1 The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign ...

no one did very well; neither the Russians or the new republics or the United States or the
West. We missed in profoundly disturbing ways the importance of working through the
economic transition more skillfully.
Q: Just to go back to this hard transition. Was there much change vis-à-vis dealing with
the former Soviet Union between the Bush One administration and Clinton?
MILLER: No, I really don’t think so. The difference between, say, Jack Matlock and Tom
Pickering and how they behaved in Moscow – I don’t think you could tell the policy
difference at all. Both Tom and Jack are good friends to this day, and I think Jack had as
good an understanding as any of the Clinton people. His advice was given and welcomed
by Clinton and Strobe. No, I think the establishment of Soviet hands, State Department
spooks and academics were on the whole coherent from one administration to another,
and of course Congress, being as conservative as it is, as an organization – that is, the key
Congressmen and senators stay there for such a long time, they are the reason for policy
continuity, even if an administration lasts only four or eight years. They’re there for 25
years. They’re far more the policy balancing force even than the bureaucracy.
So the path of dealing with the new Russia, the former Soviet Union, did not require
taking a radically different new direction.
Q: Did you find, as you were working on this, was Warren Christopher much of a player,
or was it pretty much, from your perspective, dealing with the former Soviet Union was a
Strobe Talbott thing?
MILLER: It was a direct, personal Clinton interest. Clinton was the policy maker. Clinton
shared the views of Strobe, who, of course, had a far more detailed knowledge of the
Soviets and the new Russians.
Q: It was Clinton?
MILLER: Clinton was unusual, certainly compared to Bush. He wanted to make policy
and to run policy. He liked doing the job of policy direction and, being as smart as he is,
learned what he didn’t know. He always wanted to be involved. He spent a lot of time
going to Moscow – back and forth, back and forth – he loved it. Strobe did, and Warren
Christopher did, too, but Warren deferred to Strobe. His personality is such that he
allowed a subordinate to take over the portfolio, but Christopher had a deep interest in it.
His views were not dissimilar, so – and they all had plenty to do.
Q: In a way, he was sort of the president’s lawyer in foreign affairs.
MILLER: Christopher was the president’s lawyer. As long as he was there, in the
administration, the ethical standards were very high.
Q: At the time, you were saying that everybody – almost everybody involved in all sides
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