relations in public,
the Soviets never retaliated against the Embassy by shutting doors or cutting off our
access. In fact, they always tried to show their desire for getting back to business as usual
in private contacts. It was their way of showing that they hoped we would forgive and
forget the Afghanistan matter and get back to building détente, which of course they very
much wanted.
Q: Let's go back just a bit. Before this you were dealing with Soviet policies in Africa and
Latin America, Cuba, other places. How did we view Soviet policy? Was it seen as
aggressive?
PERINA: Well, that’s a very good question because my responsibility in the external
political section was in fact for Africa, the Middle East, Latin America and parts of
Eastern Europe. We had other people for Asia, Western Europe, arms control and
international economic issues but basically I did the rest of the world. This was the
developing world, or Third World as some called it at the time, and our relations with the
Soviets there were very competitive. We were always watching what they did, and they
watched us. There was one curious incident that happened during my tour even before
Afghanistan that I think probably a lot of people don't even remember. It was the issue of
a Soviet brigade in Cuba. Do you remember the Soviet brigade in Cuba?
Q: I do but give us the background.
PERINA: Well, in the fall of 1979 there were suddenly intelligence reports that the
Soviet Union had stationed a brigade of Soviet troops in Cuba-- not missiles, not nuclear
weapons or anything like that but just that there was a Soviet brigade in Cuba. It became
public and there was a big outcry, particularly in Congress. The Embassy was asked to do
a demarche on this and to find out what was going on. Again, it was Bob German, the
Political Counselor, who delivered the demarche, and again he took me along as the note
taker. As I recall, we met with Viktor Komplektov, who was a senior figure, the head of
the Americas Department in the Foreign Ministry. The demarche again hit a complete
stonewall, except this time the Soviets at least did not lie—they just would not answer.
Their position was that what the Soviets had in Cuba was their business and not ours.
They did not deny that there was a brigade, but neither did they admit it. Then when Bob
German kept pushing, Komplektov asked, “Are you saying that we do not have the right
to put Soviet troops into Cuba? Are you denying the Soviet right to do this? ” Bob very
effectively dodged the question but after the meeting we had a long discussion in the
29