Maj. Gen. Roland Lajoie who is behind the The geopolitical scene played a major role in the coordination of U.S.-Soviet Relations during the The last decade of the Cold War and who was later in charge the The destruction of hundreds nuclear weapons belonging the Former Soviet republics died in Manchester, N.H., on October 28. He was 87.
Renee Lajoie Newell, the daughter of Newell’s son Renee Lajoie Newell, told reporters: the In a hospital death was caused by complications from heart surgery.
General Lajoie’s position at the Front line of the The U.S. and Soviet confrontation was a mixture of soldier, peacemaker and diplomat. Having been fluent in Russian and French, he has served as an agent for the U.S. government on multiple occasions. Army attaché at the U.S. Embassy Moscow and, the The late 1970s was a time of ran the U.S. Army Russian Institute, in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, which trained officers in U.S.-Soviet relations.
In Moscow, his official role was to represent the Army American business dealings the Soviets. He also pushed for the Soviets. the He stood in the middle of the parade during military parades. the Roofs the U.S. Embassy tries to photograph the Soviets’ fearsome SS-20 intermediate-range nuclear missiles.
In 1983 he was a colonel and took command of the U.S. Military Liaison Mission was a 14-person secretive team, which, as part of a 1947 agreement between Moscow and Washington, could move freely around East Germany, observing whatever it could. the Soviet Bloc’s war preparations.
Members of the Land Rovers would be piled high with the unit in the Mornings in West Berlin, and then a rumble into East Berlin. the Glienicke Bridge is a dilapidated structure that was built in 1962. the The Americans traded Rudolf Abel for Francis Gary Powers whose U-2 spy aircraft had been shot by the Soviets.
After entering East Germany, Colonel Lajoie’s team played cat and mouse games with the They are being followed by minders. They would do anything to keep them from military sites. Even temporarily detaining them was not enough.
In 1985, things came to a tragic conclusion. Colonel Lajoie returned from a family vacation when he heard that a Soviet security guard had killed Maj. Arthur D. Nicholson. Nicholson was observing a Soviet storage site for tanks 100 miles northeast of Berlin.
Colonel Lajoie hastily rushed into the room. the The site was surrounded by Soviet officers and East Germans. Major Nicholson, they said, was responsible for trespassing. the A list of places he can visit included the facility; the The guard claimed that he had been shooting at the major’s feet, a claim Major Nicholson’s driver disputed.
Few months later, while Colonel Lajoie was in East Germany again, a Soviet vehicle struck his jeep as he was driving in. the Back seat His head flew ahead, and he fractured his orbital bone. Soviet officials called it an accident. He suspected otherwise.
Finally the officials offered an apology for Major Nicholson’s death but maintained that it had been an accident. Major Nicholson, who was regarded by Colonel Ashe as both a friend and a colleague of his, carried out the act. the Death with Him the rest of his life — not out of guilt, but as a reminder of the Terrible nature the Cold War.
“It was the entire Soviet system, now thankfully gone, that had Nick’s blood on its hands,” In an unpublished account from 2012, he writes: the His daughter provided the information. The U.S. army considered Major Nicholson the Last American fatality the Cold War.
Colonel Lajoie left the Mission in 1986 to be the Army attaché at the U.S. Embassy at Paris He was given the task of building and leading the U.S. Embassy in Paris. the On-Site Inspection Agency (OSIA), a military agency charged with verifying Soviet Compliance with the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (IRNFT), which prohibited missiles with a range between 310 miles and 620 mile.
He was now a brigadier-general and traveling again. the Soviet bloc searching for weapons But this time, his adversaries welcomed him — literally opening the The man was once threatened with death and kept away from the site.
During an inspection, there was a point where the inspector found it necessary to inspect something. at He and his Soviet counterpart were forced to seek shelter from a sudden downpour at a missile range near Volgograd. the A SS-20 shell, emptied. the He had obsessively watched the weapon, but now it is slated to be destroyed under the treaty.
“Ten years ago I would’ve been shot if I came within a hundred miles,” He told The Sunday Review 1988.
He retired in the Army Major General in 1994. He took over immediately one of the The last tasks the Cold War — helping the Former Soviet states secure their vast and. at the Time to stabilize nuclear arsenals
The following is an explanation of what you should do. the The auspices the He led hundreds of technicians, officers and others to Russia, Kazakhstan and Ukraine to dismantle and secure weapons and their warheads, and in some cases convert them. the The conversion of nuclear fuel to civilian reactors.
Roland Lajoie was a born in Nashua on August 11, 1936. the state’s southern border. Ernest Lajoie’s parents, Alice (Bechard), and Ernest Lajoie were French Canadian immigrants. Roland French was my first language at home. He was born in a poor family. His father worked at a textile factory. General Lajoie later joked, his parents couldn’t afford a middle name for him.
He was the The youngest of eight siblings, after completing high school they pooled together their money to pay for his education. the University of New Hampshire He graduated with a degree of government in 1958, and immediately began his career. the Army Second lieutenant.
He served two tours in Vietnam as an intelligence officer and received a master’s degree in Russian history from the University of Colorado, 1971
He married JoAnn Sinibaldi in 1961. He is survived by his wife JoAnn Sinibaldi, their daughter Renee as well as another daughter Michelle Detwiler.
Bill Clinton, president of the United States, named General Lajoie is the head of a Joint Commission with the Russians should search for American soldiers who are missing in action in Russia, particularly those who served in World War II. In 2000, the Russians located the The remains of seven U.S. Airmen who crashed their bomber over the Kamchatka Peninsula, in the Far East of Russia in 1944
General Lajoie’s grave will be dug at Arlington National Cemetery. One of his last requests was that he be buried close to the Major Nicholson’s grave, an old friend of Major Nicholson.
