Mark Palmer

Robie Marcus Hooker "Mark" Palmer (14 July 1941 – 28 January 2013) was a United States diplomat, who served as United States Ambassador to Hungary (1986–90). He was a member of the American Academy of Diplomacy and the Committee on the Present Danger, Vice Chairman of Freedom House and the Council for a Community of Democracies. He was also the co-founder of the National Endowment for Democracy. 2Education Palmer was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and received a B.A. from Yale University in 1963. 2Policy positions Palmer served in policy positions for the United States State Department in the Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, and George H. W. Bush administrations, including launching the National Endowment for Democracy. From the outside, he has worked with both the Clinton and George W. Bush Administrations, helping persuade them to initiate new democracy policies, including the Community of Democracies and abolishing the so-called "Arab exception", for the first time promoting democracy in the Arab world. 2Dictatorships Palmer was possessed of practical experience inside dictatorships, working directly with dictators, and helping to oust them without a shot being fired. He lived for 11 years in the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia, and Hungary under the communists as a student and diplomat. He organized and participated in the first Reagan-Gorbachev summit as the State Department's top "Kremlinologist," and as the U.S. Ambassador to Hungary helped persuade its last dictator to leave power. He was active on China and the Middle East, for example, as the founding board member of an organization to support the largest movement for change in China, and working to support the emergence of politically independent commercial television stations throughout the Arab worl