Former U.S. Ambassador William Miller reflects on his Kyiv assignment (03/29/98)

Former U.S. Ambassador William Miller
reflects on his Kyiv assignment

by Yaro Bihun
Special to The Ukrainian Weekly

WASHINGTON - William Green Miller, who recently returned from Kyiv, where he served for more than four years as the second U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, impresses one as the consummate diplomat. He's experienced and knowledgeable about the host country, and all the issues on its bilateral and multilateral agenda. He's friendly, engaging, speaks softly and slowly, using precisely chosen words and phrases that one would rather not paraphrase for fear of losing some intended diplomatic message or nuance.

He's also a man of diverse concerns and interests - from the dismantling of the world's third largest nuclear arsenal to the meticulous restoration of a historic building as the ambassador's residence, from expanding trade and investment opportunities to championing choral music in Ukraine.

And, as he discussed the challenges and achievements of his assignment in Kyiv during an interview at his hillside home in Alexandria, Va., one senses that this interest in Ukraine and things Ukrainian is genuine and deeply felt.

Mr. Miller came to his first ambassadorial assignment with impressive credentials, although he got there by way of a route not often taken by career diplomats.

With an educational background that includes New York's Trinity School, Williams College, post-graduate degrees from Oxford and Harvard, and some out-of-the-ordinary student summer-work experience (as a combine operator and oil field roustabout in the Midwest and Southwest, a park ranger in Alaska, and a stringer for Time magazine in England), William Miller joined the Foreign Service in 1959. After five years in Iran and two more at the State Department in Washington, however, he left the Foreign Service in 1967.

"I resigned over Vietnam," he said; he did not rejoin the diplomatic service until President Bill Clinton nominated him as ambassador to Ukraine in 1993. During most of the intervening years, between 1967 and 1981, Mr. Miller worked on foreign and defense affairs on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and as staff director of the Select Committee on Intelligence and two other Senate committees.

Later, he taught and was associate dean at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, and was a fellow and taught at Harvard University. And, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, he was president of the American Committee on U.S.-Soviet Relations, the Committee on American-Russian Relations, and the International Foundation for the Survival and Development of Humanity, as well as senior consultant with the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

That experience, especially dealing with disarmament issues, proved very helpful during his next assignment: Ukraine.

The nuclear issue

"I came at a time when the United States, as an official policy, wasn't sure what Ukraine was," he said. "It wasn't sure that Ukraine would be a nation; it wasn't sure how Ukraine fit into what was happening in the new Europe."

And overshadowing this ambiguity was the all-important question of what to do with the huge nuclear arsenal - aimed primarily at the United States - left on Ukrainian territory after the disintegration of the Soviet Union. It was the subject of his first meeting with President Leonid Kravchuk right after he presented his credentials at Mariinskyi Palace and his initial meetings with the leaders of the Verkhovna Rada.

Ambassador Miller said there was some uncertainty on the question of the nuclear-armed missiles in Ukraine. While it was understood that weapons belonged to and were controlled by the "successor" state to the USSR - Russia - it was not clear that, indeed, that was the case on the ground, in the silos in Pervomaisk and Khmelnytskyi.

The negotiations between the United States and Ukraine were "very difficult, even antagonistic," he recalled. "The American position was: 'Give them up.'"

There was never a clear recognition on the part of the United States that the weapons were Ukrainian. "But it was very evident to me soon after getting there that that wasn't the case at all, that the Ukrainian belief was that those weapons were Ukrainian by right of succession," explained Mr. Miller.

The missile silos were manned by "mixed crews, with dual (Ukraine and Russia) allegiances," but they were very rapidly becoming Ukrainian as a result of the Ukrainianization of the armed forces in Ukraine, he said. This became very evident when Ambassador Miller accompanied Secretary of Defense William Cohen on a visit to Pervomaisk to witness the removal of the nuclear warheads from the SS-19 missiles:

"The commander, Gen. Mytiuk, had been in the 43rd Rocket Army under the Soviet Union - he was Ukrainian - had just become a Ukrainian military officer two weeks before we got there. The silos had been built by Ukrainians and designed by Ukrainians; the rockets had been built in Dnipropetrovsk; the codes had been programmed by Ukrainian mathematicians. The actual command had been in Moscow, but all the elements that went into the nuclear rocket forces had a very strong Ukrainian hand, if not a dominant Ukrainian hand.

"The capability of Ukrainians to build and control nuclear rockets was very clear," he said. "They had it."

President Kravchuk and then-Prime Minister Kuchma, however, came to the conclusion that they were of no value to Ukraine as weapons but "had great benefit to Ukraine as a means of getting support for Ukraine's independence and sovereignty and economic help during the period of transition," he said.

Working with the government, the Verkhovna Rada came up with an agreement in the form of a resolution - "And it was a very good one," Mr. Miller said - that Ukraine would give up the weapons in exchange for assurances from the United States, Russia and the West of its sovereignty, assistance in dismantling the weapons and assistance in its economic development.

Ambassador Miller sent the resolution to Washington and received the initial response that it was unacceptable and that he should tell the Ukrainian government that it should give up the weapons because it was obligated to do so under the Lisbon protocols.

"I argued that this was a reasonable proposal, that we should take it seriously, and that we should look at it right away, because this was seriously meant. It was not a tactical retreat; it was a solid proposal," he said. "After some debate in Washington, they agreed with my view, and the secretary of state came out within a week or so, and the negotiations began in a serious way to eliminate the weapons."

The agreement was signed on January 14, 1994, in Moscow.

"This is one of the great achievements of the nuclear age, that a nation has given up a substantial, indeed, a deadly nuclear force as a national principle on the assumption that the weapons should never be used, on the assumption that whatever they had should be translated, converted into peaceful means to help create a new democratic state."

On a personal level, as a new ambassador and one who had worked on nuclear arms control for some 20 years, Mr. Miller added, "there could be nothing more satisfying than to have such a rational approach, such a creative approach come from a new nation whose constitutional principle was to be non-nuclear. And it seemed to me to be so enlightened, so civilized, so intelligent, that I knew I was on firm ground in a good place to work."

"By and large, I think the leaders of Ukraine feel that this was a good deal; that it was a deal that they themselves had constructed; that their terms, their desires had been met. And in that respect, I think it was a very sound basis for us to begin our relationship," he noted.

The economy

Even before he left for Ukraine, Mr. Miller said he realized that Ukraine had to establish a sound market economy and integrate into the world economic system.

"Establishing a new state, with a new political system based on democratic principles, a new legal system, indeed, a new way of life, required a strong economy to survive and prosper - that was very clear," he said. It was up to him to help define in what ways the United States could help, using the U.S. Agency for International Development, its influence in the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the European Union.

"And we were able to do that over the four years that I was there," he said. The IMF and the World Bank initiated major programs in Ukraine, and the U.S. assistance program became its third largest in the world, after Israel and Egypt. He had the full backing of the administration and of the Congress and was given the tools and financial resources to get it done, he said. But the problems were immense.

"The process of privatization has been very slow, as they (Ukrainian leaders) try and devise some system of 'destatizing' the assets in an equitable way. How do you do that? Nobody has done it successfully yet," he said. The first attempts at privatization resulted in some individuals and the mafia getting exceedingly wealthy and powerful, "and most of the people getting nothing."

The problem of displaced workers also has not been resolved, he said. "If you move from a situation where there's almost 100 percent state ownership, state employment, it has to be to something else. It can't be to a void. There have to be jobs there." That is one area, he said that needs more attention from foreign assistance donors.

He also pointed out that the development of the new, private economy resulted in the growth of a large "shadow economy," which, for the most part, pays no taxes. And with no tax revenue, the government has been unable to pay salaries, which are often in arrears for five or six months.

The former ambassador is optimistic, however. "I think the problems have been identified, and I think we can work on them, and it's just going to be very difficult for the next several years getting through this period," he said.

As tough as it is now, Mr. Miller contended it was much worse during the period of hyperinflation. "One of the great achievements of Ukraine has been to create a stable economy and reduce inflation to almost zero. What it has done is that it has kept the value of money - what little money there is - at its full value. So the workers, when they receive their money, are getting full money."

While some older citizens may yearn for the "good old days" under communism, Ambassador Miller said he is convinced that most of the people understand that things will improve and continue to work even though they don't get paid, which, he noted, suggests a certain optimism on their part.

"And it's the Ukrainian government's job to continue the hope that that will be achieved; and it's the job of my country and those friends of Ukraine to make it possible to happen," he added.

Foreign investment

One of the ways Ukraine's friends have tried to help in its economic recovery is through private investment. But there have been many stumbling blocks on this road. Ukraine has corruption and criminal mafia activity, Mr. Miller noted, "but the greatest impediments are administrative and bureaucratic obstacles, in the form of licenses, and the unwieldy burden of bureaucratic regulation." The government has to "identify all these barriers, get rid of those that are unnecessary and establish as open and free a business climate as possible."

Mr. Miller said he thinks it's unreasonable to expect an ideal business climate to develop in Ukraine in six years. "But it's getting better," he's quick to add, pointing to the positive efforts of such reformers as Vice Prime Minister Serhii Tyhypko, National Bank Chairman Viktor Yuschenko and former Vice Prime Minister Viktor Pynzenyk, among others. "The problems are being identified; they're being worked on, and progress is being made."

Relations with NATO, the U.S.

Ambassador Miller said that Ukraine has handled the issue of its place in Europe "very skillfully," initially declaring itself to be a neutral, non-bloc state, while increasingly getting involved in NATO activities through the Partnership for Peace program.

"And the way in which Ukraine has steered its course of very close and increasingly close relationships with the West as well as maintaining peaceful and good relationships with Russia is admirable. It's been very difficult," he said "but they've done it well."

The "strategic partnership" between Ukraine and the United States is not merely a pronouncement, but real, Mr. Miller said. It is seen in the attention paid by the leaders of both countries to each other, their frequent meetings and agreements.

During the past year, he pointed out, President Clinton met with President Kuchma more often than with any other foreign leader, and President Kuchma now meets with Vice- President Al Gore twice a year within the framework of the Binational Commission they head. On the military side, there are 350 joint military programs annually. "We couldn't possibly do any more," he said. And aid and trade are growing as well.

"I think the relationship between Ukraine and the United States is strong; it's grown stronger over the four years that I was there; there's every reason to believe that it will get even stronger. And the reasons are mutually beneficial. It's in the American interest to have a strong, independent, democratic Ukraine," he underlined.

Personal and cultural life

Ambassador Miller and his wife, Suzanne, thoroughly enjoyed their stay in Ukraine and in Kyiv. Mr. Miller said they found the capital to be on a human scale, with lovely parks, hills and a wonderful climate. During the last year, they lived in the U.S. ambassador's new residence, a meticulously restored historic building in the old Podil region of Kyiv. (See sidebar.)

"It has a rich cultural life even in this time of economic hardship," he said, and it has "the greatest singing in the world." Mr. Miller, who admits to being a student of choral music, observed that he has been "in many places and heard many great choirs and singing groups, but I've never heard such quality as in the choirs in Kyiv."

The Millers frequently attended and loved Kyiv's opera and ballet, with "probably the best ballerina in Europe, if not the world, in Elena Filipova." They praised its great painters, sculptors and poets.

They also fondly remember their visits to other beautiful areas of the country, especially to Lviv, the Carpathian Mountains and Crimea.

"There is so much in Ukraine for people to enjoy, and we certainly enjoyed it to the fullest," Mr. Miller said, adding, "Most of all, we were greeted with the most engaging hospitality and welcomed. And that means a lot if you're a foreign visitor."

There is a growing interest in the West in Ukrainian art and antiquities, as is evidenced by last year's "Glory of Byzantium" exhibit at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the planned Scythian gold exhibit in the United States.

Ambassador Miller said Ukrainian museums should be encouraged to send their objects for foreign exhibition "as ambassadors, as tangible evidence of the greatness of Ukraine's past," as well as works of its contemporary artists, many of whom are deserving of international acclaim.

"Ukraine really needs to write its own histories. As Gorbachev said, there are a lot of blank spots to be filled in," Mr. Miller stated.

The visa issue

Asked about reports of the insurmountable difficulties and brusque treatment Ukrainians face when trying to obtain visas to visit the United States, the former ambassador said there is a desire "to be as courteous and expeditious as possible," but added that there also are "requirements of law and regulation, which for some groups of people are difficult."

He explained that one of the problems results from past cases of fraud by those who received visas under false pretenses - like those who obtained tourist visas without intending to return. This makes it more difficult for future visa applicants, and puts an added burden on the Embassy's visa personnel.

When a mistake was made, he said, "I took immediate steps to correct it. It's an unsatisfactory situation, and like so many other things, the only remedies are to address them directly and with as much compassion as possible."

Asked about rumors that American visas can be bought for a few hundred dollars," Mr. Miller answered emphatically: "I don't believe that. I just don't believe it." He acknowledged that the Embassy had received complaints about this. "We investigated and we haven't found credible evidence," he said. "If we did," he added, "those people would be fired and prosecuted."

The future

Looking a few years into the future, Mr. Miller said he sees Ukraine's emergence from the worst of the economic transition period, rising personal incomes, a more prosperous life for its people and "increasing democratic majorities" in the Verkhovna Rada.

As for the Ukrainian diaspora's future role, he said, "I think they know what to do, which is work with their brothers to achieve a better life. And they should support such institutions as the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy University, which is training the country's future leaders."

U.S. ambassador's residence: a meticulously restored building