The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training is collecting oral recollections of the accords. To mark the accords’ 30th anniversary, the association will visit the upcoming NATO assembly to collect new oral accounts.
The NATO assembly, representing members from the alliance’s 32 nations, will convene in downtown Dayton from May 23 to 26.
Fran Leskovar, project manager for the Dayton Peace Accords Oral History Project, said the project records oral memories from retired and former diplomats who took part in those negotiations and those who implemented its terms.
Leskovar, with four staffers, will be in Dayton to speak with NATO participants.
“It’s a great opportunity to record their stories for generations to come,” Leskovar said Wednesday.
The project will create a digital and possibly print publication tying those recollections together, giving users a unique glimpse of what happened.
“A lot of people don’t understand and probably have never heard of the Dayton Peace Accords,” Leskovar said.
But he called the talks and their results “a crowning achievement” of 20th century U.S. diplomacy.
“In those three weeks, American diplomacy, American national interests, American power and America as an indispensable nation were demonstrated to full capacity,” he said.
There was initially some surprise that the accords were to be held in Dayton at all. Serbian President Slobodan Milošević reportedly reacted by saying: “I am not a monk. You can’t confine me to a military base.”
“It happened in the city of Dayton,” Leskovar said. “The Dayton Accords happened in the U.S. It was an American product. It demonstrated the importance of local engagement.”
Those memories will add to existing collections in archives already assembled by the association and the U.S. State Department, U.S. Rep. Mike Turner’s office said.
These interviews will be organized this November into an online anthology, “30th Anniversary of the Dayton Peace Accords: The Art of the (Im)Possible.”
Credit: HANDOUT
Credit: HANDOUT
The talks were instrumental in ending a war that had taken more than 200,000 lives and displaced more than two million people. The agreement was hammered out after 21 days of negotiations at the Hope Hotel and formally signed a month later in Paris.
“Collecting oral histories to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the Dayton Peace Accords is essential to preserving the lessons of diplomacy and conflict resolution,” Turner said in a statement. “This project highlights the pivotal role the accords played in bringing peace to the Balkans. As Dayton prepares to host the NATO Parliamentary Assembly Spring Session in May, our city once again has the unique opportunity to shape the future of transatlantic security.”
Turner was mayor of Dayton during the peace talks.
“Oral histories capture the backstory of American diplomatic history that official accounts miss,” said Susan Johnson, the association’s president.
The histories will “serve as invaluable primary sources for journalists, documentarians, academics, and current and aspiring diplomatic practitioners; they humanize the work of diplomacy and make it come alive for the American people,” Johnson added.
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