His spouse, Mathea Falco, mentioned he died at residence of issues from Parkinson’s illness.
Mr. Tarnoff’s profession spanned many crises within the Chilly Warfare and past. He had served on the U.S. Embassy in Saigon through the Vietnam Warfare and, as undersecretary of state for political affairs from 1993 to 1997, he held policy-shaping roles after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
He was usually known as to assist shepherd politically delicate choices by the Clinton administration. Amongst them was tightening an open-door asylum coverage for Cubans fleeing the island, a change in 1995 that outraged Cuban Individuals and others who thought-about it a betrayal of American opposition to Fidel Castro’s dictatorial regime.
President Invoice Clinton argued that the shift — sending again Cubans interdicted at sea — was essential to dissuade Cubans from making an attempt the damaging crossing to Florida.
Earlier than making the choice, Clinton wished to gauge response from Castro. Mr. Tarnoff was already identified by the Cuban chief — making a number of clandestine journeys to the island within the late Seventies on missions sanctioned by President Jimmy Carter. Mr. Tarnoff and Castro as soon as puffed cigars collectively.
This time, Mr. Tarnoff reached out to a Castro confidant, Cuban diplomat Ricardo Alarcón, for an off-the-books assembly at a bar close to the United Nations. Mr. Tarnoff had a suggestion: As a part of efforts to curb the ocean crossings, the US would take greater than 20,000 anti-Castro Cubans sheltered on the U.S. base at Guantánamo Bay.
Castro was in favor. He was frightened any unrest at Guantánamo might unfold throughout the island. Mr. Tarnoff and Alarcón later met in Toronto to hammer out the accord. Amid the political bickering afterward, Mr. Tarnoff was placed on harm management. He swatted down hypothesis that Washington was transferring towards normalizing ties with Cuba.
“Political dialogue could be a recognition — implicit or in any other case — on the a part of the US that we bear some duty for the state of affairs in Cuba,” he instructed reporters, referring to asylum seekers making an attempt sea journeys. “We don’t settle for that.”
Greater than 15 years earlier, in one other under-wraps operation, Mr. Tarnoff was a part of a storied diplomatic sleight of hand that performed out in Tehran.
In 1979, Mr. Tarnoff was a particular assistant to Secretary of State Cyrus R. Vance when Iran’s Western-backed shah was toppled within the Islamic revolution. Later that yr, the U.S. Embassy in Tehran was stormed by an Iranian mob, and greater than 50 hostages have been taken. Six State Division workers who had managed to evade the captors finally discovered shelter within the residences of the Canadian ambassador and a prime aide.
An elaborate scheme was hatched, later dubbed the “Canadian Caper.” The plan known as for 2 CIA operatives to go to Tehran posing as Canadian filmmakers scouting places for a science-fiction movie, “Argo.” The six Individuals in hiding would faux to be a part of the crew, utilizing faux Canadian passports.
Mr. Tarnoff acted because the State Division’s liaison with the CIA and Canadian authorities. He by no means publicly disclosed the total particulars of his function. (The Oscar-winning 2012 movie “Argo” additionally didn’t discover Mr. Tarnoff’s half within the operation.)
Authorities data, nonetheless, put Mr. Tarnoff on the middle of dealings through the tense weeks of planning. On Jan. 4, 1980, Mr. Tarnoff wrote a memo to Vance that the six Individuals would obtain Canadian passports with cast entry stamps. The Canadian Embassy in Tehran would shut “proper earlier than the exfiltration to keep away from reprisals,” Mr. Tarnoff wrote.
Mr. Tarnoff successfully sealed himself off from the remainder of the State Division. He feared that any leaks might derail every little thing. Even Henry Precht, head of the Iranian Working Group on the State Division, was stored out of the loop. “I personally didn’t know what they have been planning, so I couldn’t have opposed it,” Precht instructed the Center East information web site Al-Monitor.
On Jan. 27, 1980, the 2 CIA operatives and the six American diplomats cleared safety at Tehran’s Mehrabad Worldwide Airport and boarded a Swissair flight for Zurich. (Fifty-two hostages taken on the U.S. Embassy have been freed in January 1981, on the day of President Ronald Reagan’s inauguration.)
After the six Individuals within the “Argo” operation have been secure, they introduced Mr. Tarnoff with a present: a number of the maple leaf lapel pins they wore throughout their escape.
Peter Tarnoff was born in Brooklyn on April 19, 1937. His father was an govt at Macy’s division retailer, and his mom was a homemaker.
He was 12 when the household moved to Montreal, the place he discovered to talk French fluently. He graduated in 1958 from Colgate College in Hamilton, N.Y., with a level in philosophy. Mr. Tarnoff continued philosophy research on the College of Chicago however joined the diplomatic corps in 1961 earlier than ending his grasp’s diploma.
He was posted as a political officer in Lagos from 1962 to 1964. His subsequent project was Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh Metropolis) in what was then South Vietnam. He rose to develop into aide to Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge whereas the U.S.-led conflict with communist North Vietnam was escalating.
In 1965, a automotive bomb detonated outdoors the U.S. Embassy compound in Saigon, killing two U.S. workers members and nearly 20 individuals on the streets. Mr. Tarnoff was amongst greater than 50 individuals injured, receiving a head harm from flying glass.
Through the Seventies, Mr. Tarnoff held diplomatic and State Division analysis posts in Europe, and served as particular assistant to Vance and his successor, Edmund Muskie.
After Reagan’s election in 1980, Mr. Tarnoff accepted a fellowship on the Hoover Establishment at Stanford College. He later turned govt director of the World Affairs Council of Northern California and, from 1986 to 1993, was president of the New York-based Council on Overseas Relations.
Mr. Tarnoff’s marriage to Danielle Oudinot led to divorce. Survivors embody Along with Falco, his spouse of 41 years, survivors embody their son, Benjamin Tarnoff; and a son from his first marriage, Alexander Tarnoff. One other son from his first marriage, Nicholas Tarnoff, died in 1991.
Till the late Nineteen Fifties, Mr. Tarnoff anticipated to develop into a professor of philosophy. These plans have been upended by a call to take philosophy seminars in France. To Mr. Tarnoff, the Chilly Warfare realities have been vividly clear after Moscow’s crackdown on Hungary’s pro-freedom uprisings in 1956.
“I discovered myself in Europe at a time when human occasions and political occasions have been fairly dramatic,” he instructed the College of California’s tv channel in 2008. “I believe if I had not been in Europe in any respect … I may need continued on with philosophy, develop into a philosophy professor and by no means thought in regards to the Overseas Service.”