Pieczenik was born in Havana, Cuba of Jewish parents from Russia and Poland and was raised in France.^[1] His father, a doctor from Dombrovicz who studied and worked in Toulouse, France,^[2] fled Poland before World War II. His mother, a Russian Jew from Białystok, Poland,^[2] fled Europe after many of her family members were killed. The couple met in Portugal, where both had fled ahead of the Nazi invaders.^[2] Pieczenik was born in Cuba in 1943.^[2][3] After living in Toulouse for six years, Pieczenik’s family migrated to the United States, where they settled in the Harlem area^[2] of New York City, New York.^[4] Steve Pieczenik was 8 years old when his parents received their entry visa to the United States.^[2]

Pieczenik is fluent in five languages, including Russian, Spanish and French.^[1][2][3]

Education [edit]

Pieczenik claims in his autobiography to have received a full scholarship to Cornell University at the age of 16.^[2] According to Pieczenik, he received a BA degree in Pre-Medicine and Psychology from Cornell in 1964, and later received his M.D. from Cornell University Medical College. He attained his PhD in international relations from MIT while studying at Harvard Medical School.^[3] Pieczenik claims to be the first psychiatrist ever to receive a PhD focusing on international relations.^[4] While performing his psychiatry residency at Harvard, he was awarded the Harry E. Solomon award for his paper titled: “The hierarchy of ego-defense mechanisms in foreign policy decision making”.^[2]

An article written by Pieczenik, “Psychological dimensions of international dependency”, appears in the American Journal of Psychiatry, Vol 132(4), Apr 1975, 428–431.^[5]

Pieczenik educational history has been disputed by journalists, who claim that he falsely inflated or misled his credentials.^[6]

Civil service career [edit]

Pieczenik was Deputy Assistant Secretary of State under Henry Kissinger, Cyrus Vance and James Baker.^[2] He served the presidential administrations of Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush in the capacity of deputy assistant secretary.^[7]

In 1974, Pieczenik joined the United States Department of State as a consultant to help in the restructuring of its Office for the Prevention of Terrorism.^[1] In 1976, Pieczenik was made Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for management.^[1][4][8][9]

At the Department of State, he served as a “specialist on hostage taking”.^[10] He has been credited with devising successful negotiating strategies and tactics used in several high-profile hostage situations, including the 1976 TWA Flight 355 hostage situation and the 1977 kidnapping of the son of Cyprus’ president.^[1]

Pieczenik was often utilized as a press source for early information on the mental state of the hostages involved in the Iran hostage crisis after they were freed.^[11] He worked “side by side” with Police Chief Maurice J. Cullinane in the Washington, D.C. command center of Mayor Walter Washington during the 1977 Hanafi Siege.^[12]

In 1978 Pieczenik was a special envoy for President Jimmy Carter to Italy to assist in the search for Italy’s Prime Minister Aldo Moro. Pieczenik, as an international crisis manager and hostage negotiator in the State Department, was sent to Italy on March 16, 1978, the day that Moro was kidnapped, and was involved in the negotiations for the release of Moro. He was part of a “crisis committee” headed by Francesco Cossiga, the interior minister. Moro was held for 54 days, Pieczenik said the committee was jolted into action by the fear that Moro would reveal state secrets in an attempt to free himself. Moro’s widow, Eleonora, later said Henry Kissinger had warned her husband against his strategy of Historic Compromise (Italian: Compromesso storico). “You will pay dearly for it,” he is alleged to have said. A false statement, attributed to the Red Brigades, was leaked saying that Moro was dead. Pieczenick claimed that this had a dual purpose; to prepare the Italian public for the worst, and to let the Red Brigades know that the state would not negotiate for Moro, and considered him already dead. Moro was shot and placed in the back of a car in central Rome, midway between the headquarters of the Communist Party and the Christian Democrats. In a documentary Cossiga admitted the committee had taken the decision to release the false statement. Pieczenik said that Moro had been “sacrificed” for the “stability” of Italy.^[13]

On September 17, 1978 the Camp David Accords were signed. Pieczenik claims to have been present at secret Camp David negotiations leading up to the signing of the Accords, working out strategy and tactics based on psychopolitical dynamics.^[2]

In 1979, he resigned as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State over the handling of the Iranian hostage crisis.^[3]

Post-civil service career [edit]

In the early 1980s, Pieczenik wrote an article for The Washington Post in which he claimed to have heard a senior U.S. official in the Department of State Operations Center give permission for the attack that led to the death of U.S. Ambassador Adolph Dubs in Kabul, Afghanistan, in 1979.^[14]

Pieczenik got to know Syrian President Hafez al-Assad well during his 20 years in the Department of State.^[2]

In 1982, Pieczenik was mentioned in an article in The New York Times as “a psychiatrist who has treated C.I.A. employees”.^[15]

In 2001, Pieczenik operated as chief executive officer of Strategic Intelligence Associates, a consulting firm.^[16]

Pieczenik has been affiliated in a professional capacity as a psychiatrist with the National Institute of Mental Health.^[17]

Pieczenik has consulted with the United States Institute of Peace and the RAND Corporation.^[18]

Pieczenik began mentorship of Drew Paul, founder of Blabor.com.^[19] Blabor.com is now the production company responsible for Pieczenik’s web and media releases.^[20][21][22]

As recently as October 6, 2012, Pieczenik was listed as a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR).^[23] According to Internet Archive, his name was removed from the CFR roster sometime between October 6 and November 18, 2012.^[24] Publicly, Pieczenik no longer appears as a member of the CFR.^[25]

Pieczenik has lectured at the National Defense University.^[26]