84 MAY 2024 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL inspecting missions in the Office of Medical Services, Saudi Arabia and other Arabian Peninsula countries, and Southeast Asia, including Thailand, Laos, and Burma. From 1986 to 1988, he served as a division chief in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR) for Africa, and from 1988 to 1990, he was chairperson of the Secretary’s Open Forum. From 1990 to 1991, during Operation Desert Shield, Operation Desert Storm, and Operation Provide Comfort, Mr. Hydle served on the Kuwait Task Force, which included time in Bahrain during the height of military operations in the region. At the end of the war, he was again in D.C., assigned to INR as an analyst for Palestinians and for Jordan leading up to the Oslo Accords. Mr. Hydle retired in 1993 after 30 years of service in the federal government. In retirement, he turned his attention toward local activism. He worked with former AFSA presidents and others to advance the selection of qualified candidates in foreign policy appointments. He worked as lead census field manager for the 2000 Census. And he served one term as ANC-3C Neighborhood Commissioner. Especially important to him was the movement to gain representation in Congress for the citizens of Washington, D.C. Mr. Hydle is survived by his wife of 50 years, Irene Sandvold, son Lars S. Hydle, daughter Ingeborg Hydle, and grandson Victor Elizaldi Sifuentes, all of Washington, D.C.; his sister Katrina Mansinon of Virginia; brother Hugh Hydle of California; and a large family of nieces, nephews, cousins, and grandnieces and -nephews. n John C. Kornblum, 80, a retired Foreign Service officer and former ambassador, died on Dec. 21, 2023, in Nashville, Tenn. Mr. Kornblum was born in Detroit, Mich., on Feb. 6, 1943, to Ethelyn and Samuel Kornblum. He earned a B.A. from Michigan State University, where he studied political science and German, in 1964. In 1987 he married Helen Sen, and the couple had two sons, Alexander and Stephen. Mr. Kornblum began his diplomatic career in Hamburg in 1964. He served as a member of the State Department’s Policy Planning Staff (1973-1975) and director of the Office of Central European Affairs (1981-1985). In 1985 Mr. Kornblum was appointed United States minister and deputy commandant in Berlin. While in that position, he orchestrated President Ronald Reagan’s visit to Berlin in June 1987. In the face of resistance by local officials, Mr. Kornblum persisted, fulfilling his vision of President Reagan’s speech at the Brandenburg Gate, where the president famously exhorted the communist leader of the USSR: “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” He served as the deputy United States permanent representative to NATO in Brussels from 1987 to 1991. In 1992 Mr. Kornblum was appointed to lead the U.S. delegation at the Helsinki Summit, afterward moving on to Vienna to continue as the first U.S. ambassador to the permanent body of the Organization of Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), where he served for two years. His efforts included integrating Eastern European nations and former Soviet republics into Western structures and making the first diplomatic attempts to prevent war in the Balkans. As senior deputy assistant secretary of State for European affairs and assistant secretary of State from 1994 to 1997, Ambassador Kornblum worked Bien Hoa and Danang with the provincial reporting unit and as a political adviser to the deputy ambassador for Republic of Vietnam Region III (DEPCORD). And from 1970 to 1972, he was assigned to the Vietnam Working Group in Washington, D.C. Mr. Hydle then served as vice consul in Belfast during the Troubles, an assignment that was interrupted by a shortterm assignment in Vietnam in 1973 after the peace agreement. In 1974 he returned to Washington, D.C., from Belfast and served for two years with the Department of Defense–Marine Corps Plans Division, including as a congressional escort and interpreter in Vietnam just before the fall of Saigon in 1975. From 1975 to 1977, Mr. Hydle served on the Policy Planning Staff, writing speeches for the deputy secretary and under secretaries of State and, at times, for Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. From 1977 to 1979, Mr. Hydle served in the Bureau of Public Affairs. At the same time, he was president of the American Foreign Service Association, where he championed the selection of career Foreign Service officers for ambassadorships and other political appointments in foreign policy positions. From 1979 to 1981, Mr. Hydle was assigned to the Ethiopia desk, at a time when Ethiopia was supporting the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan. From 1981 to 1983, he was stationed in Accra as a political officer during a military coup. From 1983 to 1985, he was stationed in Port of Spain as a political officer, one of the few assignments up to that point where he was not amid major conflict. There he immersed his young family in Trinidad and Tobago’s culture, music, food, and carnival traditions. Mr. Hydle returned to Washington, D.C., in 1985, assigned to the Office of Inspector General and tasked with
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