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2 FOREIC.N SERVICE J OU RNAL/J U LY-AUGUST 2000 CONTENTS July-August 2000 I Vol. 77, No. 7-8

COVER FEATURES

Focus ON FICTION AFTER NAIROBI: RECOVERING FROM TERROR / 52 IS / THE SIEGE In the wake of a traumatic bombing, an ambassador finds Hunkered down in their compound, they awaited the wily that each individual heals differently, but community is aggressors from the State Department. And they knew essential to the healing. their enemy’s ways all too well. By Prudence Bushnell By James F. O’Callaghan THE GENETICALLY ENGINEERED SECRETARY OF STATE / 57 23 / CAVIAB AND KURDS John Foster Dulles had the right ancestry for the job — “The CIA has a long history of developing its own plans and the ego to go with it. with Kurds,” the Shah’s minister told me. By Lincoln P. Bloomfield “We need someone fresh.” By Henry Precht COVER CPLUMNS 30 / WHEN IN ROME, WEAR RUNNING SHOES Becoming friends with two sophisticated PRESIDENT’S VIEWS / 5 Romans seemed like the most exciting thing A Prescription for Diplomatic Health in the world ... until reality broke in. By Marshall P. Adair By Barbara Neu SPEAKING OUT / 15 35 / THE ORCHARD The Post of Living Dangerously For an Anglo-Argentine nurse, treating soldiers By Lottie Erikson wounded in the Malvinas war reminded her how Page 18 POSTCARD FROM ABROAD / 76 fragile the concept “home” really is. The Man in the Moon By Amanda Holmes By Gary H. Maybarduk 39 / DOWN THE GAZEBO ROAD What could go wrong at a simple embassy Fourth of July party? After all, the donkey and the D E P A R T M E N T S elephant seemed entirely content. LETTERS/7 By Steven Wangsness CLIPPINGS / 12

46 / A NICARAGUAN FISH STORY BOOKS/63 It started with a simple call from Baltimore to IN MEMORY / 65 Embassy Managua: Should we invest in a INDEX TO ADVERTISERS / 74 Nicaraguan fishing business? By Nancy J. Nelson Cover and inside illustrations by Amy Vangagard

THE MAGAZINE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS PROFESSIONALS FOREIGNSERVICE Foreign Service Journal (ISSN 0146-3543), 2101 E Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20037-2990 is published _l_.l 0 U R N A L Ly monthly by the American Foreign Sendee Association, a private, non-profit organization. Material appealing here¬ Editor Editorial Board in represents tire opinions of the writers and does not necessarily represent the views of the Journal, the Editorial BOB GULDIN EDWARD MARKS, Board or AFSA. Writer queries are invited. Journal subscription: AFSA Members - $9.50 included in annual dues; Fiction Editor CHAIRMAN others - $40. For foreign surface mail, add $18 per year; foreign airmail, $36 per year. Periodical postage paid at KATHLEEN CURRIE ELIZABETH SPIRO CLARK Acting Managing Editor MITCHELL A. COHN Manchester, N.H., and at additional mailing offices. Postmaster: Send address changes to Foreign Service STEVEN ALAN HONLEY THEODORE CRAIG Journal, 2101 E Street N.W., Washington, D.C. 20037-2990. Indexed by Public Affairs Information Service Ad & Circulation Manager MAUREEN S. DUGAN (PAIS). The Journal is not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts, photos or illustrations. Advertising inquiries ED MILTENBERGEH AURELIUS FERNANDEZ are invited. The appearance of advertisements herein does not imply the endorsement of die services or goods AFSA NEWS Editor CAROL A. GIACOMO RITA COLORITO offered. FAX: (202) 338-8244 or (202) 338-6820. E-MAIL: [email protected]. WEB: www.afsa.org. TELEPHONE: CAROLINE MEIRS Art Director (202) 338-4045. © American Foreign Service Association, 2000. Printed in the U.S.A. Send address changes CARY'N J. SUKO WAYNE MOLSTAD to AFSA Membership, 2101 E Street N.W., Washington, D.C. 20037-2990. Printed on 50 percent recycled Editorial Intern ARNOLD SCHIFFERDECKER paper, of which 10 percent is post-consumer waste. CARRIE REILING WILLIAM WANLUND

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4 FOREIGN SERVICE J O U RN A L/J U LY-AU G U S T 2000 PRESIDENT’S VIEWS A Prescription for Diplomatic Health

BY MARSHALL P. ADAIR

CASE HISTORY: American diplo¬ serious training almost impossible. macy has matured slowly, conducted The patient is Improvement is constrained by a on an ad hoc basis for the first 135 years perennial lack of political support, of tire republic, and professionalized in suffering from which can be traced to conflicting 1924 only after World War I brought over-exertion and Hamiltonian and Jeffersonian views of home the need for a more consistent public service at the beginnings of the and disciplined approach. Over the malnutrition. republic; a national political aversion to next 30 years, the United States devel¬ “elites” (other than military or oped a small elite core of talented and Hollywood); the congressional bud¬ disciplined diplomatists, who could be getary' classification of the State fielded anywhere at any time — tire taiy responses to growing national Department outside of the national beginnings of a professional diplomatic security threats such as the prolifera¬ security framework; and the lack of a service worthy of a great power. After tion of weapons of mass destruction, political constituency. World War II, the professional Foreign the growth of narcotics trafficking, and PRESCRIPTION: First, increase Service played a key role in implement¬ the expansion of international terror¬ immediately the dosage of resources ing the Marshall Plan and constructing ism. American influence in interna¬ to diplomacy by 50 to 100 percent, the post-war international defense and tional organizations, which tire United and continue that regimen for at least economic institutions. In the 1950s it States and our allies created after the next 10 years. Second, restructure was first intimidated and paralyzed by World War II to promote world peace, the Washington environment to Joseph McCarthy's witch-hunt, and is declining because of U.S. failure to include the Department of State and then almost de-professionalized by pay its share of obligations. The U.S. diplomacy within the national securi¬ “Wristonization” (the integration of defense budget is growing in peace¬ ty apparatus. Third, use the presiden¬ massive numbers of Civil Service per¬ time, and is now 16 times larger than tial bully pulpit to renew national sonnel). Through tire 1960s it gradually tire foreign affairs budget. The appli¬ respect for diplomacy and civilian regained its footing. In tire ’70s and ’80s cant pool from which the Foreign public sendee, demanding and hon¬ it struggled with the political impera¬ Service draws its officer corps has oring a national diplomatic service tive of adjusting its personnel to better dropped from 20,000 in the 1970s to that is superior in terms of talent, reflect tire social composition of tire 9,000, and morale has been edging training and experience. nation, and in the 1990s it confronted downward for decades. PROGNOSIS: If this treatment is tire growing competition from an DIAGNOSIS: While still inherent¬ applied as directed now, the basically increasingly dynamic private sector ly strong and healthy, American diplo¬ healthy constitution of the subject can demand for internationally oriented tal¬ macy is showing signs of anemia be strengthened, and it can be expect¬ ent. caused by overexertion, under-nour- ed to play a healthy and effective role SYMPTOMS: Political leaders ishment, and air unsuppoitive domes¬ promoting national interests and pro¬ devote substantial rhetoric to tire need tic environment. Since 1985, the num¬ viding world leadership. However, if for diplomacy, but in actuality rely ber of overseas posts has increased neglect and undernourishment contin¬ increasingly on military or para-mili- from 232 to 251, while the foreign ue, the core of American diplomacy, its affairs budget has declined 41 percent professional diplomatic service, will be Marshall R Adair is the president of in real terms. A shortage of more than weakened in a way that will take an the American Foreign Service 700 persons to positions strains current inordinately long — and dangerous — Association. Foreign Service employees, and makes time to restore. ■

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• Washer/Dryer in Each Unit Embassy Row • Fitness Facility 7500 WOODMONT AYE. BETHESDA, MD 20814 (301) 654-0694 • [email protected] 1=1 Our Mistake in Vietnam help the Saigon government and its was then, in the early postwar years, The Vietnam articles in the April provincial affiliates develop the insti¬ the International Information Journal were useful but incomplete. tutions necessary to instill in the Administration, a unit of State. In a Not cited there nor in the far too few Vietnamese a positive sense of gov¬ 1949 interview, shortly after the other articles on our governments ernment. USSR had exploded an atomic bomb, development-building activities in What we did not do was respond he spelled out to me his plans for a Vietnam during 1960 to 1975 was sufficiently to an equally strong feel¬ separate agency whose principal pur¬ sufficient information on Vietnamese ing tliat the provincial Vietnamese pose would be to combat the threat civilian attitudes and beliefs. expressed: That they had been in of communism around the world. Along with 12 to 14 other younger war-like situations for more than 35 I joined the International Press USAID officers who were stationed years. In almost eveiy family, at least and Publications Service of IIA in in other overseas USAID missions, I one family member had been killed 1950, three years before the Smith- left Ankara for a September/October in battle. What they wanted more Mundt Act brought USIA into exis¬ 1966 TDY to Vietnam. Sleeping most than anything else was peace, regard¬ tence. Throughout the 1950s I wrote nights in Saigon, I flew to neighbor¬ less of who might be in charge. columns on communism as ing provincial capitals during my first Without a clear identification and “Benjamin E. West” and on world six weeks. My job was to help local articulation of that position, our own affairs as “Paul L. Ford.” Other USAID field officers and provincial efforts — military and development columnists wrote on the arts, science Vietnamese officials to design at the — could not succeed. and the economy. local level USAID-assisted develop¬ What did we learn from all this? But while the agency’s primary ment projects. In future work overseas, we must reason for being at that time was to Without exception, the townspeo¬ understand the attitudes and beliefs wage a propaganda war against the ple expressed strong family ties and not only of host country decision¬ Soviet Union and Communist China, only a little less strong neighborhood makers but also of persons who live our information factory was ill- or hamlet ties. They had virtually no and work outside their nations’ capi¬ equipped to do so. Its “policy advis¬ ties or trust in a government, any tal cities. Only then should we decide ers” took their cues from CIA’s woe¬ government, whether the French, whether to become more involved in fully inept analysts. These were the nor the Saigon, nor the Viet Cong. foreign assistance. gentlemen who insisted, in January Governments, they said, collect taxes Morrie Blumberg 1953, that Stalin could not possibly and draft their children into the mil¬ USAID FSO, retired be ill “without our knowing it,” with itary and that’s all. Albuquerque, N.M. the result that (a) we missed a rare USAID was there in large part to opportunity to unnerve the men in USIA vs. Communism the Kremlin with our prescience, and The Foreign Service Journal welcomes Hans Tuch is, quite simply, wrong (b) when Stalin died that March, the your signed letters to the editor. Please (letters, May). The U.S. Information two agencies and the White House mail letters to the Journal, 2101 E St., Agency was indeed, as Nick Mele has were stunned to the point of panic. NW, Washington, D.C., 20037; fax to written, “conceived and created to Don’t misunderstand me. Iam — (202) 338-8244; or send via e-mail to meet Cold War challenges.” and was — all for USIA as a support¬ [email protected]. Letters, which are As a young journalist in the er of the arts and sciences. Indeed, subject to editing should include fdl Midwest, I knew Karl Mundt well. while in Hong Kong, I persuaded name, title and post, address and day¬ The Republican senator from South Pearl S. Buck to contribute a book of time telephone number. Dakota was a staunch backer of what her short stories (several of them,

JULY-AUGUST 2000/FQREIGN S ERVIC.E JOURNAL 7 L E T T E R S

admittedly, with subtle anti-commu¬ tors in other countries of our govern¬ take all of our talent and esprit de nist themes). I converted them into ment’s policies and of the values of corps to show that in public diploma¬ the book Escape at Midnight. our society and its institutions. We cy we continue to bring a greater In truth, I never asked for the also do much more: We interpret dimension to foreign policy, one anti-communist roles I was assigned, policies and executive decisions for which Secretary Madeleine Albright and I was so vocal an opponent of foreign audiences; we solicit their declared to be essential during her McCarthyism that I once found my views in countless programs; and we welcoming remarks on. Oct. 1, 1999 phone being tapped by USIA securi¬ introduce them to experiences in our to the assembled employees in front ty. But not for one moment did I country? and work with them when of the former USIA headquarters. doubt, nor did any of USIA’s sup¬ they return to help cement better Bruce K. Byers porters on Capitol Hill ever doubt, understanding of their experiences. FSO that the agency’s primary reason for We encourage the study of the Re.ston, Va. being was to combat the spread of United States at many overseas uni¬ communism around the world. versities and think tanks and we run Monstrous Comparison Had that not been USIA’s chief a speaker program, enabling many Ted Seay, in the May 2000 issue, and overriding mission, Congress Americans of different academic gives one more proof that 1984 and never would have funded it for so professional backgrounds to interact Newspeak are alive and well in con¬ many years. The question is, as Nick with foreign audiences. And we do temporary foreign policy circles in Mele has written in the FSJ, whether all of this with greatly reduced the United States. Comparing USIA outlived its usefulness. A very resources. Munich 1938 to Yugoslavia 1992 is good case for that can be made. The Pendergrast is accurate in his monstrous. The differences are obvi¬ Internet, television, videos, films and assessment of a more rigid, top-down ous — no matter how much we try to news organizations create visions of management culture at State. In my distort them to justify an ethically America with which USIA could not brief experience at Main State I have morbid adventure in the Balkans. We compete. seen how people are more often con¬ have forgotten the history of World Wes Pedersen sumed with “process” than with War II but use its labels and slogans Communications Director delivery of products. The much criti¬ to cover the fact that we have lost our The Public Affairs Council cized clearance procedures, which moral compass. FSO, retired can hold up important actions for Nazi Germany was engaged in Washington, D.C. days, if not longer, are well known to aggression against its neighbors in all. I have found that many of my 1938. The Yugoslav Army in 1992 USIA In State State colleagues are just as stymied attempted to put down internal As a career USIA FSO who cross- by clearance hurdles as former revolts that were supported by its walked into the “new” State employees of US LA. neighbors, Bonn and Rome, the two Department, I would like to offer a The 1999 McKinsey study of State partners in the monstrosity of few comments on Dell Pendergrast s Department human resource man¬ Munich. Slovenia, Croatia and very thoughtful and insightful agement showed that State, like Bosnia were integral parts of the “Speaking Out” column (FSJ, March other federal agencies, remains Yugoslav Federation. The Yugoslav 2000). After nearly 29 years of over¬ largely a traditional top-down man¬ Army did not attack an independent, seas and Washington experience, I agement culture with a premium internationally recognized Slovenia a admit that working at Main State is a placed on deference to rank. One day after it declared its indepen¬ challenge. Currently, I am working weakness in this is that it stymies ini- dence; it attacked rebels within a with colleagues who do not necessar¬ tiative whenever minor decisions part of Yugoslavia. That the rebels ily understand what public diploma¬ have to be bucked up to higher lev¬ won a military victory and gained cy is but who rely on me to help on els, and this reduces flexible international recognition later does serious projects in Indonesia, the response to opportunities, something not make Yugoslavia’s actions any less Philippines and elsewhere in East we in USIA were long accustomed to valid legally and morally. Asia. exploiting. Similarly, Croatian and Bosnian The added value we from USIA Our public diplomacy work is ethnic politicians revolted against bring to State is our ability to help viewed by many “traditionalists” as Yugoslavia. This time they did not manage information, shape foreign less serious and more peripheral to have Slovenia’s geographic and opinion and convince our interlocu¬ the work of “real” diplomacy. It will demographic advantages. When the

8 FOREIGN SERVICE ] O U RN AL/J U LY- AU GU S T 2000 LETTERS

revolt went badly, German militarily when fighting broke out in Chancellor Helmut Kohl sprang to Yugoslavia in 1991, was shared on their support, stampeding Europe both sides of the Atlantic. Both and the United States into recogniz¬ Europe and the United States, he ing the rebels — an action that even noted, were otherwise preoccupied Mercedes-Benz Henry Kissinger and Lawrence and failed to address the deteriorat¬ Eagleburger criticized at the time. ing Yugoslav situation in a timely Senior German Army officers and effective manner. have told me that Kohl supported Seay quibbles with several of the independence of Croatia and Cameron’s points but refutes none Bosnia because he sought revenge of them. He then allows “some jus¬ Diplomacy for Nazi humiliation in World War II tification” in Cameron’s pointing out Yugoslavia. (If anyone doubts this, let shortcomings in U.S. policy in the us remember that Kohls first official Balkans. “But,” Seay concludes, has its reaction to the collapse of the “the record must be set straight Warsaw Pact was to call for the about Europe’s manifest lack of rewards. restoration of Nazi Germany’s political will to act when Europe Eastern border.) was in crisis.” Having in effect In Kosovo, we supported and agreed that the tragic lack of politi¬ At American Service Center, your incited rebellion and grossly exagger¬ cal will was also mutual, what’s to diplomatic or official passport* ated casualty figures. We then issued “set straight”? will allow you to purchase a new an ultimatum to Belgrade to allow Russell Prickett Mercedes-Benz at dramatic NATO troops to occupy Yugoslavia. FSO, retired To compound the tragedy, we gave Austin, Tex. savings. Contact Erik Granholm, close air support to Croatia’s ethnic- our Diplomat and Tourist Sales cleansing of Serbs from Krajina and The McCarthy Apologists Manager. A native of Munich, western Bosnia. At the very least, Rorin Platt’s Is Slobodan Milosevic a terrible review of a book which reexamines Germany, Erik has been dictator who, by any reasonable stan¬ the life and legacy of the late Sen. with ASC for 33 years. dard, should not rule a European Joseph McCarthy should have had a country? Yes. But how different is he question mark after the headline *Applies only while on offidal business than Franjo Tudjman, whom we sup¬ “Joseph McCarthy, Rehabilitated.” or diplomatic assignment. ported and who made the Ustashi (.FSJ, May) flag the national flag of Croatia? The review should also have Seay attacks the peacemakers and been assigned to someone who had supports the war makers in what Iris- some knowledge of what the vast lit¬ tor)' will judge to have been a bad erature on McCarthy has demon¬ cause. strated about both his effect on this Patrick N. Theros country and the Foreign Service, Mercedes. Just Mercedes. Ambassador, retired and to the real U.S. security inter¬ Washington, D.C. ests in the early 1950s. The review¬ 585 N. Glebe Road, er writes: “Herman does acknowl¬ Who’s Blaming Whom? edge that, despite McCarthy’s sin¬ Arlington, VA 22203 It’s hard to understand Ted cere and determined effort to rid Seay’s compulsion (May “Letters”) the government of Reds, fellow 703.525.2100 to continue the “blame game” over travelers and Soviet agents....” This former Yugoslavia as he attacks bespeaks an ignorance of the sena¬ Telefax: 703.284.2482 Fraser Cameron’s article in the tor’s record of desperately searching February issue of the FS], for issues that would win him Mobile: 703.405.4018 Cameron quite fairly pointed out national notoriety before he stum¬ www. j us tmercedes. com that the failure of will, beginning bled on the Red Scare. with the decision not to intervene Before he became a Communist

JULY-AUGUST 2000/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 9 L E T T E H S

hunter, McCarthy sought to endear Communist party and who neverthe¬ rose to prominence and national himself to Midwesterners of less are still working and shaping the esteem grew up in rural Wisconsin. German ethnicity by attacking the policy of the State Department.” It wasn’t McCarthy’s background American prosecutors of 73 German The author, as have many of that finally destroyed him. It was the SS men convicted of taking part in McCarthy’s apologists, wrongly cites fact that the nation finally caught on the massacre of unarmed American the accusation as being directed at to the opportunistic scoundrel that prisoners of war and Belgian civil¬ 57 people, not a surprise since he really was, something that seems ians at Malmedy near the end of the McCarthy changed the number fre¬ still to escape Herman and the war. quently. And he incorrectly Journal’s gullible reviewer. Arthur Herman, author of the describes McCarthy as referring to Stanley A. Zuckerman book under review, is quoted as con¬ them not as “Communists and mem¬ FSO, retired cluding that McCarthy “has been bers of a spy ring,” but as “security McLean, Va proved more right dian wrong in risks.” terms of the larger picture” of com¬ Platt asks whether McCarthy Those He Destroyed munist infiltration of the federal might not have been more credible I was struck by the ironic juxta¬ government. to “the Wise Men and liberal intelli¬ position of Rorin Platt’s review on Really? In McCarthy’s famous gentsia” if he had gone to Andover Joseph McCarthy and the memorial 1950 speech in Wheeling, W.V., he and Yale rather than having grown notes for John Paton Davies, one of said: “I have here in my hand a list of up in rural Wisconsin. the “old China hands” whose career 205 that were known to the secretary Robert LaFollette, Frank Lloyd was destroyed by McCarthy’s Red¬ of State as being members of the Wright and many other men who baiting. I have not read Herman’s book and I do not take issue with the the¬ sis that the opening of the KGB files and other Soviet records have sub¬ stantiated that there was significant Tell Us About Soviet infiltration of the U.S. gov¬ ernment in the 1930s and 1940s. What I found deeply disturbing, Your Travels however, was that the Journal saw fit to publish a book review that makes The Foreign Service Journal's a number of offensive and histori¬ "Postcard from Abroad" is not your average travel section. cally questionable ideological asser¬ tions: that the Truman administra¬ Readers don't turn to it for paeans to sunbathing in Sumatra tion did not take the communist or the cheapest airfares to Europe. They will find stories that threat seriously; that George illuminate an aspect of a foreign culture written by Americans Marshall was “duped” by the whose business is living in that culture. Chinese communists into “losing” China; and that the State Writing for the postcard section should be provocative, detailed and Department did nothing to cut convey a sense of place through anecdote, reporting and keen short the careers of those accused observation. by McCarthy of being “Reds, fellow Potential writers should refer to back issues of the FSJ for subjects travelers and Soviet agents.” covered and guidance in preparing submissions, which should be How does this square with Davies’ obituary, which notes that from 600 to 800 words in length. Davies, along with FSOs John S. For more information, Service and John Carter Vincent, contact the Foreign Service Journal by fax (202) 338-8244 was targeted by McCarthy for pro¬ e-mail: [email protected], or by mail. viding honest assessments of the sit¬ uation in China and that Secretary of State John Foster Dulles dis-

10 FOREIGN SERVICE J O U RN AL/J U LY-AU GU ST 2000 LETTERS SEVEN MINUTES TO STATE DEPARTMENT

missed Davies as a result of COLUMBIA PLAZA McCarthy’s campaign? APARTMENTS Historians often make their repu¬ tations by offering interpretive revi¬ Capital Living sions of critical periods of the past. With Comfort and Convenience But sometimes the conventional interpretation is correct. McCarthyism destroyed lives, stilled SHORT TERM FURNISHED APARTMENTS AVAILABLE dissent, crippled free speech and Utilities Included 24 Hour Front Desk spread fear and paranoia throughout Complimentary Voice Mail Garage Parking Available American society. For State, it Courtyard Style Plaza Shopping on Site resulted in the destruction of many Polished Hardwood Floors Cardkey Entry/Access FS careers and denied our country Private Balconies River Views the invaluable expertise and talents Huge Walk-In Closets Minutes to Fine Dining of many dedicated FSOs, especially Walk to the Kennedy Center and Georgetown the “old China hands.” I believe the Minutes to Foggy Bottom Metro Journal owes it to them not to pub¬ lish an attack on their memories (202) 293-2000 masquerading as a book review. 2400 Virginia Ave., N.W. Marc J. Sievers Washington, D.C., 20037 Political counselor HtshKffd. by % iucbd C'O. Embassy Riyadh

Power Behind the Arabs Congratulations on your May choice of “Arab-American Connections” and the Curtis, Fernea and Zogby essayists. Ironically, these three have been out of favor in the political estab¬ lishment for a couple of decades, as have the Foreign Service “Arabists.” Many of your readers may be surprised to learn that when I, a FS Arabist, retired to Minnesota, I was regarded with great suspicion by FARA the local Arab-American communi¬ Foreign Affairs Recreation Association ty. The pervasive belief was that our FARA Housing Division, pro-Israeli government policy was xManaged by ECMC State Department propelled, which 610 Bashford Lane, Alexandria, VA 22314 could hardly be further from the Ph: (703) 684-1825 Fax: (703) 739-9318 truth, of course. Since then the “Arabists” have been supplanted by We are proud to provide the best hotel values in the Washington, DC metropolitan area! You can choose from properties offering studios, the “Israelists” in State and the White House. And Curtis, Fernea one bedroom, 2-bedroom apartments, suites & hotel rooms. and Zogby have helped the Arab- Our locations have unique proximity to FSI, State Department, the American community become a Pentagon, NFATC, National Airport, Old Town , Alexandria, forceful lobby. White House and Georgetown C. Patrick Quinlan FSO, retired For more information call for features and rates of participating FARA hotels. Edina, Minn. ■

JULY-AUGUST 2000/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 11 CLIPPINGS

SURPRISE! FILM DEAR MADELEINE: SLAMS DIPLOMAT SECURITY, PLEASE A recent major movie, “Rules of State has received more bad publicity Engagement,” has a U.S. ambassador as concerning its record on security. A June one of its main characters. Not too surpris¬ 1 letter from Sen. Rod Grams, R.-Minn., ingly, tire film continues a Hollywood tra¬ to Secretary of State Madeleine Albright dition by showing the fictional ambassador notes that six current nominees for U.S. as a thoroughly despicable character. ambassadorships have collectively com¬ "In an era of The film, which garnered mediocre mitted some 62 security violations, and unprecedented reviews, has been a modest box office suc¬ one of the nominees has 22 violations in cess. It opens with tire U.S. embassy in his personnel record. (However, the let¬ prosperity, why is Sana'a, Yemen, threatened by a violent ter does not detail the nature or serious¬ there a growing demonstration. Ambassador Mourain, ness of the violations.) Grams then asks backlash against played by Ben Kingsley, is scared silly (we Albright to reconcile the nominations globalization? see him shaking with fear and hiding with her recent statement that diplomats The benefits of free under his desk). He calls in tire Marines, who neglect security are failures. who are helicoptered in from a nearby Albright, in a June 6 letter to the senator, trade may appear ship. pledged continued cooperation in obvious to CEOs, The ambassador and his wife and child improving State Department security policy -makers and are evacuated — amazingly, they appeal' to practices. She also pointed out that most pundits. but denial of be the only civilian employees in the of the cited security violations happened embassy. Before the Marines take off, a rising irave of more than 10 years ago. though, they open fire on the crowd of But as of June, those nominees who public anger against demonstrators, killing 87. This attack leads had more than 10 violations each were trade could pro re to the court martial of the Marines’ com¬ having their confirmations delayed, dangerous. Those manding officer; tire second half of tire film reportedly until key senators were satis¬ is basically a courtroom drama. During tire fied that State is making progress in who marched in trial, the ambassador, under pressure from changing its security regulations. Seattle and above, perjures himself, incriminating tire Washington, D.C. brave colonel who saved Iris life. reflect a disparate For Foreign Service officers who may RUSSIAN FSN NABBED worry about how their profession is por¬ but real collection of trayed in the media, there is one small IN VISA FRAUD grievances that consolation: The presidents national secu¬ Writing in the May 9 Chicago Tribune, simply will not go rity adviser comes across as truly evil, and Cam Simpson reports that Igor Galitskiy, a away." far worse than the ambassador. Russian who worked for the U.S. The diplomatic corps is not the only Department of Agriculture at the U.S. — FROM A X EDITORIAL group with reason to be offended by consulate in St. Petersburg, was arrested “Rules of Engagement.” Arab-American May 5 in Chicago for allegedly helping r.\ THE APRIL 24 organizations have protested the film several of his countrymen use false pre¬ BUSINESS WEEK because it shows Yemenis as one-dimen¬ tenses to enter the United States, where sional and uniformly anti-American. some of the men then allegedly carried — Bob Guldin out financial crimes.

12 FOREIGN SERVICE ] O U RN AL/J U LY-AU G U S T 2000 CLIPPINGS

According to a spokesman for U.S. cials, who first discovered the problem Attorney Scott Lassar, Galitskiy filed visa last summer and initiated the audit, have applications claiming several Russians previously blamed the error on a com¬ were coming to the U.S. for farm or food puter system miscommunication. trade shows. But when they arrived, Although the four INS service centers investigators believe, the men made con¬ that process H-1B visa applications mon¬ tact with a shadowy countryman known itor their internal processing figures, the only as “Alex.” With his help, they numbers were not properly conveyed to obtained American identification with the main INS computer system that YEARS AGO which they opened bank accounts fund¬ tracks the overall issuance of the visas, ed, at least in part, from cash wired from thus allowing duplication. Estonia. Those accounts were then used Whatever the explanation, the report to purchase luxury items for shipping came at a bad time for the beleaguered “To the old epithets back to Russia, but the money bacldng agency, which is already fighting con¬ the purchases was withdrawn from the gressional attempts to abolish it and of stuffed shirts,’ ‘pink banks before the goods were actually replace it with separate bureaus to tea,’ and ‘cookie push¬ paid for. enforce the nations immigration laws ers’ has been added, One of the Russians, arrested in and dole out immigration benefits. And December in Denver, is cooperating with it did not take long for critic Rep. Lamar however incongruous, authorities; his bogus purchases alone Smith, R.-Texas, to comment: “The tax¬ ‘those Reds.’ The topped $80,000. Two other Russians, payers would be well-served by remedial Foreign Service faces a allegedly helped into the U.S. by Galitskiy, math training for top managers at the were also arrested, and arrest warrants INS. It would cost less than hiring a big- serious public relations have been issued for four others, includ¬ name accounting firm every time the problem which requires ing “Alex.” agency must count past 10.” long-range, intensive, As this episode shows, the H-1B visa category, which permits holders to sustained programming INS GOES OVERBOARD remain in the U.S. for up to six years, has to overcome. We can¬ proved extremely popular with comput¬ not expect to be taken ON SPECIAL VISAS er companies and other high-tech inter¬ The April 7 Seattle Post-Intelligencer ests in recent years as they have tried to on faith. To the extent reports that the INS issued more than address explosive job growth. Congress that people do not know 20,000 extra visas for much-in-demand responded to this pressure in 1998 by us, their feelings will be skilled workers last year. Although the temporarily raising the annual allotment KPMG Consulting team’s audit was of these visas from 65,000 to 115,000, colored by hostility and unable to pinpoint the exact number of H- and is expected to act again this year. distrust.” 1B (skilled labor) visas issued during FY The House Judiciary Committee has — FROM AA EDITOHIAL 1999, they said die agency exceeded the moved to tire full House a bill to allow an limit by 21,888 to 23,385, nearly 20 per¬ unlimited number of three-year H-1B IX THE Aid sr 1950 cent over the congressionally mandated visas to be issued through 2002, though JOURNAL level of 115,000. it would impose a number of new condi¬ The auditors are still investigating tions on companies seeking to hire how the overissuance occurred and how skilled temporary workers and also raises to prevent a recurrence, but INS offi¬ the visa fee by $150.

JULY-AUGUST 2000/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 13 CLIPPINGS

No VISAS NEEDED DOWNSIZING DONE?

“Diplomats The U.S. House of Representatives The downsizing of tire federal workforce write Notes, approved on April 11a bill abolishing the may have run its course, reports Tim requirement for tourists and business Kauffman in the Feb. 21 Federal Times. because they people from 29 countries to obtain visi¬ Figures from the Office of Management wouldn t have tors’ visas to travel to the United States. and Budget indicate the federal govern¬ The bill, which was awaiting Senate ment will employ roughly tire same number the nerve to tell action, would make permanent a pilot of civilians in fiscal year 2001 as in FY 2000. the same thing program under way since 1986 of recip¬ Between 1993 and 1999, tire civilian work¬ rocal visa-free entry to the countries, force declined 17 percent, the equivalent of to each other's mostly in Western Europe. The INS says 377,000 full-time jobs. OMB estimates that r r> face. 11 million travelers used the program in State Department employment should rise 1998 alone, and the travel and tourism from 30,(XX) to 30,200 over tire next year, a 0.7 — WILL ROGERS industry has actively lobbied to make the percent increase. USAID employment is program permanent. expected to remain unchanged. ■

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14 FOREIGN SERVICE ] O 11RN AL / J U LY - AU GU S T 2000 SPEAKING OUT The Post Of Living Dangerously

BY LOTTIE ERIKSON

This past December, I attended a and stands for a long, long time. morning coffee in Islamabad where It s not about Big Mom, what have we done wrong? Christmas shopping was the topic of Why do people want to hurt us?” conversation. One embassy spouse Macs or big • My 11-year-old son used to be announced she’d bought “I Survived oblivious to danger and mortality in the Coup” T-shirts for everyone on bucks. It s about precisely the way a child his age her list. Another said she was waiting the psychological should be oblivious. But now, every for the updated version of the T-shirt, night before he goes to bed, he makes which should read “I Survived the toll of a hostile a circuit of die house and checks all Nuclear Chest-Thumping, the die doors and all die windows to make Evacuation, the Coup, the Rocket environment. certain diey are bolted. He cannot lie Attack on the Embassy, and the ...” down before he does diis. There were whoops of laughter Living in a critical-threat post has followed by an awkward silence. taught my children lessons about fear Several women stirred their cups of and insecurity diey could have gone a coffee intently. No one wanted to While chronic insecurity does not lifetime without learning. This is die think about what might happen next. lend itself to quantification, analysis or dark side of the so-called “third cul¬ We had all been to the emotional well even anecdotal description, its effects ture kid” experience. Their sense of too many times in the recent past. are very real, and deserve to be recog¬ who diey are in the world and how Several weeks later my husband nized in both the definition and the they can expect otiiers to relate to brought home an administrative calculus of “hardship.” them as Americans is being forged in notice requesting input from family So after reading the notice, I sat a crucible of terrorist attacks and safe members for the Islamabad post dif¬ down and made a list of the ways in haven drills. What concerns me most ferential report. It read, in part: which chronic insecurity affects my is that diis is not just a temporary set¬ ‘While security issues do not normal¬ children’s well-being and our day-to- back in tiieir quality of life. Their ly play a significant role in determin¬ day life here in Islamabad: world view and tiieir sense of identity ing this particular differential, the • I go through my childrens are being formed here and now, so indirect effects of security-related dressers to find and hide dreir favorite these experiences will stay with them restrictions or concerns (e.g., the can¬ embassy T-shirts with the Great Seal forever. cellation of the Marine Ball) may be of the United States on them because considered.” (See sidebar, page 17.) diey make my children look like tar¬ What, Me American? Reading the administrative notice gets on legs. Nor are the effects limited to my led me to wonder if some of the most • I recently had die following dis¬ children. This pervasive sense of difficult aspects of life in a hardship cussion with my seven-year-old uncertainty has also robbed me of the post might also be the least common¬ daughter: ability to express — freely, openly, and ly articulated or addressed. At critical- Me: ‘What did you do in school confidendy — who I am, where I threat posts like Islamabad, chronic today?” come from, and what I stand for. I uncertainty and insecurity provide the Her: “Oh, we had a safe haven deny my American identity, or at least background and context for every drill.” pause to consider the consequences, experience, every relationship and Me: “Really, what’s that?” every time someone asks me what every decision in the same way that Her: “It’s where everyone in die country I come from. This erodes living with a terminal illness does. whole school goes to a dark room trust, limits relationships and

JULY-AUGUST 2000/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 15 S P E A A / N G O U T

interjects an element of doubt into months-long monsoon rains, the lack every encounter and interaction. of high-quality restaurants, or the fact On a practical level, it also makes it I keep my tlrat we have to collect our drinking impossible to plan even a few weeks most treasured water from the embassy in jerry cans. in advance. I keep my most treasured As a former economist who has family photos — die snapshot of my family photos in an worked on environmental issues, I two-year-old son with a Coptic monk know how difficult it is for social sci¬ and the photo of my daughter imper¬ evacuation bag. entists — let alone bureaucrats — to sonating a stone cherub at Ephesus quantify intangible effects. Often — in an evacuation bag in the hall when an effect or outcome is difficult closet, not hanging proudly on the to measure in an “objective” fashion, wall to show everyone who we are, vehicle with the rocket launcher right it is simply ignored, even when it is where we’ve been, and how we’ve next to the softball field. A guard the defining hazard. Objectivity, fair¬ grown. shack on the charred pavement now ness and the need to “CYA” all I have changed my walking route. marks the spot. In fact, we now avoid require the State Department to base We used to walk around the softball the embassy compound as much as its policies, procedures, and field on the embassy compound eveiy possible because we may actually be allowances on observable, measur¬ morning. “What could be safer?” we safer out on the streets. able phenomena. But when we focus thought. But since the rocket attack, Chronic insecurity has more pro¬ solely on what can be easily mea¬ we no longer feel so secure there. nounced, and potentially more last¬ sured, real hazards are trivialized and After all, the terrorists parked their ing, effects on my family than the the scope of our understanding is lim-

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16 FOREIGN SERVICE J O U RN AL/J U LY-AU G U ST 2000 SPEAKING OUT

ited. Ignoring difficult-to-measure POST DIFFERENTIAL AND dimensions of hardship invalidates real sacrifices that Foreign Service DANGER PAY ALLOWANCES families make every day, and at the The post differential is an incentive for recruiting and retaining qualified personnel to same time, seems to give undue serve in posts with unusually difficult or unhealthful conditions. Approximately 150 weight to material deprivations. This separate factors, related to three general themes of the physical environment, living validates the worst stereotypical per¬ conditions, and personal security (including political violence, crime, and political harass¬ ceptions of Americans and American ment) are evaluated in determining a post’s differential rate. Differential rates range from 5 culture as materialistic: We seem to percent to 25 percent of base salary. Roughly one-third of foreign posts qualify for a post dif¬ be saying, “As soon as a fast food ferential. restaurant opens here, we can lower An additional factor — danger pay — compensates civilian employees for service in the post hardship differential.” But areas where conditions of civil insurrection, civil war, or terrorism threaten physical harm or imminent danger to the health or well-being of employees. To avoid double compensation for for many families living at posts the same factors, danger pay is granted in lieu of that part of the post differential which is where security concerns are para¬ attributable to political violence. mount, it is not about the Big Macs. The Office of Allowances in the Bureau of Administration develops and coordinates poli¬ It is about acknowledging the psy¬ cies and procedures related to hardship differentials and danger pay allowances. General reg¬ chological toll of representing ones ulations relating to payment of the post differential and danger pay can be found on the Office country in a hostile environment. ■ of Allowances’ Web site: www.state.gov/www/perdiems/dssr/. A discussion of procedures and criteria for post differentials and danger pay allowances can be found at: The author is a Foreign Service www.state.gov/www/perdiems/quarterly_reports/jul99_notes.html. spouse in Islamabad.

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JULY-AUGUST 2QOO/FORE1GN SERVICE JOURNAL 17 Focus

THE SIEGE

t was the fifth day of the third week. Pat his arms in agony. But now they were not only coldly Murphy, the Public Affairs officer at shaven and ill-washed but increasingly hungry, missing Embassy Loin, glanced cautiously out the dreir families and worried about the rent and die chil¬ window into the glare of the West African dren s tuition. (Murphy himself had no family to worry sun. about: consecrated to worldwide cultural exchange, he “Looks quiet,” he said. “Not even a goat. had accepted the celibacy demanded by such a com¬ But stay away from the windows. Could be a trick.” As mitment.) How much longer could they hold out? He he turned, backlit by the window, his short paunchy fig¬ was certain only of the driver, Pierre, and of Admin ure cast a prophetic shadow and his gray-black hair lit Assistant Afi Kpomblekou, whose normally soft voice up in a halo. remained steely cold as she insisted, “I’ll never trade The five disconsolate Foreign Service nationals seat¬ BROMS for Excel!” ed on his sofa and the floor nodded their assent. On “Marie! When was the last time Pierre checked in?” Sept. 30 they had stocked their Murphy asked suddenly. Cultural Center with supplies for “An hour ago.” His secretary’s two weeks, double-locked all the voice had lost much of its precision doors, and bedded down to await and quickness. the new fiscal year, optimistic that “Right. Think I’ll see how he’s all would soon be well. They awoke doing. They’re sure to try for the to angry and insulting phone calls vehicles again.” and megaphone messages and even Pierre Kpomu sat on a bench one attempt by die aggressors to beneatir the bao-bao tree, his solid climb over the centers outer wall. stocky frame claiming much of its That attempt was repulsed without shade. The rest fell on die PAO car, injury, but with time, uncertainty die USIA Toyota Carryall and the also wounds. FSNs’ personal cars. Now Murphy looked at these “All quiet, Pierre?” Murphy USIA veterans with a mixture of asked. pride and pity: despite tiieir fears “Ah, oui,” Pierre answered. they, as well as those posted in the “Sarkon was outside the gate audio-visual room, the parking lot, HUNKERED DOWN IN awhile ago, shouting that they the library and the English lan¬ THEIR COMPOUND, THEY needed to deliver folding chairs to guage instruction offices had AWAITED THE WILY AND the ambassador’s but,” he laughed remained upbeat, cheering as softiy, “I told him to use their own GREEDY AGGRESSORS. Murphy joined the women flatbed. It’s been wrecked twice employees in the courtyard to already so another time won’t mat¬ pound yams into fufu — that staple BY JAMES F. ter!” of the West African diet — with a O’CALLAGHAN Murphy rejoiced in Pierre’s heavy pesde. They even cheered eternal stoicism. Two weeks earlier when he gave up after two minutes, he had thrown Sarkon back over

18 FOREIGN SERVICE J O U RN AL/J U LY- AUGU ST 2000 Focus

the wall with that same patient strength which made him bering die lean sarcastic cynic who had told him his first the best driver in the mission, picking up safe driving day on the job, 10 years before, “Just make sure you’ve awards annually for 22 years. Murphy grunted approval. got lots of cameras and floodlights there for die ambas¬ “Let him into our Carryall,” he said, “and it won’t last a sador’s speeches.” What’s he doing here? Pat wondered. week.” As if in answer the RSO went on: The older man nodded vigorously and added, “Once “They dew him from the States to try to talk some we don’t have our own car to deliver things, forget about sense into you. Better listen — he’s your last chance.” sending invitations on time!” Murphy was speechless. How could Cottrell Brown “For sure.” Truly, the center needed a vehicle. And join them? At every USIA staff meeting he had com¬ Murphy silently hoped he wasn’t just being selfish about plained about the time it took those clowns to process a the other car, Iris official sedan. He needed it; he would simple travel voucher or ridiculed POL’s ignorance of any miss half Iris appointments if he turned it over to the opinion expressed outside elite living rooms. No, Cottrell GSO. Surely he didn’t want it just for the convenience, would never join die dark side. They had a ringer, or it and still less for the status. Really, he didn’t. Not really. was just a trick to get inside die center and dirow open His examination of conscience was interrupted by the die gates. “How do I know it’s him?” he asked. voice of tire RSO shouting over die heavy black and heav¬ “He said to tell you ‘Guayasamin knows marketing.’ ” ily barred parking lot gate. The phrase carried Murphy back to the fading hours “PAT! You in there? We have to talk!” of a dinner party in Quito, half a dozen staffers around Murphy peered through the spyhole. Jerry Hale was the fireplace, huddled against the nighttime chill. Brown alone. Or at least all Pat could see was the RSO’s wide was shaking his head at the prices Guayasamin got for his belly, his face out of sight atop his 6’3 inch frame. paintings which were good, sure, but not tiiat much bet¬ “I’m here,” Murphy said. “But there’s nothing to talk ter than tiiose of a dozen odier Ecuadorian artists. “Man about unless you guys call off this nonsense.” knows marketing,” Cottrell explained. “’Fore tourists The RSO’s heavy sigh penetrated the steel gate. “You ever get off the plane they think his are ’bout die only know diis wasn’t our idea — Congress ordered consoli¬ expressions of au-then-tic native culture, Indians playing dation for Chrissake! We’ve been telling you that for the flute under surreal mountains or whatever. So they go months!” on down to his studio and pay whatever he wants.” “Yeah. Sure. Can’t you guys come up widr a new line?” Murphy turned back to the gate. “OK, tell him to Another sigh. “Fine. I just came to tell you two tilings: stand in die middle of the street where we can see him, first, the ambassador is about out of patience and she’s and then to come in the front door.” ready to cut off salaries for all of you. After that we cut “You want him naked so he can’t hide anything?” the water and electricity!” Despite the sarcasm, Murphy prudentiy considered “I knew it! To hell widi die Geneva Convention when for a moment. But it was too hideous. “No,” he said. it suits you!” “Five minutes, OK?” “And,” die RSO continued, “you’ve got a visitor you’ve ‘Tou got it. Catch you later.” really got to see.” Murphy glanced through die spyhole to be sure Jerry “Who diis time? Ellen? I know she’s lusting for our had left, tiien went back into the center where he was computers. Tell her to save her breath.” Murphy shook joined on the stairway by Afi Kpomblekou and Press his head. Why did tiiey suppose he’d believe Admin after Assistant Koffi Santos. They peered tiirough a landing he’d withstood the best con jobs the ambassador and window into the dusty street separating the Cultural DCM had offered? Center from the embassy. In a few minutes a lone figure “Not Ellen,” said Jerry. ‘Tour old PAO from Quito, appeared, eyes squinting against the sun. “Sure looks like Cottrell Brown.” Cottrell Brown,” Murphy allowed. “Older, a bit fatter. “Cottrell Brown!” Murphy whispered softiy, remem- Less hair. But I think it’s him.” “What can he tell us die others didn’t?” asked Koffi. James O’Callaghan’s last post was as public affairs offi¬ “I don’t know. But you can trust him. Or at least, you cer in Lome. He is no longer in the Foreign Service. could. And we don’t have much to lose by listening.” He

JULY-AUGUST 2000/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 19 Focus

The headline in the local paper had read “Cultural Workers Defend Their Dignity' and Livelihood. ”

slid open the thermal window and yelled down, “OK! it would probably never happen and if it did they’d Come in!” change it back again sooner or later. Well, if it happened Cottrell — if it was Cottrell — grinned amiably and we’re just encouraging them to fix it sooner rather dian put a battered baseball cap back on his head, one with later. Someone’s got to make a statement.” tire University of Mississippi logo. It looked like the hat Brown finished his second glass of water and wiped from Quito. his mouth with a sleeve. ‘Tou sure did diat all right. Real Murphy quickly went downstairs to tell librarian good job with your local press here. I guess. Don’t read Michel Toffou to open the door. “But make sure no one French but saw your picture on the front page of one of else is diere to rush us.” the papers here under a big headline about culture Michel nodded wearily. He was a man of regular defending something, was it?” habits, was Michel, as dedicated to his work as to his “Cultural Workers Defend Their Dignity and family. Sleeping in the center and lacking library patrons Livelihood,” Murphy translated from memory. “Koffi these three weeks had been hard on him, and only the here gets the credit for arranging that.” prospect of seeing his library seized by the Commercial “Good job, Koffi. But the New York Times quoted a Section had kept him resolute. Now he dutifully opened Mr. Muiphy in dieir story. You made die big leagues, tire door, letting a tall man in jeans and a guayabera shirt boy!” enter. Pat modestiy waved aside die praise. “Can’t take much “Cottrell? It’s really you! I thought you retired.” credit. They called me.” “Really is, my boy, and I damn near did!” The older “Yeah, but you’re die one who came up with, what man extended a hand. “Then my daughter decided she was it? ’We must not prostitute American culture to the had to go to graduate school. Anyway, glad to see you’re policy of die day’? There were even some sympatiietic making a name for yourself. I always trained my JOTs letters to the editor. Good stuff. Not that it’ll do you any good. You got something cold to drink? Hotter out there good.” than the Delta in dog days.” Pat noticed the FSNs shifting uncomfortably, looking “Sure.” Murphy led the way up the narrow stairs to from him to Brown and back. “Sure it will,” he insisted. die PAO office, introduced Cottrell to the staff and to a “Get some public sympathy, Washington will react. If chair, and poured a glass of mineral water before sitting more posts had held out the damn thing would be behind his desk. “Afraid the beer’s all gone, last week. repealed by now.” Don’t suppose you could get us some more, could you?” Brown shook his head impatiendy. “They can’t do “Yeah, think I could. Get you ’bout anything you nodiin’ in less than 15 years. You plan to sit here that want, if you go along widi those boys.” And in response long?” to Murphy’s disappointed expression, added, “You “If we have to!” Murphy felt foolish as soon as he said gonna run out of a whole lot more’n beer, you don’t get it. “Damn it all, Cottrell, you know what’s at stake? Take witl i die program.” English programs: they say our part-time teachers have “Cottrell... of all people, I never expected to hear this to be State employees but they don’t say what land: from you. How could diey turn you around like tiiat?” FSNs? PSCs? What? And if they are then we have to pay “Took an act of Congress,” Cottrell chuckled after Social Security and medical and maybe a set number of draining a large glass of water and holding it out for a hours so the costs go through the roof but they tell us the refill. ‘Tou did hear about that?” program still has to pay for itself which is impossible “I know what they claim. But you’re the one told me even if they figure out how to recycle money which diey tiiey’d been going back and forth on this for 40 years and say they ‘don’t do.’”

20 FOREIGN SERVICE JO U RN AL/J U LY- AU GU ST 2000 Focus

“You got that right,” Cottrell allowed. “But they’ll off. Finally got through Plutarch’s Lives, even. Good work it out. Some day.” stuff.” “And,” cut in Afi bitterly, “Excel is a terrible program. Murphy shifted uneasily. He sensed he was losing the I don’t know if it could even recycle English language FSNs. “That’s all right for you, Cottrell, but we’re here.” tuition or advising fees back into our budget.” “And it ain’t all bad here, boy! Didn’t they promise “Or how about international visitors?” Murphy con¬ your FSNs grade retention? Ain’t nobody gonna lose no tinued. “We can’t wait until February — their latest salary or seniority. Mosta your people gonna keep doin’ guess — for a budget! We’ve got to get people on just what they been doing and you’ll have less paperwork planes!” yourself. Well, maybe. And maybe you can even keep “And they want to take our janitors,” added Kwaku your car ’till the end of your tom- — if you ain’t got the Amavi, the distribution head responsible for sending out ambassador too mad already.” thousands of newsletters and Wireless File texts each “You’re sure about grade retention?” asked Marie month. “But our janitors do more than clean; they help Zekpa. “Even if the PAO is downgraded, the secretary with stuffing envelopes or answering die phone when stays the same?” Victor’s not here and all kinds of dungs!” “You stay the same, even if tire position changes,” Cottrell nodded patiendy, and added Iris own predic¬ Cottrell assured her. ‘Well, if that’s really true —” Before tions: “And where you used to arrange to run your own she could finish Murphy broke in. petty cash, you’ll have to go beggin’ to B&F, and beggin’ “How about FSN parking, hah? Koffi — didn’t you to GSO to fix tilings. Won’t control no budget anymore. say the State FSNs were already gloating that you Have to get their OK. And you can bet they got their wouldn’t be able to park inside the USIA parking lot any¬ eyes on all these TVs and VCRs over here, too. And your more because there wouldn’t be one and you’d have to library’s gonna be pushing Fords instead of Faulkner. park outside like they do?” Oh, it’s gonna be different, fer sure.” “Yes,” Koffi agreed. “But maybe ... I mean, if we get The FSNs, and Murphy, nodded in grim confirma¬ fired we don’t have to woriy about parking anyway. Are tion. “So how can you urge us to go along?” you sure we can’t win, Mr. Brown?” “Listen here, son: You - ain’t - got - no - choice! What “Dead sure. Sorry. So what you gonna do, Pat? Got to you doin’ now? You puttin’ any international visitors on think of your people.” planes? You got anybody reading Faulkner in your Murphy stared dismally at the floor and walls as if library? You getting any money to track with any pro¬ looking for a secret exit. His eyes fell on his computer gram at all? You having lunch with any journalists or aca¬ and he idly clicked the mouse, calling up Free Cell. “No demics?” games on State computers,” he observed. ‘Well I would. But they won’t let anyone in, and if we “Nope.” go out they’ll occupy the place.” ‘Well, Cottrell, like you used to say, look’s like I’ve “That’s right. And you better believe it, they gonna about played out my hand. You’re right, I can’t ask my cut you off: salaries, water, lights. It comes to that, you people to keep on risking everything if there’s no hope. and your people gonna walk out of here with nothin’. I’m But I just can’t do it, myself. Guess when I walk out of tellin’ you, better give it up while you still got somethin’.” here I’ll head right on out to the airport and tire private If pressure just made Murphy want to dig in his heels, sector. You suppose they’!! let me in that Job Search tiling? the looks on tile FSN faces told him Brown’s arguments “Boy, don’t be stupid. You know the government’s were having an effect. Even Afi was twisting her hands paving you more’n you’re worth.” uncertainly. “You really believe that, Cottrell?” Murphy “I know that. But still... Aside from that, give me just asked. one good reason I should hang around if we give up?” “I wouldn’t have come 10,000 miles if I didn’t! Brown reached over, put a firm hand on Murphy’s Besides, it ain’t all bad. Take me. I’m still in my same shoulder, looked tile younger man in the eye and said in office in the old USIA building but since ever’thing has a strong, even voice: ‘Tou’ll never have to sit on an I- to go through five layers of clearance now, I get a whole CASS Council again.” lot more reading done waiting for ABC an’ XYZ to sign Pat stared back in distrustful joy. “Are you sure?”

JULY-AUGUST 2000/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 21 Focus

“Sure am. No separate agency, no representation. Murphy held his head high as he approached but You would only ever go on as a State rep, and the made a formal correct bow as he surrendered to her ambassador herself promised me she would never his Country Plan and the keys to the PAO vehicle. She make you do that. An’ I believe her. She’s a real nice accepted both, looked at them for a moment, and lady.” then graciously handed back the plan. “You’ll be “Then no more cost centers,” the PAO breathed. needing this,” she smiled, “to complete your portion “Whatever they are. That would be great... if it’s true. of the MPP. I know you’ll do your best.” And handing Can I trust them?” him the keys, she said, “Consider yourself grandfa¬ “Pat, have I ever lied to you? From your first day as thered. You owe Mr. Brown.” a JOT, didn’t I tell you exactly like it was?” “Thank you, ambassador,” Murphy choked. “That’s “Yes, Cottrell. You did.” very kind of you.” “All right then. Do what you gotta do.” “I’m just sorry it took so long,” she said with an Phone calls were made and terms agreed. Murphy ambiguous, puzzling smile. Murphy would have and the entire USIA staff marched out of the Cultural understood if he could have seen, as she could, Center at 5 p.m. exactly, crosswalking through the Sarkon clambering into the carryall, and the commer¬ dust and past the foraging goats to the embassy’s wide cial assistant heading toward the library with his arms and wide-open vehicle gates, where the ambassador full of the Thomas Commercial Register, and Ellen and most of her staff waited. A short, dignified Olsen emerging with a Pentium III computer so new woman, her habitual graciousness was only slightly and clean that you could hardly tell where she’d torn compromised by signs of impatience or disgust. off the USIA barcode. ■

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22 FOREIGN SERVICE J O U RN AL/J U LY- AU G U ST 2000 Focus

CAVIAR AND KURDS

oni welcomed me back from the tribal carpets covered the floor and small Isfahan silks ambassadors staff meeting. were thrown over the sofas and stuffed chairs that “Mr. Shirazi wonders if you rimmed the room. Mona Shirazi’s collection of little could stop by for a drink on your silver objects was scattered on brass trays. I settled way home this evening?” myself behind a tray with a large bowl of caviar as “Tell him I’ll be there around Shirazi entered from a side door. 6:30, provided he guarantees the martinis are prop¬ Shirazi launched quickly into small talk: his wife, erly chilled this time.” my ambassador, Nixon’s troubles over Watergate. State Department personnel believed I was Paying little heed to my responses, he spooned caviar assigned to Embassy Tehran to monitor internal pol¬ on sangak bread as Mohamed poured martinis from a itics. In fact, with the Shah so beloved by Nixon and silver pitcher. “This is going to be a very different Kissinger, his opposition was of no interest to evening for you, Harry, my boy,” he said. I noticed Washington. Only as a cover for there was no brown envelope on my real work — arranging visas Mohameds tray. for Aly Shirazi and getting carpets That was the normal way cheaply for VIPs — did I some¬ Shirazi conveyed passports for his times analyze the fully successful men, who, without my personal and, with scrupulous balance, the intervention, would never be slightly less successful planks in issued visas by our stiff-necked His Imperial Majesty’s modern¬ consulate staff. If there were no ization program. passports and no visa request, this I drove my BMW 2002 into could indeed be an interesting the Shirazi courtyard precisely at evening. 6:30 p.m. Being prompt was an Mohamed exited and quickly American sign of respect for returned, holding the door open. Shirazi. He had been among Past him strode the Shah’s Minister those in 1953 who rounded up of Court, Assadolah Allam. I had mobs in the bazaar and marched never met Allam, a thin, elegant them on Prime Minister aristocrat, but I had seen his photos Mosaddeq’s office, bringing him “THE CIA HAS A LONG in the press where he appeared down and the Shah back from HISTORY WITH THE almost daily, standing to one side as exile. There’s no better invest¬ His Majesty cut a ribbon or received KURDS,” THE SHAH’S ment in the Middle East than a foreign dignitary. He was called MINISTER SAID. “WE NEED saving a king’s skin. the Shah’s right hand or his brain or Shirazi’s man Mohamed SOMEONE FRESIT.” his backbone, but never his con¬ opened the heavy inlaid door science. In 1963 he had called in the and, with only the slightest incli¬ BY HENRY BRECHT tanks to overpower street demon¬ nation of his head, ushered me strations; now he called in Swedish into the living room. Layers of lovelies for the Shah’s pleasure.

JULY-AUGUST 2000/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 23 Focus

Alctni was called the Shah s right hand or his brain or his backbone, but never his conscience.

He greeted me in formal Persian, then shifted to “Yes, I’m aware of your form of ‘encouragement’ for equally formal British English. “I have heard so much the Iraqi Kurds,” I said rather dryly. My directness about you, Harry. My good friend Aly tells me that you with the minister surprised me; I had only finished my are the one American in that immense embassy who first martini. can get difficult things done with ease.” “Of course you are,” Allam swiftly rejoined. “And Aly poured a drink, but the court minister ignored you also know that your government is cooperating it. “I know you are a busy man — yes, we have sources with us in this endeavor.” who tell us who does what in your embassy. I shall not “As is the Israeli government,” I added. detain you, but shall move immediately to the object of “Certainly. They are part of the effort,” Allam said. my visit. I, too, as you well know, have a full agenda “In truth, it works very well. You provide the funding and tonight it is filled by a delegation from the Arab and material support; the Israelis give technical assis¬ League.” He grimaced and smiled at the opinion he tance. They are specialized in activ ities we two prefer was confident we shared. not to touch. We contribute the geography and long- “As die person charged with knowing what goes on developed connections with the various Kurdish lead¬ inside this country,” Allam continued, “you are aware ers. Ours is a particularly sensitive and complex under¬ of our difficult relationship with the Kurds. For a man taking. We want to help the Iraqi Kurds, but we do not of your background, I do not have to review their sad wish to awaken our clans who at the moment are history. Some Kurds acquire a taste for rebellion from sleeping, or pretend to be.” the milk of their savage mothers. When they first pull It was my turn. “In addition to our affection for on those absurd baggy pants, they dress in the clothing Kurds, we three also share a distaste for the govern¬ of disloyalty. They are loyal only to their clan, never to ment in Baghdad,” I said, hoping to project an inti¬ their nation. Only with a very special effort can we mate knowledge of an extremely closely held arrange¬ change their ways.” ment. I did not interrupt. While I felt an American sym¬ “I told you Harry was on top of his job,” Shirazi pathy for the regions champion underdogs, I also added, flattering me and himself. knew the Kurds were bom losers. “Your astuteness, Aly, is extraordinary,” Allam “Happily,” Allam continued, “over the years His smiled. “But now that we have established ourselves, Majesty’s wise policies of fair treatment, economic let me get down to brass tacks. We three partners need development and firmness have won the loyalty of most your help, Harry. Why do I ask you, rather than your of the clans. A few remain troublesome, but they are ambassador, who would be the normal channel? I do not serious. Poor Iraq, however. Poor Saddam. The so because I want to make sure you understand and Kurds who live in our neighbors mountains remain are ready for this extremely delicate mission. quite rebellious. Baghdad appears to have no clue how “We are also approaching you because of your to manage these wild people. We try to help, to encour¬ American nationality and your keen political mind. No age a peaceful approach to solving problems, but to lit¬ one else could take on this task. There is in the region tle avail. Now a minor war seems to be developing around Mahabad a certain young Kurd, a relation of between Saddam and his Kurds. Neither is likely to one of the great chiefs, educated in one of your uni¬ prevail; both can inflict so much senseless damage.” versities. He is a man of impressive talents for leader¬ ship but, I fear, unless he is properly handled, he will Henry Precht, a retired FSO, served in Tehran from make serious trouble. This man, Hassan Mazuji, will 1972 to 1976. not talk to us, yet he is Stirling up his people against us.

24 FOREIGN SERVICE ] O U RN AL/J V LY-AU GU ST 2000 Focus

He has the usual list of tiresome Kurdish complaints. one from a government that is supposed to be snugly But he has a special infection which he picked up in in bed with you? ” your country: a great admiration for your ways, howev¬ Allam answered: “Because he has seen how respon¬ er inappropriate they may be in this ancient land. He sive your government is to people with even the most has sometimes talked to Americans who travel in his damaging complaints — your criminals, your blacks — area and who chance upon him — scholars, Peace he believes he can convince you to help his cause. He Corps, that sort. From them we know he would like to thinks your innate sympathy for the downtrodden wall, be in touch with your embassy.” in the end, benefit his people.” Allam paused and pulled a handkerchief from his “But isn’t this the CIA’s business?” I asked. “They coat sleeve to dab his bps. “We would like you to talk have been working with you on the Kurds for years.” to this Hassan and try to explain to him that there is a “Again you answer your own question,” Allam better way of addressing the Kurdish dilemma. smiled. “Your CIA has a long history of developing its Explain to him that he can be both a good Iranian cit¬ own ideas and plans for the Kurds. We need someone izen and promote the culture and well-being of the fresh for this initiative. Will you help us? If you agree, Kurdish people. If he cannot be convinced to behave I will see your ambassador and clear the way for you.” rationally, he is capable of disrupting the work you and “If he agrees, I will naturally do my best — whatev¬ we are doing for the Iraqi Kurds.” er my doubts about the likely outcome. Anyway, how I let the silence hang there as I poured myself a do I find this Hassan?” drink and slathered some caviar on a bit of sanjak. “I “As he refuses to trust us, he remains always in hid¬ don’t understand why this Hassan would talk to me; he ing except under special circumstances. We must coax doesn’t know me at all. And why would he trust some¬ him through his trusted friends to meet you.”

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“This Kurd has a great admiration for American ways, however inappropriate they may be in this ancient land. ”

Allam suggested that I travel to Mahabad and check “No, it seems clear enough, if a little starry-eyed. into a Kurdish hotel, the Behest. There, he said I When should I start?” should tell the manager that I was a friend of Hassan’s Allam clapped his hands on his knees and abruptly and that I wanted to see him. After that, Allam told stood up. “As soon as you can.” He gripped my hand. me, Hassan would wait until he thought it was safe and Then, bidding a Persian farewell to Shirazi, he quickly would contact me. Allam wanted me to use my powers opened the parlor door and left. Aly hustled after him of persuasion to win over Hassan. The Behest wasn’t a and I, as though caught up in his wake, followed, paus¬ resort, he acknowledged, but my stay would only be ing only to pick up a last caviar cracker. for a few days. Finally, he handed me a long, plain The next day, after the ambassador adjourned our envelope, in which, he said, I would find directions to staff meeting, he asked me to join him in his office. the hotel, a card in Persian which I was to copy and When I entered, he remained standing behind his hand to the hotel manager and $200 in rials to cover desk, an indication it was to be a brief session. “Allam my expenses. came to see me last night,” he said. “He described his “Any questions?” he asked. proposition to you. Apparently you accepted.”

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“Subject to your approval and advice, sir,” I inter¬ against Iraq and it would be unseemly to turn them jected. I actually meant it, for this ambassador was a down. Off you go. Drive your own car. And take care first-rate professional. While he earned his pay as a of yourself. I have my eye on a fine gilim at Davids I loyal supporter of U.S. policy towards Iran, he thought want you to buy for me.” for himself. Whenever possible, he used his influence I was on the road by 10:30. The sun had gone down to limit Washington’s excesses. when I reached Mahabad. I found the Behest Hotel “Of course. I would expect no less from you. But I easily — on Pahlavi Avenue, naturally. It was a dusty have to tell you — and only you -— that this business has white two-story building with a narrow balcony looking the aroma of over-ripe caviar. The Kurds have never been out on a square. After parking in front, I asked the friendly towards us and there is no trust on either side. room clerk for a room facing the front. The Iranians are our friends, but they are equally suspect “We have only one large room free on that side,” when their own interests are so heavily engaged.” the clerk replied, explaining the charge was the equiv¬ “I agree completely,” I answered. “But I don’t see a alent of $1 per night per bed. If I wanted privacy I great risk. At worst, you might lose an FSO-4. At best, would have to pay for all the beds. There were eight of you could help the Shah pacify a troublesome bunch, them. earning a measure of his gratitude.” “Fine, I’ll take all eight,” I said. “Is the manager in?” “This is no such diing as gratitude in this region, “No, he will come tomorrow.” Harry,” said the ambassador. “The concept simply does “Fine, please do me the kindness of getting this to not exist. At any rate, I have given my approval. We — him tonight.” I handed him an envelope with the mes¬ or Henry and Nixon — lured Iran into this venture sage I had copied asking Hassan Mazuji to visit me. A

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“It is always the same, ” Hassan said. "Kurds ewe used by outsiders who pay cash. When the money stops, they change. ”

teenage Kurd guided me up the stairs, pointing to the which he returned home. “These are my people,” he stinking toilet, happily distant from my room. said. “My life belongs to them.” The room was fairly large but little floor space was “You ask what has happened to the Kurds in the past evident: A wooden wardrobe, three kitchen chairs and a 30 years? I will tell you. When we had our republic after table filled what area was left after eight metal frame sin¬ World War II, there were some sincere people and there gle beds had been crammed in. The room was already were some who were used by the Soviets. When the inhabited by a dozen flies. French doors gave access to Soviets left, the Kurds working for them left also. Now the balcony and a view of tire square. we have Kurds in the pay of the Shall. When he goes, The square was divided into four quadrants sepa¬ they will go. It is always die same: the Kurds are used by rated by sidewalks. In the center posters of the Shall outsiders who pay cash. When die money stops, diey stood high on an eight-foot plinth surrounded by a cir¬ change. Now diey are working for the Shall because you cle of ornate lamp posts, each of which had two globes Americans provide the funds. This may last a long time hanging from arms reaching out from the tops. Inside — you are very rich. But some day it, too, will end and the four quadrants were badly worn lawns. Even at the Kurds will start again on another search for false this hour, families were stretched out on the patchy friends.” green, sipping tea and trying to restrain lively chil¬ He paused. “But you did not come here for a lesson dren. on Kurdish history or sociology. What is your purpose in For two days I read old New Yorkers and took my staying in this hot room in Mahabad?” meals — chello kebab — in the cafe next door. Each “I came to you for an education,” I said. I talked about time I asked, the manager assured me my message had the Kurds’ collaboration against Iraq and tried to prove been delivered to its recipient. Afraid I would miss the Kurds might just come out ahead on this one. He Hassan s visit, I stayed put. wasn’t buying my line. After I had waited over two days, I noticed a provin¬ “I came to see you,” he said, “to persuade you of die cial taxi circle the square twice and stop below my bal¬ exact opposite. You will destroy us and yourselves if you cony. A Kurd in baggy pants emerged and entered the continue to meddle in business you do not understand. hotel. A few moments later there was a knock on the You are like the Kurds: You are being used by the door and I bade Hassan Mazuji sit with me at the table Iranians and the Israelis and, in the end, you will be cast under the naked light bulb. Fie was my height, but with aside by them. Help us by leaving us alone. Let us fight thicker muscles and a large moustache that failed to hide against Saddam if we wish, or against the Shall and cer¬ smallpox scars. “Welcome to Free Kurdistan,” Hassan tainly against the Turk bastards. Some day there will be smiled. “What may I do for you?” a Kurdish state with a little oil. If you help us or just leave I began speaking to him obliquely, asking why in just us alone, we will honor you. If not, we shall fight you just one generation, the Kurds had turned from fighting like those others.” against Tehran to fighting for it against Iraq. I was also The rhetoric went round and round with little give on curious about him. It was unusual for a Kurd to get an either side. Eager to register some progress to report in education in the U.S., and even more unusual for one Tehran I kept probing for areas of agreement. There with a green card to return to Iran. were none. After two hours, we decided to break off. “I owe everything to a great man, your consul in Despite worries about his security, he agreed to see me Tabriz,” Hassan explained. He told me that when his again under the same procedures. I rather liked his casu¬ father had been lulled by the Iranians, the consul had al frankness, even though he had done nothing for my adopted him and sent him to school in Oklahoma, after career prospects.

28 FOREIGN SERVICE ] O U RN AL/J U LY-AU C U S T 2 00 0 Focus

From the balcony I watched Hassan climb into the seeing I was an American, let me through the line. I ancient cab waiting out front. It circled the square and returned to the hotel where I put on shirt and shoes, left. When it was gone, a dark Iranian Peykan car pulled grabbed my bag and thrust $30 in rials at the desk clerk. away from the curb on Pahlavi Avenue, did a quick U- With troops holding back the angry Kurds, I reached my tum and went in the same direction. car barely in time. A volley of rocks hit the vehicle as I Around five the next morning I awoke to a womans swerved onto the avenue and made for the Tehran high¬ scream. Down on the square, I saw five or six people way. standing around a body hanging above their heads from After a dozen or so miles, I figured I had escaped one of the lamp posts. Others were running up. One was Kurdish wrath and began to think about how to structure carrying a ladder. my meeting with the ambassador. Hassan had been I put on my pants and rushed down the stairs to join right. I had been used. Just like the Kurds, I had become them. It was Hassan, his horribly bent neck clearly bro¬ a tool of those who oppress them. Seeking to guide ken. A large sheet of paper was pinned to his shirt. Hassan, I had led him to his death. Scrawled in bold black Persian was, “Death to Traitors When I arrived at home that afternoon, my wife greet¬ — Cut the Foreign Hand.” ed me with a perfunctory lass and a brown envelope. The hotel manager came up behind me. Seeing “This just came,” she said, “with a half-kilo can of caviar.” Hassan, he gave me a furious look and muttered a curse The note read, “Sorry it didn’t work out the way we but halted as a platoon of gendarmes, piling out of jeeps hoped. I’m sure you did your best. Aly. PS. Could you and trucks, rushed towards us. They began pushing help these two friends with a visa?” everyone out of the square away from the avenue, but Two passports were enclosed. ■

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JULY-AUGUST 2000/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 29 Focus

WHEN IN ROME, WEAR RUNNING SHOES

was excited when I won a grant to study ait in were American and too sweet. I felt underdressed in my Rome. But as soon as I bought my plane tick¬ cotton sundress and sandals and I stood awkwardly near I et, I was terrified, and my insides felt hollow. the wine table drinking too much. I couldn’t understand The empty feeling in my stomach persisted why we were drinking American wine in Italy anyway, after I got to Rome and no amount of pasta and I nodded in agreement when a beautiful blonde and cheese could cure it. Rome was sup¬ Italian woman began talking to me. posed to be an artist s paradise, but I was overwhelmed. “This wine! I wouldn’t put it in soup. It’s disgusting. All my sketches were nervous scrawls, my paintings It tastes like some kind of solvent.” timid dabs of color. I didn’t think it was quite drat bad, but I nodded and A friend of mine who worked at the American smiled at her. “You shouldn’t be drinking this,” she went embassy helped me find an apartment. It was in a on. “You look much too intelligent.” decrepit building with dirty windows that looked out Lulu was thin and elegant. She was short, but per¬ onto tire airshaft. In die evening die fectly proportioned. I am only place was full of the smell of cook¬ 5’4”, but I felt like a huge clumsy ing. Evidendy, everyone ate boiled ostrich next to her. Lulu had been greens and pork jowls every night. to Miami, and she judged all of It was hot when I got to Rome; America by that experience. She the cobblestones and acres of went on and on about how parked cars reflected die June sun, expensive everything was and making me feel flattened and dry, how awful it was to have so much like a peeling fresco diat someone crime. I listened dutifully, and I forgot to finish. I was painfully self- clutched my wineglass and conscious and aware that the sipped nervously. I couldn’t Romans were staring at me. I could¬ believe I was talking to a real n’t read a map and walk on the cob¬ Italian! blestones at the same time without Lulu was glamorous and seduc¬ tripping. It seemed easier to tty and tive in her friendliness. She had a find my own way. I spent hours thin, angular face but her smile wandering in circles, searching for rounded and softened it. She had the charming piazzas I had read BECOMING FRIENDS WITH long hands with painted nails that about, but all I could find were tiny, TWO SOPHISTICATED were constantly reaching out to un-air-conditioned shops, piles of touch my arm. After my days of ROMANS SEEMED LIKE THE dog shit, cars parked on die side¬ loneliness, her warmth drew me in. walk, and an endless stream of MOST EXCITING THING, The wine, as bad as it was, gave me mopeds that whizzed by too close UNTIL REALITY BROKE IN. courage to speak. to me, blowing grit and pigeon “Most Americans don’t drink feadiers into my eyes and teedi. BY BARBARA NEU wine,” I assured her. “They drink I was invited to a wine tasting at Budweiser. We used to call it ‘dog the U.S. embassy, but all die wines piss’ in college.”

30 FOREIGN SERVICE J O U RN AL/J U LY-AUGU ST 2000 Focus

Lulu laughed wildly. “What an unusual tiling for an together and I would find the Rome of my dreams, American to say. You are unique!” with adventure and love, like “Roman Holiday.” Sometimes we are so immediately taken with some¬ Our first outing together was to die Forum. I had read one that we want literally to jump into their skin and tiiat it was sort of a rustic place, so I dressed sensibly for become them. Or at least get as close to them as possible. the trip, in khaki shorts and running shoes. Lulu and her That’s die way I felt about Lulu. husband nearly burst out laughing when they saw me. It turned out diat Lulu and her husband Mario lived Lulu was wearing wool trousers and a leather jacket, only a few blocks away from me. When she immediately although tire temperature outside was 60 degrees. She invited me to dinner in her apartment, I was surprised also had on high-heeled boots. I wanted to go home and and grateful. Becoming friends with a Roman seemed change, and not just my clothes. I wanted to become the like the most exciting Rung in die world. sort of person who wouldn’t dream of wearing running As we drove around in circles in Lulu’s tiny red Fiat shoes anywhere, ever. We piled into their Fiat and looking for a bit of sidewalk to park on, Lulu told me the zoomed down the streets so fast, I drought I would vomit. story of her infertility. “Babies! I spent years trying to keep them from com¬ The Forum was beautiful and rustic — rocky with ing. Now my husband wants a son. What am I to do? And columns poking up through the long grass. There I don’t really want to get all fat. Yet my mother says I’m were twisted, silver olive trees growing amongst too thin and thin women don’t have babies.” She went on the ruins. Birds, squirrels, and cats were everywhere. I to tell me tiiat she and her husband had been trying to couldn’t help looking at the other visitors to see if any of have a baby since tiiey got married, five years ago. Now them were also wearing shorts and running shoes. I spot¬ Lulu was taking all sorts of pills. Her motiier had her ted some — and they were all American or German drinking and eating a special diet, which as far as I could tourists. The Americans were at least behaving them¬ tell consisted mainly of white wine. selves, but the Germans stomped all over everything with Lulu must have been around 40 but only the tiny' lines their huge feet. They crawled and climbed everywhere on her neck gave her age away. With no hips and small they weren’t allowed. Sometimes I would see them breasts, she looked like the least fertile person I had ever standing with their sunburned faces turned toward the seen. She also wore a lot of make-up and hairspray and Coliseum. Their wistful yet ecstatic expressions seemed perfume, so her appearance and manner didn’t conform to say, “All this could have been ours.” to my idea of w'hat a mother should look like: someone Afterward, Lulu took me to her favorite leather store down-to-earth, or perhaps even dowdy. I suspended my to buy some boots like hers, so I wouldn’t look like such envy of her long enough to feel a little sorry for her. a geek. They were soft, black leather with high heels and Her husband Mario was home when we got in. He square toes. They were meant to be pretty' not comfort¬ was sitting in the living room smoking and watching a able, at least to someone like me who was used to sandals soccer match but he jumped up to meet us. I thought and running shoes. After a day of wearing them, I would he was gorgeous, with his dark hair and eyes, which have to soak my feet all evening, but at least the Romans only increased my envy of Lulu. We drank frascati and wouldn’t stare at me so much. made pasta together: penne with pesto. Mario told me Then Lulu and Mario came over to my apartment and that one must pronounce penne exactly the right way in admired my work, which consisted mainly of chaotic Italian; otherwise it sounds like the word “penis.” He paintings in black ink that I had done from memory. I laughed uproariously' at his own joke. I fell immediate¬ kept coming back to the shadows in the Roman streets. ly in love with both of them, imagining that I had found They seemed to be what I tended to remember most. a way' to overcome my loneliness. We would go places And die shadow of loneliness, too. That was another memory. Barbara Neu is a Maryland-based writer and artist who “These are very unusual,” said Mario. “Usually has accompanied her FSO spouse to posts in Sierra painters only think about beauty in Rome. You seem to Leone and Italy. This is her second published short like thinking about darkness and dirt.” “Yes,” said Lulu, story in the Journal. “One gets so tired of picturesque views of St. Peter’s.”

JULY-AUGUST 2000/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 31 Focus

You can 7 possibly be in love with someone you haven 7 slept with!” she said, laughing.

Then they began criticizing my apartment. They did¬ Then Lulu asked me how Rob was in bed. I said I did¬ n’t like tire heavy curtains, the hairy rugs or the narrow n’t know. bed. Lulu told me to get a cleaning woman. Lulus moth¬ “You don’t know?” er was her cleaning woman. She went over to their apart¬ “No. Actually, he hasn’t even kissed me.” ment twice a week and cleaned the apartment and ironed “You don’t kiss? What do you do?” She had gone from their underwear. I once saw her throw a large bucket of sounding shocked to sounding interested, as if I was rubbish out the window, into the street. When I asked about to disclose some new sexual technique to her. Lulu about this, she said it was “the Roman way.” “Well, we just talk, and hold hands. I don’t know. We’re just good friends, really.” At another embassy party, I met a guy named Rob “Mario and I slept together the first day we met. It was who was working there as an intern for the sum¬ wonderful.” mer. That weekend we walked around town I wanted the conversation to end, because I didn’t together, and I began to feel less awkward and conspicu¬ want to admit to Lulu that I was a virgin. I stalled blush¬ ous. It was nice to be part of a couple instead of a third ing like an idiot. I wished I had some stoiy of my own to wheel. Rut it was more than hat. Rob was so different tell Lulu, but at the same time I resented the feeling that from Mario that I was swept away. Mario loved to I was expected to “share” Rob with her. My silence and impress people and talk and he could be veiy sweet. Rut red face eventually gave me away. Lulu raised her eye¬ Rob didn’t always say things that reflected back on him¬ brows and laughed. self. He was interested in me, even if I was in a bad She must have told Mario about my lack of experience mood, or was badly dressed. And he had beautiful blue because he brought it up one night when we were in eyes and long eyelashes. Lulu’s kitchen while she and Rob talked out on the bal¬ It was strange, but I felt almost as if I were cheating on cony. He treated me as if I had an unfortunate disease. Lulu and Mario. But since Lulu called me every day, I He always stood close to me when we conversed. Lulu could hardly keep my relationship with Rob a secret. So was like that too. They both had a way of looking at you Rob and I started going over to Lulu’s apartment a couple intently while you talked so that you felt as if you were the of times a week. We drank wine and listened to Lulu and most important person in the world. Mario talk endlessly about he superiority of Italian “Of course,” said Mario, “the Mother of God — Mary schools, food, wine, coffee, clothing, seafood, olive oil, and — was a virgin." health care system, among other tilings. Rob accepted What does that have to do with anything? I thought. heir opinions politely. Sometimes, hough, I wished he Perhaps he was trying to legitimize my condition some¬ would speak up for something - anything — American. how? This idea evaporated as Mario came even closer to One morning, Lulu visited me and started talking me. His proximity and the smell of his strong aftershave again quite frankly about their fertility problems. Now flustered me and made my eyes water. I took a step away hey thought it was Mario’s fault, and he was taking pills, from him. too. But he was so nervous now hat he was impotent. Later, Mario took Rob to look at a collection of ceram¬ “The doctor says I have too much of something and ic tiles that he had in his study. The study was really a Mario doesn’t have enough. That made Mario upset, I nursery, but there wasn’t a baby to put in it. Lulu and I can tell you! Now at night he has nothing at all.” She sat close together on the leather sofa joking about my vir¬ forced a giggle. “I try and try but he gets mad and goes ginity. When Lulu began telling me about her first sexu¬ out to watch television. What does he think? That we can al experiences, I tried to seem interested, but I was drunk just go out to the store and buy a baby?” and my mind wandered. As I absently admired the plants

32 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/JULY-AUGUST 2000 Focus

on the balcony, Lulu put her hand on my leg and said We came to a section that had some pretty umbrella something about getting her confidence back. Then she pines and we tiiought we would get out and take a littie began talking about her deep hunger, kneading my thigh walk. But the ground was paved with used condoms and with growing vigor. I suddenly understood what she was cigarette butts. We decided to turn around when we getting at. I wanted to get away from her. I adored Lulu came to a pair of 60-year-old hookers sitting on eitiier and loved being close to her, but dris was too intimate and side of the road. One sat on an old car cushion and the too weird. It was not the kind of adventure I yearned for. otiier on a narrow, stained mattress with the springs I don’t think Lulu noticed how uncomfortable I was. showing. They botii had platinum blonde hair and hoot¬ She was watching for Mario. When he came back into tire ed at us as we struggled to pull the car around. room, she took her hand off my thigh in a rather noncha¬ “Get us out of here,” I hissed as the hookers laughed lant way, but she had left it there long enough for Mario and spoke unintelligible invitations. to see. Rob and I didn’t speak to each other until we got back I was grateful when the evening was over and Rob to my apartment. After we had cooled off, I made us botii walked me home in the cool darkness. We held hands laugh by describing my next painting: “Appian Way and and I felt my head clearing. I couldn’t believe there was Two Old Whores.” Rob sat on one side of the air condi¬ anything unnatural in my relationship with Rob, but Lulu tioner and I was on die other as we drank mineral water. and Mario had made me feel that I should feel it was. I wanted to stay tiiat way forever. They had a way of saying something was “normal.” For I didn’t tell Lulu that Rob and I were in love, but she example, smoking cigarettes while you ate and throwing seemed to know, the way she always knew everything. your garbage out the window were both “normal.” So, “But you can’t possibly be in love with someone you apparently, was sleeping with someone you barely knew. haven’t slept with!” she would say, laughing. She was I almost felt homesick for all of die dumb American immensely interested in everydiing that happened to me. things that Lulu and Mario laughed at. And as I turned She came over almost daily to look at my drawings and and looked up into Rob’s face, I drought how nice it was paintings. She would take them back to show Mario and to be with someone who didn’t care if I drank Bmnello or he would call me and tell me how wonderful tiiey were. Budweiser. He knew some people that would want to buy diem. Rob’s roommate had an old, beat-up Mercedes that Someday I would be famous. They both spent so much we borrowed and took for a chive on die Appian Way die time on me, I couldn’t imagine how tiiey had any time for next weekend. I expected to find perhaps huge, well- themselves. restored villas ready for exploration, and maybe a few charming outdoor restaurants. We first saw some ruins The summer wore on and still Lulu did not get and huge gates that surely concealed interesting, if unap¬ pregnant. She looked thinner and older. She proachable, villas. The giant paving stones got rougher talked endlessly about Rob and me. He and I had and rougher and we had to slow the old Mercedes down taken to walking in die Villa Ada in the morning, while it to a crawl. We came upon anodier ruin with a young was still cool. We saw birds and frogs, and one morning African woman in yellow hot pants sitting on it. She held we saw a hedgehog. We held hands and I wanted to tell a pink umbrella and gazed at us as we passed. Rob how I felt, but suddenly Lulu’s voice was in my mind, A littie further on, a tiny Fiat was pulled over on die mocking me. It didn’t matter anyway. When Rob kissed side of die road. It had a piece of cardboard taped to the me good-bye in the vestibule of my building and put his windshield with “Cara” scrawled on it. Anodier 20 feet cool hands on die back of my neck, I knew we didn’t have along, there was a little shack in a field dying a rosy scarf. to say anydiing. The only otiier people driving on the bumpy road were I had left an extra pair of keys at Lulu’s apartment, in lone men, looking around as if they were shopping. case I ever locked myself out. One day I was in the show¬ Of course, it probably should have occurred to us a lot er, struggling witii the ancient Roman plumbing, when sooner tiiat die Appian Way was full of prostitutes, but Mario walked into the bathroom wearing notiiing but a somehow it wasn’t exacdy what we expected. It certainly towel around his waist. I screamed and grabbed for die wasn’t in any of the guidebooks. shower curtain, but Mario was already in die tub witii me,

JUIA'-AUGUST 2000/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 33 Focus

Lulu arid Mario resembled two vultures, regarding Rob and me as so much fresh meat.

grabbing me from behind and whispering into my hair. “I gusted with Mario. I felt that I had to say something to just thought I’d come over and help you wash your back.” them before I shoved them out of my life. I was quite I could tell he was reaching down to undo his towel, so sure that they would act as if they were the ones doing the I made one final effort and jabbed my elbow in his ribs. shoving. But I decided to be brave and confront them at He slipped and fell, almost hitting his head on the tiles. I their apartment. Besides, they had a lot of my drawings made a run for the bedroom and grabbed the first thing and I wanted them back. I could find to cover myself up, which was my denim Lulu let me into the apartment coolly. She didn’t kiss jacket. Mario struggled to his feet and followed me. Now me like she usually did. She crossed her arms across her I was cornered. But Mario, although naked, had turned chest and puffed on her cigarette, blowing smoke into my earnest and a bit sheepish. “What’s tire matter with you?” face. I asked her in an even voice if I could please have he said. “Do you want to stay a virgin forever?” my drawings back. Lulu tried to act as if I were distraught “Yes!” I sputtered. “ Mary did it! Why shouldn’t I? Get and crazy, to give herself a bit of an advantage. out of here!” “Why are you so upset? I thought you understood.” Unperturbed, Mario spread his arms wide. “You “Understood what? That you were going to use me? American girls are all the same. Here I am trying to be In fact, you already have used me. You and Mario used your friend.” me as a buffer because you can’t have babies and you “I thought we already were friends. I thought that you can’t stand each other.” liked me and you liked my work. I didn’t know it was any¬ Lulu snorted. “Use you? Who could use you? We were thing else.” trying to help you, so that you would grow up.” ‘Tour work!” Mario replied acidly. “Yes, at first I con¬ I ground my teeth and said nothing. Lulu uncrossed sidered you a professional artist, but now I see you are her aims and started waving them around in mock nothing but a dilettante, an amateur.” And with great dig¬ earnestness. ‘Tou have great potential. We could have nity he left the bedroom, presumably going back for his really helped you be somebody, introduced you to the clothes, which he must have taken off in the living room. right people. We had great plans for you.” I slammed the bedroom door and pushed the dresser in She left the room and returned with my drawings. front of it and waited until I heard him leave, slamming “Here is your work,” she said sarcastically. tlie door behind him. I couldn’t hold it in any longer. “You bloodsucker! Who would want to be like you?! That night, Rob called me to tell me that Lulu had I’m so sick of healing about your goddamned ancient civ¬ called him on the phone and invited him over. ilization and your food and your fucking wine! You are She specifically asked that he come alone and morally bankrupt and your whole countiy is going down hinted that Mario would be out. Fortunately, Rob didn’t the toilet and I don’t give a shit!” go. I decided not to tell Rob about what had happened I was sick of being culturally sensitive. We might be with Mario and just said that they had both been acting unsophisticated in the United States, but at least we have weird lately, as if I owed them something for all their plumbing that works, I thought. I ran out of the apart¬ kindness to me. We concluded that Lulu and Mario ment and down the stairs and kept running until I resembled two starved vultures who treated Rob and me stepped in a pile of fresh dog crap. I didn’t even care. like so much fresh meat. When I got to my apartment building I took off the boots I’ve always been a very' cowardly person, choosing to and threw them in the trash. Up in my apartment, I go along with everything rather than make a fuss by dis¬ would put my huge, ugly, white running shoes back on. agreeing with anyone. But I was angry at Lulu and dis¬ Damn it all, I thought, I’m an American, aren’t I? ■

34 FOREIGN SERVICE ] O U RN AL/J U LY- AUGU ST 2000 Focus

THE ORCHARD

rgentina had mountains, vine¬ them. They called themselves “Kelpers,” because of yards, lush green pampas and their islands’ seaweed. She thought diey were pleased A open spaces filled with God. when she called their home the Falklands. When Rocio was little, she The islanders smelled like mutton and peat and often thought die center of heaven was they wore the same kind of ugly green jacket. A girl from her fathers orchard, where apri¬ the islands came in a few days after Rocio phoned the man cot and cherry trees grew, row upon row so laden with who owned die orchard. She was pregnant and she wore fruit diat their branches bent with die weight of it. To a nylon disco shirt from the 1970s. It was 1982, but she her, it was silver-lined country, land that gave goodness lived on Pebble Island in die Malvinas, where time is slow. for nothing. Rocio couldn’t concentrate on her paperwork, But when Rocio grew up and got married, die because she was wondering why the oilman from Rio orchard was sold to a man from Rio Gallegos. For years, Gallegos wouldn’t speak to her. Every year she and the man let people hold picnics in her husband, Gustavo, took a day the orchard. He said die picnic peo¬ off and drove to the orchard, ple could take whatever fruit diey where they loaded their pickup wanted, because the trees didn’t with crates of fruit. This day was matter to him. always Rocio’s happiest of the In February 1982, when summer year. The orchard was fragrant was at its peak, Rocio telephoned with apricots and cherries, sun the man during her coffee break to and grass. All that Rocio and ask if she could borrow the key to Gustavo needed were the crates the orchard, as she had done many and some time. They plucked times before. She sat waiting for pink and red and plentiful fruits. him to pick up the phone in her Rocio would work until her arms office, a fan spinning overhead. were scratched, her neck ached Finally, she heard a voice. It was tire and her back hurt. oilmans vile saying that he couldn’t By then, her fingers were speak to her. stained with fruit juice, which ran Rocio worked in die administra¬ in streams down her arms to her tion of a poor, understaffed hospital THIS ORCHARD elbows. Once, when the sun was in die city of Comodoro Rivadavia in MEANT SOMETHING high, Gustavo came up behind Patagonia. People came to her hos¬ her and kissed the side of her TO YOU, BUT IT’S pital from the Malvinas Islands a neck. She inclined back into him, NOT YOURS few hundred miles off die coast to smiled, and said, ‘We can’t stop have operations or to have babies. ANYMORE. now. We’re only halfway The Malvineros had never liked through.” The sun’s rays lowered Argentina and couldn’t speak BY AMANDA HOLMES and muted, they had lifted the Spanish, but Rocio was Anglo- crates into the pickup’s bed and Argentine and she translated for drove home happy with silence.

JULY-AUGUST 2000/FORF.IGN SERVICE JOURNAL 35 Focus

This year they hadn’t gone to the orchard, so Rocio for chutney, the bruised or soft fruits for jam, reserving thought about the fruit. She imagined it ripening, other fruits to be pickled or preserved. then falling to the ground and rotting. A hospital The day after Rocio phoned the man who owned die orderly standing in the doorway interrupted her. orchard, die Falklands girl was ready to leave the hospi¬ “Can you come up to Maternity?” tire orderly said. tal. “Somediing’s wrong with the Kelper girl.” “I don’t know what got into me yesterday,” she said. “I When Rocio walked into the room, the girl had her get funny like that sometimes, after I’ve had a baby.” face to the wall and she was crying. Her mutton smell Rocio walked widi her down the cream-colored hos¬ seeped from her skin and lingered in the bed sheets. pital hallway. The baby in the girls arms was a tiny parcel “I don’t want to go back to Pebble Island,” she sobbed. widi an old man’s face. Rocio sat beside her and talked to the back of her “These are for you,” the girl said, handing Rocio a pair greasy head. “Of course you do. You want to go back of earrings made from the pebbles from her island. The home with your baby, don’t you? Don’t you want to show rocks had been badly glued to dieir studs and sat lopsided your new baby to your family?” on dieir metal supports. “No,” the girl said thickly. “I want to live a little.” At the end of March, Rocio dialed the number of the “Rut you are living,” Rocio said. “My goodness, you’ve man who owned the orchard for die last time. She lis¬ just had your baby. Don’t you want to take your baby- tened as the phone rang over and over. While she waited, home?” an old woman walking with help from a frame passed her “It’s not my first,” said die girl, turning toward Rocio door widi a nurse. Children’s voices echoed in a nearby widi puffy eyes. “Having babies, shelling peas, baking ward. Finally the man from Rio Gallegos was on the bread and peeling potatoes. That’s not living, is it?” line. “I don’t know,” said Rocio. “It might be living.” Rocio “My fadier will have his Easter asado next week,” handed die girl a tissue. The girl blew into it loudly. Rocio said. “We always bring fruit from the orchard to “We have a television set at home,” said the Kelper it.” There was a long silence while she wondered if he girl. “It’s on all die time, but we never get a picture. Here was still on the line. you get pictures. I’ve seen diem in die lounge down¬ “I told you my decision,” die man said. “I realize the stairs.” place meant something to you once. But it isn’t your When she went back to her office, Rocio phoned die orchard anymore.” It was as if by calling, she had man from Rio Gallegos. This time his wife put him on the prompted his anger, as if he had been waiting for her phone. call to teach her some twisted lessons. “Soil}',” he said. “The orchard is closed to the public. “You see,” he continued, “this is what I was afraid of. Too many people have abused the privilege. They cook Instead of being grateful for the times I let you in, now asados and start fires and leave then trash lying about.” you’ve become pushy and rude.” “But I don’t leave my trash lying about,” Rocio said. Rocio slammed the phone down. She pretended to The man told Rocio that he couldn’t make exceptions, work, but only sorted through papers. She left early, which she should understand. She’d want to bring her taking the bus home. Once there, she found in her entire family, tiieir friends. There’d be no end to the peo¬ larder one remaining bottle of cherries from the ple she would want to bring with her. orchard. Usually, by this time of year Rocio had already sorted the cherries from die orchard and would be cooking The day of the asado was sunny and blue. Poplar diem. By now, she and Gustavo would have separated die trees swayed in the breeze. The beef sat sizzling fruit diey had picked, laying aside the squashed apricots on a grill. Nothing was better for the Argentine soul, thought Rocio, than sitting outside in the sun with Amanda Holmes, a freelance writer, was born in family, drinking wine and arguing around the table. England. She has lived in Caracas, Buenos Aires, In Comodoro Rivadavia, flags were flying. People Moscow and Washington. She currently lives in cheered and danced in the streets. Argentine troops Brussels with her FSO spouse. had landed in the Malvinas and at last the islands would

36 FOREIGN SERVICE J O U RN .4 L/J U LY- AV GU ST 2000 Focus

Nothing was better for the Argentine son! than sitting outside in the sun with family, drinking wine and arguing. be Argentine. Rocio’s father was so full of outrage at No disinfectant. No cotton wool. No sheets or ban¬ this news that he didn’t ask Rocio about the fruit from dages. No medicine or painkillers. No towels and no the orchard that she usually brought to his celebration. soap. No cups for water or plates for food. Rocio thought of the girl from Pebble Island who A conscript from Cordoba became locked to his bed wanted a little action. The Argentine occupation would sheets by bedsores; Rocio detached him. The conscript liven things up for her. Rocio’s father brandished his clutched in his hand the scrap from a British soldier’s barbecue stick while talking about the Malvinas. He pocket. No amount of pain could force him to let go of it. called them the Falklands. His broad, florid face could Rocio hardly ever thought about the orchard any¬ only be English, Rocio thought. His accented Spanish more. When she reflected on her father’s asado, she and his oat-colored wool cardigan with its wood buttons decided that it had gone all right. When it had been time also belonged to an Englishman. for desert, Rocio brought out the pie she had made from Rocio’s Aunt Tatiana sat back in her rusty garden tire cherries in her larder. Eveiyone had asked for a slice. chair. “Malvinas, Jorge, Malvinas. You know it upsets She remembered her father’s face when he tasted the people to call them the Falklands.” fruit. Rocio’s father turned wedges of meat on the fire. “Good cherries this year,” he’d said. ■ Shadows of poplar trees and fences stretched across the summer grass. “The British are people of principle. They will not Join the Journal’s stand by and let this happen,” her father said. Editorial Board “Come on, Jorge,” Gustavo said. “I suspect the British are rather like us, picking and choosing their Because of normal turnover and moves abroad, the Editorial Board of the Foreign Service Journal seeks to fill three or principles.” He stabbed at a piece of chorizo on his more slots this year. You are invited to nominate yourself or plate. “There’s no principle involved here. The another person for this exciting and glamorous assignment. Malvinas mean nothing to Thatcher. She only wants them for die oil.” Board members set the general editorial direction of the Journal, in consultation with the editorial staff. Meeting month¬ Rocio tossed the salad, dien portioned some out to ly at AFSA HQ (free lunch!), they evaluate new manuscripts, the children. Her father passed the platter of freshly decide on future focus topics and weigh in on other matters grilled meat. Rocio leaned over her son, wrapping him affecting the Journal's style, substance and process. in her long brown arms, to cut up his meat. Clouds bil¬ Board members should be able to attend monthly mid-day meet¬ lowed and rolled overhead; the sky went white. ings in Washington and should have a few hours a month to devote to reading articles and other Journal matters. y May, Rocio had forgotten about the orchard. B The Board at this time seeks new members among active She was too busy worrying about trench foot employees from all Foreign Service agencies. and frostbite, about wards so full of dying sol¬ If you’re interested, please get in touch very soon with the edi¬ diers that the hospital staff decided to separate tor, Bob Guldin, sending some information about yourself and boxsprings from their mattresses so that everyone why you are interested in serving on the Board. would have a place to lie down. The halls and corridors were lined with these makeshift beds to take care of the Call (202) 944-5511, fax (202) 338-8244, e-mail [email protected], overflow of sick and wounded soldiers. or write Editorial Board Search, Foreign Service Journal, Because they had no anesthetic, the doctors operat¬ 2101 E Street NW, Washington, DC 20037-2990. ed without it on boys of 19. They also had no supplies.

JULY-AUGUST 2000/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 37 For A Safer Embassy Ambassador Kenneth M. Quinn and DCM Carol A. Rodlei/ received jointly the Christian A. Herter Award for their effective insistence, over department objections, that the new embassy addition in Phnom Penh should not be built on the current vulnerable site. Here we see Quinn (in solid blue shirt) and Rodley (to his right) being briefed on a POXV/MIA recovery operation in Cambodia.

Building Community in Kampala Diane Bodeen has a talent for using music to help create community: she has conducted or created choirs in eight of the nine overseas cities in which she has lived. In Kampala, she has organized choirs, conceits and exhibits on lfgandan culture. Here she is (lower right) with the Kampala Singers and Kampala Children’s Choir after an April 2000fundraising conceit. On fine 22, she received the Avis Bolden Award for Foreign Service family members.

Just Say No FSO Luis C. Moreno, Jr has held high- profile posts responsible for fighting drug trafficking in Bogota, Lima and Washington. In photo at right, we see him (left) and Under Secretary for Global Affairs Frank E. Loy coordinating the spraying of opium poppy crops. In photo at far right, Moreno examines the effectiveness of coca eradication efforts. Moreno received the William R. Rivkin Award for advocating effective anti-narcotics and anti-corruption measures in Colombia, despite political pressures and personal threats. U LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD ■ This Issue in Brief LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD: David D. Newsom Honored DAVID D. NEWSOM HONORED 1 FOREIGN SERVICE DAY 1 NEWS BRIEF 2 LETTER TO THE EDITOR 3 THE STATE OF AFSA 3 David D. Newsom’s School of Foreign Service. AFSA AWARD WINNERS 4 life has been about In the fall of 1986, he was CHRISTIAN A HERTER AWARD .4 WILLIAM R. RIVKIN AWARD 4 helping the Ameri¬ the John Adams Fellow at M. JUANITA GUESS AWARD 5 can public to better under¬ the Royal Institute of W. AVERELL HARRIMAN AWARD 5 DELAVAN AWARD 6 stand foreign policy and International Affairs in TEX HARRIS AWARD 6 AVIS BOHLEN AWARD 7 America’s role abroad. The London. In 1991, he was AFSA ACHIEVEMENT AWARD 7 former under secretary for appointed to the Hugh AFSA/AAFSW ACADEMIC MERIT AWARDS ....8 BEST ESSAY AWARD 10 political affairs in the Carter Cumming Chair in COMMUNITY SERVICE AWARD 10 AFSA 2000 RUNNERS-UP 11 administration championed International Relations at the Foreign Service during the University of Virginia MANAGING THROUGH PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENTS 11 his FS career, but even more For his continuous in Charlottesville, where he FOREIGN SERVICE DAY CHALUENGE12 so after retirement. dedication to promoting taught until his retirement For his continuous ded¬ PICKERING SPEECH EXCERPTS 13 the Foreign Service and in 1998. ication to promoting the Newsom put his jour¬ Q&A 14 its mission, Newsom Foreign Service and its mis¬ nalism skills to work sion, Newsom received this received this year’s authoring several books, FOREIGN SERVICE DAY year’s AFSA Award for AFSA Award for Lifetime including Diplomacy and Lifetime Contributions to the American Democracy, Participants Contributions to American Diplomacy. The writing numerous journal Remember Past, 2000 AFSA Award winners American Diplomacy. articles, and serving as a were honored at a June 22 regular columnist for The Look to Future ceremony in the Benjamin Franklin Room Christian Science Monitor. In 1989, he Over the last 35 years, retired mem¬ at the State Department (Coverage of other launched an annual publication, The bers of the Foreign Service have award winners begins on pg. 4) Dipbmatic Press, and served for two years gathered on Foreign Service Day to In 1947, Newsom left a career as a news¬ as its editor. reconnect with old colleagues and with the paper reporter and publisher to join the He currently serves as a member of sev¬ institution itself. On May 5,2000 more than Foreign Service. He served in Karachi, Oslo, eral foreign policy institutions, including the 300 retired FSOs and FS employees attend¬ Baghdad and London. He was appointed Washington Institute of Foreign Affairs, ed the all-day event, which included ambassador to Libya in 1965, to Indonesia Institute for the Study of Diplomacy, remarks by AFSA President Marshall in 1973 and to the Philippines in 1977. He American Academy of Diplomacy, Council Adair; DACOR President Kenneth N. served as under secretary from 1978 to 1981, on Foreign Relations, and the Charlottesville Rogers; AAFSW President Mette Beecroft when he retired. Committee on Foreign Relations. and representative of the USIAAA, William After his retirement, Newsom became Ambassador Roscoe S. Suddarth Jefiras Dieterich. director of the Institute for the Study of presented the Lifetime Achievement Award Director General Skip Gnehm said the

Diplomacy at Georgetown University’s to Newsom. ® Continued on page 13 Legislative Action Fund Northern California Association Contributes to Scholarship Fund The Foreign Service Association of Northern instrumental in initiating this award due to a surplus California, (FSANC) one of three Foreign Service in FSANC’s treasury. FSANC was established in $60,000 GOAL associations in California, contributed $1,000 toward 1980 to promote a continuing interest in foreign a need-based, financial aid scholarship under AFSA’s aflairs and America’s leadership abroad Retired and Scholarship Fund. This scholarship, established in active members of the Foreign Service and those that April 2000, will be bestowed in September for the have an interest in foreign affairs comprise FSANC’s $50,000 P .ISP 2000/2001 school year to a son or daughter of an FS membership. For more information on the AFSA employee to help cover undergraduate college Scholarship Program, contact Lori Dec at expenses. Jim Thurber, FSANC’s treasurer was [email protected] or (202) 944-5504.

$40,000 OMS Victory»ry ■ In one of his last acts in office, Director General Skip Gnehm Send Your announced that the State Department would raise the entry-level grade of office man¬ Contribution Today agement specialists from FP-08 to FP-07 (State 96636). AFSA’s Feb. 15, 2000 proposal (State 29369) prompted the policy review that resulted To:AFSA Legislative in this longoverdue change. AFSA thanks the dozens of office management specialists $30,000 Action Fund, whose e-mails we quoted to management in support of our initiative (State 38886). P.0. Box 98026. AFSA also thanks the participants of the March OMS Conference and the members of Washington, D.C. the department’s OMS Working Group who strongly encouraged this change. AFSA hopes that State will be responsive to its May 16 letter (State 94367) urging 20090-8026 them to ensure that eligible office management specialists receive time-and-a-half over¬ $20,000 time pay in accordance with the Fair Labor Standards Act PMA Makes Scholarship Donation The Public Members Association $10,000 of the Foreign Service con¬ tributed $3,000 to an AFSA financial aid scholarship earmarked for a needy, undergraduate college junior or senior majoring in foreign affairs. $0 This is the ninth year that PMA has funded a scholarship, and the fourth year at the $3,000 level. Since 1992, PMA has donated $24,500 to the AFSA Scholarship Fund. AFSA received this award at PMA’s 33rd annua] meeting, which brought together public representatives who serve on selection boards, promotion PMA President, Jeannine Clark (left) and PMA Scholarship panels, inspection teams and advisory Chairman, Nick Frankhouser (center) awarded the committees. PMA is a non-govern¬ 1999/2000 PMA Scholarship to Ellen Prespare (right), a ris¬ mental, non-partisan organization ing senior at the University of Richmond. Prespare will be that shows continuing interest in and working at the American Embassy Moscow for the sum¬ support of the Foreign Service. mer, and wants to pursue a career in the Foreign Service.

AFSA News Editor Rita Colorito Governing Board: Staff: President Marshall P. Adair Executive Director. Susan Reardon (202) 3384045 x 503 Business Department u State Vice President John Naland Controller Kalpna Srimal S Internet Addresses: Accounting Assistant Thomasina Johnson E USAID Vice President Frank Miller [email protected] (Association) Labor Management CS Vice President Peter Frederick General Counsel: Sharon Papp a [email protected] (President) labor Management Attorney: Zlatana Badrich FAS Vice President Evans Browne [email protected] (FSJ) Specialist James Yorke Retiree Vice President Willard De Pnee Labor Relations Specialist Carol Lutz Secretary Aurelius Fernandez Grievance Attorneys: Harry Sizer, Tracy Smith AFSA Headquarters: Law Clerk: Richard Bernstein Treasurer: Thomas Tieman a (202) 3384045 FAX: (202) 338-6820 Office Manager Na'ida Harrington; Christine Warren State Representatives: Marilyn Bruno, Daniel Geisler, Member Services State Department Office: Stephen J. Klein, Lauren May, David Robinson, J. Riley Director Janet Hedrick Representative: Christine Spaulding (202) 647-8160 FAX: (202) 647-0265 Sever, Adviser. Bruce Byers Administrative Assistant Ana Lopez USAID Representative: James Dempsey Retiree Liaison: Ward Thompson USAID Office: Professional Programs Retiree Representatives: Harry Cahill, Garber Davidson, (202) 712-1941 FAX: (202) 216-3710 Professional Issues Coordinator Doug Harwood George Jones, Robert Umb Congressional Affairs Director Ken Nakamura Communications Coordinator Lauren McCuen SA44 Office: FAS Representative: Ed Porter Scholarship Administrator Lori Dec (202)401-6405 FAX: (202) 401-6410 CS Representative: Eric Sletten Corporate Relations: Barbara Bowie-Whitman

2 AFSA NEWS • JULY-AUGUST 2000 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR W3R8!B^ STATE a BYJOHN NALAND Speakers The State of AFSA Bureau As the current AFSA Governing Board finishes its first year in office, I wanted to report on what we at State I enjoyed the recent columns about AFSA have accomplished. Here are the highlights, some outreach and the AFSA Speakers of which remain to be finalized in the coming months. This Bureau. list does not cover issues that AFSA Headquarters is spear¬ In the summer of 1998, as a heading such as embassy security funding and legislative action. retired FSO, I was asked to organize Reached agreement with State to increase a series of lectures on foreign affairs the amount of home leave granted on return to the United at the Learning in Retirement States from 15 to 25 workdays. Other changes are under negotiation. Institute at George Mason Travel and Transportation: Submitted 31 recommendations. Convinced State University. I called it “An Inside to improve the travel voucher process and to form a working group to propose changes Look at Foreign Affairs,” and to the Fly America Act Convinced State to exempt overseas employees from manda¬ invited Ambassador Willard De tory use of government-issued credit cards. Other issues are under negotiation. Pree, Charles Vetter, Jr., Hans Tuch, S< rvice wide Issues: Reached agreement with State on new time-in-class and time- and Walter Roberts (the latter three in-service rules that generally afford longer careers and larger pensions. Convinced from the former USIA) for the first State to create a long-term counseling position to counsel employees in career diffi¬ four weekly presentations. It was an culty. Convinced State to end the required use of R8cR for medical treatment. instant success. Soon, I was told that Convinced State to raise the wardrobe allowance for transfers and registrations for these lecture the transportation allowance for evacuees. Convinced State to increase the Home Service courses were higher than any Transfer Allowance by 42 percent (implementation pending). courses given by LRI: There were FSO Career Path Filed a grievance over the assignment of a Civil Service employ¬ waiting lists. ee to a DCM position. Submitted a package of recommendations addressing the short¬ In all, 29 retired ambassadors age of mid-level FSOs. and FSOs have given 39 talks on Increased OMS promotion rates and hired new OMS employ¬ foreign affairs. The speakers have ees at FP-07 instead of FP-08. been pleased with the response of Reached agreement with State on procedures to make it easier students; many have returned to for specialists to convert to the generalist ranks. Wrote to State seeking support for speak again. Ward Thompson of the legislation to allow employees abroad to earn overtime at the same (higher) rate as AFSA Speakers Bureau has given domestic employees. enormous encouragement and Took part in deliberations of IRM FS Personnel Task Force leading support to this program. to recruitment bonuses, retention incentives, upgrades at one/two person posts, etc. LRI has grown to more than 600 Met with senior IRM management to discuss concerns raised by members. students and continues to grow. Helped to convince USAA to ask its board of directors to offer mem¬ There are eight-week terms in bership to DS special agents (the first step in getting USAA to open to all specialists). winter and fall, and four-week terms Asked State to change its policy denying per diem to newly hired DS special agents in winter and spring. and to improve diplomatic immunity for DS personnel at consulates. It has been most gratifying to see Worked to ensure that the USIA-State consolidation went as smooth¬ the enthusiasm and interest shown ly as possible and that best practices from USIA’s MOU were adopted by State. in foreign affairs by this Quality of Life: Wrote to State proposing measures to ameliorate the inequitable organization of retired professionals treatment of unmarried domestic partners overseas. from government, universities, /1 > 5 ibcr Services: Helped more than 750 members with individual problems, griev¬ private organizations and elsewhere. ances, or requests for information. AI-'SA Institution-building: Increased AFSA State membership by 662 over the Roman Lotsberg, past year, eclipsing the total membership record set in 1995. Actively solicited mem¬ FSO, retired ber input, receiving more than 500 e-mails on some issues. McLean, Va. If I did not mention your top issue here or report it earlier via AFSA cable or AFSANet, please e-mail me at [email protected] and I will give you an update. ®

JULY-AUGUST 2000* AFSA NEWS 3 William R. Rivkin Award Winner Luis G. Moreno, Jr. Much has been made in the news media of the U.S. pres¬ ence and purpose in Colombia. As director of the Narcotics Assistance Section of Embassy Bogota, Luis G. Moreno, Jr., deals with these issues on a daily basis. In the face of local corruption and interagency debate over the value of the counter-narcotics assistance program which he directs, Moreno managed the program in Colombia in a way that earned the praise of GAO auditors. Undeterred by political pressure and personal threats, he insisted on recommending those programs Christian A. Herter that would be most effective. Similarly, he insisted that the U.S. government support a judicial review of local corruption rather Award Co-Winners than bowing to political pressures to ignore the issue. Moreno exhibited the intellectual courage, constructive dis¬ Carol A. Rodley and sent and attempt to change the course of policy that embody the highest tradition of the William R. Rivkin Award for mid¬ Kenneth M. Quinn career officers. Moreno joined the Foreign Service in 1983, and was Ambassador Kenneth M. Quinn and Deputy Chief of assigned to Bogota where he served as vice consul and special Mission Carol A. Rodley succeeded in reversing the assistant to the Narcotics Assistance Unit director. In 1986, he department’s decision to have the embassy chancery in was assigned to Managua as the American citizens service chief, Phnom Penh remain in what was, in their view, an indefensible and handled the Eugene Hasenfuss kidnap case, eventually compound vulnerable to terrorist attack. Putting their careers at resulting in the airman’s release. In 1988, he was sent to Lima as risk, Quinn and Rodley refused to implement the department’s deputy director of the Narcotics Affairs Unit, and supervised decision to construct a new $4 million structure on the existing U.S. government eradication efforts in the Upper Huallaga compound located in the middle of the city with virtually no set¬ Valley. Moreno returned to Washington, D.C. in 1990 to serve back. The strength of their conviction expressed spurred the as the Colombian desk officer of the International Narcotics department to send a security assessment team to review the sit¬ Bureau. In May, 1997, he returned to Bogota, currently the U.S. uation. After continued redamas by the post, the department government’s third largest foreign assistance program. finally canceled construction plans and began a search for a Moreno has received three Superior Honor Awards, two more secure site. Meritorious Honor Awards, a group Quinn and Rodley received the Christian A. Herter Award for Valor and group Distinguished Service senior officers for their initiative, integrity, intellectual courage and Award. constructive dissent. Mrs. John Sterry Long, widow of Quinn’s involvement in Cambodia dates back to 1968 when Ambassador Rivkin, presented he served as a provincial political reporter in Vietnam and was the award. one of the first people to report on the radical programs of the Khmer Rouge. In 1979, he served as director of Iowa’s human¬ itarian effort to send food and medicine to starving Cambodians. As deputy assistant secretary of the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs from 1990 to 1994, he served as deputy head of the U.S. delegation to the Paris Conference on Cambodia. He also received the Presidential Distinguished Service Award and AFSA’s Herter Award for achieving breakthroughs on Cambodia and in POW/MLA accounting. Quinn became ambassador to Cambodia in 1996. Embassy Cambodia has twice been honored with the Director of Central Intelligence Award for Exception Reporting. After Quinn left his post as ambassador to Cambodia, Rodley continued the fight for a more secure embassy location. Rodley informed the State Department that when she took over the post as charge d’affaires that she would also refuse to implement its directive. In his acceptance speech, Quinn said Rodley deserves the bulk of recognition because she has a long career still ahead of her and much more to lose by challenging State. Rodley, in turn, thanked Quinn for being her friend and mentor. She said the Phnom Penh situation was the first time she had engaged in constructive dissent, but that it was necessary to protect those who serve the United States. INL A/S Beers, ONDCP Deputy Bill Umberg and Luis G. Moreno, Jr. Ambassador Herman J. Cohen presented the Herter Award. visit wounded CNP in the hospital.

4 AFSA NEWS* JULY-AUGUST 2000 The W. Averell Harriman Award Winner Thomas P. Kelly Within a few weeks of arrival at post, Tom Kelly, a first- tour public affairs officer, took over direction of the Embassy Nicosia public diplomacy program. As acting PAO, Kelly was thrust into a sharp disagreement between the embassy*s front office and the U.S. Information Agency over the proper handling of a $5 million USIA program. Kelly refused to bow to conflicting interests of the front office, USIA, the Office of the Inspector General, members of the U.S. Congress and local leaders, and declined to sign the $5 million Cyprus- M. Juanita Guess American Scholarship Program agreement until it met the con¬ cerns of Embassy Nicosia. He earned the respect and praise of all Award Winner parties concerned and laid the basis for excellent working rela¬ tions with local organizations. Geri Kersey Kelly was bom and reared in suburban Chicago. He attended the University of Illinois-Chicago, where he received his bache¬ ou only need to look at photos of Geri Kersey in action as Y lor’s in Spanish in 1986. In 1992 he received a master’s in Latin the CLO in Copenhagen to know she enjoys her work. In American studies from the University of New Mexico. one photo Kersey is dressed as a clown for Halloween fes¬ From 1992 to 1992, Kelly volunteered in the Peace Corps in tivities, in others she’s setting up outdoor gatherings. Many of Akuressa, Sri Lanka, where he worked as a TESL instructor at these activities could not have been possible without her. Nilwala College of Education. He has also worked as an ESOL When Kersey arrived in instructor at the English Center of the Miami-Dade Public Copenhagen in 1996, the Schools in Morida, and as a Spanish instructor at the University CLO office had been closed of New Mexico. While in Miami he also worked as a political- for over six years. After two military analyst on the Cuba/Dominican Republic desk at the more years of frustration, U.S. Southern Command. she reopened the office. Kelly began his Foreign Service career with USIA in “Beginning an office December 1998. He is currently the assistant public affairs officer from scratch was definitely a at Embassy Nicosia. He is married to Holly Peirce, the bicom- challenge,” says Kersey. “To munal coordinator for Embassy Nicosia. some it could be a night¬ The W. Averell Harriman mare—but I consider it Award for junior officers was more of a dream.” to be presented by Robert C. Kersey worked with the Fisk, grandson of W. Averell executive and administrative Harriman. branches at Embassy Copenhagen to make her Kelly plants a tree at the U.S.- dream come true. She funded Greater Nicosia pushed for more space for Sewerage Plant the CLO office to include a library, and received the sup¬ port of Ambassador Richard Swett, current and former DCMs Lawrence Butler and Jimmy Kolker, and Administrative Officer Brian Kelsey. Kersey says she likes Copenhagen so much that she hopes to stay there until the summer of 2002. Kersey, who was bom and raised on Long Island, N.Y, received a bachelor of science degree and a master of arts degree from Adelphi University in Garden City, N.Y. She taught math¬ ematics to children in grades five through eight at The School of Saint Aidan in Williston Park, N.Y. for 13 years. She has been married to Arthur Kersey, who works for the Dmg Enforcement Administration, for 18 years. Their son, Sean, is seven years old. Jon Clements, president of Clements 8c Co. presented the award. The M, Juanita Guess Award is given each year to an outstanding CLO in honor of Clements’ mother, who founded the company and worked closely with community liaison offi¬ cers around the world.

JULY-AUGUST 2000 • AFSA NEWS 5 The Tex Harris Award Winner FrontisB. Wiggins As information systems officer at Embassy Paris, Frontis B. Wiggins spearheaded systems innovation efforts that rip¬ pled throughout the State Department computer systems. He procured and is evaluating biometric fingerprint scanners to replace passwords for systems access. Previously, in spite of opposition, he justified unattended systems operations which improved service, reduced overtime and were praised by the department’s Strategic Management Initiative group. Wiggins has shown the courage to take chances, challenge authority and use constructive dissent to improve department Delavan Award Winner operations worldwide. For this he received the F. Allen “Tex” Harris Award Lynn Bitters for Foreign Serving as office management specialist to the ambassador Service special¬ in one of the most difficult Foreign Service posts— ists, given the Sarajevo—Lynn Bitters has made an extraordinary contri¬ first time this bution to post effectiveness and morale. Her positive, can-do year. It will be perspective has made the embassy a more productive and hap¬ conferred pier place. annually to a Bitters was bom in Grosse Pointe, Mich., and grew up in specialist “who Wisconsin. She has exhibited joined the Foreign extraordinary Service in 1992 after accomplish¬ spending 22 years in ment involving the private sector, initiative, working for Crocker integrity, intel¬ Bank in San lectual courage Francisco; and construc¬ Transatlantic tive dissent” Petroleum in The award was Houston; and made possible Honeywell and through the Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque. She has since support of the served in Ouagadougou, London, and Washington, D.C. Nelson B. Bitters previously was posted to Sarajevo as second to the Office Delavan of the High Representative. Foundation. She returned to Sarajevo after receiving a telephone call Wiggins was from the new ambassador, Tom Miller—whom Bitters had bom in Rome never met—requesting her as his OMS. Miller says he chose to a Foreign Bitters because of her background and “sterling” references. Service officer “Given the difficult environment in Sarajevo, I was particu¬ and FS com¬ larly impressed that she had served there before and was willing municator. He to go back. Beside my wife, this is the best choice I ever made in joined the my life,” says Miller. Foreign Service Bitters has served as the embassy’s unofficial morale officer, in 1985, imme¬ says Miller, constantly looking after the welfare of others and diately after making sure that the front office takes swift action when there is graduating a problem. from the “Even when I’m feeling terrible, I try to remember that no College of petty problems of mine can compare to the hardships, heart¬ William and break and sacrifice faced by most of our FSNs who stayed in Mary in Sarajevo during the war,” says Bitters. “Working with these Williamsburg, courageous people sustains me.” Va., where he Bitters has previously received several State Department received his bachelor’s in history. awards, including one individual and one group Superior His first post was to Cairo, followed by Budapest, then a Honor Award, an MSI Commendation, and the Franklin tour as an instructor at the Warrenton Training Center. He has Award. also served as an assistant operations officer in Foreign Caldwell Harrop, son of Ambassador William C. Harrop, Operations, and as IPO and ISO in Hong Kong. presented the Delavan Award for office management specialists. Tex Harris presented the Tex Harris Award

6 AFSA NEWS-JULY-AUGUST2000 AFSA Achievement Award Co-Winners Brandon Grove and ]anina Jaruzelski Brandon Grove’s commitment to AFSA has been long- held and wide-ranging. From 1992 to 1994 he served as chair of the editorial board of the Foreign Service Journal Last year he chaired the 75th Anniversary Advisory Committee, helping to develop and carry out year-long activities and the final gala. He raised more than $200,000 to fund these events. He also helped organize the Foreign Service presidential library exhibits and the national high school essay contest. For his enduring dedication to AFSA, Grove was awarded the AFSA Achievement Award for a retired member. The former ambassador to Zaire earned his bachelor’s from Bard College and a master’s in public affairs from Princeton University. He served twice on the Policy Planning Staff of the State Department He has also served as deputy assistant secretary of Avis Bohlen State for Latin American affairs, Award Winner director of the Foreign Service Institute, consul Diane Bodeen general in Jerusalem and as the charge d’af¬ Diane Bodeen’s dedication to local community service in faires who opened the Kampala is sustained, wide-ranging and selfless. She con¬ embassy in East Berlin. centrates her efforts in three areas that impact most on the expatriate and Ugandan communities: music performance, women’s charitable activities and community outreach to revive interest in Ugandan traditions. Bodeen has organized choirs and concerts, fundraising drives and courses and exhibits on Ugandan culture. Her efforts have projected a highly posi¬ tive image for the United States and the embassy. Janina Jaruzelski’s Bodeen was bom in Santa Barbara, Calif., and received her service as AFSA repre¬ bachelor’s from Occidental College in Los Angeles in 1962. sentative at the largest FS Bodeen then became a FSO with USIA serving in Singapore and post—Cairo—was con¬ Bangkok from 1963 to 1965. In 1965, she married Virgil spicuous for her intellec¬ Bodeen; he entered the Foreign Service in 1974. She received her tual courage and willing¬ master’s in music from Washington University in St Louis in ness to risk threats to her 1972. She began her second overseas “career” as an FS spouse in career. She confronted 1974 in Beirut She has accompanied her husband to posts in post management in a Lagos, Tunis, Singapore, Bucharest, Conakry, Copenhagen, firm but constructive way on the major issue of handling toxic Ougadougou and Kampala. In Bucharest, Conakry and pesticides in embassy housing. This became a sensitive issue fol¬ Kampala she has worked as a classroom music teacher. lowing the death in 1993 of an embassy employee as a result of Bodeen says her main emphasis at all these posts has been the misuse of a dangerous pesticide, and continued cases of music, creating or conducting choirs in eight of the nine posts, employee illness following spraying at their homes. Her deter¬ with children’s choirs in five posts. She also says the majority of mination and initiative inspired post management to switch to her choir concerts benefit a wide variety of causes. One of her non-chemical pest control initiatives, which dramatically major focuses has been on women’s organizations. She has reduced the threat to post families. served on boards of some in four countries and has held Jaruzelski was born in Pittsburgh and raised in Westfield, English-language discussion groups and encouraged contacts N.J. She received her bachelor’s in history from Princeton with artists in the community. In Kampala she held an art night University and her law degree from the University of at which members of the International Women’s Organization Pennsylvania Law School. She served on AFSA’s Governing exhibited their artistic products. She is currently working with a Board from 1996 to 1997, and while in Washington, D.C. was local professor of music and the Ugandan National Museum to on numerous AFSA committees, including the USAID prepare a new exhibit of Ugandan musical instruments for Standing Committee, the Awards Committee and others. She installation. received the AFSA Achievement Award for an active member. Robert C. Fisk, grandson of W. Averell Harriman, presented AFSA President Marshall Adair presented the AFSA the Bohlen Award for Foreign Service family members. Achievement Awards.

JULY-AUGUST 2000-AFSA NEWS 7 he American Foreign Service Association and the Associates of the American Foreign Service Worldwide are 2000 pleased to announce the winners of the 2000 Academic Merit Competition. This program is open to Foreign Service high school seniors for their academic and artistic accomplish¬ AFSA/AAFSW ments. The winners were presented their awards on May 5, at an awards ceremony in the State Department as part of Foreign Academic Merit Service Day activities. The 66 Academic Merit Award applicants were judged on their grade point average, Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) Award Winners scores, a two-page essay, letters of recommendation and

DAN ARELLANO - son of Hilda AARON BARTH - son of Deborah & HANNAH FRIED - daughter of Olga AMANDA HEFFERNAN - daughter Arellano (USAID) & A. Jorge Philip Barth (State); graduate of Karpiw & Daniel Fried (State); of Roberta Newell (State) & Charles Arellano; graduate of Academia Ashbury College, Ottawa, Canada; graduate of Georgetown Day School, Heffeman (State); graduate of Cotopaxi, American International Eagle Scout captain of boarding Washington, D.C.; National Merit American Community School, School, Quito, Ecuador, National students at Ashbury College; captain Commended Scholar, Advanced Amman, Jordan; National Merit Hispanic Recognition Program of varsity baseball team; member of Placement Scholar, interested in finalist; National Choral Award finalist; DACOR Dreyfus Memorial basketball and football teams and human rights issues; founding winner enjoys singing, backpacking, Scholarship recipient; member of the choir; church youth group; will member of dance ensemble; enjoys cooking and reading; will attend varsity basketball and soccer teams; attend Harvard University, playing the violin; will attend Whitman College, Walla Walla, will attend Yale University, New Cambridge, Ma„ majoring in liberal Williams College, Williamstown, Ma. Wash. Haven, Conn. arts.

TODD LYSTER - son of Diana & NATHANIEL MYERS - son of Lynn JESSICA SOMERS - daughter of JESSICA TYSON - daughter of Richard Lyster (CS, deceased); & Terry Myers (USAID); graduate of Janya & Harvey Somers (State); Sydnee Tyson (State) & Donald graduate of San Rafael High School, Jakarta International School, graduate of Thomas Jefferson High Tyson (State, retired); graduate of San Rafael, Calif.; Science Award Jakarta, Indonesia; Presidential School for Science and Technology, George Mason High School, Falls from Bausch and Lomb; 1999 All Scholar semi-finalist; co-captain of Alexandria, Va.; National Merit Church, Va.; Wellesley Book Award; School Chemistry Award; track and school’s baseball and softball team; Commended Scholar cellist in commendation, National AIDS Fund; field athlete; enjoys playing the enjoys traveling and politics; will school’s symphonic orchestra and art and poetry editor for Tempo saxophone and in-line skating; will attend Harvard University, string quartet; co-president of Uterary Arts Magazine; enjoys attend the University of California at Cambridge, Mass., majoring in Stand for Children; will attend the photography; will attend the Berkeley. international relations. University of Virginia, Charlottesville. University of California at Berkley.

VERONIQUE ANDERSON - daughter of Eve & ANNA BLABEY - daughter of Anne & Richard BENJAMIN CHRISTENSEN - son of Margie & Academic Merit Gerald Anderson (State); graduate of Walworth Blabey (FAS); graduate of International School Casey Christensen (State); graduate of Barbour American Int'l School, Kfar Nido de Aguilas, Santiago, Chile; will attend American Nicaraguan School, Managua, Honorable Mention Shmaryahu, Israel; will attend the College of Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y. Nicaragua; will attend Stanford University, Winners William and Mary, Williamsburg, Va. Stanford, Calif.

8 AFSA NEWS • JULY-AUGUST 2000 extracurricular activities. AFSA’s Committee on Education, along homeless shelter. This year’s Best Essay Contest winner described with volunteers from the foreign affairs community, scored the her experience with culture shock The winning essay by Laura applicants and determined the winners. Tarrant, “No Quiero Taco Bell,” appears on page 10. The six Art Merit Award applicants submitted an entry in one AAFSW provided a portion of the $27,400 awarded this year of the following categories: visual arts, musical arts, drama, dance with funding from proceeds from its annual bookfair held last or creative writing. Shanta Cortez-Greig won the Art Merit fall. The remainder of the funds came from AFSA’s Scholarship Award for her original piano and guitar compositions. Winners Fund. received $1,500 awards and Honorable Mention winners received For information on applying to the 2001AFSA Merit or $400 prizes. 2000/2001 Financial Aid Program, or for information on how to Edward Messmer, Jr. won the Community Service Award for give to the scholarship fund, contact Lori Dec, AFSA scholarship tutoring disadvantaged children and assisting with meals at a administrator, at 202-944-5504 or [email protected].

KEITH HENNEKE - son of Janet LOUIS—JOHN JANOWSKI - son of DANIEL KEEGAN - son of Sally TAMAR LOSLEBEN - daughter of Henneke (State) & Frederick Henneke Judith & Louis Janowski (Retired — Undfors & David Keegan (State); Connie Johnson (USAID) & George (former State); graduate of Tivy High State); graduate of James Madison graduate of Thomas Jefferson High Losleben; graduate of Cairo School, Kerrville, Tenn.; valedictorian; Memorial High School; Madison, School for Science and Technology, American College, Cairo, Egypt; National Merit Commended Scholar Wise.; vice president of National Alexandria, Va.; Arena Stage valedictorian; varsity team volleyball 1999 Texas Mock Trial State Honor Society; captain of varsity Playwriting Award; Alliance for captain; member of championship Champion; debate and soccer teams; football team; writer for school Young Writers & Artists Silver varsity softball team; student court will attend Rice University, Houston, newspaper enjoys acting; cellist in Writing Award; Eagle Scout; will chief justice; will attend Rice majoring in political science. school orchestra; will attend attend Oberlin College, Oberlin, University, Houston, majoring in University of Wisconsin - Madison. Ohio. science and art.

KRISTEN WAYNE - daughter of OUVIA WILLS - daughter of Regina & MONICA WILSON - daughter of Art Merit Winner Pamela & Earl Anthony Wayne E. Ashley Wills (State); graduate of Leticia & Pierre Wilson (State); SHANTA CORTEZ-GREIG - (State); graduate of Richard American Embassy School, New Delhi, graduate of Incarnate Word High daughter of Barbara & John Andrew Montgomery High School, Rockville, India; school's 1999 History Student of School, San Antonio, Texas; National Cortez-Greig (State); graduate of Md.; National Merit Commended the Year school’s 1999 Actor of the Merit Scholar, senior class historian; Pioneer Valley Performing Arts Scholar; varsity swim team member, Year founder and director of school’s vice president of Junior State of Charter High School, Hadley, Mass.; marching band flag squad member jazz choir, member of varsity softball America; enjoys weight training and first prize in talent show at 1999 section editor of school newspaper and basketball teams; will attend physics tutoring; will attend the DramaFest in Oberwesel, Germany; will attend Georgetown University, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ„ University of Texas at Austin in the enjoys rock climbing and creative Washington, D.C., majoring in majoring in English. Business Honors Program. writing; will attend Franklin and international relations. Marshall College in Lanscaster, Pa.

BENJAMIN DWORKEN - son of Anna & Mort CHRISTINE GARRETT - daughter of Karen 8 CULLEN NEWTON - son of Joan & Gary KURT RUPPRECHT - son of Christine Murphy Dworken (State); graduate of George Mason Stephen Garrett (State); graduate of Newton (USAID); graduate of Cairo American & Erhandt Rupprecht Jr. (USAID): graduate of High School, Falls Church, Va.; will attend Woodbridge Senior High School, Woodbridge, College. Cairo, EypC will attend Princeton Colegio Maya, Guatemala City, Guatemala; will Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y. Va.; will attend the University of Virginia, University, Princeton. NJ. attend the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Charlottesville.

JULY-AUGUST 2000 • AFSA NEWS 9 BY LAURA TARRANT No Quiero Taco Bell

“Hold on and let me get this straight. So you’ve never been to Taco Bell AND you’ve never seen an episode of Seinfield?!?!” I Sigh. Freshman homecoming is awkward enough as it is, ft ■ and this was making it downright embarrassing. KIR “No,” I replied curtly, making it obvious that I didn’t care at all. “She’s also never been in Abercrombie. And she’s never even HEARD of American Eagle,” chimed in a bimbo from a seat in the back. Best Essay Winner Laura Tarrant —daughter of Susan & Frank At times like this, I always felt like a freak show. People Tarrant (FAS); graduate of Chantilly High School, Chantilly. Va.; will attend James Madison University, Harrisonburg, Va. (Pictured: Tarrant seemed to think I was this alien from another planet, not a girl accepting her award from State Director General Skip Gnehm.) who’s just happened to live most of her life overseas. “Wow,” came the exasperated reply. “I can’t believe it. the minivan. As we walked into the gym, I thought about how You’ve missed so much since you moved to Germany. No, bitter I was toward everyone in my school; I thought they were wait Where was it again... Australia?” all stupid for not realizing their ignorance. But I began thinking “Austria,” I sighed. that I guess it’s not their fruit; in fact, I was the ignorant one for “Right. Lots of koalas there, in the land down under, huh?” not realizing that they just don’t know anything else. My mom “No, I used to live in Austria, a country in EUROPE,” I always says, talking to them about how cool it is to live overseas explained patiently, even though inside I was getting so frustrat¬ would be like trying to explain to me how great it is to work in ed at how stupid everyone in the United States seemed. nuclear physics. Most U.S. teens can’t relate to my experience “Oh, right Man, what did you DO over there?” living abroad because they have never experienced it themselves. “Well, I got to see all of Europe. And I got to meet people Now, more than three years later, I look back on that night from all over the world. And I got to leam another language...” and chuckle to myself. I remember being very frustrated and I stopped speaking, my thoughts trailing off. annoyed when I first moved here. No one could really relate to The five other people in my homecoming group, including me and the girls seemed preoccupied with completely stupid my date, were staring at me vacantly in the van on the way to stuff “He said that she said that he was mad at her because he the dance. They didn’t get it. They didn’t understand that while said that she said... blah blah blah,” and “Ohmygosh did you they were watching Seinfeld and eating Taco Bell burritos, I was see what she was wearing?” traveling to amazing cities in Europe, making friends who knew However, 1 feel I’ve adjusted well and have made a lot of English as a fourth language and having the time of my life. It friends over the years. I consider myself a typical American girl irked me to no end that, to most people in the United States, now; I love shopping, Slurpees, and I’ll even watch Seinfeld the thought of living anywhere else in the world would be tor¬ reruns occasionally. But I still feel that I’m a little different ture. Everyone here believes that living in the United States is from the other girls my age in that I know there are amazing everyone’s dream. people and places outside the United States. And I still don’t We reached the school parking lot and everyone piled out of like Taco Bell. @ Community Service Winner Edward Messmer Jr — son of Barbara & Edward Messmer (State); graduate of Gonzaga College High School, Washington, D.C.; will attend Trinity College at the University of Toronto. (Pictured: Edward Messmer accepting the award on behalf of his son from State Director General Skip Gnehm.)

10 AFSA NEWS • JULY-AUGUST 2000 AFSA 2000 Awards ■Ham! FAS I BY EVANS BROWNE Runners-Up Managing Through Partnership

William R. Rivkin Award: Agreements Karen B. Decker, political officer, U.S. Mission to NATO For those who read Peter Drucker’s management theo¬ ries in the ‘80s, “partnership” appears to be the next “new” W. Averell Harriman Award: management technique. This year I was chosen to rep¬ Karen Choe, vice consul, resent the FAS Partnership Council at the Tenth Annual Embassy Kuwait National Labor-Management Conference held in Chicago. The conference had 2,000 attendees, 68 workshops and one Tex Harris Award: National Partnership Council meeting. It was sponsored and Raymond Bassi, managed by the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, regional security officer, an independent agency of the U.S. government, and funded as such. Embassy Kampala The most common theme of the conference was partnership. This idea of “part¬ nership” was described in many different ways, such as “partnership council,” “labor- Delavan Award: management committee,” or some variation of these two phrases. The vast majority Teresa Chupp, office management of attendees were from the private sector, state and local government, public school specialist to the ambassador, administrators, and their associated union representatives. Embassy Riga With one exception, all the presentations that I attend¬ Partnership councils ed based their “partnership” on “trust” in the other party M. Juanita Guess Award: Ann Severn and Lori D’Amico, worked best when to adhere to commonly held, broad goals for the organi¬ joint CLOs at Embassy Kiev zation as a whole, and for all parties to act in “coopera¬ they dealt with tion” toward their goals. The FAS Partnership Council char¬ Avis Bohlen Award: “work life” issues. ter, and most of the partnership council agreements relat¬ Jaye Escudero, spouse of Ambassador ing to FAS employment issues do not demonstrate the type Stanley Escudero, Embassy Baku of partnership being employed by the presenters at the conference workshops. I have the impression that the private sector sees more value in true partnership than does the federal sector. Know an Intern The session most applicable to a federal agency partnership council was the National in the Partnership Council open meeting. The council was established by President Clinton’s Interested Executive Order 12871, Labor-Management Partnerships, on Oct. 1,1993. The coun¬ Foreign Service? cil’s primary responsibilities are to support and promote effective labor-management partnerships; collect and disseminate information about partnership with an empha¬ The Pamela Harriman Fellowship sis on results achieved; provide guidance on partnerships; and advise the president Program provides three eligible students, on the state of labor-management relations in the federal government. with either junior or senior standing at a U.S. college, the opportunity to intern at There were two reports given at the council meeting that should show up, even¬ each of three locations: U.S. Embassy tually, on the council web site at www.opm.gov/npc One by Morely Winograd, direc¬ Paris, U.S. Embassy London and the tor, National Partnership Council for Reinventing Government (NPR), and one by Office of Secretary of State in Dr. Merrick Masters, University of Pittsburgh, NPC research project director. Mr. Washington, D.C. Interns also receive a Winograd reported on an NPR “Employee Satisfaction Survey”. $5,000 stipend. One ofWinograd’s undocumented statements was that partnership councils worked The Harriman Fellowships are awarded best when they dealt with “work life” issues, such as work hours, awards, and bene¬ in conjunction with the State Department Summer Intern Program. fits. He also reported that about 33 percent of the federal work force thought “rein¬ Applicants must first apply to the depart¬ vention” was a priority, and thought that unions and management worked cooper¬ ment’s internship program. Applications atively. He also said that federal employee satisfaction was about the same as private will be available in August on the depart¬ sector employee satisfaction. This survey is available at www.employeesurvey.gov. ment’s web site at www.state.gov. Although this conference is largely suited to non-federal organizations, it is the only For more information, contact Lillian (as far as I know) large forum for networking with others working in this popular form Kelly at 757-221-1189 or at of labor-management relations. However, I think that much more needs to be done [email protected] or go to www.wm.edu/harriman/ by the National Partnership Council to assist federal management and labor toward managing through partnership. ®

JULY-AUGUST 2000 • AFSA NEWS 11 RETIREES ■ BY BILL DE PREE Foreign Service Day Challenge There was no mistaking the most urgent message of this year’s Foreign Service Day. Speaker after speaker said that the State Department’s budget woes are grave and that Foreign Service retirees are the best hope of building pub¬ lic support for foreign affairs resources. Senior department colleagues were blunt about person¬ AAFSW’s nel shortages created by budget-driven decisions. The European Bureau, for example, had to raid its own posts and other bureaus to meet surge requirements in Kosovo and elsewhere, hi addition, rehired 40th annuitants or contractors fill 78 of the bureau’s 306 domestic positions. While AFSA welcomes jobs for retirees, we share concern over this critical staffing shortfall. Budget relief cannot happen without public support for diplomacy. The FS Day Annual luncheon speaker, Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., also urged retirees to get out and make the case for diplomacy with the public and the Congress as well. BOOKFAIR What is our role as retirees? The department itself has extensive outreach materi¬ Open to the public Oct. 14,15, 21 als. Under Secretary of State Thomas Pickering, in response to a retiree’s question about and 22. explaining foreign policy to the public, said that Secretary of State Madeleine Albright makes several speeches a week on the topic and that these and other policy statements The Book Room is are on the department’s Web site, www.state.gov. open daily from But, as AFSA has pointed out before, noon to 2 p.m. for Still, many retirees tell me there are limits to the administration’s abil¬ State Department pass holders. For ity to get people to focus on this informa¬ that they are out of touch more information tion and government officials are legally with Foreign Service issues. contact Robin Jones, Book Room prohibited from suggesting that the pub¬ manager at (202) 223-5796. lic lobby Congress. AFSA can help you. Fortunately, Foreign Service retirees AAFSW would like donations for the around the country are not restricted by these limits. Former Ambassador Bill Harrop, Art Corner, for the Collector’s Comer the former AFSA president who received the DACOR Cup on Foreign Service Day, (rare books) and regular books, noted the tremendous stake the United States has in global stability, with trade now stamps and coins. one-third of U.S. gross national product. Increasingly dominant global issues, he cau¬ In the Washington, D.C. Area: tioned, can no longer be solved by the United States alone but require the building Donation pick ups can be arranged by of coalitions. In these circumstances, the United States must have strong diplomatic calling Robin Jones in the Book Room resources, but, despite the secretary’s good efforts, the administration has not con¬ at (202) 223-5796. vinced Congress to provide them, said Harrop. He told the retirees, “We must get to work. No one else is going to do it for us.” Noting the AFSA Speakers Bureau among In the various retiree outreach initiatives, Harrop encouraged FS Day participants and said Department: that “everyone in this room is more than capable of giving an effective talk.” Donations may Still, many retirees tell me that they are out of touch with Foreign Service issues. be dropped off in the Book Room, Monday to Friday The question then is how to draw on the wealth ofbackground material on the Internet between 10 a.m. and noon or by and convey it to local audiences, media, and congressional staff. AFSA can help you. appointment at (202) 223-5796. Our upgraded Web site, www.afsa.org, with a much-improved retirees section, has

links to the department and other key sites. From Overseas: Donations may be If you are not online, I urge you to contact Ward Thompson at (800) 704-2372, pouched to the AAFSW Book Room, ext. 528, for assistance in obtaining up-to-date policy statements and other infor¬ Room #1524 Main State. Careful mation. Thompson also has a suggested speakers outline. AFSA Legislative Director packaging is essential as items are Ken Nakamura has sample letters to Congress, to assist you in making your voice often handled roughly. heard in support of foreign affairs resources (also see “Sample Letter to Congress,” Proceeds benefit the AFSA/AAFSW pg. 5 in the June issue of AFSA News.) You may contact Nakamura at (800) 704- scholarship program and local charities. 2372, ext. 517. ®

12 AFSA NEWS • JULY-AUGUST 2000 Foreign Service Day department remained des¬ Continued from page 1 perately understaffed by more merger of USIA and State in October, 1999 than 200 positions. Others, was a great success. He welcomed all for¬ like Under Secretary Pickering, mer USIA officers as part of the department put that number at 400. team. Gnehm also offered his perspective That wasn’t the only on the future of the Foreign Service. Citing sobering statistic: Over the last the McKinsey & Co. study commissioned five years the number of FS by the department, Gnehm said that “the Day attendees has steadily department continues to attract and hold declined. In the mid-1990s very talented and highly motivated indi¬ almost 1,000 retired members viduals. Our workforce compares very attended. There may be favorably to those found in the top private numerous reasons for this sector corporations, such as AT&T.” substantial drop. One maybe He refuted the notion that the Foreign the lack of easier access to the State Montgomery. AFSA and AAFSW next pre¬ Service is losing officers in high numbers Department by retired FS members. AFSA sented their Merit Awards, which provide to the private sector. “[I]n 1998, less than is currently working with State on this issue, 16 high school seniors with scholarships of two percent of our FSO-ls and less than and AFSA News will keep you posted on $1,500 (see story pg. 8). one percent of 0-2s resigned from the any developments. DACOR presented its Foreign Service Service. For the junior grades the average After Under Secretary Thomas R. Cup to former Ambassador William C. resignation rate was less than one percent,” Pickering delivered his keynote speech (see Harrop, whom Rogers, president of said Gnehm. excerpt), awards were presented to recog¬ DACOR, called an “FSO par excellence.” Despite his optimism for the future, nize outstanding leadership and perfor¬ Harrop then provided an overview of diplo¬ Gnehm acknowledged the difficulties the mance. The six winners of the Secretary of macy through American history. Gnehm service continues to face because of budget State’s Awards for Outstanding presented the Director General’s Cup to cuts in the mid-1990s. Although the Volunteerism went to Ola Criss, David Career Ambassador George S. Vest. department hired 313 JOs and more than Beam, Claudia Romeo, Toby Glucksman, Those who lost their lives while help¬ 600 specialists last year, Gnehm said the Jo Ellen Fuller and Lynne Germaine ing America in its mission overseas were also remembered. Two new memorial EXCERPT OF FS DAY SPEECH: plaques were dedicated at State: one for FS Under Secretary Pickering Cautions and Encourages Nationals and one for FS family members. Several FSNs representing a different con¬ “.. .As you many of you know, the budget resolution cuts our request by 12 percent. That would take us below funding levels for tinent attended the dedication ceremony. FY 2000, and the secretary [of State] and all of us are determined to “Our FSNs have proven time and again do all we can to ensure that our resources come much more into a deep loyalty to the State Department and line with the tasks we are undertaking for the American people. occasionally, as commemorated tragically I would ask for your help in any year—we are always stronger when voices of wisdom continue to speak and teach. And yet, I ask here, have made the ultimate sacrifice on it today with particular urgency. behalf of us all,” said Bonnie Cohen, under From my work in the department and my travels overseas, I have secretary of State for management. become increasingly concerned about the gap between our She said families of FSOs “form the workload, the number of people in our service and the resources they lack. backbone of our embassy communities, As you know, there are 400 jobs left vacant for lack of personnel. That gap is directly traceable to tough resource decisions imposed upon us by budget cuts. both by creating a sense of home away from In offices throughout the world, we are working in difficult and often dangerous home, often under difficult circumstances, circumstances. To cite just one example, in Kiev, 45 employees work in “Trailerville,” and by engaging in meaningful commu¬ a 2-story collection of shipping containers made into offices. These offices have no heat nity service activities.” and no plumbing. Those in the main building share small offices, in many cases holding four people in a 100-square-foot room. “We are thankful that this year, for the If we are going to meet the challenges of a globalized world, and to take advantage of the first time since 1991, there are no new opportunities before us, we must have a diplomacy worthy of our country and the names to be added to the list of fallen col¬ American people.... leagues,” said President Clinton, in a letter The Foreign Service today remains highly talented, devoted to this nation and willing to read by Cohen. “And we will continue to make incredible sacrifices for it. Yet, they must labor without the necessary resources. I hope you will be part of the effort to turn that around—for the sake of the Foreign enhance our vigilance against terrorism and Service, and above all, for the sake of this country.” ® work to protect our personnel wherever they serve.” ®

JULY-AUGUST 2000 • AFSA NEWS 13 congressional action. The time scale for this credit card fraud is a major problem. Apart change is hard to predict However, State from these three exceptions, employees is solidly behind it since it will encourage must use the government travel card for people who currently return to official travel when it is practical to do so. Washington for their final three years to USAID General Notice of Apr. 20, 2000 stay overseas, and also be of inestimable explains that the decision on “when it is help to specialists for whom there are no practical to do so” is left to individual Q & A BY JAMES YORKE, Washington jobs. employees, and that USAID will not spec¬ LABOR MANAGEMENT SPECIAUST AFSA fully supports this initiative. ify what “practical” means. Q: People talk about “virtual locality pay.” Agriculture does not at present use the What is this? Q. Must I use a government travel card for government charge card for overseas or A This refers to a department ini- all travel? international traveL However, an online ser¬ • tiative that would allow people Ain general, State Department vice is being developed which will allow who retire while overseas to calculate their . employees must use the overseas offices to file travel vouchers direct “High-3” as though they had been serving Citibank-Visa Charge Card where possible. with the National Finance Center. As they in Washington. The advantages of this are However, there are exemptions for all per¬ come online for this service, Agriculture obvious but there are costs. The department sonnel assigned to locations outside offices overseas will be directed to use the must find $8.8 million extra to contribute CONUS, for FSNs, for expenses where the government travel card for all travel. We to the retirement fund; for USAID the fig¬ charge card is not accepted and when pay¬ understand the online service is already in ure is about $ 1 million. Employees will have ing for such items as parking, taxis/tips and use in CONUS and that employees are usu¬ to contribute an extra amount between 0.05 local transportation such as subway, bus, ally reimbursed within three days. percent and 0.25 percent. This may vary etc. (See State Department Notice dated Commerce states that employees need depending on whether they are in FSPS or 3/3/00.) not use the card overseas. Employees must FSRDS. The plan would operate from the In USAID there are exemptions for get the card, however, since cash advances day it becomes effective by legislation. Home Leave, R8cR and Assignment are not provided for travel funded out of The plan is in the early stages. The (“Entitlement Travel”), and for TDYs over Washington. They will need the card, there¬ department is now consulting with other 30 days. USAID staff should also not use fore, in order to travel on Home Leave and foreign affairs agencies; then there must be the credit card in areas of the world where PCS orders. ® AFSACLASSIFIEDS M ATTORNEY GRIEVANCES & DISCRIMINATION GRIEVANCES: MANDATORY FORMER FOREIGN SERVICE OFFICER ATTORNEY PRACTICING IN areas of FS RETIREMENT OR NOW PRACTICING LAW IN DC/MD. General grievances at State, Commerce, USAID; SEPARATION? DEFECTIVE EER? practice; estate planning: wills, trusts, living wills, MSPB and Employment Discrimination actions ATTORNEY WITH 21 years successful powers of attorney; probate administration; under Title VII; the Rehabilitation Act; and experience SPECIALIZING IN FS GRIEV¬ ANCES will represent you to protect vital inter¬ domestic relations; FS grievances. Gregory V. Privacy Act/FOIA litigation. Will write and file ests in these or other career matters including Powell; Furey, Doolan & Abell, LLP; 8401 Conn. your claims, appeals and complaints, represent Ave., #1100, Chevy Chase, MD 20815 (301) you at hearings, and counsel you in challeng¬ non-promotion, selection out, non-tenuring, dis¬ 652-6880 fax (301) 652-8972. ing adverse employment decisions. Offices in ciplinary actions at State, AID, and Commerce. Call Bridget R. Mugane at Tel. (202) 387- VA (Arlington) and DC (Indiana Ave. NW Wash., DC 20004). Call George Elfter at (202) 4383 (Farragut Square), Tel. (301) 596-0175, WILL/ESTATE PLANNING by attorney or e-mail: [email protected] Free initial con¬ 628-7758, Fax (703) 354-8734. E-mail: who is a former FSO. Have your will reviewed sultation. and updated, or new one prepared: [email protected] No charge for initial consultation. TAX & FINANCIAL SERVICES M. Bruce Hirshom, Boring & Pilger, 307 GRIEVANCE ATTORNEY (specializing ROLAND S. HEARD, CPA Maple Ave. W, Suite D, Vienna, VA 22180 since 1983) Attorney assists FS Officers cor¬ 1091 Chaddwyck Dr., (703) 281-2161, Fax (703) 281-9464 rect defective performance appraisals, reverse Athens, GA 30606 E-mail: [email protected] improper tenuring and promotion board deci¬ Tel/Fax (706) 769-8976 sions, secure financial benefits, defend E-mail: [email protected] PLACE A CLASSIFIED AD: Rate: against disciplinary actions and obtain relief • U.S. income tax services $1/word (10 word min). First 3 words Boided from all forms of discrimination. Free Initial • Many FS & contractor clients free, add’l bold text $2/word, Header, box, Consultation William T. Irelan, Esq. Tel: (202) • Practiced before the IRS or shading $10. Contact Adv. & Circ. Mgr: 625-1800 Fax: (202)625-1616. • Financial planning Fax (202) 338-6820 E-Mail: [email protected] • American Institute of CPAs, Member E-mail: [email protected] FIRST CONSULTATION FREE

14 AFSA NEWS • JULY-AUGUST 2000 AFSACLASSIFIEDS

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JULY-AUGUST 2000 • AFSA NEWS IS AFSACLASSIF1EDS

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16 AFSA NEWS -JULY-AUGUST 2000 Focus

DOWN THE GAZEBO ROAD

he crescent shore swept away there, if her career was stalled, at least there would be from Portobello Bay towards the sunshine, the beach, the music ... the chance to T the distant, mist-shrouded relax, finally, after so many years in the trenches. mountains. A slash of white DCM by default, because Ambassador Patty sand held back the gentle lap¬ Duquesne had put on her cowgirl boots and kicked ping of the turquoise sea. Gaily Peter Lazarus out of the country six weeks after decorated buses coursed haphazardly in the bustling Veronica arrived at post. The same Peter Lazarus who traffic along the Strand. Beachfront hotels and villas had sworn to her that the ambassador’s troublesome cast playful, elongated shadows over the late- reputation was “totally overblown” and “wildly exag¬ aftemoon crowd of shoppers and vendors. gerated,” and who assured her that he had the neo¬ That’s what I came here for, Veronica Blake phyte political appointee “under control.” thought. That peace. That idyll. That color. That was nearly two years ago. Not this. This crumbling, rat- “Veronica?” infested chancery. This Pirandello The sickly aroma of untreat¬ cast of characters. This daily dose of ed sewage infiltrated the dyspepsia. chancery, as it did on every Deputy chief of mission by flood tide. They really needed to default. Even now, the irony of it pump the effluent farther off¬ caused the wisp of a wry smile to shore than just a couple hun¬ curl in the comers of her mouth. dred yards into the shallow bay. After 18 years in the Foreign “Veronica?” It was Lt. Col. Service, Veronica thought she Milo O’Higgins, the def ense deserved the chance to be a DCM. attache. His voice was oddly She had earned it, having served in pitched, like a screech owl. every tough job from the Seventh “Yes, right,” Veronica said, Floor to Sana'a. She put in for the turning her gaze from the win¬ job at a dozen posts, only to see the dow back to the men and women positions go to other officers, all but assembled in her office. In one of them men — a couple of addition to O’Higgins, they them, she knew from personal WHAT COULD GO WRONG were Sydney Wedgewood, the experience, complete idiots. AT A SIMPLE JULY 4TH ambassador’s lead staff assistant, Maybe it was sex, maybe depart¬ Bill Miller, the administrative EMBASSY PARTY? THE ment politics. Maybe she just wasn’t officer, Frank Tuttle, the regional DONKEY AND ELEPHANT as deserving as she thought. It was a security officer, Kevin Danforth, bitter pill, but the taste was diluted SEEMED QUITE CONTENT. the acting political counselor, by her assignment as political coun¬ Lupe Rincon, the consul general, selor to the tropical, twin-island BY STEVEN WANGSNESS and vice consul Tyler “Whip” state of Tristan and Isolde. If noth¬ Warren. “OK, where are we on ing much important ever happened the invitations?”

JULY-AUGUST 2000/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 39 Focus

The ambassador had put on her cowgirl boots and kicked her DCM out of the country.

“A little over 1600,” Sydney Wedgewood said. American values, not throwing a big street party for “And counting!” Danforth added, in his usual smug half the island. Especially not after what happened last way. Veronica was pretty sure that Danforth believed year.” women ought to rise no higher than the lunch counter The previous year’s Independence Day party had at Hooters. She reminded herself to assign him some been held at the Portobello Copacabana Hotel. The particularly loadisome job, like rodent control officer. vendor contracted to provide balloons — Patty “Sydney, that’s just impossible,” Veronica said. “First Duquesne had insisted on a thousand red, white and of all, it’s five times the number of important — or even blue ones — had trouble securing enough helium, so semi-important — people in Tristan.” he’d rounded out the last third of the order by substi¬ “Well, Patty was counting on friends and family tuting cooking gas. One carelessly tossed cigarette coming down from Montana,” Sydney said. “And later.... Well, at least no one had been killed. The Hollywood. We’re hopeful that Dick Van Patten can department’s lawyers were still soiling out the liability make it.” claims. “The king in Spaceballs,” Danforth whispered audi¬ “Bill, back me up on this,” Veronica said. “You were bly, to no one in particular. there. We settled this.” Rodent control officer, that was the thing for ‘We settled it, yep,” the admin officer said. “The Danforth. residence it is. She signed off on it, no question.” Thank “Well, it’s just way too many. We’ll never be able to God for Bill Miller. He had no more personality than a squeeze them all into the residence, even if we put up slab of basalt, but he was just as solid. Veronica could a tent in the back.” count on him to quote chapter and verse from the reg¬ “Patty was thinking that maybe we wouldn’t use the ulations whenever it was necessary to kill off another residence.” one of the ambassador’s gloriously inane ideas. Veronica drew tight circles on her temple with her “Sydney, you’ll just have to get her back on track,” fingers, massaging a throbbing vein. Whip Warren cast Veronica said. “We haven’t got time to fool around. The a smile in her direction and rolled his eyes. God, he was Fourth is only a month away.” cute. His cobalt eyes bored right into her soul. So Sydney Wedgewood shook her head. young, so full of enthusiasm for life. As she had once “I can’t — I just can’t, Veronica. I can’t be the one to been. Every time she saw him, she wanted to flout all say ‘no’ to her again. She’s still mad at me for making the rules and jump him. her give tire coat of arms back.” She was actually quiv¬ What could they do to her, really? Wreck her ering. career? Too late. The coat of arms had included a crude likeness of “Sydney!” Veronica sighed. The vein throbbed on. Patty Duquesne, right down to the trademark wrap¬ “Sydney, we went over all of this a month ago. You were around sunglasses and lizard-skin boots, astride a buck¬ in the meeting with her. We decided we’d use the resi¬ ing Montana bronco. It had been presented to her by dence this year. Because it’s the official home of the die grateful residents of a fishing village on die soudi president’s personal representative to Tristan. Because coast where she had stopped for exactly three-and-a- die Fourth of July is all about promoting America and half minutes to dedicate a new school while on her way to Club Elysian Resort & Spa for a long weekend. Steven Wangsness is an FSO in State’s Bureau of Grotesque as it was, the ambassador loved it. The only Personnel. He previously served in Rome, St. John’s problem was that it had been carved out of the shell of (Antigua), Vilnius, Dublin and Kingston, a hawksbill turtle, and the U.S. government frowned on

40 FOREIGN SERVICE ] O U RN AL/J U LY- AU GU ST 2000 Focus

artistic license when it came to endangered species. In P-3?” Ambassador Patty Duquesne asked. fact, Veronica had spent the last several months trying “What is that?” to force most of those same fishermen, whose families “A reconnaissance plane, ambassador,” lived in huts of thatch and whatever worm-eaten wood Milo O’Higgins answered. “Mostly used for anti-sub¬ could be scrounged, to attach “turtle excluder devices” marine warfare and SAR.” to their nets. The ambassador’s expression was blanker than Maybe Sydney was right. She’d gotten the staff assis¬ usual. tant job because her father was an old drinking buddy “Search and rescue,” Veronica said. of Montana Gov. John Forbes, the ambassadors broth¬ “So does it carry bombs or torpedoes or something?” er, but that hadn’t kept her from catching her share of She sounded hopeful. flak. “Uh, no! They do drop sonic buoys into the water to “OK, Sydney, we’ll take care of it.” Veronica looked track the subs, though.” at Danforth, the resident Quisling. How she would “Sonic buoys?” The ambassador leaned back in her have loved to say, “Your turn, Kevin. You explain it to chair. “Not too sexy.” her, and while you’re at it, make sure she cuts the Poor Milo, Veronica thought. He’d promised the invites in half.” But she knew that, as always, she’d have ambassador a “flyover” for the Fourth, and no doubt to wrestle with Patty Duquesne herself. She made a she had taken that to mean the Blue Angels, or at the mental note to stop by the liquor store after, on the way very least a couple of F-18s on loan from SOUTH- home. COM. All he’d been able to dredge up was a big cigar Did Whip think she was old? with wings.

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JULY-AUGUST 2000/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 41 Focus

“Is it at least a jet?” the ambassador asked. “I like steel bands,” the ambassador said icily. “I’m afraid not,” O’Higgins said. “Only I don’t know where to put them,” Lupe went “What about smoke? Can it do smoke? You know, on. “The patio will be used by all the guests, so...I was some red, white and blue smoke trailing behind?” thinking maybe we need to put up some kind of plat¬ “I’d have to check on that, ambassador!” form for them, some ... I don’t know ... maybe some¬ “Well, if they can lay some smoke they can do a fly¬ thing like a gazebo.” over. Otherwise — well, otherwise, the hell with it.” “Like an old-time bandstand, that kind of gazebo? I She took a swig of Dr. Pepper. ‘What’s next on the love it, Lupe!” agenda?” Lupe beamed at this unaccustomed compliment “Music,” Veronica said. “Lupe?” from the ambassador. Mostly she spent her days fear¬ “Yeah,” Lupe Rincon said, with the look of someone fully dodging phone calls from Patty Duquesne about suddenly awakened from a trance. (A regular feature of the hopeless visa cases of distant cousins of her meetings.) “Uh, the music. I got the Cavaliers to agree Tristanian friends. to perform for free. They’ll hit me up for visas after¬ “I don’t think that’s the way we want to go,” Veronica wards, but they’re all good risks, so it’s OK.” said. Lupe’s face fell. “It’s a bit elaborate and we’ve only “They know ‘Home on the Range’?” the ambassador got a week left.” asked. “Put GSO on it,” Patty Duquesne said. “They can do anything you want,” Lupe said. Veronica looked for assistance from Bill Miller. By “As long as you don’t mind it played on old oil now they shared a full catalog of non-verbal signals; he drums,” Danforth chimed in. knew when to step in and help her out.

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42 FOREIGN SERVICE J O U RNAL/J U LY-AUGU ST 2000 Focus

She reminded herself to assign him some particularly loathsome job, like rodent control officer.

“They’re pretty busy as it is, ambassador,” Miller with any new corporate donations, so GSO had put it said. “Plus, there’s no money for materials.” together with whatever scrap materials they could find. “What about the corporate donors?” A coat of quick-drying paint applied just before the “Pretty much tapped out already. The fireworks party and a few ribbons made it look acceptable. Even were very expensive.” so, it was so flimsy that it wouldn’t be going anywhere “I’ll make a few phone calls,” she said. She held up after tonight except back to the scrap heap. her hand to stifle further dissent. “You two are always Veronica was almost ready to relax when Frank saying to me, ‘Ambassador, we can’t do this, we can’t do Tuttle came running up to complain about the ele¬ that.’ Well, I think Lupe has come up with a lovely idea phant. here and we’re going to make it happen. I’ll raise the It was an election year, and Patty Duquesne had money, you get GSO to build it. Afterwards we donate decided the symbols of America’s two great political it to some local park or something. Everybody wins.” parties needed to be represented at the party. Some battles with Patty Duquesne you won, some Rounding up a donkey had been no problem; there you lost. Sometimes you could negotiate, sometimes were thousands of them all over Tristan. There was you just had to give in. If you wanted to survive, you only one place to go for a pachyderm, though — the had to know which situation was which. This demand Portobello Zoo, home of Baboo, a geriatric Indian bull was non-negotiable. elephant. No one really knew how old he was. The con¬ Whip looked up from his note-taking and silently sensus was that he was somewhere in his forties. He mouthed the word: gah-ZEEE-boh... carried himself with a certain sadness, though it wasn’t clear whether this resulted from the ravages of age or Veronica had almost finished her survey of the life in the confines of his small pen at the zoo. residence. Fourth of July parties had always “There’s a truck with an elephant at the front gate!” made her nervous, even before Tristan and last Tuttle exclaimed. year’s disaster. Everything had to be just right: the food, Veronica hadn’t had time to tell Tuttle what was the refreshments, the music, the mood. coming. She’d only learned about the elephant and She was mostly satisfied. The red, white and blue donkey 20 minutes ago, when an apologetic Sydney bunting was draped nicely along tire arbors. (No bal¬ Wedgewood informed her of the ambassador’s plan. loons this year. Even Patty Duquesne hadn’t objected.) “She didn’t tell me, she didn’t tell anyone,” Sydney The buffet was nicely laid out, there seemed to be had said. “She made all the arrangements herself.” One enough drink to go around, and even the weather — of Patty Duquesne’s friends was the minister of culture, normally hot, muggy and stormy this time of year — who had authority over the zoo. “I’m so sorry, Veronica. had cooperated: warm, partly cloudy, with a fresh I’m so sorry ....” breeze flowing down from the mountains. A good She was crying. Three years of scheduling, unsched¬ thing, too, since the gazebo, if that’s what you wanted uling, arranging and rearranging the eccentricities of to call it, wouldn’t have withstood even the mildest of Patty Duquesne had worn her down. She had been thunderstorms. When Veronica first saw the small going downhill for months. Now she really looked like pavilion, it looked tawdry. The frame was constructed she was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. of odds and ends of unfinished lumber and plywood, Veronica told her to forget it and to get started at the the roof of sheets of corrugated tin. Bill Miller bar. She told Frank Tuttle the same thing. The ambas¬ explained that the ambassador hadn’t come through sador had pulled off another coup.

JULY-AUGUST 2000/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 43 Focus

Having run out of helium, the vendor had used cooking gas for the last batch of balloons. One carelessly tossed cigarette later ....

Veronica found Whip in the foyer. Patty Duquesne, dancing alone at the front of the “Madam, your party is most excellent,” he said. band, gin-and-tonic in one hand, spotted her and “Just keep the elephant out of the upstairs bed¬ waved her over. rooms,” Veronica said. Whip raised one eyebrow quizzi¬ “Good job, Veronica,” she said, the odor of gin cally. It was the only characteristic he had that she wasn’t robust. “Nice party.” crazy about, that eyebrow trick. “I’ll explain it to you “Thank you, ambassador,” Veronica replied. later.” “I know you all think I’m a witch,” Patty Duquesne She asked him to keep an eye out for arriving said suddenly. She saw Veronica’s face turn gray. “It’s ambassadors. Since Patty Duquesne never entertained OK, honey, don’t get scared on me now. I’m a big girl. members of the diplomatic corps, she had trouble rec¬ I can take it and dish it out with the best of them.” ognizing her colleagues from other lands, though there “Ambassador, I....“ were only 15 of them in this small country. Whip was to “Hush, now. Honey, let me give you a piece of take them to the head of the receiving line and intro¬ advice. You don’t get what you want in this life playing duce them to tire ambassador in a way that wouldn’t by odier people’s rules. You have to fight for what you make it obvious to the VIPs that she didn’t have a clue. want. You have to go out and get it. You aren’t going to “When you’re done ...” she began. “Please come join get anywhere just sitting around waiting for things to me when you’re done.” happen. You’ve got to make it happen. Like this gaze¬ “With pleasure,” Whip said. bo. You didn’t want to give it to me, but I made it hap¬ She walked away wondering how much longer she pen. And damn if it isn’t beautiful.” could go on fooling herself. Whip was just a kid. What She took a slug of gin and put her arm around was he, anyway— 30? She was nearly 44. And his boss. Veronica. That was a problem. There was always an obstacle. She “You know why I sent Peter Lazarus packing, thought of what the Foreign Service had already cost Veronica? Because he nagged me. He nagged me to her: one failed marriage (five years, two tours, no kids), death, just like I did to my second husband!” She one abandoned fiance, so many empty evenings and howled with laughter. “But you’re different. Oh, you do lonely nights. give me a world of trouble. ‘No, no, no,’ always ‘no.’ But Maybe there was a way around the supervisor thing. you do it so nicely. You don’t nag. I admire the subtiety She could talk to Bill Miller about it. If there were a you bring to it. That’s why I let you get your way some¬ lawful angle in the regs, he would know about it. Stop times.” She smiled and laid a wet kiss on Veronica’s it, she told herself. Whip didn’t think of her like that. cheek. “That’s why I love you, sweetie. You make all What she imagined was flirtation was something else. that travail we go through sound like it’s just girl talk .... She had to come down to earth. Now you go have yourself some fun. Make it happen.” When she found Kevin Danforth, she told him to She released Veronica, grabbed a Cavalier and take an inventory of the wine and beer. His Thomas E. returned to dancing. Dewey moustache twitched with consternation. Veronica walked away slowly, asking herself how well you could know anyone. Every time you turned The Cavaliers had “Home on die Range” down around, a surprise was waiting for you. pat. The guests had arrived and were enjoying She found Whip standing beneath a mango tree. He themselves. The elephant and the donkey lazed said he’d been looking for her without success. They in apparent contentment off to die side of the patio. exchanged pleasantries until the ambassador called for Veronica was looking for Whip. silence so she could read the president’s Fourth of July-

44 FOREIGN SERVICE J OV RN AL/J U LY-AUG V ST 2000 Focus

message. She winked at Veronica from the micro¬ of the arbor trailing behind him, knocking over chairs phone, which had been set up at the front of the gaze¬ and tables, scattering foreign dignitaries and embassy bo. Despite her elevated blood alcohol level, she read staff, dragging his heavy leg chain over parliamentari¬ the proclamation well, with just the right touch of ans and judges and business leaders, trampling their poignancy. Sometimes, Veronica thought, you had to wives and husbands and mistresses and lovers, tipping give Patty Duquesne credit. over the buffet table, lumbering on until he could go no When she finished with the presentation, the farther, crashing into the gazebo and bringing it down ambassador announced the fireworks. A moment later, in one swift second on tire Cavaliers, their steel drums, to the delight of the crowd, the first blazing rocket and Ambassador Patty Duquesne. launched skyward. Whip moved closer to Veronica. She Veronica covered her mouth in horror. The gazebo could feel the heat of his body, sensed tire rhythms of had collapsed in on itself, burying the band and tire his breathing. A series of thunderous reports went off, ambassador under a mound of wood chips and sheet punctuated by exploding rays of purple, green and metal. white sparks. “Oh, Lord ....” she said. She turned away from the Veronica caught the commotion to the left out of the scene, throwing her arms around Whip. comer of her eye, and then it unfolded as if in slow “Well, boss,” he said. “It looks like you’re going to be motion. charge d’affaires for awhile.” He placed his hand on the Baboo, spooked by the loud and unfamiliar explo¬ small of her back. “Don’t feel bad. You told her not to sions, broke away from his handlers and galloped across go down the gazebo road.” the grass in a blind panic, a ribbon of bunting and part His touch was electric. ■ Home Suite Home

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JULY-AUGUST 2 OOO/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 45 Focus

A NICARAGUAN FISH STORY

picked up the phone and answered with the to branch out into — still in the fishing industry of course usual greeting. — and diat s why I’m calling you.” I “This is Liza Heywood.” Wedging the “What can I help you with?” I asked again, more impa- receiver between my shoulder and my chin, I tientiy now. reached for die Kleenex box on my desk. “Last week my husband met a Nicaraguan at a seafood Despite the early hour, die sweat was beading convention in Miami. They stalled talking, and this man up on my forehead — the ah' conditioning unit behind told my husband about diis business he has in Nicaragua. me wasn’t working right. Outside it was like a sauna. He operates a processing plant. He buys up shrimp and Inside it wasn’t much better. fish from other fishermen, cleans and packages it, dien The voice on the otiier end of the line was soft and ships his product to Europe. He’s offering us a chance to hesitant. get in on his business.” “Hello, my name is Sheila “And he needs money for some- Camer and I’m an American citi¬ diing,” I interrupted. zen. I’d like to speak witii someone “He needs $200,000 in order to about investing in Nicaragua.” bring his processing plant up to “Yes, this is die embassy’s eco¬ U.S. standards,” agreed my caller. nomic section. How can I help “He needs to before he can begin you?” exports to the U.S. market. In Sheila Carner’s voice grew return, my husband and I will get a stronger. 20 percent share in die business, “As I said, I’m an American citi¬ and we’ll be his U.S. distributor. It zen. My family has been in the it works out, this could be a great seafood business in Baltimore for opportunity for us.” three generations; my husband and “And if it doesn’t work out, you I run the company now. But the could lose everything.” Chesapeake Bay area has been “But we can’t afford to do that! overfished, and it’s getting hard for That’s why I’m calling you.” The fishermen to survive.” voice at the other end of the line “Mmmmmm.” I shifted the IT STARTED WITH A SIMPLE was tinged with panic. I suddenly felt tired. The heat phone receiver to my other ear and CALL FROM BALTIMORE: swabbed at the back of my damp and die workload were just too SHOULD WE INVEST IN A neck with a Kleenex. I sighed and much. While I had been in glanced down at my desk; files and NICARAGUAN FISHING Nicaragua for only four mondis, I paperwork were piled deep on BUSINESS? already had a lot of experience with every inch of available space. Boxes American citizens calling up and asking diat I make dieir business of office material were shoved BY NANCY J. NELSON against a wall, still unpacked. decisions for them -— business deci¬ “So we’re looking for other areas sions on which diey couldn’t afford

46 FOREIGN SERVICE J O U RN AL/J V LY-AU GU ST 2000 Focus

to lose. Nicaragua seemed to attract both the get-rich- swinging his leg, twitching something. Tall with a thinness quick schemers and the slightly desperate on their last tlrat bordered on gaunt, Tom could often be found on the legs. front steps of the embassy satisfying his two-pack-a-day I sighed, but took out a pen and notepad. smoking habit witir the other smokers — even overseas “The fishing industry in Nicaragua can be very lucra¬ U.S. government buildings are supposed to be smoke- tive. Just off Nicaragua’s Atlantic coast lie what some free. experts consider tire last commercial-sized unexploited Tom sat at his desk glowering, his normal expression. shrimp reserves in the Western Hemisphere. But what’s He picked up Iris matches and began fiddling. I bowed to more important is figuring out whether your Nicaraguan the inevitable. contact is legitimate. How long do you have to make your “I can tell you just as well outside, Tom,” I said. decision?’ We walked down the hall, past the Marines’ post and “One week,” said Sheila quietly, her voice tight. “He’ll the reception desk and out the front door into the heat. be coming back to tire United States then, and we’ll have Across the parking lot, I could see the tall, graceful- to give him either a yes or a no. My husband wanted to looking palm trees drat bordered the edges of dre com¬ sign a contract with him right then and there, but I argued pound. Steam from evaporating rainfall was rising up against it. It’s all our money.” from the paving stones. I could feel my hair frizzing with I sighed again, but wrote down all the information the humidity. The sky was grey; the air was tirick and hot. Sheila gave nre, and promised to call her back within a few When I turned around to face Tom, he already had a cig¬ days. After hanging up the phone, I walked down the hall¬ arette in his mouth. way to the office of my boss, Torn McMann. He was on “I just wanted to consult and make sure drat I was the phone, but he motioned for me to wait for him. I doing the right thing,” I said, “and see if you have any sug¬ slouched down in one of his cracked leather chairs, and gestions.” stared out the open door to the mustard-colored hallways I was a newcomer botir to Nicaragua and to economic beyond. Tom’s air conditioner was working full blast. work. At my last post I had worked in the consular section issuing visas. And despite Tom’s twitching and glowering, The embassy of tire United States in Managua is an he had a lot of good advice to offer. He would have been unprepossessing, dingy building. The original a great officer if he hadn’t minded so much having to deal embassy was destroyed in tire earthquake of 1972 with real live people. in which over 10,000 Nicaraguans died. It had been built Telling him about the call from Sheila Camer, I asked on a scenic spot overlooking a volcanic lake and had col¬ what I could do to confirm the bona fides of her potential lapsed into the water with the first wrenching tremors. Nicaraguan partner. “His name is Enrique Peralta and he Luckily for the embassy employees, it had happened at supposedly operates a fish processing plant here in night; only one person — tire Marine on duty — had died. Managua called Mariscos, S.A.” The current embassy had been hastily erected as a Tom took a drag on his cigarette. replacement intended to last only five years. Twenty-five “You should go to PesCamara — the fisheries office at years later, it’s squat and graceless, resembling nothing so tire Economic Ministry. Those people can tell you about much as a series of double wide trailers all hooked togeth¬ tlie operating license of Peralta’s plant; whether there er. But what with the budget situation at State, it’s unlike¬ have been any complaints about it, whether he’s paid up, ly that we’ll get a new building any time soon. things like that. Gilberto Aleman is tire director. He’s one Torn hung up tire phone and looked over at me, his fin¬ of tlie few people who was kept on in his position after the gers tapping on his desk. Sandinistas were thrown out of power, so he knows every¬ ‘What’s up, Liza?” body and everything.” Torn was always in motion — tapping Iris fingers, I still had my pen and notepad. I wrote it all down. Tom took a last puff of his cigarette, tirrew it down, and Nancy J. Nelson is an economic officer in Tallinn, ground it underfoot. He immediately lit up another one. Estonia. In addition to two Washington tours, she has “This will give you a good opportunity to familiarize served in Caracas and Managua. yourself with the fisheries sector. I know that we’ve been

JULY-AUGUST 2000/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 47 Focus

This country has the reputation of hiring investors in, chewing them up and spitting them out.

busy with other things since you got here, but we really ‘Tou can go through there.” She made a motion with can’t afford to let this slide. Fisheries will probably devel¬ her chin towards a rear door. op into one of the busier items in your work portfolio.” The office I stepped into was shabby but expensive. “Since the seafood industry is so healdiy, at least I’ll be The low hum of Gilberto Aleman’s air conditioner masked able to tell Sheila Camer that it’s a good sector for invest¬ any soimds from outside the office. Light from highly ments,” I said. placed windows, soft and diffuse, illuminated the dark Tom tinned his head to look at me. His hair clung to wooden desk and work area at one end of the office, and his forehead, not only because of the humidity, but also a leather furniture seating arrangement at the other. because it had started to sprinkle. The clouds seemed Appropriately for a fisheries office, an end table by the darker, and it looked like it would begin to rain hard any leather sofa held an elaborate fish tank, complete with five minute now. When Tom started to speak, his words were guppies. clear and measured. “Liza Heywood, I’m so pleased to meet you.” ‘Tou can’t be too careful when an American is thinking The man who came forward was 50-something, light¬ about going into business in Nicaragua. This country has skinned and chubby, dressed in chinos and a guayabera. the reputation of luring investors in, chewing them up and Taking my hand, Aleman gallantly pressed his wet lips to then spitting them out in little pieces.” my fingers — a custom I’ve never been fond of. I noticed “Now I’m not saying that there aren’t a lot of decent his forehead was decorated with beads of sweat. “Please people here,” added Tom darkly. “Just keep your eyes sit down.” open. As long as you remember that you should be safe.” “It’s an honor to be visited by the American embassy,” said Aleman as we settled on the small couch. His smile Tom’s words were still in my mind the next after¬ didn’t quite reach his eyes. noon as I drove up South Highway to PesCamara “It is very generous of you to agree to see me on such to keep my appointment with Gilberto Aleman. I short notice,” I replied in kind. “I have very little time to had already asked Emilio, the economic FSN, to find out get the information I need, so I am very grateful. As I said what Marisco’s reputation was in the business community. on the telephone, I would like to discuss Nicaragua’s fish¬ At a red light a weary looking woman with a toddler on her ing industry. An American company called me to ask hip trudged by. I automatically lowered the window a few about the advisability of putting a great deal of money into inches to drop some coins into her outstretched hand, then a fish processing plant called Mariscos S.A. I believe that quickly cranked it up again as the hot, humid air blasted in. Enrique Peralta is the owner.” The woman continued slowly down the row of stopped I had expected that the Nicaraguan official would cars, followed by vendors selling sunglasses, batteries, encourage U.S. investment in his country, and I wasn’t dis¬ peanuts and pan dulce. The light turned green and I drove appointed. on, arriving at PesCamara within a few minutes. “Any American investor would do well to work with The fisheries office was housed in a sprawling, one- Senor Peralta,” he said. “Although Don Enrique is young story building, with walls of concrete blocks painted — still in his thirties — he is a very hard worker and veiy fight green and a roof of corrugated metal. The build¬ responsible. From what I have observed of Mariscos, it ing was air-conditioned, however, and I thankfully left has tire potential to become one of the largest processing the heat outside as I passed through the front door. operations in Nicaragua — maybe even in Central Although the waiting area was dark and dingy, I didn’t America. The company is very professionally run.” have to wait long. A sullen-looking receptionist soon Aleman said more things about Mariscos, all to indicated that the director was ready to see me. Peralta’s credit. After about half an hour I stood up to go.

48 FOREIGN SERVICE J O U RN AL/J U LY-AU GU ST 2000 Focus

My eyes strayed to the guppies swimming placidly in their of acquaintances who wanted to introduce her to another tank, and then to some old photos in elaborate frames on friend. How had she known whom I was talking about? In a shelf. I walked over to them. any case, it was clear she thought poorly of Peralta — and “Who is this gendeman?” The man in the black and just as clear that she assumed Aleman had warned me to white photo, dressed in the fashion of thirty years earlier, avoid him. I never had die opportunity to tell her drat stood proudly on a dock next to a large tuna measuring Aleman’s recommendation had been just die opposite. I almost his height. I stepped aside as Gilberto Aleman wasn’t any closer to knowing what to tell Sheila Camer came up behind me too closely. dian when I had started. “My father,” he replied, picking up die photo and The next morning I found Emilio, the economic assis¬ examining it. “He was a very skilled sports fisherman. He tant, in the commercial library making up packets of pro¬ participated often in contests, and won many trophies.” motional material for a trade show. He looked up and I was hard pressed to find any resemblance between smiled as I came in, but didn’t stop what he was doing. the dapper gentleman in die photo and his chubby son “Buenos dias, Liza. Do you want to know what I found standing next to me. I did, however, recognize another about Peralta and his company?” person in die photo standing just behind and to the side I slumped down in a chair at die table opposite him, of Aleman’s father — the dictator Anastasio Somoza. It and staited to help assemble packets. “Let me go first. was curious how the father could be in widi die Somoza PesCamara couldn’t praise Peralta highly enough, but die family and die son with die Sandinistas. commercial attache at die Colombian Embassy warned I remarked upon this die next evening to Juanita me off. I never got the details from her, but she doesn’t Londono, the commercial attache at the Colombian think much of Enrique Peralta.” embassy, as we waited in line to get a glass of wine at a “That’s because diat Colombian company lost so much reception for an Italian chamber music group diat wars money.” touring Central America. “What? You know about it? Tell me what happened!” “Many Nicaraguans are skilled politicians. They have “Well, it’s only rumors,” began Emilio, “but everyone to be in order to survive,” she said widi a toss of her head involved in the seafood business seems to agree on the and a laugh. “Whatever it takes to protect tiieir interests is main points.” He moved a pile of sealed envelopes over to what they’ll do. But at least Gilberto Aleman is knowl¬ one side and began addressing diem. “A Colombian com¬ edgeable. I’ve had to go to him several times with fishing pany put money into Mariscos — I diink it was about industry problems, and he usually is able to point me in $150,000. Then Peralta declared bankruptcy. A month die right direction. I suppose that’s what happens when later Mariscos was up and running again, but since he had you spend so much time in one job — when die job is previously declared bankruptcy, Peralta didn’t have to pay handed down from father to son.” die money back.” “Father to son?” I asked. But we had arrived at the “Isn’t that illegal?” I asked. head of die line, and Juanita and I were asked our wine “Not under the Napoleonic Code,” he said. “And diis preferences. As we picked up our glasses and moved a few wasn’t die first time; someone I talked to vaguely remem¬ steps into die crowd I changed die subject slighdy. “I went bered a German firm complaining about something simi¬ to PesCamara to ask about a potential investment that an lar happening, but couldn’t give me any details.” American company wants to make. A fish processing plant “I still don’t understand why Gilberto Aleman recom¬ that needs money to upgrade to U.S. standards.” mended Peralta so highly.” “That sounds like Enrique Peralta’s old story.” “Money,” he said. “Maybe Aleman doesn’t think that Juanita took a sip of her wine and gave a hollow laugh. the normal profits from Mariscos are high enough.” “I wish I had thought to ask Aleman about Peralta ‘Why does what Aleman thinks about anything mat¬ when a Colombian firm asked me about investing in ter?” I asked. I stopped malting up packets and gave that plant; he might have saved us a lot of trouble. Emilio my undivided attention. “Peralta is die one who Peralta’s bad news.” gets die profits.” As I opened my mouth in surprise to ask her to clarify “Again, it’s only rumors, but it looks like Peralta’s what she’d just said, Juanita was pulled away by a couple only a front man,” corrected Emilio. “Pie used to work

JULY-AUGUST 2000/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 49 Focus

for Aleman at PesCamara, then Aleman set him up at Glumly, he turned and went inside. I followed. Mariscos and calls the shots.” Ambassador Jessica Arthur was a political appointee. “But that doesn’t make a lot of sense,” I said. “Why Having made her money in Texas oil, she was smart, tough would Aleman jeopardize his position in PesCamara to and beautiful. She was seated in an easy chair, and looked engage in something like this?” up as Tom and I entered. Her sandy blond hair, expertly At this Emilio stopped addressing the envelopes and done up, was set off by her expensively-tailored grey suit. turned to me. Speaking very slowly, as if to a child, he said, A pink silk blouse and bright red nails added color to the “That’s die whole point. He has the position so that he can ambassador’s ensemble. Her face broke into a smile when keep better track of all his business interests. He has his she saw us. fingers in eveiything connected with die fishing and “Tom, Liza, come on in.” Her Texas drawl was like seafood industries in Nicaragua — die granting of fishing honey. licenses, die ownership of die only refrigerated cargo “We have a problem, ambassador,” said Tom without planes certified to fly internationally, a monopoly on the wasting any time. “A Nicaraguan government official import of boating equipment. Besides die Mariscos oper¬ appears to be involved in cheating investors. It’s some¬ ation, Aleman has two other seafood processing plants. thing Liza ran across, so I’ll let her tell you about it.” And you should notice tiiat when the Mariscos plant I had expected Tom to do all the talking, so I was declares bankruptcy and shuts dow n, it’s always during die caught unprepared as their faces turned towards mine. I three months when shrimping is prohibited, so he doesn’t started out hesitantly with Sheila Camer’s phone call, then lose any money. In the position of PesCamara director, gained speed as I became involved in my own narration. Aleman can see everydiing tiiat happens in the fishing By the time I was detailing Gilberto Aleman’s web of com¬ industry. It’s his control center.” mercial interests in the fishing industry, I was feeling “But that’s only rumor,” he said. Taking the next enve¬ indignant. lope off the pile, Emilio looked up at me and added, “I think we should handle tins quietly,” suggested Tom. “Aleman inherited the business from his father. This is the “Confronting the government will get us nowhere. way it’s always been.” Aleman is too well connected, and his family has been I didn’t have to look long for Tom; he was in front of doing this for at least two generations. If we lodge a com¬ the embassy halfway through a cigarette. I spilled out the plaint it will be seen as insulting to the Nicaraguan gov¬ entire problem to him right there on the steps. ernment — our bilateral relations will deteriorate for “Aleman is operating a scam,” I concluded. “He’s nothing. We should just deal with the problem on a case deliberately encouraging foreign firms to invest money in by case basis.” his company which will declare bankruptcy and shut down as soon as the funds are received. Where do we go I slowly' counted to 10, then burst out, “An individual in from here?” his capacity as a Nicaraguan government official is Tom stubbed out what was left of his cigarette and working to cheat U.S. businesses — and other foreign squinted out into the sunlight. His eyes seemed to follow businesses as well. It doesn’t matter that Aleman’s well the progress of a small iguana on the opposite curb, but I connected; we don’t have any choice. We have to at least knew that he was upset when he started speaking without go to the Nicaraguan government and lodge an official lighting up another cigarette. complaint. This guy can’t be left to continue on as he’s “It’s always hard when your contact turns out to be doing. We won’t be doing Nicaragua any favor by pre¬ crooked. You don’t want to complain about it to the local tending eveiything is okay.” government, because they may take it as criticism of their “But Liza,” countered Tom, “we can’t change some¬ political system or their basic ability to govern. Why rile thing so ingrained in tire society. It’s not just this one man; tilings if you can’t change them anyway?’ Tom ran his it’s the entire system. We won’t make a difference.” hand through his hair in exasperation, and the little igua¬ “But it’s our job to try,” I said. na jumped off the curb and scooted behind a bush cov¬ We continued back and forth in that vein for the next ered with brilliant red flowers. “We’re going to have to run 20 minutes. I was vexed and angry; Tom was cautious and this one by the ambassador.” placating. It was tire first time I had ever opposed a super-

50 FOREIGN SERVICE J O U RN A L/J U LY-AU Gl S T 2000 Focus

visor in the Foreign Service, and I felt like I was butting found diat out. It was proof that sometimes we can make my head against a wall. a difference. Ambassador Arthur stayed largely out of our argument, The reception officially introducing the new director watching the back and forth intently but making few com¬ was a fancy affair, held in one of die small ballrooms of die ments. However, it was Jessica Arthur — the political Intercontinental Hotel. As I waited with Emilio in the appointee — who brought up something neither Tom nor receiving line, I eyed the tables heavily laden with shrimp I had thought of. She asked, “How would Congress react and lobster across the room. The seafood industry was if it found out drat an American company was cheated, catering die aff air. People moved forward, and it soon was and we just sat here and did nothing?” my turn to greet die new director. That settled it. The man to whom I held out my hand was in his mid- diirties; slighdy built in a good looking sort of way. And Actually, it turned out better than we expected. The although I couldn’t put my linger on anything, he looked complaint lodged by Tom turned out to be a cata¬ vaguely familiar. It wasn’t until he took my offered hand, lyst. The Nicaraguan government convened an lifted it to his lips and kissed it, that recognition dawned. I official committee which, after a review of dre several began to feel ill. complaints drat had been made against Aleman in the “I’m sony,” I said faindy, “but I was never actually previous years, decided to name a new director to given your name.” PesCamara. The official reason given was drat “Gilberto “Javier Aleman at your service,” he said gallandy. Aleman has informed us he will step down in order to pur¬ “Gilberto’s son. But of course who else would I be? There sue private business interests.” I felt almost giddy when I will always be Alemans at PesCamara.” ■ Alexandria Suites Hotel Participant in FARA Housing Program Room & Ride Program: Studio Suite and Intermediate Size Car within your Per Diem

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JULY-AUGUST 2000/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 51 AFTER NAIROBI: RECOVERING FROM TERROR

AFTER A TRAUMATIC BOMBING, WE FOUND THAT INDIVIDUALS HEAL IN DIFFERENT WAYS — BUT COMMUNITY IS ESSENTIAL TO THE HEALING PROCESS.

BY PRUDENCE BUSHNELL

This article is dedicated to everyone who was hurt, every¬ Friday meant the weekly staff meeting, and I had asked one who helped, and everyone whose life was affected by folks to discuss how new people were settling in. Nairobi, the bombing of the U.S. embassy in Nairobi on Aug. 7, with a deteriorating infrastructure, miserable poverty and 1998. high crime rate, was not an easy city and we were always trying to find a balance between keeping people alert to n the summer of 1998, I was serving as U.S. security threats and scaring them into seclusion. So, secu¬ I ambassador to Kenya. It was my first ambas¬ rity was once again the main topic. It was unusual that I sadorship, and after two years, I had hit my was absent, but I had gotten an appointment to meet with stride. I was leading a terrific team of people the Kenyan minister of commerce, whose office was just who were excited about what we were accom¬ behind our building, and I didn’t want to miss it. plishing and who shared my belief in the worth What was not unusual for a Friday was the activity in of our efforts and our community. the embassy. People were cashing checks for the week¬ Embassy Nairobi, like most others you find around the end, visiting the medical unit or coming to shop at the world, was an amalgam of U.S. government agencies pro¬ commissary. Others were working through the last day of moting U.S. interests. In our case, these ranged from the week, thinking about the weekend. On the busy street regional responsibihties to support other embassies in comer outside, Nairobi citizens were also going about Africa, to helping Kenyans deepen their culture of their business. democracy, enhance economic potential, provide human¬ At 10:37 a.m., a truck entered our rear parking lot, itarian assistance, eradicate diseases like HIV/AIDS and sandwiched between the embassy, a 21-story bank build¬ malaria, and conserve a wonderful biodiversity. We were ing (where I was meeting with the minister), and a seven- the second largest post in the sub-Sahara with over 700 story office building. Moments later, the driver detonated employees, most of them Kenyan, working out of our the 2,000-pound bomb that was the trucks cargo. Its force embassy downtown and other buildings around the city. in such a confined area blasted through and bounced off On Aug. 7,1998, the summer transition cycle was com¬ the surrounding buildings. Everything and eveiyone in its ing to an end. We were welcoming newcomers, filling the path were destroyed. The seven-story building collapsed, jobs left vacant by personnel gaps, and waiting for the the bank building where I was shuddered but held. The American school to reopen and signal the end of summer. embassy, built to withstand earthquakes, took the impact from the rear, and almost everything inside was demol¬ Prudence Bushnell is the U. S. ambassador to Guatemala. ished. Over 5,000 people were injured, most from shat¬ From 1996 to 1999, she served as ambassador to Kenya. tered glass in the face and chest area, and 213 lay dead. She has been an FSO since 1981 and previously served in Inside the embassy, the blast instantly killed 46 of the 100- Senegal, India and Washington, D. C. This article is based plus occupants; it injured and trapped many more. on a speech the author gave in Oklahoma City, Okla., on In the bank building a few yards away, I was unaware April 19, 2000 —- the fifth anniversary of the bombing in of the extent of destruction and chaos outside. Initially that city of the Murrah Federal Building. knocked out by the bomb blast, which I thought was

52 FOREIGN SERVICE ] OU RN AL/J U LY- AUGU ST 2000 directed at the bank, I started down the 21 flights of stairs hours after the bombing, the victims-turned-rescuers had with one of my U.S. Commerce Department colleagues. become a tight, protective and insular community. As Along with hundreds of bloodied people crushed togeth¬ utterly exhausted as we were, we stubbornly refused to er, we went down those endless stairs littered with debris relinquish control of what we thought of as our tragedy. As and rubble and were soon engulfed in smoke. If we could the one responsible for the lives of American citizens in get out alive, I kept thinking, we would find safety in the Kexrya, I was particularly adamant about the need to stay embassy. That thought evaporated as soon as we saw the in charge. burning hulk of our building and the carnage around it. Forty-eight hours after the blast, American members We were spotted almost immediately and pushed into a of tire mission gathered at my residence to hold tire first car that was ordered away. “Get her out of here!” people of many services — this one to remember, honor and say yelled. No way would they risk anydiing further happen¬ good-bye to our 12 American colleagues who were leaving ing to the U.S. ambassador. My colleagues and I sped to a in coffins accompanied by their families the next day. It nearby hotel, where, as we hoped, we found a doctor. was a beautiful ceremony as one by one we rose to talk about the character A Single-Minded Focus and contributions of Kenyan resources were overwhelmed. Waves of walk¬ those who only days In those first days ing wounded staggered into understaffed and under¬ earlier had been our resourced hospitals, and tire bare hands of volunteer citi¬ family, friends and co¬ of despair and self ¬ zens were all that was initially available to dig through the workers. Among those rubble of the office building that had adjoined the to speak was my rescue, I felt a embassy. When it came to rescuing those inside the Kenyan driver. “I am a embassy, we Americans were on our own. Kenyan by birth,” he synergy with the While some of the staff cobbled together assistance said, “but today I have supplies for the bombsite, others had contacted become a Kenyan- community I will Washington with the start of a long list of Nairobi’s needs. American because I We got teams organized to search morgues, hospitals and share your sorrow in likely never again homes for tire missing, and as the news spread, communi¬ the loss of these peo¬ ty' members fanned out to help the families of those we ple.” His words cap¬ experience. knew were lost. No task was too heroic or too mundane. tured the sentiment of Whatever panic we may have felt was directed toward the many. singular focus of doing what was necessary to save people s During the next week we began dealing with the trau¬ lives. By the end of a long day, we had organized ourselves mas aftereffects. With the help of local and visiting coun¬ into a purposeful community. selors, we held debriefing sessions for all mission staff and By tire time I got home that night, our 24-hour opera¬ organized another service to honor our 36 Kenyan col¬ tions center was in its second shift and our colleagues in leagues who had died. Washington, seven hours behind Nairobi time, were franti¬ We faced a myriad of other tasks, which we shared with cally expediting search and rescue teams and supplies. Our the people who had come to help. We were immensely most severely injured were in tire hospital, a medical evacu¬ grateful to them, but frankly did little to make them a part ation aircraft was on its way, and we were becoming aware of us. We were we — they were they. Even people who of our losses. I was too exhausted to sleep and afraid of the had transferred from the embassy only weeks earlier nightmares I might have. I remember lying in bed with a found themselves treated as outsiders. I think, in retro¬ sense of devastation and numbness superimposed on per¬ spect, that we were not an easy group to help, but the cussions of tire blast captured in every cell of my body. The teams were sensitive enough to take their cues from us —• radio station was playing sad music in-between calls for a gesture for which I wall be forever grateful. When eight blood supplies. Downtown, the rescue efforts went on. days after the bombing I ordered all mission staff home for the weekend, our visiting colleagues took charge with¬ The Community Comes Together out a question, giving us the time-out we desperately Over the next two days, hundreds of people arrived needed. from tire United States and other countries to help, but In those first days of despair and self-rescue, I felt a for us, the worst had already come to pass. In those long synergy with the community I will likely never again expe-

JULY-AUGUST 2000/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 53 rience, made all die more powerful the anger subsided, in them and in by hugs, sacrifice, tears and a deter¬ us. But it took many months. mination to stand up to the effort to Many of the destroy us. If that sense of oneness Diverse Roads to Recovery dissipated over the ensuing months, severely wounded By October, I was witnessing the the culture of interdependency we huge diversity of human response to had created remained strong — and chose to come hack — trauma — Kenyans and Americans instrumental to overcoming the were all over the place in terms of hardships ahead. some with shards of their reactions and recovery. Some When I attended the official were doing all right, and some were memorial service in Washington in glass still in not. Some wanted to move on with September, I remember telling my their lives; others still needed to sister about the huge abyss I felt them. mourn. Responses had nothing to do between my own shattered inner with gender, race, culture or proximi¬ reality and the normalcy of life in the ty to the blast. United States. I was anxious to Ironically, the counseling services return to Nairobi, not just to begin we had engaged were largely reconstruction efforts, but also to been destroyed, and everything took ignored. We in foreign affairs are still take comfort among those I felt too long to come together. We dearly reluctant to deal openly with mental understood and perhaps shared the missed our dead colleagues and health issues, and many Kenyan cul¬ foreign sensations inside me. quickly learned just how much the tures have a similar tradition of Others may have felt a similar Kenyans, in particular, contributed to masking feelings. Clearly, however, need, because although the State the running of the mission. Lacking a many were grappling with emotions Department gave all embassy per¬ single point of contact with we didn’t like or understand. A cou¬ sonnel the option to leave post, few Washington once the task force dis¬ ple of months after having spent chose to do so. Even many of the banded, we became frustrated with hours in the bombed-out embassy, severely wounded chose to come our colleagues there, who now had for example, I suddenly became back — many with shards of glass other crises to tend to, and they almost physically ill from being still in them. Motivations differed — became frustrated with us. inside that place of death, and I Anger was a key ingredient in the couldn’t understand why. children in school, reluctance to put ' families through the additional stress culture in which we were living. It Disciplined intellect and rational of moving and starting new jobs — had also hit other Nairobi survivors, thought were no match for what but I also think that instinctively peo¬ who could ill afford the immense loss overpowered me after one seemingly ple felt that sticking together and of life and property. The terrorists routine visit. rebuilding would somehow help in were far away, and vague figures, but By Christmas, when U.S. healing. The courage I saw in the Americans were right there. Had it embassies around the world were put decisions to stay was key to keeping not been for our presence, many said, on alert of another possible attack, I me going. such death and destruction would not knew I had to take steps to take care have come to Kenya. Publicly and of myself. Terrorism was no longer A Long Way From Normal privately, we were criticized for our an abstract concept, and during one It was not easy, however. When the reactions in the hours after the blast. of our many meetings on security, I rescue workers left, the Washington The security cordon we set up was wondered whether I would have the crisis task force disbanded and the seen as an act of hostility and our wherewithal to cope with another press moved on to other stories, we focus on saving our own people in the disaster. When we closed the confronted a new reality. Squeezed embassy, a sign of indifference to embassy and cancelled holiday activ¬ with our colleagues into the poorly Kenyan needs. We, in turn, were hurt ities, I was at an all-time low. constructed USAID building, sur¬ and frustrated by their interpretation It was then that the power of fam¬ rounded by barbed wire, sandbags, of events, and for a while it looked as ily and community really kicked in. If sniffer dogs and Marines in combat if the terrorists might have succeeded at times some of us felt unduly vul¬ gear, we were constantly reminded of in rupturing an old friendship. But on nerable, short-tempered or off mark failure. Phones and faxes didn’t work, we plowed, adding public relations to in our performance, others felt OK computers, equipment and files had the many tasks we faced. Eventually and picked up the slack. The diversity

54 FOREIGN SERVICE J O U RN AL/J U LY-AUGU ST 2000 in our reactions to trauma, which was inscribed with the names of all who in some respects troubling, was also a had died in our building. For me, it blessing. The newcomers and tempo¬ After two months, was a symbol that I had finally gath¬ rary personnel who had chosen to ered back the community that leave jobs and family to help us in some wanted exploded on August 7. Bereaved Nairobi were a particular source of family members from as far away as strength because they were so clearly to move the United States attended what for dedicated and fresh — and this time many was another important ritual we were making deliberate efforts to on with their lives; of healing. incorporate them into our communi¬ Soon after, the focus and activi¬ ty. Physical proximity in the cramped others still needed ties shifted again. Like many of my USAID building also helped, espe¬ colleagues, I was leaving Nairobi in cially because we had quite conscious¬ to mourn. early summer at the end of my ly established strong norms around three-year tour of duty, and prepa¬ tolerance and mutual support. rations for a major transition began. What also helped were the obser¬ Those who were staying would be vations and advice of people who had at the Nairobi game park for the tra¬ moving either to the new, temporary experienced the 1995 bombing in ditional sundowner. Nature gave us building or to other quarters — the Oklahoma City and the 1983 bomb¬ one of her most spectacular sunsets, USAID building was far too inse¬ ing of our embassy in Beirut. as “Auld Lang Syne” played in the cure for permanent occupation — Validating normal, abnormal or no background. We hugged, cried, and and once again the mission staff feelings at all was comforting. once again shared a moment of soli¬ would be scattered around the city. Meanwhile, the letters and, eventu¬ darity, but this time marked with The old embassy was being demol¬ ally, e-mails from family, friends and hope. We had survived 1998! ished, and we needed to consider colleagues around the world also That moment represented a what would happen to the land on helped confront a sense of real and turning point for me. Finally, things which it had stood. emotional isolation. began to come together. Office sys¬ There remained a host of admin¬ tems were functioning, and we had istrative issues surrounding our We Survive 1998 found a building to which to move assistance to Kenyan victims, the We had begun using rituals to while a new embassy was construct¬ welfare of permanently disabled mourn, celebrate and bring us ed. Those of us who watched our employees, the estates of those who together even before the experts told Marine security guards raise the died. And I was once again struck by us they were important. The many U.S. flag on the pedestal we saved the nature of our community as an funerals and memorial services we from the old embassy felt that inde¬ amalgam of diverse individuals attended had served us well in shar¬ scribable pride of being an going separate ways in thought and ing our profound sorrow, but we American. A congressional supple¬ recovery. reached a point when we needed a mental budget, which included $30 March came and we again sought milestone to mark survival. The million to assist Kenyans, finally the help of mental health experts, annual Marine Ball in mid- gave us the tangible wherewithal to and of trainers from the Foreign November was our first community show our concern for Nairobi’s loss¬ Service Institute, to take our emo¬ celebration of life. I remember danc¬ es. The criminal investigations into tional pulse and to recommend ways ing to the Gloria Gaynor song, “I Will the source of the attack had yielded to help ease the stressful time Survive,” as a virtual act of defiance. some results. The most seriously ahead. I was particularly concerned Visits of Cabinet members and other wounded of our colleagues were about Kenyan employees who senior officials also marked our returning; new people were being would bear the brunt of the progress as the focus shifted from hired and trained. changes. If counseling was not the funerals to business. One of these In late January, we marked answer for some, perhaps less visits resulted in a better-coordinated another step of our journey as we threatening methods through train¬ system with Washington and, slowly dedicated a memorial garden on the ing could help build the skills and but surely, the work was to become beautiful grounds of the ambas¬ confidence necessary to confront easier. sadors residence. The rim of its more major change. We also worked On New Year’s Eve, we gathered fountain was made of bricks through how we would deal with the

JULY-AUGUST 2000/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 55 long-term needs of the injured and survival. It is natural to feel helpless the possible unanticipated needs of in the face of terrorism, but we those of us who would soon be scat¬ My sorrow don't need to wallow in it. We can tered around the world. The deputy anticipate the future, we can take chief of mission — the transitional is still profound; preventive measures, and, in fact, leader before the arrival of the new we have. We can and should find ambassador — and I met in groups I understand the resources to better protect the with our Kenyan colleagues to many members of the foreign respond to concerns and give what¬ it will always affairs community who still work in ever information we could about unsafe buildings around the world. their future. And, we made plans be a part But what we can’t do is think that with the Kenyan government and we have defeated terrorism because private sector to turn the old of me. of a temporary lull. That’s why it’s embassy site into a memorial park. important to learn how people sur¬ vive — and why I seek to share my A Heartfelt Farewell experiences. Slowly, I realized that I had done 21 flights of stairs with me, and I have learned that each of us my best for the community and later exchanged hugs and greetings walks at a different pace as we became more comfortable with the with some of the people with whom struggle to recover, but we do pass thought of leaving. The rhythm into I had shared sorrow and trauma. similar markers. My observations which our work pattern had fallen Most of us had come a very long are, of course, personal, and my continued uninterrupted, and I was way in a year. story unique. But I hope that by beginning to think my departure Last October, my husband, my talking about what I experienced as would go unnoticed — a blow to my office manager and I joined the an individual and member of a ego! On the day before wheels-up, American embassy community in community, I will contribute to a as my husband and I were bringing Guatemala, where we now face new base of knowledge about what jour¬ the farewell routines to closure, we challenges and adventures. Now neys back from terror are like and stopped by the deputy chief of mis¬ and then, unexpectedly, I still feel how they can be made easier.

sion’s residence on a last-minute the grip of an effect — like the first RightO after myJ embassy J and errand. There, flanked on either time I drove into my new embassy’s neighborhood blew up, I kept won¬ side of the driveway, was the entire underground parking lot, a virtual dering, “Why did they do this?” mission community, smiling and replica of the one in Nairobi. My Well, I figured it out: The point is to waving as we drove in. Seven to sorrow is still profound and, I now kill, wound and frighten people into eight hundred people had con¬ understand, will likely always be a submission. Shattered souls, anger, spired to keep secret a going-away part of me. But I have learned to turmoil, mistrust, sorrow, and all of part)7 -— so much for knowing my just let it be, and that I can turn to the other disabling effects of terror own community! The final ritual I others for help, not as an act of may bring us close to the edge, but celebrated with my embassy family weakness but as an act of inclusive¬ we don’t have to stay there. We can was extraordinary. We were OK, ness that most people appreciate. walk away, as people in Nairobi and and I could leave with some sense I have come to realize that nat¬ lots of other places have done. We of peace. ural disasters and, unfortunately, can learn to trust life again, even as Over the summer of 1999, a new man-made terrorist acts are a part we continue to feel the hurt. community was formed at Embassy of modern life. Oklahoma City and And that painful journey can be Nairobi. The mission marked the Nairobi are not the only communi¬ made easier by harnessing the col¬ anniversary of Aug. 7 at the resi¬ ties in this world who have suffered. lective strength and power of the dence memorial garden, while I have met many survivors of terror community. It can also be made those of us who were in Washington in Guatemala and the United easier by learning from one another remembered and honored our for¬ States, and learned of many more in and incorporating survival experi¬ mer colleagues at a ceremony in the news reports and history books. I ences into discussions of terrorism. State Department. I sat through the have concluded that we survivors If we can’t always defeat the bullies, ceremony clinging to the hand of have much to offer the world we can sure stand up to them, and the colleague who had walked those because we represent just that — that’s a critical step. ■

56 FOREIGN SERVICE JOVRNAh/JULY-AUGUST 2000 THE GENETICALLY ENGINEERED SECRETARY OF STATE

JOHN FOSTER DULLES HAD THE RIGHT ANCESTRY TO BE SECRETARY — AND THE EGO TO GO WITH IT.

BY LINCOLN P. BLOOMFIELD

hat inconsiderate S.O.B.” wore the expression of someone who had eaten a bad oys¬ growled a voice somewhere ter. Nibbling hungrily on his lower lip, he approached the behind me. I couldn’t see the makeshift podium. The speech opened with an apology, malcontent through the crowd. not for keeping the staff waiting in the cold, but for hav¬ But as I blew on my finger tips ing failed to grace us with his presence at an earlier date. to fend off frostbite, it was hard We put it off, he said, because rain was forecast. But “at to disagree with his characterization of the new secretary any rate President Eisenhower had good luck on his of State. It was only later that I fully appreciated the pro¬ weather and, if he can have good luck, we can take tough fundity' of his description of the Honorable John Foster luck now and then.” We? Dulles. Adding “I don’t want to keep you out here any longer Washington had never looked more beautiful than on than necessary,” he proceeded to describe at length his that sparkling January day in 1953, a week after the inau¬ qualifications to become what he called “Seggatary of guration of President Dwight D. Eisenhower. The tem¬ State.” Those qualifications appeared to be primarily perature hovered near the 30 degree mark and the skv genetic: “I don’t suppose there is any family in the United was azure blue. The memo had summoned everyone in States which has been for so long identified with the the building to congregate at noon in the parking lot so Foreign Service and the State Department as my own our new leader could greet us. It probably wouldn’t take family.” Granduncle was a minister to Britain, grandfather long, so we hadn’t bothered with overcoats. John W. Foster ended up as President Benjamin Shortly before noon, several hundred State Harrison’s secretary of State, and his uncle Robert Department employees trooped outdoors to give the 51st Lansing was secretary' under Wilson. Ancestors, brothers, secretary of State a proper reception. By now, however we sisters, collateral relatives — all contributed to the superi¬ had been standing in the cold for almost half an hour. Feet or gene pool standing before us in flesh incarnate. were being stamped, arms beaten against chests, lips What came next added substantially to the chill. To his beginning to match the color of the sky. shivering staff Dulles said, “We have got to have people At last the glass doors swung open and extruded the who are upstanding Americans of integrity, who have new secretary, bundled in a heavy overcoat. He was tall minds of their own and who have the courage to express and stooped, and behind thick glasses his gaunt visage their views.” But “on the other hand,” once decisions are made “we must all turn in, loyally, to support those poli¬ Following wartime duty as a naval officer, Lincoln P. cies ... I expect that you will carry them out loyally” (trans¬ Bloomfield served in the State Department for 11 years as lation: “You are supposed to be independent-minded and a Civil Service senior staffer and policy planner. He was think for yourself — but don’t even try”). later on the National Security Council staff as director of In his first press release, the day after the inaugural, global issues. He is professor of political science, emeritus, the new secretary' had already coined the phrase “positive at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and author loyalty,” meaning overt enthusiasm for announced policy. or co-author of 10 books on foreign affairs. Loyalty to current policy is the normal expectation in any

JULY-AUGUST 2000/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 57 bureaucracy. Except that in the poi¬ nel security issue that was already sonous atmosphere of McCarthyism tearing the State Department apart which had settled on the nations Behind thick glasses, had an ambivalence that became capital, there were eerie echoes of recognizable as central to the Dulles party line, traitorous deviationists Dulles’ gaunt visage political style. and, who knows, maybe a purge or two. wore the expression Mrs. Roosevelt, Security Risk Dulles had started his foreign After four years in the wartime relations career as a junior diplomat of someone who Navy, I had come into the pre- at the Paris Peace talks in 1919. He Dulles State Department in a junior went on to become a powerful New had eaten a had capacity, in a bureau headed by that York international lawyer in the firm self-same tall, elegant, charming of Sullivan and Cromwell. Most oyster. diplomat named Alger Hiss. By 1953 recently, he had been chief negotia¬ it was as clear to me as it was to tor of the U.S.-Japanese Peace Dulles that Hiss had not only lied Treaty of 1951 that officially ended under oath, but had doubtless World War II hostilities. Endowment for International Peace. passed classified U.S. documents to In addition to being born to the In that capacity, he had brought in as Moscow' during the 1930s as charged job, John Foster Dulles also brought the endowments president Alger (a fact confirmed when Soviet GRU to it a palpable aura of piety. In 1937 Hiss, then one of the State files were opened after the Cold War he had begun a long association with Departments brightest luminaries. ended). Hiss left for the Carnegie the Federal Council of Churches, Hiss, who had long been suspect¬ Endowment job while Dean and in 1940 became chairman of the ed of spying for Moscow in die Acheson was still secretary in the council’s influential Commission to 1930s, was subsequently convicted Truman administration, and was suc¬ Study the Organization of Peace. of perjury. When Dulles became ceeded in the State Department But he did have an awkward secretary of State, his earlier spon¬ post by a mid-level Pentagon and smudge on his otherwise impeccable sorship of Hiss was undoubtedly State Department official named resume. He had been chairman of nagging at his soul. Whatever the Dean Rusk, w'ho would later become die board of the esteemed Carnegie source, his approach to the person¬ this countrys second-longest-serving secretary of State. Rusk’s first act was to request that the staff be sub¬ ject to a fresh security check. One of our annual chores was to put togeth¬ er a delegation to attend the U.N. General Assembly. A key appointee to the U.S. dele¬ gation one year was Eleanor Roosevelt, widow of FDR. She was already the American delegate to the U.N. Commission on Human Rights, and at the time probably the most respected woman in the world. I received a call from State Department security that “a prob¬ lem had arisen” with Mrs. Roosevelt’s security clearance over her association with some leftists, and would we please withdraw the request for clearance. Dean Rusk, normally unflap¬ Secretary Dulles, Assistant Secretary David McKay Key and the author, pable, lost his cool when I reported Lincoln Bloomfield, before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, in 1954. this call to him. I accompanied him

58 FOREIGN SERVICE ] O U RN AL/J U LY- AU GU ST 2000 when he stormed over to security that Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist because John Foster Dulles seemed headquarters. When the department regime was corrupt and had no given to grandiose public rhetoric cops told him that Mrs. Roosevelt future, while Mao’s Communists that was taken seriously by others, might be a security risk, Dean blew were well organized, had popular but which he frequently followed up and informed them that Eleanor support and would probably take with inaction, repudiation, or indig¬ Roosevelt was simply too big for over — which they did in 1949. nant denial. #°6 A%! of this kind. Needless to Having been attached to the Office That curious disconnect was illus¬ say, she served the United States of Strategic Sendees in Shanghai in trated by his clarion calls in the early delegation with distinction. But the late 1945, I thought that was a pret¬ 1950s for “liberation” of Soviet-dom¬ blood-letting increased substantially ty realistic reading of the situation. inated Eastern Europe through a when Dulles took over control of the Dulles’ solution in those two strategy of “rollback.” “America,” he department. cases was to go for the moral two- intoned, “wants and expects libera¬ step. First, he concluded that in nei¬ tion to occur.” There was some The McCarthy Miasma ther case could a finding of disloyal¬ lawyerly fine print about hopefully The junior senator from ty or breach of security be substanti¬ achieving those goals bloodlessly. Wisconsin, a world-class bully ated. But the right wing, which saw But thousands of Hungarian patriots named Joseph McCarthy, was at the everywhere a conspiracy that had never saw the fine print. When they height of his power when John brought down our Chinese ally, rebelled against Soviet domination Foster Dulles took command of the wanted those two heads on a platter. in October 1956, Dulles lost no time department in 1953. McCarthy had Dulles, according to biographer in assuring Moscow, in a speech in famously said in Wheeling, W. Va., Louis L. Gerson, had vowed, “I’m Dallas, that the United States had no on Feb. 9, 1950, “I have here in my not going to be caught with another intention of getting in its way. The hand a list of 205 — a list of names Alger Hiss on my hands.” Hungarian rebellion was rapidly that were made known to the secre¬ Presumably he had this in mind crushed by Soviet tanks. tary' of State as being members of when he dismissed Vincent from the Another example was his January the Communist Party and who nev¬ Foreign Sendee on the grounds that 1954 speech spelling out his famous ertheless are still working and shap¬ his professional judgment failed “to doctrine of “Massive Retaliation.” ing policy in the State Department.” meet the standard which is demand¬ Dulles argued that the free world No one ever saw the list, and so far ed” of an FSO of his experience — needed “the means to retaliate as I knew no Communist Party without ever defining that standard. instantly against open aggression by members were found in the depart¬ As for Davies, he underwent nine Red armies” so we could “strike back ment. But these wild allegations separate security investigations where it hurts, by means of our seemed to paralyze the leadership, before a panel was found that called choosing.” He had in mind a new and set the tone for an increasingly him a security risk. Even then, strategy of deterrence based on a paranoid climate in which to do the Dulles changed the panel’s language threat to respond to aggression, not nation's business. and fired Davies “for disregard of locally with limited means, but by Tightened security was not an proper forbearance and caution in going after the family jewels with an unreasonable precaution. But making known his dissents outside all-out blow that could presumably Dulles cynically exaggerated the privileged boundaries,” whatever include vaporizing Moscow. By mak¬ threat, and in the process succeeded that meant. ing new adventures excessively cost¬ in making the State Department an ly, the new doctrine would keep the increasingly unpleasant place to Dulles as Mythmaker Soviets and China from running work. The question “Who lost Dulles’ predecessor Dean risks (in the process incidentally dis¬ China?” occupied a key place in the Acheson, according to biographer carding the doctrine of “proportion¬ polemics of that era. James Chace, named as the central ality” that had regulated Western When the famous security cases flaw in Dulles’ approach “the ulti¬ military behavior since the 16th cen¬ of diplomats John Paton Davies and mate sin [of] sanctimonious self- tury). John Carter Vincent came to his righteousness which ... beclouds the Massive retaliation responded to desk, Dulles personally reviewed dangers and opportunities of our a major itch the Eisenhower admin¬ them. These two unfortunates had time with an unctuous film.” If the istration was determined to scratch, reported — accurately — from the word “hypocrisy” keeps springing to namely the frustrating and expensive American embassy in wartime China mind in the present account, it is notion of limited war on the model

JULY-AUGUST 2000/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 59 of Korea. That bloody conflict, some thinking on the subject, which they were now calling although it was clear that, with the “Trumans war,” was burying too Dulles grumbled, shrinkage of America’s so-called many U.S. servicemen. The new automatic majority in the U.N., re¬ Republican leaders feared that -Of course I didn’t mean opening the whole Charter might Soviet “salami tactics” would dimin¬ produce a can of unmanageable ish the free world one slice at a time. that we would use our worms. Deterrence through massive retalia¬ On Aug. 26, 1953, Secretary tion seemed a nifty solution. In the A-bombs on Moscow if Dulles gave a major speech to the words of Dulles biographer American Bar Association on the Townsend Moopes, the new strategy the Soviets attacked need for Charter revision. Hopes for proposed “to transform the awesome the Charter, he said, required that it nuclear capability from an instru¬ anywhere.” “be altered in some important ment of last resort to one of first respects.” One of those respects was resort.” the great-power veto in the Security The Dulles fix soon proved to be Council, which Moscow had been unbelievable, as its inner contradic¬ that we would use our A-bombs on exploiting. His rhetorical climax was tions became apparent. First, mas¬ Moscow if the Soviets attacked any¬ a call to Americas lawyers, at the sive retaliation was not the way where.” The appropriate response time numbering approximately American decision-makers in fact would have been “Well just exactly 220,000, to “inventively and cre¬ acted in such subsequent crises as what did you mean, because that’s atively tiy to solve the great prob¬ Berlin and Cuba. Second, until what everyone thought you said?” lems.” The following week he Afghanistan in 1979, Moscow did Key stayed discreetly silent. But expanded the list of those who not engage in clear-cut acts of since I have trouble handling embar¬ should advise him on changing the aggression outside its empire, pre¬ rassing silences, I probably told the Charter to include “private bodies ferring subversion, end-runs, and secretaiy that it was a wonderful — educational bodies, religious bod¬ “indirect aggression” through prox¬ speech and a brilliant concept. ies, bar associations and the like — ies. And third, the Soviet nuclear When we got to the Hill, Dulles, all should be studying this problem.” capability would grow to the point unsurpassed in both knowledge and The American private sector, where the doctrine seemed to say, arrogance, never once turned to his thrilled to be assigned such a high- “If you make trouble anywhere, I’m assistant secretary (or, needless to minded task, promptly inundated going to commit suicide.” The con¬ say, me). the department with phone calls, cept was attacked by critics as dan¬ memoranda and letters (mercifully, gerous rhetoric. Revisionism at the U.N. faxes and e-mail had not yet been Later in 1954,1 heard Dulles vir¬ As the 1950s wore on, I had man¬ invented). The obvious place to tually disavow the massive retalia¬ aged to move into policy work and dump this growing mountain of tion doctrine he publicly espoused. out of the administrative cone, communications was the Bureau of When I was working on U.N.-relat¬ where my last chore had been to get International Organization Affairs, ed issues, I accompanied the secre¬ rid of an employee who did large specifically on my desk. I was by tary and Assistant Secretaiy for amounts of laundry in the ladies then a “policy planner” who was sup¬ International Organization Affairs room while denouncing the rest of posed to think, which in most eyes David McKay Key to hearings us as communists. As a policy plan¬ meant that I really didn’t do any¬ before the Senate Foreign Relations ner in the U.N. Bureau, my view of thing useful. Committee. An influential journal¬ Secretaiy Dulles was usually worm’s- My immediate boss at the time ist, Walter Millis, had just published eye. But a few episodes (like the (they changed with startling fre¬ an article in the now-defunct New just-mentioned massive retaliation quency) was Robert Murphy, then York Herald-Tribune challenging the limo ride) did provide first-hand the most senior of the professional logic of the new doctrine. glimpses of the Dulles persona. American Foreign Service officers. In his limo en route to Capitol Article 109 of the United Nations Murphy had just returned from the Hill, Dulles was fuming. “Walter Charter called for a conference by ambassadorship to Japan and was Millis totally misunderstood me”, he 1955 to review and possibly amend marking time as assistant secretary grumbled. “Of course I didn’t mean that document. I was assigned to do for U.N. matters until, as America’s

60 FOREIGN SERVICE J O U RN AL/J U LY-AU GU ST 2000 first “career ambassador,” he would assume the top professional position of deputy under secretary of State for political affairs. I reported to him that we were being inundated by zillions of lawyers and others responding to Secretary Dulles’ call to action. I asked him if he knew what the secretary had in mind Volvo S80 Sedan when he gave that speech. Did Dulles really think we could do away with the veto (which was inserted in the U.N. Charter as much to ensure ratification by the U.S. Senate as to Diplomatic Corps Embassy Personnel Foreign Service Professionals keep Moscow, London and Paris on ■ ■ board)? How were we (me) sup¬ Military ■ World Bank ■ Inter-American Development Bank posed to cope with this incoming , ; Organization of American States flood? Fo V, Domestic or Foreign • Active or Retired 20 YEARS Murphy replied “Search me. USA’sli yjLARGESTpP Contact Dana Martens Let’s ask Foster.” (I had never LASJrtflfP5 Diplomatic Sales Director ‘sfcpSfr before heard anyone refer to the e-mail: 4800 Wisconsin Ave NW secretary with that degree of intima¬ Washington DC 20016 [email protected] cy, and was appropriately dazzled). website: (202)537-3000 I accompanied him to the august www.martensvolvo.com FAX (202)537-1826 secretarial suite. After the usual pleasantries, Murphy asked me to put the questions to Dulles. I could¬ n’t very well say what was on my mind (“How' dare you launch this nutty public campaign on a matter I happen to be working on without § Have consulting me?”) Instead I congrat¬ ulated the secretary on a fine speech a Bone and asked if he could elaborate on his most intriguing point concerning to Pick? the great-power veto in the Security Why not write a “Speaking Out” for the Foreign Service Jon null? Council, which thousands of Americans were starting to reexam¬ “Speaking Out” is the FS/ s op-ed section, the place where writ¬ ine at his request. ers can express opinions on issues specific to the Foreign Service, Dulles fixed me with his normal its employees and its work. look of disgust, chewing the lower left corner of his face with vigor. “Of Writers are encouraged to take strong stands, but all claims must course we can’t do anything about be supported and documented. Length of submitted articles the veto. 1 mean, we certainly don’t should be from 1,500 to 2,000 words. want the U.N. coming in to investi¬ gate McCarthyism, do we?” All submissions go to the Journal's Editorial Board for discussion. Dumbfounded, I digested this If an article is accepted, writers will be expected to meet the extraordinary response without say¬ magazine’s editorial and style requirements. ing a w'ord. I returned to my modest office to search for ways of trans¬ Please make submissions via e-mail to [email protected], forming the Dulles triple-axel dou¬ by fax to (202) .338-8244, or by mail. ble-looping half-gainer into soothing

JULY-AUGUST 2000/FOHE1GN SERVICE JOURNAL 61 bureaucratic boiler-plate that would Secretary Dulles, having mean¬ leave me blameless, if corrupted. while disappeared to his retreat on Early the following year, word On the Middle East, Duck Island in Canada, returned came down that the secretary wanted clutching a draft embodying his solu¬ a new look taken at the U.S. role in Dulles’ ideological tion for the Arab-Israeli conflict. It the whole U.N. system in the light of soon became the “Eisenhower changing circumstances, including mindset overrode Doctrine” — a plan to counter mili¬ the growing intake of what would tary aggression in die Middle East eventually become about 120 new reality. “backed by international commu¬ member states, few of which were nism,” with nary a word about the likely to join Americas so-called issues dri\7ing the Arab-Israeli con¬ “mechanical majority.” A depart¬ flict. When U.S. Ambassador to ment-wide committee was tasked to mental note to launch a vigorous out¬ Moscow Charles (“Chip”) Bohlen come up with a fresh strategic con¬ side job search. heal'd that Dulles was focusing the cept in the realm of multilateral U.S. effort entirely on Soviet aggres¬ diplomacy, and I was made its execu¬ Suez: The Last Straw sion, he fired off a series of urgent tive secretary. At last, I rejoiced, a Any thought of jumping ship had cables to Washington explaining in genuine policy planning endeavor, to be put on hold as the 1956 crisis every way open to his vocabulary tiiat, unhampered by old thinking and mounted over Egyptian President of all the things that might happen in open to new ideas. Nasser’s takeover of the the region, the least likely contin¬ Or so I believed. Six mondis later, French/British-owned and -operated gency was a Soviet-sponsored inva¬ after endless meetings to debate drafts Suez Canal. In the midst of the sion of die Middle East. It should be which I had prepared, we came up mounting crisis, a hopeful intelli¬ said that Dulles, like British Prime with an agreed document. Even dis¬ gence report came in suggesting that Minister Anthony Eden who had counting for pride of authorship, I a nervous Egypt might agree to adju¬ planned die Suez war, was a sick man. thought it contained a sound analysis dication of the dispute by the World But it was a classic example of an ide¬ of the changing situation, along with Court. A colleague and I prepared a ological mindset overriding reality. an innovative set of recommendations paper recommending that the possi¬ It was also the last straw for one for U.S. policy adjustments. The docu¬ bility be urgently explored by the disillusioned 36-year-old idealist who ment, with accompanying executive secretary. Dulles, who was noted for was raised to believe in American summary, was sent to the secretary for preaching the rule of law, rejected virtue, trusted its leaders to do the his consideration. My boss, Assistant the legal track out of hand on the right thing, and tried to serve both Secretary Francis O. Wilcox (yes, yet ground that someone might try to Democratic and Republican adminis¬ another one), and I trotted upstairs apply it to the Panama Canal. trations, despite their respective idio¬ with high hopes of commendation for In early November 1956, after the cies, in the belief that civil servants a major task well done. British-F rench-Israeli attack on could and should be nonpartisan. When we were seated in the sanc¬ Egypt (which came in the midst of After 16 crisis-wracked years in and tum sanctorum, Dulles looked up with Moscow’s brutal Hungarian invasion), out of uniform, I was burned out and his customary if unintended sneer, and President Eisenhower, furious with ready to accept MIT’s offer to run a bit hungrily on his left lower lip as he his allies, forced London, Paris and research project. But I would not waved my precious composition in our Tel Aviv to back off. With Israel pro¬ trade that experience for anything. faces.. “No no no,” he said dismissive- foundly shaken and Egypt badly In fairness, John Foster Dulles was ly, “I didn’t want this. What I wanted weakened, there seemed a chance for an acknowledged master of foreign was a gimmick to put in my speech to die first time since the initial Arab- affairs. He also was a deeply flawed human being, and I have emphasized the U.N. General AssemblyJ this fall.” Israeli War of 1948 to come to grips Fran Wilcox had seen enough dys¬ with the core issues — borders, negatives based on my personal expe¬ functional behavior from long service recognition, waterways, refugees, and rience. As with anyone who manages as chief of staff of tire Senate Foreign the rest. I was one of a task force of to get to the top, Dulles embodied a Relations Committee to know when to three working in the department’s mixture of positive and negative traits. hold ’em and when to fold ’em. But Policy Planning Staff till the wee Only history will give us a more the action officer who had just devot¬ hours to devise concrete proposals definitive appraisal of tins complex ed six months to the project made a building on that possibility. public servant. ■

62 FOREIGN SERVICE J O U RN A L/J V LY-AUGU ST 2000 BOOKS

THE FIGHT FOR accordingly, Secretaiy of Defense Pentagon continues to buy, in William Cohen directed the Joint amounts far out of proportion to any GUNS AND PORK Chiefs of Staff to get the defense threat posed by potential adver¬ budget below $250 billion. saries. Instead, legislators remain This War Really Matters: Inside They chafed at this instruction, consumed with finding extra dollars the Fight for Defense Dollars insisting that at least $17 billion for a big tax cut, lining the defense George C. Wilson, CQ Press, 2000, more was required to address the bill with “pork” —- including ships, $19.95, softcover, 256 pages. “readiness” issue. They pointed out aircraft and weapons which DOD that record numbers of soldiers and does not even want — and thwarting REVIEWED BY ANGELA DICKEY sailors are bailing out of the militan, the administrations plans for mili¬ because of inadequate pay and an tary base closings. (The Pentagon In the time it will take you to read escalated rate of overseas deploy¬ estimates such closures could save this review, the Department of ments. $20 billion dollars over 20 years, but Defense will spend half a million of Congress resists because the bases your tax dollars. Where that money keep jobs in key members’ districts.) goes is the grimly riveting subject of The “military-industrial Wilson’s account of how the play¬ veteran military analyst George C. ers cajoled and negotiated with each Wilsons latest book, This War Really other to hammer out an emergency complex” is more Matters: Inside the Fight for Defense defense appropriation bill that satis¬ Dollars. entrenched than ever. fied no one but nonetheless scraped Wilson is the former chief through makes for sobering reading. defense correspondent for The It also bears out his thesis that die Washington Post and the author of emerging “military-industrial com¬ several previous books, including the Normally, they would simply have plex” President Dwight Eisenhower best-seller Supercarrier. Having contacted their friends and allies on warned us about 40 years ago has covered the U.S. military from Capitol Hill to get the additional morphed into arguably the most Vietnam to Washington, he authori¬ funds. Bnt as Wilson explains, the entrenched special interest of all in tatively explains not only how politi¬ Chiefs had undercut themselves Washington. cized funding for the Pentagon has with Congress: following a contro¬ True, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., become, but also how far removed versial internal review, they contin¬ criticized the FY 2000 defense bud¬ from any dispassionate review of ued to claim that the defense estab¬ get, totalling $293 billion, for con¬ national priorities. lishment was still ready, as it was at taining $6 billion — roughly two He tells the stoiy through a case the height of the Cold War, to fight percent -— worth of items the study of the 105th Congress, begin¬ two simultaneous major conflicts. Pentagon had not requested. Yet ning in early 1997, as the Pentagon (This despite the fact that the num¬ even the gutsiest politician to come and its congressional overseers face bers of men and women under arms to town in some time also pledged, if off to negotiate the fiscal 1999 are now scarcely half what they were elected president, to increase defense budget. Many Americans during the Vietnam War.) defense spending even further, to assumed that the end of the Cold Meanwhile, neither Congress nor cariy out “our global commitments War had freed up a “peace dividend” the White House has seriously chal¬ and strategy.” to be spent for other purposes, and lenged the types of weapons the This War Really Matters show-

JULY-AUGUST 2000/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 63 r> 0 0 K S

cases Wilson’s access and spare, Roger Hilsman, a former assistant Southeast Asia historian Alfred highly readable style. All foreign secretary' of State, leads off, posing a McCoy covers similar ground, detail¬ affairs practitioners, particularly central question: “Should essential ing CIA complicity in Asian and Latin those unschooled in military mat¬ gathering of information and influ¬ American drug trafficking, another ters, would be well advised to spend encing of actions rely as much on unintended consequence of covert an evening with this primer on the espionage and covert political action operations. Finally, former Senate main defense issues facing the in the future as they did in the past?” Foreign Relations Committee Chief nation. All contributors to this volume agree of Staff Pat Holt discusses tlie issues that it should not, and endorse overt of oversight and accountability from FSO Angela Dickey soon will begin collection by Foreign Sendee officers the congressional vantage point. All an assignment to Vientiane as chief and their colleagues in other agen¬ tin •ee contributors make strong cases of the anti-narcotics section. cies. In their view, this approach will for reform and prescribe plausible save money, produce sounder analy¬ remedies. sis and avoid other corrosive effects Two contributors, journalist of covert activities. Robert Dreyfuss and former OMB OVERTNESS IS Melvin A. Goodman, a former official Richard Stubbing, examine THE BEST POLICY chief of the CIA’s Soviet affairs office, tlie technical intelligence agencies, reviews the record of our covert and which spend most of tlie money. Both National Insecurity: U. S. paramilitary operations. He con¬ authors see TECHINT as necessary, Intelligence After the Cold War cludes that they have largely outlived but warn of die dangers of an “intelli¬ Craig Eisendrath, Editor, Temple their usefulness and outlines ways gence-industrial complex” that drives University Press, 2000, $34.50, they can adapt to the new global envi¬ too many TECHINT investment hardcover, 241 pages. ronment. But his recommendation decisions. Dreyfuss sheds particularly (which several other contributors useful new light on the often murky BY JACK R. BINNS endorse) to transfer residual covert worldngs of these agencies, while and paramilitary operational capabili¬ Stubbing makes the case for The U.S. intelligence community ties from the CIA to the Pentagon improved financial analysis and con¬ was created to meet the challenges strikes me as a recipe for disaster, trol. of the Cold War. As this book’s title making accountability and effective Kate Doyle of the National suggests, it is now high time to reor¬ oversight more difficult while Security Archive reviews the opera¬ ganize and restructure these agencies increasing the likelihood of rogue tion of our security classification sys¬ — tlie Central Intelligence Agency, operations. tem. She demonstrates that tlie cur¬ National Security Agency, National Two former ambassadors, Robert rent system not only often precludes Reconnaissance Office, National White and Robert Keeley, describe meaningful accountability and over¬ Imagery and Mapping Agency and their often troubled relations with sight, but robs us of our diplomatic tlie Department of State — to meet CIA stations in the field. Not surpris¬ history. new strategic concerns and address a ingly, these seasoned diplomatic National Insecurity is an impor¬ host of problems: an inability to pro¬ practitioners concur that intelligence tant work and deserves a wide audi¬ duce the kind of analysis needed by collection — political, economic and ence. At a minimum, it should be policy-makers, over-reliance on security — should be left largely to required reading for all prospective covert collection and operations, the Foreign Service. ambassadors and DCMs, as well as financial waste, and inadequate Jack Blum, a former Senate for our congressional representatives. accountability and oversight. Foreign Relations Committee staff It also poses questions that deserve Sponsored by the Center for aide and Iran-Contra investigator, is discussion in the coming presidential International Policy, and with a fore¬ die first of three authors to examine campaign. ■ word by Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, the unintended consequences of past this book brings together 10 thought¬ covert actions. He draws powerful Retired FSO jack Binns served as ful essays, plus an introduction and lessons about accountability and ambassador to Honduras, in addi¬ concluding summary by editor Craig oversight from his experiences and tion to postings in Latin America, Eisendrath. offers means to strengthen both. Western Europe and Washington,

64 FOREIGN SERVICE J OU RN AL/J U LY-AU G U ST 2000 IN MEMORY

Neil Marshall Ruge, 86, retired Philip H. Chadboum Jr., 83, Wood Johnson University Hospital in FSO and member of the military retired FSO, died March 29 of pneu¬ Hamilton, N.J. intelligence reserve, died March 9 in monia in San Diego, Calif. Mrs. Jaeckel accompanied her Chico, Calif. Mr. Chadboum was born in husband to posts in Paris, Athens, Mr. Ruge was bom Dec. 28, 1913, Petrograd (St. Petersburg), Russia New Delhi, Mexico City, Hong Kong in Washington, D.C. In 1919, the and grew up in Turkey, France and and Caracas. Until her death, they Ruge family moved to California, first California. He graduated from resided in Cranbury, N.J. to Vallejo and then to San Diego, Harvard University in 1939. During Survivors include her husband, where Mr. Ruge graduated from high World War II he served in the Office Theodore; daughter, Pamela Oppen school. He continued Iris education at of Strategic Services, and was trained of Hunter, N.Y; sons Christopher California Institute of Technology, as a “Jedburgh,” jumping behind Jaeckel of Hunter, N.Y. and Theodore Stanford University, Boalt Hall Law enemy lines in occupied France in R. Jaeckel, Jr., of Princeton Junction, School at U.C. Berkeley, and, after 1944 to work with the French N.J.; five grandchildren; and two World War II, at Harvard Graduate Resistance. great-grandchildren. School of Business Administration. Mr. Chadboum joined tlie Foreign Mr. Ruge practiced law for two Service in 1948 and served in years before entering the U.S. Army Calcutta, Frankfurt, and Lyons, as a private in 1941. He served three France, among other posts. He Sarah G. Fisher, 79, retired FSO, tours in Europe during the war, and served as special assistant to the died on March 17 of cardiopulmonary was awarded the Bronze Star. In ambassador in France. His last post arrest at Chevy Chase House, a retire- 1945, as a captain serving in Germany was in Marseilles as consul general, ment home in Chevy Chase, Md. after the war, he met a young German where he retired in 1974. Mrs. Fisher was a native of woman, Helga Kley, and despite rules Mr. Chadboum married Omaha, Neb. She attended prohibiting Americans from marrying Jacqueline Wilson in 1950 and later Connecticut College and was a 1943 German citizens the relationship .sur¬ divorced. He later remarried. After graduate of the University of vived and the two were married in his FS retirement, he resided in California at Berkeley. Italy in 1949. Monaco for several years, serving as She married FSO William Dale Mr. Ruge joined the Foreign public relations director for Prince Fisher in 1942 and accompanied him Service in 1947. He retired in 1968 as Rainier. He moved to San Diego in to posts in The Hague, Prague, Paris, first secretary of embassy, having 1987. Florence and Addis Ababa. After her served in Italy, Morocco, England, Survivors include his two daugh¬ husband’s death in a 1961 airplane Wales, Washington, D.C., Germany ters, Claudia Chadboum of San crash in Ethiopia, Mrs. Fisher and Guatemala. After his retirement Diego and Cynthia James of Overland became one of the first widows of an he moved to Chico and was a profes¬ Park, Kan.; stepdaughter Zan FSO killed on official duty to be hired sor of business and real estate law at Benham of Sarasota, Fla.; and two by the State Department. California State University, Chico, grandsons. After several years of service in from 1969 to 1980. He also worked as Washington, D.C., in the depart¬ a licensed real estate broker. ments Foreign Service Lounge, Mrs. Survivors include his wife, Helga; Fisher became a consular officer. She son, Carl; daughter, Madeleine; four Yolanda B. Jaeckel, 86, wife of served in Barbados, Bangkok, Malta grandchildren; and one great-grand¬ retired USIA FSO Theodore R. and London before finally retiring in daughter. Jaeckel, died March 21 at Robert 1980. She continued for several years

JULY-AUGUST 2000/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 65 to perform temporary tours of duty as In 1941, M -. Lathram moved to in charge of programs for Greece, a consular officer in overseas posts, Washington, D.C., to work in the Turkey and Iran. Later he served in including Kobe-Osaka, Florence and office of the civilian personnel divi¬ the European Bureau’s Regional Stockholm. She was a member of sion of what was then the Affairs Office and was in charge of AFSA and DACOR. Department of War. He served in NATO politico-military affairs and Survivors include a daughter, Sally the Army Air Forces during World served as NATO adviser of political F. Pabst of Arlington, Va.; two sons, War II. He joined the Foreign consultation in the North Atlantic William G. Fisher and David B. Service in 1952, serving in India, Council. After graduating from the Fisher, both of Maui, Hawaii; and Turkey, Vietnam and South Korea, War College in 1954, he returned to three grandsons. where he was deputy chief of mis¬ the NATO office, where he sion. In Washington, he served as received the Superior Service director of regional affairs for the Award for pressing for the political Near East and South Asia bureaus, control of nuclear weapons. Robert W. White, 80, retired FS and as director of personnel for the He was assigned as a political reserve officer, died April 2 of lung Agency for International adviser to the U.S. delegation to cancer at Mt. Vernon Hospital, in Development. He received NATO in Paris from 1957 to 1962. Alexandria, Va. Distinguished Service Awards from After his return to State in Mr. White was bom in Alexandria the Department of the Army, Washington, D.C., Mr. Wolf was and joined the Foreign Service in Department of the Interior and named deputy assistant administra¬ 1954. He spent more than 25 years from AID. tor for AID for politico-military with the Office of Security as a region¬ After his FS retirement, Mr. affairs. In 1970, he became acting al electronics engineer and was Lathram worked as a foreign affairs deputy assistant secretaiy for leg¬ assigned to Paris, Havana, Bangkok, management consultant and lec¬ islative affairs, coordinating execu¬ Tokyo, Prague, Frankfurt, Washing¬ tured at the State Departments tive branch response to the ton, D.C., Beirut, Canberra, and as Foreign Service Institute. He was Symington subcommittee’s investi¬ officer in charge of the regional tech¬ also a member of DACOR. gation of developments in Laos. He nical center in Panama. After his Survivors include his wife, Mary; retired in 1972, and received a sec¬ retirement in 1980, Mr. White daughter, Elizabeth Gillespie of ond Superior Service Award. worked part-time in the State New York; three sons, Thomas, After his retirement, Mr. Wolf Department for 10 years as a consul¬ Steven and David, all of California; served on the board of directors of tant. seven grandchildren; and a great¬ the Atlantic Council of the United Survivors include his wife, Jane grandchild. States. He lived in Bethesda, Md., Prout White; two sons, retired FSO with his family for 50 years. Robert W. White, Jr., and William P. Survivors include his wife, White; and two granddaughters. Gretchen Rickel Wolf; a daughter, Joseph Julius Wolf, 87, retired Elsa Wolf Barnes of Clarksville, FSO, died April 7 of heart failure. Md.; and three grandchildren. Mr. Wolf was born in San Donations in his memory may be L. Wade Lathram, 83, retired Francisco. He graduated from made to the American Cancer FSO, died April 15 of respirator)' Stanford University, flarvard Law Society (800) 227-2345, the failure at Inova Alexandria School and the National War American Heart Association (202) Hospital, in Alexandria, Va. College. After practicing law in San 686-6888, or the International Mr. Lathram was born in Francisco for four years, he served Rescue Committee (202) 822-0043. Dothan, Ala., and grew up in Ohio. in the U.S. Army Air Forces from He graduated from Miami 1942 to 1946 in both the U.S. and University in Ohio, received a mas¬ the European theater. ter’s in public administration from Mr. Wolf joined the State Arlethia “Lee” Harmon the University of Cincinnati, and a Department in 1946 and was Vandivere, 53, administrative law degree from George assigned to the Mutual Defense assistant, died April 11 of cancer at Washington University. Assistance Program, where he was her home in Virginia Beach, Va.

66 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/ JULY-AUGUST 2000 / N M E M 0 R }

Mrs. Vandivere began her feder¬ Len; and her mother, Mrs. Lucille His first post was as a consular officer al government career in 1970. She White. in Nicosia. In 1954 he was assigned to worked in the U.S. Civil Belgrade as a political officer and then Administration of the Ryukyu Islands to Sarajevo as principal officer. He in Okinawa. She joined the Foreign later co-authored Yugoslav Commun¬ Service in 1974, and served in posts Stephen E. Palmer, 76, retired ism and the Macedonian Question, in Bangkok, Lima, Tel Aviv and FSO, died May 3 after a heart attack published in 1971. Ankara until she resigned in 1985 to at his home in Vienna, Va. Mr. Palmer served as chief of the follow her husbands career working Mr. Palmer was bom in Superior, political section in Tel Aviv from 1963 for a major U.S. consulting firm. Wis. He received his bachelors from to 1966, in the political section in Subsequently, Mrs. Vandivere Princeton University and a masters in London from 1966 to 1968, as politi¬ worked for a private sector company international affairs from Columbia cal counselor in Rawalpindi from in Ankara, Turkey, for one year, and University. During World War II he 1968 to 1971, and as principal officer for U.S. agencies in Geneva, for served in the Pacific with the in Madras beginning in 1971. From three years. After Geneva, she trav¬ Marines. After teaching at the 1974 to 1978 he was an office director eled with her husband to his assign¬ American Community School in in NEA. In the 1980s he served in die ments in Kampala, Istanbul and Tehran, Mr. Palmer went to work for Bureau of Humanitarian Affairs and Moscow. the federal government in 1949 and was for a time acting assistant secre¬ Survivors include her husband, joined the State Department in 1951. tary. On retirement, in 1988, Mr.

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Palmer was awarded the Rogers served in Mali and Morocco. He Award for career achievement. became U.S. ambassador to the In retirement Mr. Palmer did Republic of Niger in 1968. He head¬ consulting work for the State ed the African bureau for the U.S. Year End Department and served on an edi¬ Agency for International torial team for the human rights Development from 1969 to 1975. report. He was also a substitute In 1957, Mr. Adams was awarded Roundup of teacher in history and English in the Arthur S. Fleming Award, given Fairfax County schools. to one of 10 most outstanding young Survivors include his wife Pat of men in federal sendee. In 1968, FOREIGN Vienna, Va., and two daughters from King Hassan of Morocco gave Mr. his first marriage. Adams the Cross of die Ouizzan Alouite. He has also received AIDs Distinguished Honor Award and the SERVICE Rockefeller Public Sendee Award. Samuel C. Adams, 79, former Survivors include his wife Evelyn ambassador, died May 25 at his Baker Adams, and sister, Juanita home in Houston. Adams of Houston. AUTHORS Mr. Adams was bom in Waco, Texas. At the age of 16 he became class valedictorian at Booker T. The Foreign Service Washington High School in Elmer G. Fales, 70, a retired Journal plans to publish Houston. He received his bachelor’s AID officer, died on May 19 of a list of recently published and masters from Fisk University in prostate cancer at the Hospice of books by FS authors in an Nashville, Tenn., in 1940 and 1947, Northern Virginia. respectively. He then received Iris Mr. Fales was bom in Erie, Pa. end-of-the-year special sec¬ doctorate in sociology at the He graduated from the University of tion. FS authors who have University of Chicago in 1952. In Pittsburgh and received a masters had a book published by 1957 and 1958, Mr. Adams also did from die University of Pennsylvania. either a commercial or acade¬ post-doctoral studies at the After serving with die U.S. Army mic publisher in the last two University of London, the London during the Korean War, he was an School of Economics, and Syracuse English teacher in Guinea and years (1998-2000) should University. Cameroon in the 1960s. He also send a copy of the book, From 1942 to 1944, he served taught at Rider College in New along with a press release or as a machinist assistant at the U.S. Jersey. backgrounder with infonna- Navy Shipyard in Norfolk, Va. He He joined AID in 1967 and tion on the author, to: then enrolled in pre-flight training served in Jakarta and Cairo. After with the U.S. Army Air Forces in retiring in 1992, Mr. Fales worked Carrie Reiling, Biloxi, Miss., and later served as a for Labat Anderson and Mitchell Assistant Book chaplain’s assistant at Randolph Group as a project manager for the Air Force Base in San Antonio, Office of Foreign Disaster Review Editor, Texas. Assistance. Foreign Service Journal, Mr. Adams was one of the first Mr. Fales was a member of die 2101 E Street, NW, African-American ambassadors. He Asia Society and a founding member Washington, D.C. 20037. served in Hanoi in 1952, and was in of the Indonesian Ceramic Society. Dien Bien Phu when the French Survivors include his wife Jean of (No self-published withdrew. He spent lhs first eight Arlington, Va.; two sons, Jonathan of or vanity press books, years in the Foreign Service as an New York City and Christian of please.) education officer in Vietnam, Maui, Hawaii; and a sister-in-law, Cambodia and Nigeria. He also Sally Fales of Belpre, Ohio.

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JULY-AUGUST 2000/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 75 POSTCARD FROM ABROAD

The Man in the Moon

BY GARY H. MAYBARDUK

Watching Sen. John Glenn’s The rest of the afternoon went return to space last year recalled for The villagers just as the villagers anticipated. They me my first meeting with him in stared at us and we stared at them. 1977 when he headed the U.S. dele¬ suddenly* charged Glenn toured the village, visited gation visiting Papua New Guinea homes and talked with everyone. and I was his control officer. I first us, slopping with Then came the feast (for men only, proposed a trip to the region where by tradition), followed by many the last recorded case of cannibalism just feet to spare. speeches. The astronaut talked of had occurred, but we ultimately independence and the friendship of opted for the remote village of peoples. Numba. A week before the delega¬ The best part, however, was the tions arrival, I flew there with the gift giving. The villagers gave us old resident missionary, Jim Parlier, to shell necklaces that had once served work out the details. satisfied them that he would eat their as money. Jim estimated the shells Located on an isolated, razorback food by sampling some vegetables, had probably come to the village 70 ridge in the central highlands, they then asked, “Would the astro¬ years earlier, before trade with the Numba was a mile-long walk through naut mind if they stared at him?” I coast ended. For our presents to the jungle from a small mountain replied that I thought not — if he selected village elders, we had made airstrip. The villages residents had could stare back. They conferred, holes in year-old, gold-colored bicen¬ never left the immediate vicinity and nodded their heads and said that was tennial medals and strung red ribbon its only European visitors had been fair. through each. Jim called some of the Jim and his family. Our delegation left Port Moresby elders forward to receive their pre¬ We met with the village elders on the Fourth of July, 1977, transfer¬ sents from the astronaut, and one around a campfire to discuss the trip. ring to progressively smaller planes recipient made his own special Jim explained, inaccurately, that Sen. before we finally got to Numba. I was speech. Glenn had gone to the moon, and suiprised that no villagers met us at “I have never minded becoming showed them a picture of an astro¬ the airstrip, but Glenn, though he old,” he said, “but now I curse my naut floating in a spacesuit. They was 20 years older than most of us, age! I curse it!” I remember a preg¬ asked its purpose. I’m not sure that was undaunted by the narrow and nant pause. “I curse it, because I am my explanation of air, even with Jim’s hilly path to the village. so proud and want to be able to walk able translation, was veiy convincing. As we started the final climb to to all the other villages and show off But if the elders of Numba were the top, the villagers suddenly my medal.” technologically unsophisticated, they appeared over the top of the ridge. Two postscripts to the trip are had a highly developed sense of good There was a pause and then they worth noting. Several months after manners. Jim suggested the villagers began to charge! In full battle dress, the visit, another case of cannibalism put on a feast for Sen. Glenn. Once I painted and with feathers, the vil¬ occurred at the site I’d originally pro¬ lagers came running at us, stopped posed. I also learned from Jim Gary H. Maybarduk is an FSO cur¬ with just feet to spare, hinged at us Parlier that the people of Numba rently serving in Caracas. His previ¬ with their spears, backed off and believed the moon was the home of ous postings have included Havana, then lunged again. Hollywood could departed souls. Knowing that, I still Freetown, Managua, Mexico City and have done no better, but it was the cannot imagine what they must have Port Moresby. villagers’ own idea. thought of our astronaut. ■

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