The Foreign Service Journal, September 2021

52 SEPTEMBER 2021 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL possible visit to Mongolia by Secretary of State Baker, based on a previous invitation from the Mongolian government. On May 1, 1990, Mongolia’s First Deputy Prime Minister Byambasuren arrived in Washington, where he met with both Secretary Baker and Vice President Dan Quayle. This was the third meeting between senior U.S. and Mongolian officials in a six-month period—a frequency that would have been unheard of for most countries with such a limited relationship with the United States and simply unimaginable over the previous six decades. The visit was the first public indication that Baker was the driving force on the U.S. side. The extent of the Secretary’s interest still had not registered with most elements of the U.S. government, including within the State Department. A few weeks after the meeting, Baker announced that he would visit Mongolia in the late summer. The immediate result was the acceleration of negotiations for a Peace Corps agree- ment and the confirmation process for the first resident ambas- sador. In a telling indication of the department’s lackadaisical attitude toward Mongolia, a May 7, 1990, cable announced the nomination of Joseph E. Lake as “Ambassador to Micronesia.” Questioned by Embassy Ulaanbaatar, Protocol sent a second, corrected cable. Lake was confirmed on June 22 and arrived in Ulaanbaatar on July 13. On July 20, it was announced that Secretary Baker would be visiting Mongolia on Aug. 2. This was the beginning of the challenge to energize a disinterested Wash- ington bureaucracy. The Mongolians were beginning to get the attention they needed to build a sustained relationship with the United States. Unfortunately, Baker’s visit to Mongolia was cut short. As the Secretary’s plane was preparing to land, his party received word that SaddamHussein had invaded Kuwait. The plane circled while Baker’s staff got up to speed on what was happening in the Middle East, leading to a confused reaction on the ground. When it finally landed, both the Mongolian government and the embassy staff received word that the trip would not go exactly as planned. Secretary Baker would only be able to spend one day in Mon- golia. During meetings with President Ochirbat and Minister of Foreign Affairs Gom- bosuren, Baker expressed hope that Mongolia would have a close relationship with the U.S. as a “third great neighbor” (in addition to the Soviet Union and China). His remarks resonated strongly with the Mongolians, but it would take several more years of diligent diplomatic work to build the relationship. Since then, the Mongolia-U.S. relationship has grown in many ways. According to the U.S. Census Bureau the number of Mon- golians living in the United States has grown from almost around zero in 1990 to an estimated 25,000 in 2017. President George W. Bush visited Mongolia. The Department of Defense supports an annual peacekeeping exercise in Mongolia, and the Mongolian military has participated in United Nations peacekeeping mis- sions. The Mongolian military worked with the United States in Afghanistan and Iraq. Thanks to the backing and leadership of Secretary of State James Baker, the pioneering officers in Ulaanbaatar contributed to Mongolia’s successful effort to build a democratic society and free market economy that has survived for more than 30 years with the support of the people of Mongolia. The success of the ongoing relationship is a testimony to the individual efforts of the many FSOs who worked to make it a reality. n The original U.S. embassy in Ulaanbaatar shared a wall with the Palestine Liberation Organization embassy. COURTESYOFJOELAKE Though Mongolia had been firmly entrenched in Moscow’s orbit since the 1920s, those close ties were now threatening its stability.