October 11, 2019 - Issue: Vol. 165, No. 161 — Daily Edition116th Congress (2019 - 2020) - 1st Session

[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1269-E1270]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




HONORING THE LIFE OF FORMER AMBASSADOR TO UKRAINE, WILLIAM GREEN MILLER

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. MARCY KAPTUR

                                of ohio

                    in the house of representatives

                        Friday, October 11, 2019

  Ms. KAPTUR. Madam Speaker, I rise to pay respectful tribute to the 
gifted, compassionate, and persevering life of American diplomat 
William Green Miller, our nation's second Ambassador to Ukraine 
following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
  A highly trusted advisor and valued friend to Members of Congress, 
and the diplomatic and intelligence communities, Ambassador Miller's 
distinguished service to our nation elevated the possibilities and 
promise of liberty to people living in nations that had never known 
freedom.
  He dedicated his life at liberty's edge with great humility. His 
steady, unselfish, and tenacious nature allowed him to tackle 
infinitely complex situations-- Iran, the Soviet Union, Ukraine--and 
advise ways forward. He never really retired and remained engaged and 
insightful during his golden years.
  A renaissance man, Ambassador Miller's career spanned assignment in 
Iran, staff director of the Senate Intelligence Committee, senior 
Administrator and professor at Tufts University, chairman of the board 
of the Kyiv Mohyla Foundation, and president of the American Committee 
on U.S.-Soviet Relations. Upon leaving Congress, the U.S. Senate 
recognized his leadership by passing a special resolution commending 
him for ``contributions and for his dedication, loyalty, integrity, and 
service.''
  Simply, he was exceptional.
  It is with deepest condolences that I offer sympathy to his beautiful 
wife Suzanne, their two sons, and extended family at this difficult 
time.
  May the life he has lived continue to inspire a new generation of 
Americans to embrace his calling to scholarship, service, and patriotic 
commitment to liberty's cause at home and abroad.

                  [From the Kyiv Post Sept. 24, 2019]

William Green Miller, Second US Ambassador to Independent Ukraine, Dies 
                               at Age 88

       William Green Miller, who served as U.S. ambassador to 
     Ukraine in the 1990s as the euphoria of national independence 
     gave way to the misery of economic destitution for many 
     Ukrainians. died in his home in northern Virginia on Sept. 
     23, according to friends. He was 88. He served as America's 
     second ambassador in Kyiv, from 1993-1998, and is the first 
     of nine American ambassadors to independent Ukraine to have 
     died.

[[Page E1270]]

       His death was confirmed by friends, including Marta Farion, 
     a Ukrainian-American in Chicago who worked with Miller on the 
     Kyiv Mohyla Foundation of America, raising money to support 
     the university with 5,000 students in Kyiv. Farion spoke to 
     Miller's wife, Suzanne Lisle Miller, and said that the 
     ambassador died in his home ``one minute before noon'' on 
     Sept. 23, in the company of their two sons, William and 
     Christopher, and grandchildren. ``He was surrounded by his 
     leather-bound books, in front of the beautiful garden that he 
     and Suzanne cultivated and loved all their lives, with the 
     blooming flowers and many butterflies that bid him 
     farewell,'' Farion told the Kyiv Post.
       Miller's tenure as ambassador coincided with momentous 
     events under Ukraine's first president, Leonid Kravchuk, who 
     served from 1991-1994, and then Leonid Kuchma, who ruled from 
     1994-2005. During Millers era, Ukraine adopted a 
     Constitution, launched the national currency, the hryvnia, 
     and signed the Budapest Memorandum in which Russia, the 
     United Kingdom, and the United States offered security 
     assurances to Ukraine for surrendering its Soviet-era nuclear 
     arsenal.
       The agreement now is derided by many in Ukraine as a 
     worthless piece of paper, considering Russia's dismemberment 
     of Ukraine--including seizing Crimea and parts of the eastern 
     Donbas--as the Kremlin prosecutes a war in its sixth year 
     that has killed 13,000 people. His term also witnessed 
     Ukrainian lawlessness and the rise of the oligarchy, which 
     still plagues the nation today.
       But his friends say that Miller always found the beauty in 
     Ukraine, despite its hardships. Farion described Miller as 
     ``a writer and poet, a Renaissance man in every respect and 
     Suzanne was his muse, his adviser, and his protector to the 
     very end. They loved Ukraine since the days when he was 
     ambassador there. To the end, he wanted to know what is 
     taking place in Ukraine.'' She said that ``Bill and Suzanne 
     were responsible for the establishment and renovation of the 
     historic building in the Podil neighborhood that became the 
     residence of the American ambassador, and they paid special 
     attention to the garden, restoring the original plants, 
     trees, and flowers that were cultivated there when the 
     building was first built. They paid attention to the 
     historical artifacts that were recovered while rebuilding the 
     residence, and they hosted many Ukrainian artists, 
     historians, musicians, and writers there.''
       Said Farion: ``Bill embraced his role as chairman of the 
     board of the Kyiv Mohyla Foundation with all his vigor and 
     believed in the power of education and the role of Kyiv-
     Mohyla Academy in building Ukraine as a democratic country, 
     where rule of law and human rights were priorities. He was 
     honored by Kyiv-Mohyla Academy with an honorary doctorate and 
     spoke on the stage of the university to students on many 
     occasions. He inspired me to push forward, to never give up, 
     to stand up for the truth. He was my mentor in many respects 
     and taught me not to be afraid. He loved the principles upon 
     which the United States was established and he truly believed 
     in those principles. He was an admirer of Thomas Jefferson. 
     He was a scholar. He left a book of poetry and many writings. 
     I will miss him and his guidance.''
       Monica Eppinger served as the second secretary to Miller in 
     the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine and recalled her work with him as 
     ``the best time.'' To the end, she said ``he wanted to be a 
     good friend of Ukraine.'' ``I was part of that small early 
     team during Ambassador Millers tenure in Ukraine. He had 
     headed the Washington side of a late' Soviet human rights 
     organization, and through it was thoroughly acquainted with 
     the cases of the major human rights heroes of the last decade 
     of the U.S.S.R. When he got to Ukraine, he already had made 
     common cause with some--Mustafa Dzhemilev, Vyacheslav 
     Chornovil, Semen Gluzman. Anyone who'd done Soviet prison 
     time for advocating human rights was a part of his `team.' He 
     was a fervent Jeffersonian democrat. He also worked very 
     closely with Voldoymyr Horbulin (former secretary of the 
     Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council). especially 
     on denuclearization, and to the best of my knowledge 
     respected him and appreciated him as a pragmatic strategic 
     thinker who cared about Ukrainian independence.''
       During Miller's ambassadorial tenure, Eppinger said, he 
     took a keen interest in people working on human rights and 
     advocating freedom of speech, religion and the press.
       ``He was just really interested in the project of 
     independent Ukraine and really interested in Ukrainians,'' 
     said Eppinger, a professor at St. Louis University School of 
     Law and director of its Center for International and 
     Comparative Law. He'd meet with anybody practically who 
     wanted to meet with him.'' She said Miller was also 
     interested in archaeology and remembers him stopping 
     frequently to visit the excavation site of what is now the 
     rebuilt Mikhailovsky Cathedral in Kyiv. ``All the 
     archaeologists at the site knew him.'' she said.
       Former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine William Green Miller 
     delivers remarks at the observance of the 60th anniversary of 
     the Voice of America's Ukrainian Service on Dec. 11, 2009, at 
     VOA headquarters in Washington, D.C.
       Farion said that she traveled with him and a team of 
     archaeology students ``to the magnificent Chersonesus in 
     Crimea. He promoted the site to be protected by UNESCO. The 
     occupation of Crimea by Russia stung him personally, not only 
     because of the loss of the strategic territory but because he 
     realized that Russian authorities would raid the 
     archaeological site. He was deeply concerned for the fate of 
     the Crimean Tatars after Russia's invasion and occupation.''
       Eppinger called him a big fan of ballet, especially Swan 
     Lake. ``He also loved the Philharmonic and actively supported 
     the rehabilitation of the Philharmonic building near the 
     Friendship Arch'' on the right bank of the Dnipro River in 
     central Kyiv. She said he even vacationed in Ukraine, taking 
     driving tours to explore ancient wooden churches of the 
     Carpathian Mountains in western Ukraine. ``He just loved 
     Ukraine and his interest in Ukraine and support for Ukraine 
     knew no bounds.'' she said. Eppinger recalled his experiment 
     in taking up the Ukrainian tradition of beekeeping. He 
     installed beehives in the backyard of the ambassador's 
     residence. At a traditional Fourth of July reception, she 
     recalled that a colleague with the Ukrainian Ministry of 
     Foreign Affairs ``got stung right on the nose'' by a bee.
       Miller joined the Foreign Service in 1959 and served a 
     five-year assignment in Iran, where he immersed himself in 
     Persian culture. Farion said he never lost interest in Iran. 
     ``He was instrumental in many informal talks between the US 
     and Iran, trying to find peace,'' she said.
       After his Iran assignment, Eppinger said he returned to 
     Washington, D.C., and quit the Foreign Service over the 
     Vietnam War and got a job as a staff director of the U.S. 
     Senate Intelligence Committee.
       ``He was part of the team that put together the hearings on 
     the U.S. intelligence services attempted assassinations in 
     the post-World War II/Cold War era,'' Eppinger said. ``It was 
     thanks to those hearings and the report that resulted that we 
     got a revision to the executive order that sets the 
     parameters to the intelligence community . . . that resulted 
     in the ban on assassinations by the U.S. intelligence 
     committee. He was sometimes criticized as a romantic or 
     idealist, but--as I think the intelligence committee work 
     shows--he also had a canniness to thinking about where a 
     threat to democracy could come from. and how to thwart it. I 
     think there was a hard practical streak in there that often 
     got overlooked.''
       According to a Eurasia Foundation biography, Miller was 
     educated at Williams College, Oxford, and Harvard. After 
     leaving his Iran assignment in 1964, he returned to 
     Washington, D.C., as a line officer for U.S. Secretary of 
     State Dean Rusk. Miller then went to work in the U.S. Senate 
     in 1967, where he served as foreign policy and defense 
     adviser to U.S. Senator John Sherman Cooper, a Republican who 
     served Kentucky. In 1981 the U.S. Senate passed a special 
     resolution commending Miller ``for exceptional contributions 
     and for his dedication, loyalty, integrity, and service.'' 
     Miller was associate dean and professor of international 
     politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts 
     University in Massachusetts from 1981 to 1983.
       In 1986, Miller returned to Washington as president of the 
     American Committee on U.S.-Soviet Relations, traveling 
     frequently to the U.S.S.R. and living in Moscow from 1988 to 
     1993.
       In retirement years, Miller was a senior policy scholar at 
     the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in 
     Washington, D.C., a member of the Council on Foreign 
     Relations, the International Institute of Strategic Studies 
     and the Middle East Institute. He was also co-chairman of the 
     Kyiv Mohyla Foundation of America and a director of the 
     Andrei Sakharov Foundation as well as a consultant for the 
     John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
       Farion said a memorial service is being planned at the 
     National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 12 or 13, but 
     that arrangements are still being finalized.

                          ____________________