Robert B. Oakley

By Andrew I. Killgore

Like most young Foreign Service Officers, Robert B. Oakley probably dreamed of becoming an Ambassador from the day he joined the foreign service. The dream was realized seven years ago when he was named United States Ambassador to Zaire. Later he served nearly two years as Ambassador to Somalia.

One position he could not have dreamed of attaining, however, is his present job as Director of the Office for Counter-terrorism and Emergency Planning at the Department of State in Washington. The reason is that no such position existed until November 1972. Since that time the office has grown to more than 20 employees. The Department of State building, where Ambassador Oakley and his staff are located, now sits behind concrete barriers, erected three years ago to guard against car bombs. The greater our efforts to counter violence against Americans overseas, however, the larger the threat seems to become.

Bob Oakley spends perhaps as much time on the six still-missing American hostages kidnapped by extremist groups in Lebanon as on all other aspects of his job. The distraught families of these hostages constantly press the State Department for more publicity and vigorous action to achieve their release. Two additional hostages, Cable News Network correspondent Jeremy Levin and the Reverend Benjamin Weir, have been released unharmed. One of the remaining six, William Buckley, may have already been killed. The lives of the others are obviously in danger. A serious area of tension continues between an activist strategy to free the hostages, favored by the hostages' families, and the State Department's traditional "quiet diplomacy" approach.

Born and raised in the South, Robert Oakley retains some outward vestiges of the easy-going Southerner.But essentially he is driven to achieve. He is thus well-cast by temperament to tackle the "mission impossible" job of protecting Americans overseas, especially in the Middle East. A Princeton University graduate, Oakley's broad experience also seems suited to his present challenges. After working as a naval intelligence officer in Japan, he was a diplomat in the Sudan, Ivory Coast, Viet Nam, France, the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, and Lebanon. Before his first Ambassadorial appointment he had been seasoned in Washington as Senior Assistant Secretary of State with responsibilities for a number of East Asian countries.

Robert Oakley's biggest worries stem from Lebanon. The American Embassy there has been twice attacked by car bombs with heavy loss of life. U.S. Marine barracks there were destroyed by a truck bomber with 241 dead. A popular Acting President of the American University of Beirut was kidnapped and held prisoner for a year. The next to last President of this most prestigious of all American institutions in the Middle East was shot dead.

These crimes against Americans result from the conviction in Arab and Islamic countries that U.S. policies to gain security for Israel are the root cause of the insecurity and exile suffered by millions of Palestinians. Settlement of the Palestine Problem on some reasonable basis, therefore, would greatly reduce the danger to our citizens everywhere. Optimism that the U.S. will address itself to the political cause of our Middle East difficulties, however, rather than to the terrorism which is only its symptom, is hard to justify.

While America's Middle East "peace process" unfortunately seems to be faltering, Congress recently has been asked to appropriate $3.5 billion to build secure U.S. Embassies or strengthen security in existing structures. No one believes that turning our Embassies into fortresses will provide complete physical security for U.S. diplomats, however. Diplomats simply cannot do their jobs without getting out to mix and represent the United States with people in the country of their assignment.

Ambassador Oakley, like other Foreign Service Officers, is one part a contributor to U.S. policymaking and another part the good soldier who carries it out. Having served in two Arab countries, the Sudan and Lebanon, he has had the opportunity to understand the Arab point of view. He also is high enough up in the system to make his voice and recommendations heard. Once basic decisions have been made, however, it is his job to carry them out and keep his doubts, if any, to himself. Given the nerve-wracking ups and downs of his job, he is certain to wonder from time to time how he ever got himself into this line of work.

Bob Oakley is married to the former Phyllis Elliot, also a Foreign Service Officer. They have two children who are college students. Both Oakleys are well known and respected in diplomatic circles around Washington. To the general public they may be more or less faceless, but the next time some crisis involving the safety of Americans overseas reaches the headlines and TV evening news shows, Bob Oakley—and his family—are sure to be deeply involved.

Andrew I. Killgore, former U.S. Ambassador to Qatar, is president of the American Educational Trust.