Ambassador
In 1989, then-President George H.W. Bush asked Stroock to become a U.S. ambassador. Stroock asked to delay the appointment until after the legislative session of 1989, which was confronted with a number of difficult spending and mineral revenue issues.
Stroock had been a classmate of Bush at Yale, and “Poppy”, as Stroock called him, asked him to serve in Latin America, because he remembered Stroock’s facility with Spanish. “The reason he remembered that,” Stroock recounted last year, “is that he was the captain and best player on the baseball team and I was the left fielder and the worst player. But in Spanish our roles were reversed. I knew it pretty well. He never cheated but in class he loved to copy my notes, and I did a little reviewing with him.”
Among the Central and South American posts he was offered, Stroock chose tiny Guatemala because, as that country was still in the midst of the longest civil war in Latin American history (it had begun in 1960), he felt he could do the most good there. His nomination was held up in the Senate confirmation process, but the Wyoming delegation got the Senate Majority Leader, Sen. George Mitchell of Maine, to add his nomination to the consent calendar, where non-controversial bills are approved unanimously without a floor vote. “So my official confirmation was 98-0,” he remembered, chuckling, “and I’m probably the only member of the diplomatic corps to get approved on the consent calendar.”
Wyoming writer Sam Western, whom Stroock hired this year to write his ambassadorial memoirs, says that the idea of Tom Stroock as a diplomat was an oxymoron. “A driven and passionate man, blunt, mercurial, with a flaring temper, and deeply committed to democratic ideals, he could be a State Department nightmare,” Western said. Former State Department official John Hamilton has said that Stroock “makes the Marlboro Man look timid.”
As ambassador, Stroock had advantages, Western said. He points out that Stroock was: fluent in Spanish; had the ear of the U.S. president; didn’t give a rip about a next posting; and married to a strong-minded, independent but devoted spouse, Marta, unafraid to tell him what she thought.
Stroock’s fluency in Spanish gave him an edge as he talked to people on all levels of Guatemalan society. He wrote his speeches in Spanish. When recalled in 1990 to Washington for making a speech taking Guatemala to task for its dreadful record on human rights in the civil war, Stroock jumped over the State Department hierarchy and got the President Bush to sign a letter supporting Stroock’s position. (Stroock had sent the speech in for review before he gave it – but the speech was in Spanish, and had gone unread. Evidence reported in the late 1990s by independent commissions shows that the vast majority of massacres, atrocities and human rights violations, committed during the Guatemalan civil war were committed by the government, not by the insurgents it fought.)
Stroock outraged two successive Guatemalan presidents by his demands for accountability for a string of murders and disappearances, especially if they involved American citizens. As ambassador, Stroock was probably most famous for refusing to release $2 million in U.S. aid to the Guatemalan government, keeping the check until the arrest of those in the Guatemalan Army responsible for the 1990 beheading of U.S citizen Michael Devine, a farmer in northeastern Guatemala.
When Rigoberta Menchu, an indigenous Guatemalan who had exposed the assaults of her government on its native people in the early 1980s, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1992, Stroock went to see Guatemalan president Jorge Serrano. He tried in vain to convince Serrano to celebrate the award. Turned down flat, Stroock said he told Serrano: “I’m going to have the biggest damn party we ever had in the Embassy, and I’m going to invite [Rigoberta Menchu], and I’m going to invite you. If you accept, fine, we’ll give you equal billing. But I’m not going to let my country look bad!”
Although he resigned as ambassador in 1992, Stroock played a critical role in setting the stage for the 1996 Guatemalan peace accord between the insurgents and the government, a pact that still holds.
“I was back in little old Wyoming when I read that all parties had signed that agreement,” he said in an interview shortly before he died, “All I could do was yell, ‘Yes!’” With a continued interest in U.S. Latin American policy, Stroock published a column in the Casper Star-Tribune just a few weeks ago, urging careful and non-ideological U.S. attention to the region.
Former Wyoming Gov. Mike Sullivan, who served as ambassador to Ireland in the Clinton administration, noted that he had much the easier post, and said of Stroock: “Wyoming will be a lesser place at his passing,” he said.
{ 11 comments }
As a child I played with Margie in the Stroock home. My life long strong connection with the Latin American culture was born there. I remember working on an arts festival with Guatemalan artists in Canada and corresponding with them while they served in Guatemala. I was so proud to know them. The integrity and truthful expression in Tom has put a compassionate and noble American face in troubled places and issues.
Tom Stroock was a gentleman full of honesty, happiness, pure love, conviction and integrated action towards the good in life. As a young landman in the oil business his encouraging words made me feel equal to all of the men in the industry. I ran for, President of the Wyoming Association of Professional Landmen, in-part, due to encouragement from Tom. I enjoyed that year in office, and a highlight included sitting with Tom, and others, at the old Derrick near the Platte River during its dedication. Tom’s dedication to the good in life will never be forgotten. His children also reflect the good in life. Sincerely, Jill Reed
A wonderful article about a wonderful and unique man. But in all the tributes to Tom, little has been said about his support for art in Wyoming. Tom was a great patron of my father, the sculptor Robert Russin. He was one the men responsible for the fountain at City Hall and the Prometheus in front of the Library, and he helped create a sculpture fellowship at UW that gave many artists their start. And Tom would certainly want to be remembered, among all his many other achievements, as a great fisherman. He could fish, and tell fish stories, with the best of them. I will miss him greatly.
A historic figure in our state, he took time to drive down to Laramie regularly to lend his unique perspective on Wyoming to students in my history classes as well as to me. Like many others, I will miss his wise counsel.
As a young person and close friend to Tom and Marta’s oldest daughter, Margie, Tom’s passion and firey temper was daunting. The man had convictions and deeply cared about issues and people. As he aged, he was all heart. I adored him!
I enjoyed the read and comments from good friends! A well written piece on one of the public servants who set the bar so high for those of us who have followed him into public service. We have much to live up to because of visionaries like Tom.
I was fortunate to get to know Tom when I was the environmental writer for the Star-Tribune and later covered his ambassadorial appointment when based in D.C. He was both a gracious and blunt man – often at the same time. One of the last of the Teddy Roosevelt Republicans, and a man who left Wyoming much the better for his having adopted it as his home.
I’ll miss Tom. He was a generous man and his political life overshadowed other things he did in the community, including supporting the arts. He shared some great advice with me over the years and remained interested and engaged right up to the end.
A true gentleman and a scholar who will be sorely missed. Wyoming has lost a friend.
Well done. A worthy tribute to a one-of-a-kind Wyomingite.
An excellent tribute to and overview of a remarkable man,