Octagon House, at 18th Street and New York Avenue, Northwest y JfY//'S%/ Our long-time neighbor, r * Octagon House, at 18th Street and New York Avenue, Northwest, pre-dates us by 38 years, having been built by Colonel John Tayloe, III in 1798. It was the temporary residence of the President and Dolley Madison after the British burned the White House in 1814. The mansion has been owned and maintained since 1902 by the American Institute of Architects. THE RIGGS NATIONAL BANK OF WASHINGTON, D.C. WASHINGTON’S LARGEST BANK IN SIZE AND SERVICE • FOUNDED 1836 • COMPLETE BANKING AND TRUST SERVICE Member FDIC • Member Federal Reserve System American Foreign Service Association DAVID H. McKILLOP, President PRINCETON LYMAN, First Vice President HORACE G. DAWSON, JR., Second Vice President Board of Directors WILLIAM C. HARROP, Chairman THOMAS D. BOYATT, Vice Chairman BARBARA J. GOOD, Second Vice Chairman DAVID W. LOVING, Secretary-Treasurer JOHN J. TUOHEY, Assistant Secretary-Treasurer HERMAN J. COHEN JAMES L. HOLMES, JR. F. ALLEN HARRIS WILLIAM R. LENDERKING, JR. LINDA LOWENSTEIN W. A. WHITTEN FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL Staff DECEMBER 1972: VOLUME 49, NO. 12 GERALD BUSHNELL, Executive Director CLARKE SLADE, Educational Consultant HELEN VOGEL, Committee Coordinator C. B. SANNER, Membership and Circulation Journal Editorial Board TERESITA C. SCHAFFER, Chairman RALPH S. SMITH, Vice Chairman Interstellar Negotiation 10 AMBLER MOSS FREDERICK QUINN MICHAEL A. G. MICHAUD EDWARD M. COHEN HARRIETT S. CROWLEY G. RICHARD MONSEN JOEL M. WOLDMAN Journal Into War 15 SHIRLEY R. NEWHALL, Editor R. A. BUTLER THOMAS R. DE BRINE, Editorial Assistant MclVER ART & PUBLICATIONS, INC., Art Direction Advertising Representatives Quiet Crisis 17 JAMES C. SASMOR, 295 Madison Ave., New York, N.Y. 10017 WARREN MASON (212) 532-6230 ALBERT D. SHONK CO., 681 Market St., San Francisco, Calif. 94105 (415) 392-7144 JOSHUA B. POWERS, LTD., 5 Winsley Street, London W.l 01- 580 6594/8. International Representatives. OTHER FEATURES: Old Days at Prague, by P. B., page 4; Why Does Nobody Love Me Just Because I'm a Cockroach, by Lawrence D. Russell, page 23; FSJ Fable, by Robert Ehrman, page 32. ©American Foreign Service Association, 1972. The Foreign Service Journal is published twelve times a year by the Amer¬ ican Foreign Service Association, 2101 E Street, N.W., Wash¬ ington, D. C. 20037. Telephone (202) 338-4045 Second-class postage paid at Washington, D. C. DEPARTMENTS Letters to the Editor 2 The Bookshelf 20 The FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL is the journal of professionals in foreign affairs, published twelve times a year by the American For¬ FSJ Competition 21 eign Service Association, a non-profit organization. Material appearing herein represents the opinions of the writers and is Editorials 32 not intended to indicate the official views of the Department of State, the United States Information Agency, the Agency for International Development or the United States Government as a whole. Special^ Tax Information for Membership in the American Foreign Service Association is open to Foreign Affairs Personnel 33 the professionals in foreign affairs overseas or in Washington, as well as to persons having an active interest in, or close association with, AFSA News 36 foreign affairs. Membership dues are: Active Members—Dues range from $13 to $52 annually depending upon income. Retired Active Members—Dues are $30 annually for members with incomes over $15,000; $15 annually for less than $15,000. Associate Members—Dues are $20 annually. For subscription to the JOURNAL, one year (12 issues); $6.00; two years, $10.00. For subscriptions going abroad, except Canada, add $1.00 annually for overseas postage. Articles appearing in this journal are abstracted and indexed in Historical Abstracts and/or America: History and Life. Microfilm copies of current as well as of back issues of the FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL are available through the University Microfilm Li¬ brary Services, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106 under a contract signed COVER: Diplomatic Acrostic by Ruth A. Nalls October 30, 1967. I believe that most officers enter¬ challenging positions in interesting LETTERS TO | ing the Department view themselves parts of the globe. And the competent, as slightly better than their col¬ ambitious recruits invariably entertain leagues and are anxious to demon¬ some degree of confidence that they Punch That Clock! strate that their abilities entitle them will be among the select few whose tal¬ ents will lift them above the madding ■ The recent spate of publicity to rapid advancement. They believe crowd under any kind of system that and emphasis on the employee’s that in the long run they will be allows “hot shots” to rise rapidly. rights with respect to overtime and promoted faster than the average Mr. Cecil’s final paragraph says, in compensatory time leaves me some¬ officer. This prospect of accelerated effect, that a semiautomatic system what disenchanted. There has al¬ advancement attracts capable young could degenerate into something as de¬ ways been reason, of course, for officers and provides a constant moralizing as the present system. May¬ justifiable concern for seeing that stimulus to excel. be so; but a great deal of applied stu¬ employees required to work consid¬ I believe the prospect of advanc¬ pidity and mismanagement would be erable and consistent overtime are ing steadily for some fifteen years required on the part of many people, properly compensated for it. And through the middle grades, in step over a protracted period, to make a with one’s peers, has too much of semiautomatic system as demoralizing we all agree that something should as all that. I see no reason to expect be done about the boss whose the air of dull routine associated that many supervisors would bother to creative abilities only seem to sur¬ with it to attract the competent, amass the documentation which would face about 30 minutes before clos¬ ambitious men needed by the Serv¬ be required to prove any of their un¬ ing time. ice. Under this system, the real derlings deserve exceptionally rapid But let’s also take a look at the “hot shots” will go elsewhere, where advancement. In any case the docu¬ other side of the coin. To start with, they can try their hand at real com¬ mentation would be subject to verifi¬ we do not punch time clocks. How petition. The Department will find a cation by a reviewing panel, and there many employees have you known subtle change in the type of candi¬ would be scant possibilities for any of¬ who just happen to be 15 or 20 date offering himself for the entry ficer to be promoted on the basis of minutes late two or three times a examinations—still reasonably ca¬ unsupported superlatives in his super¬ week, either in the morning or when pable, but less ambitious, less ener¬ visor’s evaluation reports. returning from lunch, or both? How getic, more concerned about securi¬ Finally, I cannot agree that “the present system . does attract tal¬ many times has your boss said okay ty than opportunity. ented young officers”: it seems to me when you asked for a half hour or Mr. Cohen suggests that acceler¬ that, in general, applicants are attract¬ so to take care of some errand? ated advancement could still occur. ed to the Foreign Service despite, not How many of the 80 hours in a pay If it occurs often enough to offset because of, the present promotion period do you spend just chatting the image of the “semiautomatic” system. with colleagues, or maybe catching promotion, so as to still attract am¬ up on some personal correspond¬ bitious young applicants, then it The Foreign Service Ballet ence? Yes, some call it goofing off. seems we are back where we start¬ The point I would like to make is ed: facing the proliferation of the ■ The articles by James Huff and that if employees are going to insist superlative efficiency report, the ag¬ Ambler Moss in the June issue on all their rights to the letter of the onizing wait for the promotion list do agree that something is wrong, law, then they must also expect that and the attendant morale problems. whether it is the “over-vaulting management will feel obliged to in¬ Though the present system could pride and insolence” of many FSOs sist that employees fulfill all their stand improvement, it does attract on the one hand or the general lack obligations to the letter as well. This talented young officers anxious to of a feeling of eliteness on the other. will mean scrupulous attention to rise rapidly in their chosen field. I My reading of the literature on attendance records. Unfortunately, hope this point is thoroughly consid¬ the subject of the Department’s ef¬ the resulting employee-management ered before a decision is made to forts to do its job well from World environment may not be as congen¬ abandon the competitive feature in War II on shows that Huff has more ial as it has been in the past. Fact is, favor of programed promotion. going for him than Moss. The For¬ those time clocks may be just CHARLES O. CECIL eign Service Illusion, represented in around the corner! Beirut FSI part by the career principle, and ROBERT L. DWELLEY (FSS) AUTHOR’S NOTE : That competent, am¬ assisted by a continuing lack of ef¬ Amman bitious men (and women) would ab¬ fective leadership and by faulty hor the prospect of spending the first organization, has prevented the De- 15 years or so of their careers merely Programed Promotion? artment from making fundamental advancing in step with their peers is changes required to “hack it” in the ■ Edward M. Cohen’s “Rank In¬ true, perhaps, as regards careers in real world: Establishment of a sin¬ justice” is the best argument I have other bureaucracies, but not, I believe, in the Foreign Service.