Honorable John Kerry
29 August 2016
U.S. Secretary of State
Washington, DC, 20520
Mr. Secretary,
I am writing you on behalf of a large number of American citizens of Romanian origin organized in a Romanian-American Forum. I am also writing as a former editor for Voice of America and former professor with the U.S. Army JF Kennedy Warfare Center and School at Fort Bragg, NC.
We are dismayed by the public statements made by James Pettit, U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Moldova, on August 26th on the occasion of Moldova’s ‘independence’ from the former Soviet Union. Numerous citizens of Moldova and Romania are also dismayed by the ambassador’s statements and ask if his views represent indeed official U.S. foreign policy.
In his interview, Ambassador Pettit took the Soviet point of view, and more precisely Stalin’s view, that Moldovans are a nation with their own history and characteristics. Furthermore, he called Moldova a sovereign and independent country with distinct borders… and thus in his opinion it is not good for the people to think of joining Romania… America and the whole world should know that Romania aspires to recuperate and reintegrate its lost province!
Mr. Secretary, for many years during the Soviet Union, as a reporter for Voice of America, I was encouraged to remind the ‘Moldovans’ of their Romanian origin. Then, for several years as a professor with the U.S. Army, I taught my officer-students about ethnic repression in the Soviet Union, thus contributing to the understanding of the real nature of the Soviet Union.
Is it possible now that the State Department does not know the truth about Bessarabia? Is it possible that the State Department does not know about the almost one million people of this former Romanian province, mostly Romanians, arrested, killed or deported to Siberia? Is it possible that the State Department does not know about the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact? Ribbentrop was hanged after the Nurnberg trial, but his infamous pact has remained. Does your ambassador to Chisinau really want to perpetuate the consequences of this pact and therefore alienate the Romanians in the process? Romania is currently a loyal ally of America!
Mr. Secretary, please contact your ambassador to Moldova and if he made the statements on his own remind him that by such comments he is jeopardizing U.S. interests in the region. And if his statements represent official U.S. foreign policy in the region?
God save America!
Respectfully,
Professor Doctor Nicholas Dima
Romanian – American Forum
5150 Leesburg Pike, Alexandria, VA 22302-1030
E-mail: RAForum@gmail.com
