John Limbert

260 Pages·2012·1.5 MB·English

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

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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?

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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
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