William Dale Montgomery

William Dale Montgomery (born 1945) is a retired United States diplomat. He served as the US ambassador in Bulgaria, Croatia and Serbia and Montenegro. After retirement, he continued his activities as a lobbyist for the Serbian government in the 2010s.

Education and private life Montgomery has a Bachelor's degree in Psychology from Bucknell University and a Master's degree in Business Administration in International Business from George Washington University. While working for the Department of State, he attended the National War College for its one-year program in 1986-87.

His other assignments have included Economic-Commercial Officer in the Embassy in Belgrade, Commercial Officer and Political Officer in the Embassy in Moscow, and Deputy Chief of Mission in Dar es Salaam, as well as assignments in Washington, D.C. He served as US Ambassador to Bulgaria from October 1993 to January 1996. In 1996-1997, he served in US State Department Special Advisor for Bosnian Peace Implementation. He retired in February 2004.

Activities after retirement

Since his retirement, Montgomery has held public views in contrast with the U.S. and European policy towards the Western Balkans.

Writing for the New York Times in 2009, Montgomery called upon the West to stop thinking that it could "establish fully functioning multiethnic societies in Bosnia and Kosovo with no change in borders".

In 2010, while interviewed on Bosnian TV, Montgomery called for the "peaceful dissolution" of Bosnia and Herzegovina - a sentence later widely used by Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik. His statement attracted a rebuke from the U.S. Embassy in Sarajevo.

In November 2024, on Serbian TV, Montgomery claimed that Serbia had "done everything right regarding Srebrenica", and that "the EU had treated Serbia very poorly" during accession negotiations.

In late December 2024, while guest on Serbian TV, Montgomery criticized the adoption of the United Nations General Assembly Resolution 78/282 and minimised the Srebrenica genocide, claiming that “genocide” is a “stretched qualification”, using instead the terminology of “terrible crime” as in the Serbian narrative on the July 1995 massacre. In the same interview, Montgomery claimed that the Dayton Peace Accords should have established three entities instead of two - a long-term goal of Bosnian Croat nationalist parties. He claimed that "the documents relating to Kosovo and Dayton reflect our [U.S.] insistence on multicultural societies, but they do not emphasize the ethnic issue, and here the ethnic issue is very important".

Awards At the end of his tour as Deputy Chief of Mission, the Bulgarian government awarded him the Order Of The Madara Horseman, First Class. At the end of his tour as Ambassador to Bulgaria, Montgomery was awarded the Order of the Stara Planina, First Class, by the Government of Bulgaria.

He has one Distinguished Honor Award, two individual and two group Superior Honor Awards, and one Meritorious Honor Award from the US Department of State. He is also a recipient of an ABA-CEELI award for his efforts to promote the rule of law in Central and Eastern Europe.

His army decorations include the Bronze Star, Army Commendation Medal with "V" (for valor), Combat Infantryman Badge, Parachute Badge, and Vietnam Service Medal.