PICKING AMBASSADORS I DIRE STRAITS I WINTER DREAMS

$3.50 / MAY 2008 OREIGN ERVICE FJ O U R N A L S THE MAGAZINE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS PROFESSIONALS

U.S.-AFRICA RELATIONS Building on the First 50 Years

OREIGN ERVICE FJ O U R N A L S CONTENTS May 2008 Volume 85, No. 5

F OCUS ON Africa

A MIXED RECORD: 50 YEARS OF U.S.-AFRICA RELATIONS / 17 Through the first half-century of African independence, with all its disappointments and successes, U.S. engagement has been a constant. By Herman J. Cohen

IMPLEMENTING AFRICOM: TREAD CAREFULLY / 25 The Africa Command represents a reorientation of American bureaucratic responsibilities that will probably work well for us, but confuse local governments. By Robert E. Gribbin Cover and inside illustrations by Clemente Botelho REFLECTING ON NAIROBI: THE AFRICA BOMBINGS AND THE AGE OF TERROR / 32 A survivor recalls the 1998 bombings of the American embassies PRESIDENT’S VIEWS / 5 in Kenya and Tanzania and ponders what we have learned. The 10-Percent Solution By Joanne Grady Huskey By John K. Naland THE AFRICA BUREAU’S INTELLECTUAL GODFATHERS / 36 SPEAKING OUT / 14 Though they represented very different perspectives, Ralph Bunche Heading Off More Clashes and Richard Nixon helped make AF a reality 50 years ago. in the Strait of Hormuz By Gregory L. Garland By Benjamin Tua THREE DAYS IN N’DJAMENA / 41 REFLECTIONS / 80 An eyewitness account of the recent civil war in Chad and “Wow — You Must Really attendant evacuation of embassy personnel. Like Winter!” By Rajiv Malik By Joan B. Odean AFRAID OF OUR SHADOW: CORRUPTION DEVOURS AFRICA’S MIDDLE CLASS / 44 LETTERS / 6 The United States needs to move more aggressively against entrenched corruption in African societies for the sake of the continent’s future. CYBERNOTES / 10 By Daniel Whitman MARKETPLACE / 13 BOOKS / 62 IN MEMORY / 66 INDEX TO ADVERTISERS / 78

MAY 2008/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 3 OREIGN ERVICE CONTENTS FJ O U R N A L S

AFSA NEWS Editor STEVEN ALAN HONLEY Senior Editor AFSA HQ RENOVATION PROJECT UPDATE / 49 SUSAN B. MAITRA Associate Editor ENTRY-LEVEL CONFERENCE REPORT FROM CAIRO / 49 SHAWN DORMAN INVOLUNTARY SMA GETS A BOOST / 49 Ad & Cirulation Manager ED MILTENBERGER BRIEFS: PIT BUYBACK / 50 Business Manager ALICIA J. CAMPI VP STATE: OVERSEAS PAY DISPARITY — DEBUNKING THE MYTHS / 51 Art Director CARYN SUKO SMITH VP USAID: IT’S TIME FOR A TRADE-IN / 52 Advertising Intern TIGER TORELLE REINVENTING RESOURCES AT THE OVERSEAS BRIEFING CENTER / 54 FLO: 30 YEARS OF SUPPORT FOR FS FAMILY MEMBERS / 55 EDITORIAL BOARD TED WILKINSON TRAGEN AWARD FOR FAMILY MEMBER ADVOCATE LESLIE DORMAN / 56 Chairman JOSEPH BRUNS FAMILY MEMBER MATTERS: THANKS, NOW HERE’S YOUR PAY CUT / 57 STEPHEN W. B UCK JULIE GIANELLONI CONNOR FIELD NOTES FROM BELGRADE / 58 JIM DEHART CLASSIFIEDS / 59 JEFF GIAUQUE GEORGE JONES LAURIE KASSMAN YVETTE N. MALCIOLN DAVID MCFARLAND AL PESSIN

THE MAGAZINE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS PROFESSIONALS Foreign Service Journal (ISSN 0146-3543), 2101 E Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20037-2990 is published monthly with a combined July-August issue by the American Foreign Service Associa- tion (AFSA), a private, nonprofit organization. Material appearing herein represents the opin- ions of the writers and does not necessarily rep- resent the views of the Journal, the Editorial Board or AFSA. Writer queries and submissions are invited, preferably by e-mail. Journal sub- scription: AFSA members – $13 included in annual dues; others – $40. For foreign surface mail, add $18 per year; foreign airmail, $36 per year. Periodical postage paid at Washington, D.C., and at additional mailing offices. Indexed by Public Affairs Information Services (PAIS). The Journal is not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts, photos or illustrations. Advertising inquiries are invited. The appearance of adver- tisements herein does not imply the endorse- ment of the services or goods offered. TELEPHONE: (202) 338-4045 FAX: (202) 338-8244 or (202) 338-6820 E-MAIL: [email protected] WEB: www.afsa.org © American Foreign Service Association, 2008. Printed in the U.S.A. Send address changes to: AFSA Attn: Address Change 2101 E Street N.W. Washington DC 20037-2990

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4 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/MAY 2008 PRESIDENT’S VIEWS The 10-Percent Solution BY JOHN K. NALAND

Since its founding in 1924, The one partial success was need for, in the words of a 2006 U.S. AFSA has taken on a myriad of the insertion of language into Senate report, “the president [to] send ever-changing issues in response the Foreign Service Act of to the Senate as nominees for ambas- to the evolving global and do- 1980 setting qualifications for sadorships only those candidates who mestic environments facing the ambassadors. Thus, current are qualified for the sensitive and Foreign Service. However, at law states that they “should important post-9/11 role of U.S. ambas- least one AFSA position has possess clearly demonstrated sador.” That report, Embassies as never changed: overseas diplo- competence to perform the Command Posts in the Anti-Terror matic missions should almost always be duties of a chief of mission, including … Campaign, urged that all ambassadorial headed by career Foreign Service useful knowledge of the language … nominees possess “the qualities of expe- members. Though many non-career and understanding of the history, the rienced judgment, knowledge of intera- ambassadors have served our nation culture, the economic and political insti- gency missions and activities, and a solid well, an even greater number have tutions, and the interests of that country. grounding in the culture and politics of lacked the skills and experience needed … Contributions to political campaigns the region to which the candidate is to properly represent our nation. should not be a factor. ” Unfortunately, expected to be assigned.” The problem of unqualified non- to quote Johnny Depp’s line as pirate Those two new factors argue for career ambassadors appointed for their Captain Jack Sparrow, that language has immediate action to limit the number of political loyalty has a long history. For been treated as “guidelines rather than unqualified non-career ambassadors. example, in 1957 President Eisenhower rules.” Absent such action, some U.S. embassy sent Earl E.T. Smith, a businessman So why raise the issue now, given this may someday experience its own who spoke no Spanish, to Cuba. In track record? The answer is that two Michael D. Brown moment when hindsight, more experienced leadership recent tragic events may have strength- expert advice is ignored and top leader- was needed there (he left three weeks ened the prospects for reform. ship fails during a crisis. before Fidel Castro seized power). The First, the devastation of New Of the proposed solutions, the easi- news media has reported the “selling” of Orleans and the central Gulf Coast by est to implement would be for Congress ambassadorships at least since the Hurricane Katrina in August 2005 to lower the non-career portion of Nixon administration. That reporting showed — unambiguously and in real ambassadors from the informal histori- has criticized appointments made by time — the danger of placing an cal average of 30 percent to a statutory presidents from both political parties. unqualified political appointee in a criti- maximum of, say, 10 percent. That In response, there have been initia- cal position. While there were also fail- would allow a select number of distin- tives over the years to limit the number ings at the state and local levels, it is guished citizens — for example, retired of unqualified ambassadors. For exam- clear that International Arabian Horse lawmakers — to go out as envoys, while ple, nonpartisan groups have offered to Association officer Michael D. Brown, ending the unchecked spoils system weigh the qualifications of nominees, director of the Federal Emergency under which scores of low-level political and lawmakers have submitted bills to Management Agency, was the wrong activists are tapped for critical national limit the number of non-career ambas- person in the wrong place at the wrong security positions for which they are sadors. But, those reform efforts failed. time, with catastrophic results. unqualified. Second, the “long war” against ter- Now is the perfect time to imple- John K. Naland is the president of the rorism that was launched after the Sept. ment a bipartisan solution to this long- American Foreign Service Association. 11, 2001, attacks has highlighted the standing problem.

MAY 2008/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 5 LETTERS

Transform Our Budget the job done. Time for the Afghan Army John Naland’s February President Getting us the resources we need to Step Up View’s column comparing today’s bud- — now that would be a remarkable On Jan. 14, there appeared an get situation with that of the 1990s hit transformation! opinion piece in the New York Times my desk at a fitting time. That same Christian Yarnell titled “Afghans, Report for Duty,” by day, my colleagues and I learned that, Economic Officer former U.S. ambassador to Afghani- as of April 1, our post could no longer Embassy Kyiv stan, Ronald Neumann. Amb. Neu- afford to continue our weekly lan- mann suggests instituting a military guage lessons (with a few exceptions, Remember draft in Afghanistan as a viable solu- such as for those trying to get off lan- Diplomatic History tion to the worsening security in the guage probation). Just a few days ear- Congratulations on the new For- country. He also criticizes the role of lier, we were also forced to signifi- eign Service Heritage feature and its the Afghan National Police in dealing cantly slash our in-country travel initial article about Loy Henderson in with that situation. plans for the year in order to meet the the February issue. It has long been a There are several problems with new budget constraints. source of disappointment to me that this proposal. First, who would ad- As someone who entered the so many in the Foreign Service pay minister such an ambitious national Foreign Service during Colin Powell’s little attention to American diplo- program? The Afghan government is tenure, after the dark days of the matic history and tend to neglect our already managerially challenged, to 1990s, I was rather shocked to see rich professional heritage. Unless put it politely, and even advanced budget cuts affecting such critical things have changed recently, these societies have trouble running a draft aspects of our job. All we hear from subjects are not a significant part of program. Second, who would pay all the department’s leadership is that we State Department orientation and these new draftees? The U.S.? need to have more hard-language training programs. They should be. NATO? Very doubtful. And, third, speakers and get out into more A recent visit to the new Marine there is the question of vetting, arm- remote parts of the world, all in order Corps Museum at Quantico remind- ing and training all the new recruits. to “transform” those societies. Well, ed me how important it is for all orga- We should instead be encouraging that is a tough assignment if you do nizations that aspire to greatness to the existing Afghan National Army to not speak the language and cannot have a culture that proactively re- take on a more aggressive warfighting leave the capital! members their histories and honors role. After more than five years of Of course, I do not blame post their heroes as sources of wisdom and Defense Department funding (sever- management, which is doing its best inspiration for their present mem- al billion dollars), training and logisti- to manage a bad situation. But I do bers. The Foreign Service culture cal support, this seems a more reason- blame the department’s leadership, needs to better integrate this princi- able approach — and expectation. which wants the Foreign Service to ple, and the Journal can help it do so. Amb. Neumann also criticizes the take an increasingly aggressive world- James R. Bullington Afghan National Police for its lack of wide posture, yet cannot secure the FSO, retired effectiveness and corruption, which he funding from our own Congress to get Williamsburg, Va. calls “an enormous problem among

6 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/MAY 2008 L ETTERS

police departments, which are often controlled by local warlords and mili- tia.” While there is without a doubt corruption in the ANP, this is hardly a unique phenomenon in the Afghan government, including the military. But what is interesting here is that in 2006, Amb. Neumann himself strongly supported the inclusion in the ANP of local militia — notorious for warlord connections and corrup- tion — over the objections of State’s Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement, which is responsible for managing the police training program in Afghanistan. In Amb. Neumann’s defense, he was in the difficult position of trying to ensure the survival of the freely elect- ed Karzai government with any avail- able legitimate tool. And the ANP was one such means. We provided the police with tactical training (putting traditional police training and functions on temporary hold), and threw them into the breach to fight the Taliban. ANP casualty figures reflect that history. But now is not the time for vast new, expensive and probably unwork- able programs, but to demand a return on our investment in the ANA. It’s time for that force to step up to the plate, leave their secure bases and, with NATO leadership and mentor- ing, take the fight to the Taliban. Joseph Schreiber FSO, retired, working part of the year for the INL bureau in Afghanistan San Jose, Costa Rica

Defending the U.S. Dorothy Shea’s February Reflect- ions column, “Foreign Service Mo- ments,” wimps out on the subject of handling verbal attacks on our coun- try. While the specific incidents she cites appear to cause her “intense dis-

MAY 2008/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 7 L ETTERS

comfort,” she seems to emphasize Board since then, I retain a sense of Leahy, may present a more balanced fine distinctions, lost on me, as to loyalty and friendship with my col- picture of his professional career prior whether the attacks are personal. In leagues from those early “pioneering” to the events in Santa Isabel. the grocery check-out line, for in- days, including the first two chairs of From 1965 to 1967, Mr. Leahy was stance, she does not even respond to the FSGB: the late William Simkin, a a member of the administrative staff the man who gratuitously tells her: past chairman of the Federal at Santo Domingo, which, like the “You have blood on your hands.” Mediation and Conciliation Service, rest of the mission, was stretched to Nor does she register a peep when and his successor on the FSGB, the capacity responding to the efforts of some expatriate singer castigates the late Alexander Porter, a distinguished U.S. and Organization of American U.S. as the source of all ills. Shea nationally known arbitrator. I ad- States to re-establish a democratic admits that she might have at least mired both of them for their willing- government in the Dominican Re- walked out of the concert, but she did ness to give of their time and wisdom public. This work required that the not want “to cheat myself of the in sorting out difficult problems. It mission coordinate the peacekeeping music” or to appear unsympathetic to was, therefore, with considerable sur- activities of a large U.S. military pres- the entertainer’s right to free speech. prise that I read this in the concluding ence — the 82nd Airborne, Special Maybe part of Shea’s problem is paragraph about the incoming chair- Forces and U.S. Navy — as well as 10 her blithe acceptance of the view that man: “He follows in an honorable tra- large armed military delegations from “We all know that U.S. foreign policy dition of distinguished FSGB chairs members of the OAS. Logistical is not very popular these days.” Back — Bloch, Oldham, DiLauro and coordination and support liaison for in the old days, no U.S. diplomat Reidy — that began in 1980.” this vast effort fell to the embassy. worth his salt would permit an insult As an FSO from 1960 to 1994, I Due to the fluid situation, all mis- to his country to go unanswered. To was “present at the creation” of the sion personnel became adept in ful- borrow the title from David Jones’ FS grievance system and knew both filling additional duties. Leahy, for a article in the same FSJ issue, “Taking Simkin and Porter well. I was also an time, was in charge of all embassy the King’s Shilling,” it appears that eyewitness to the crisis and mass res- transportation, which included the this is all that Shea does, at least in the ignation of the board members, led by motor pools at the embassy; the port two unfortunate cases she cites. Simkin, provoked by USAID solicit- of La Hanna, some 30 miles away; and Would that she had written a more ing the General Accounting Office the international airport, an additional instructive and positive article, telling (now the Government Accountability 30 miles away. Having a good com- us of times she defended the United Office) to rule that an FSGB decision mand of Spanish, he acted as a coor- States and describing how she did so. was illegal — a development which dinator between Dominican and U.S. Such an article, not the one the led to the creation of the present sys- armed forces and government enti- Journal printed, would be a credit to tem. ties. For the many mission personnel our Service. I would like to believe that the ref- stationed at the constituent posts, he Richard W. Hoover erence to the line of distinguished was their strong link with embassy FSO, retired FSGB chairs beginning only in 1980 administration. He was involved in all Front Royal, Va. was a slip on the part of the author, planning for high-level visits, particu- and I trust that the Journal will find a larly the visit of Vice President Hu- Honor Early FSGB Chairs way to set the record straight. bert Humphrey for President Balla- The AFSA News section of the John A. Warnock guer’s inauguration. March Journal included an article on FSO, retired Leahy was next assigned to Quito the Foreign Service Grievance Board. Editor’s note: A correction ran in where, in addition to his embassy From 1971 to 1976, I was the first the April Journal, p. 52. duties, he was active at the Ecuador- (and only) executive secretary of the ian-American Cultural Institute, im- Interim Board and first executive sec- Remembering Don Leahy proving his Spanish and teaching retary of the present statutory board As the October FSJ article, “A English. He married one of the fac- in 1976. Foreign Service Murder,” has gener- ulty members there. Although I have had no connection ated considerable interest, I hope my Don Leahy was a quiet, unassum- with the Foreign Service Grievance comments about the victim, Don ing individual who took great pride in

8 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/MAY 2008 L ETTERS

his professional competence and in institution, offering the opportunity the different sections and tasks within being a member of the Foreign to make some money and learn about their embassy. The post should also Service. Though reserved, he exhibit- the Foreign Service. The program take the interns out to experience the ed a wonderfully self-deprecating should continue, but needs to be im- local culture and see the work of the sense of humor when telling a joke or proved. embassy firsthand. relating a story. The last time I saw I have often heard that an office Field experiences are an important him was in Montevideo. Newly mar- will receive interns and feel as though part of any internship. It is imperative ried, he was most enthusiastic about they are unprepared. Because of the that such a beneficial program remain the future and his career. lack of knowledge and preparation, meaningful in the Foreign Service. William H. Lindsey Jr. they are given menial busywork. I Sarah Vann FSO, retired have seen interns sitting around ask- Eligible Family Wicomico Church, Va. ing for something to do, yet their Member/Intern employers just come up with more Fredonia, N.Y. Educate the Interns busywork. I feel that I could have I am an eligible family member learned more about the sections and Send your letter to the editor to: who has participated in the summer posts for which I was working. [email protected]. hire program in 2004 in Washington, Both interns and employers would Note that all submissions are D.C., in 2006 at Embassy Mexico benefit from making these programs subject to editing for style, City, and in 2007 at Embassy Bogotá. more educational. The interns should format and length. The internship program is a great attend lectures and seminars about

MAY 2008/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 9 CYBERNOTES

The China Factor in State’s man rights protections. Bejing’s bru- Kumar, told the Christina Science 2007 Human Rights Report tal crackdown on the uprising among Monitor (www.csmonitor.com/20 On March 11, Secretary of State Tibetans has been in the headlines for 08/0313/p03s05-usfp.html). Condoleezza Rice and Jonathan Far- weeks as we go to press. — Susan Brady Maitra, rar, acting assistant secretary of the Reporters Without Borders called Senior Editor Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights the report a “major setback” for and Labor, released the department’s human rights organizations in China. A “TIP” on Human Trafficking “2007 Country Reports on Human “The situation in China is not, of An estimated 800,000 men, women Rights Practices” (www.state.gov/g/ course, comparable to the one in and children are trafficked across drl/rls/hrrpt/2007/). North Korea or in Eritrea, but international borders and millions Among the changes from the pre- Washington’s decision occurs at the more are trafficked within their own vious year was the addition of Syria worst possible time,” RWB stated on countries every year. So reported and Uzbekistan to the list of the March 11 (www.rsf.org/article.ph Shereen Faraj, an international pro- world’s worst offenders — and China’s p3?id_article=26180). “U.S. au- grams officer in the State Depart- removal from that same list, where it thorities are depriving themselves of ment’s Office to Monitor and Combat was prominently located in 2005 and yet another effective way to pressure Trafficking in Persons, during a talk 2006. The latter change has raised a China, without having achieved any on March 25. furor among rights activists, who say goodwill gesture from Beijing.” The special program on human they have documented a “sharp up- State’s adjustment of China’s status trafficking was part of an Internation- tick,” as Human rights Watch re- in the report “is actually encouraging al Women’s Day Celebration at the searcher Phelim Kine put it in the the Chinese authorities to continue International Finance Corporation- March 13 Washington Post, in human the practices they are undertaking,” sponsored Artisan Market and Café in rights violations in China during the Amnesty International USA’s advoca- Washington, D.C. run-up to the Olympics (www.wash cy director for Asia and the Pacific, T. A month before, on Feb. 13-15, ingtonpost.com). Asked by the press about the PRC’s status change, Farrar begged Site of the Month: www.yourdictionary.com the question, noting that the report’s About 300 of the 6,800 known languages are represented by online dictio- introduction states that the country’s naries. Most of them can be found at yourdictionary.com, along with a host of human rights record remains poor other free, very helpful language aids, such as industry-specific dictionaries, and that the 63-page section detailing grammar guides, translation sites and free search of Webster’s New World developments in China gives a “frank College dictionary. The site also offers links to a wide range of the top word appraisal” of the status of human games. rights there (www.state.gov/g/drl/ Yourdictionary.com, with more than one million visitors per month, rls/rm/2008/102116.htm). describes itself as a language products and services company that maintains the But Kine and other human rights most comprehensive and authoritative language portal on the Web. In addition advocates say the boost for Beijing is to dictionaries, grammars and games, the site has a forum (The Agora) for dis- ill-timed, undercutting activists and cussing language issues with the logophile community. As Editor & Publisher other dissidents in China who are recently put it, YourDictionary.com “defines the state of the art and . . . is mak- pressing the government to relax ing a powerful bid to anchor the reference shelf in the new millennium.” restrictions on free speech, release — Susan Brady Maitra, Senior Editor political prisoners and improve hu-

10 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/MAY 2008 C YBERNOTES

the U.N. Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking held a three-day e have overmilitarized our response to the global challenges of the conference in Vienna, drawing to- W21st century and have to reach out in other ways to understand and gether activists and government rep- shape what is happening beyond our borders. Yet despite this call for resentatives to analyze the problem change, large deficits remain in the sheer numbers of people who engage and create effective tools to deal with it. UN.GIFT is a program of the U.N. in diplomacy. We need to increase the number of Foreign Service officers Office on Drugs and Crime that was and enhance their skills. launched a year ago to catalyze action — Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wis., speaking at the University of on the issue (www.ungift.org/in Wisconsin at Madison on March 24, http://feingold.senate.gov/ dex.php). According to the UNODC, the ~feingold/statements/08/03/20080324.htm problem has reached “epidemic pro- portions over the past decade,” with some 2.5 million people throughout children, into involuntary servitude in the here and now. Virtually as soon the world at any given time recruited, and sexual slavery (http://www.sta as they are uttered, new words and entrapped, transported and exploited. te.gov/g/tip/). expressions — like nanoblahblah or But, UNODC adds, because human The Trafficking Victims Protection whale tail — can be found on such trafficking is an underground crime, Act, originally passed by Congress in Web sites as Urban Dictionary, Dou- the true numbers are not known. Yet 2000, created a special “T” visa for ble Tongued Dictionary and Wordlust- the crime is drawing increasing atten- human trafficking victims. More than itude. tion. $74 million in funding is allocated The phenomenon is explored by “There are more slaves today than under the act for Fiscal Year 2008. Jim Giles, who points out in the Jan. at any point in human history,” says The State Department works with 31 edition of New Scientist that online investigative journalist Benjamin Skin- governments on action plans for pre- dictionaries, Web sites and blogs can ner, whose recent book, A Crime So vention, protection of victims and document language as it evolves, Monstrous: Face-to-Face with Mo- prosecution. Washington is asking resulting in “a new kind of dictionary dern-Day Slavery (Free Press, March governments to increase their rescues that can be updated every day and has 2008), is the product of four years of of trafficking victims and prosecution no size limit.” research during which he posed as a of traffickers; to treat people freed Perhaps the most “current” of the buyer at illegal brothels on several from slavery as victims of crime, not lot is Urban Dictionary (www.urban continents, interviewed convicted hu- criminals; and to take measures to dry dictionary.com), an online com- man traffickers in a Romanian prison up the market for modern-day slaves. pendium of slang whose definitions and otherwise studied the subject Led by Ambassador Mark P. are written by users. Founded in from the inside (www.salon.com/ Lagon, the TIP office funds 63 part- 1999 by then-university student Aar- books/int/2008/03/27/slavery/). nering projects in 46 countries total- on Peckham, the site also contains In- At the March 25 event, Faraj, ing approximately $13.55 million ternet jargon and neologisms. Three- together with panelists from the law through its competitive grant process. quarters of the site’s users are under firm of Holland and Knight LLP and In addition, TIP produces an annual 25. Though a system of quality con- the Vital Voices NGO, emphasized Trafficking in Persons report assessing trol by volunteer editors reduces hate- that human trafficking is a problem in the governmental response in each ful and personal material, the site every country, including the U.S. country that has a significant number does contain explicit and provocative State’s TIP office coordinates U.S. of victims of severe forms of human material and is therefore banned in governmental activities in the global trafficking. many schools and offices. effort to stop human trafficking, — Alicia Campi, Business Manager Then there are the sites and blogs including forced labor and sexual run by freelance lexicographers, exploitation, Faraj explained. She Tracking the Evolution of working editors or other word-people cited Secretary Rice’s call for all English in Real Time who share a fascination with language. nations to become 21st-century, com- A unique new form of online dic- Mark Peters, for example, is a con- mitted abolitionists to end the debase- tionary is capturing the dynamic tributing editor for Verbatim: The ment of victims, primarily women and changes taking place in our language Language Quarterly, a language col-

MAY 2008/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 11 C YBERNOTES

50 Years Ago... The desk officer no longer serves as a “little despot,” making policy on the cables. More and more consideration must be given to the wishes of other areas and bureaus within the department, to the conflicting interests of other departments, and to the coordinating agencies like the National Security Council and the Operations Coordinating Board. — Robert E. Elder, “Country Desk Officer: Low Man on the Totem Pole (Part I),” FSJ, May 1958

umnist for Babble and a blogger for jeans when the wearer bends over.” Psychology Today. His Wordlustitude — Susan Brady Maitra, (http://wordlust.blogspot.com) is, as Senior Editor he describes it, “a growing dictionary of ephemeral words, also known as Cuba: Change in the Offing? nonce or stunt words.” The blog also Fidel Castro’s announcement on features links to a variety of language- Feb. 19 that he was retiring, followed related sites and blogs. by brother Raul Castro’s official des- Double Tongued Dictionary’s ignation as head of state on Feb. 24, (www.doubletongued.org) found- set off a wave of speculation about er and editor, Grant Barnett, is an what to expect next from the island American lexicographer, editor of The republic. Cuba’s dogged persistence Official Dictionary of Unofficial in the face of a 50-year-old U.S. boy- English (McGraw-Hill, 2006) and the cott was severely undercut by the co-host of public radio’s weekly show 1991 collapse of the USSR and loss of on language, “A Way with Words.” extensive economic support. Though his first goal for the online The first high-level foreign repre- dictionary is to inform and entertain, sentative received by the new Cuban he also aims to “cover carefully the president was the Vatican’s secretary of lending and borrowing between state. Afterwards, for the first time in English and other languages” — an a decade, state television broadcast a aspect of language development of mass in Havana’s Cathedral Square special interest to global nomads. attended by thousands. At the same Professional dictionary editors time, at the United Nations, Cuba’s consider many of these sites frivolous, foreign minister fulfilled his govern- but they clearly have their value. ment’s promise to sign two important “They fill a gap tracking the words treaties: the International Covenant on that didn’t make it into the last edition Economic, Social and Cultural Rights of a mainstream dictionary and are and the International Covenant on perhaps too soon for the next edi- Civil and Political Rights (www.msn tion,” says Australian linguistics ex- bc.msn.com/id/23397572/). pert Dr. Ruth Wajnryb. The European Union seized the And don’t forget the assistance occasion to press ahead for improved such sites can render in helping you relations. The E.U.’s chief develop- keep up with your teenager’s vocabu- ment officer, Louis Michel, was dis- lary. By the way, nanoblahblah means patched to meet with Foreign Mini- “nonsensical minutiae” and whale tail ster Felipe Perez Roque, the first is the term for “the upper part of a G- high-level visit by a European official string that appears above hipster since 2005. The European Commis-

12 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/MAY 2008 C YBERNOTES

sion, Michel’s spokesman John Clan- state.gov/r/pa/prs/dpb/2008/feb/ cy told the Associated Press on March 101059.htm). 7, wants to see “the resumption of an Most independent experts agree, open and constructive political dia- however, that Fidel’s formal with- logue” with Cuban leaders. drawal will make a difference (http:// Cuban-E.U. relations went south ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=4 in 2003, when Europe imposed diplo- 1675). Julia Sweig, a Cuban special- matic sanctions in response to Cuba’s ist at the Council of Foreign Rela- imprisonment of 75 dissidents and tions, predicts that Raul Castro is like- independent journalists accused of ly to promote reforms in agriculture working with the U.S. to undermine and small business in ways designed to Havana. The E.U. restored diplomat- reduce the role of the state in the econ- ic relations in January 2005, but asked omy — a process he had already begun Cuba to release political prisoners and during his nearly two years as acting grant its citizens freedom of expres- president. In a July 2007 speech, he sion. So far, 20 have been freed. said it was absolutely essential to Though the E.U.’s 27 governments strengthen agricultural productivity were united in asking Raul Castro to and give farmers incentives to boost restart regular bilateral talks last year, low production rates, adding that all Spain has led the effort to improve necessary changes would be intro- relations, while Britain, the Czech Re- duced to achieve those goals. public, Poland and Sweden have been In his first month as head of state, more guarded (www.iht.com/bin/ the new president has lifted restric- printfriendly.php?id=10814049). tions preventing Cubans from pur- In the U.S., following President chasing computers, microwave ovens, Bush’s lead, officials say they will have cell phones and other electronic to see what, if any, changes are in appliances. Even more far-reaching, store for the Cuban people. Speaking in a step away from the centralized in Rwanda on Feb. 19, Bush said that distribution of agricultural inputs, Castro’s departure “should be the farmers in Cuba can now buy their beginning of a democratic transition,” own supplies. and demanded that Cuba now hold Proponents of a change in U.S. free and fair elections for a new gov- policy toward Cuba view the change ernment. So far, U.S. officials insist, of leadership in Havana as a “superb no change in policy is warranted or to opening,” in the words of Lawrence be expected. Wilkerson, chief of staff of former In response to press queries about Secretary of State Colin Powell. an apparent divergence between “Raul Castro has said now three times American and European approaches that he’s interested in talking with the to Cuba, State Department spokes- U.S. unconditionally to try to resolve man Sean McCormack said: “There all outstanding issues between the may be some tactical differences here two countries,” William LeoGrande, a and there. But I think on the whole Cuba specialist at American Univer- that we are on the same page in terms sity and dean of its School of Govern- of wanting to see the same kind of ment, told Inter Press Service (http:// future for Cuba.” He explained that ipsnews.net/print.asp?idnews=4 Sec. Rice had made it clear to Spanish 1257). But analysts generally rule out Foreign Minister Miguel Moratinos a re-evaluation of policy until a new that Washington does not believe administration is in place in 2009. relations with the current Cuban gov- — Susan Brady Maitra, ernment would be worthwhile (www. Senior Editor

MAY 2008/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 13 SPEAKING OUT Heading Off More Clashes in the Strait of Hormuz

BY BENJAMIN TUA

he details of a tense Jan. 6 inci- oil tankers in the Persian Gulf toward dent involving U.S. warships Talking with, rather the end of the Iran-Iraq War. Several T and Iranian naval vessels in the than at, Tehran is clashes with U.S. forces resulted in Strait of Hormuz remain murky. But the maiming and death of Iranian even the most benign interpretation certain to be more small-boat personnel. And in 1988, makes clear the urgent need for mea- fruitful than pursuing the USS Vincennes shot down an sures to prevent a recurrence. retaliatory military Iranian civilian airliner in the Strait of Initial press reports based on brief- strikes. Hormuz, killing all 290 people on ings by U.S. military officials, includ- board. ing Vice Admiral Kevin Cosgriff, com- mander of the U.S. Naval Forces Dangerous Encounters, Central Command that operates in Safer Outcomes the Middle East, described a situation other hand, played down the event, That history underscores the urgent in which five Iranian patrol boats describing it as a routine exchange in need for a “rules of the road” under- manned by the Revolutionary Guard which the U.S. ships complied with a standing between Washington and Corps sped toward several U.S. Navy request from an officer on one of the Tehran. The situation in the Persian ships as they crossed the Strait of Iranian boats that the American ves- Gulf is even more perilous, and the Hormuz into the Persian Gulf. The sels identify themselves. The Iranians lack of adequate channels of direct Iranian vessels reportedly broke into released their own video of the inci- communication more severe, than was two groups, “maneuvered aggressive- dent, which did not portray aggressive the case between the U.S. and the ly” along the sides of the American behavior on their part. Soviet Union during the Cold War. ships, and dropped white “box-like” DOD did not directly challenge The American naval buildup in the objects into the water. According to the veracity of the Iranian account; in region and U.S.-Iranian differences the officials, as the U.S. ships pre- fact, it acknowledged that the threat- over Iraq, Hamas and the Israeli- pared to fire in self-defense the ening message it had cited (included Palestinian conflict, and Lebanon and Iranians turned and sped back to their with the video it had released) may Hezbollah, all as well as Iran’s nuclear territorial waters. not have come from the Iranian boats program, all make for an environment The Pentagon released a four- and may not have been addressed to that is highly charged, fragile and very minute video showing the Iranian U.S. targets. Subsequent reports sug- susceptible to destructive develop- boats speeding toward the U.S. ships. gest that there is little, if any, evidence ments. Audio (presumably from the boats) that the actions of the Iranian boats Disturbingly, U.S. commanders in accompanying the video contained an were intentionally provocative or the region have no way to communi- apparent threat to bomb the U.S. actually violated international law. cate directly with the Iranian Navy or ships. Striking a somewhat cautious Some observers believe Washing- Revolutionary Guard. DOD officials tone, Defense Secretary Robert Gates ton may have hyped the incident ini- have said they want to prevent future said that, based on the information tially as part of a campaign to demo- naval interactions in the region from available to him, this was a one-sided nize Tehran. escalating into confrontation based on provocation, an assessment President Whatever the truth of that claim, misunderstandings. Toward that end, George W. Bush quickly seconded. events of this kind go back to 1987 Retired Admiral James Lyons, who The Iranian government, on the when the U.S. was protecting Kuwaiti has served as commander of the Paci-

14 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/MAY 2008 S PEAKING O UT

fic Fleet and deputy chief of naval the other party’s ships; informing ves- operations, suggested in the Jan. 29 sels when submarines are exercising Washington Times that the set of rules The 1972 U.S.-Soviet near them; requiring aircraft com- and regulations incorporated in the manders to use caution and prudence 1972 U.S.-Soviet “Incidents at Sea incidents-at-sea in approaching aircraft and ships of Treaty” could be applied as modified the other party; and not permitting for naval operations in the Persian agreement could simulated attacks against aircraft or Gulf. He suggested that the navies of ships, performing “aerobatics” over U.S. allies and of other Gulf states, serve as a model. ships or dropping hazardous objects including Iran, be invited to sign such near them. an accord. A more recent reference point may The absence of diplomatic rela- be the U.S.-Chinese Military Mari- tions between Iran and the United standing along the lines of the time Consultative Agreement, signed States need not be an obstacle to Agreement Between the Government on Jan. 19, 1998, by Defense Secre- direct, expert-level talks on procedur- of The United States of America and tary William Cohen and Chinese al issues involving the safety of U.S. the Government of The Union of Defense Minister General Chi Hao- and Iranian naval personnel and Soviet Socialist Republics on the tian. This agreement followed talks assets. An excellent forum for initial Prevention of Incidents On and Over and visits, initiated by the commander discussions already exists: the bilater- the High Seas (generally referred to of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, Admiral al, ambassadorial-level talks in Bagh- as INCSEA), tailored to the situation Joseph Prueher, in 1996. The dad conducted under Iraqi auspices. in the Persian Gulf and possibly of a MMCA, initially directed at establish- Other venues such as Geneva and multilateral nature, as Admiral Lyons ing a forum for dialogue on maritime Paris, where U.S. and Iranian officials suggests. The French decision, an- communication issues, provides for have met to discuss specific issues, nounced by President Nicolas Sar- working-level exchanges on issues of could also be considered. kosy in January, to open a military maritime safety and communication The two sides also could meet, base in the United Arab Emirates, and expands cooperation in related either bilaterally or for multilateral strengthens the case for a multilateral areas, including search and rescue at talks, under the auspices of the agreement. sea and humanitarian assistance. London-based International Mari- The U.S.-Soviet agreement gov- There is also a substantial body of time Organization, the United Na- erning incidents at sea was signed in international law and experience on tions specialized agency responsible Moscow on May 25, 1972, by Secre- which the parties could draw: the reg- for improving maritime safety, techni- tary of the Navy John Warner and ulations of the International Maritime cal cooperation and maritime security. Soviet Admiral Sergei Gorshkov. It Organization, the International Colli- Both Iran and the U.S. are members. was designed to reduce the likelihood sion Regulations of 1960, and the Because of the technical nature of of misunderstanding or miscalcula- United Nations Convention on the the issues and the benefits that would tion and the possibility that incidents Law of the Sea, which Pres. Bush has result from better communication in like that of Jan. 6 would lead to tragic urged the Senate to approve. this area, the issue of political will consequences. Talking with, rather than at, each should not be a major factor for the The agreement provided for steps other is certain to be more fruitful United States. An Iranian rejection of to avoid collisions: not interfering in than the path, suggested by some, of a U.S. invitation to engage in talks of the “formations” of the other party; retaliatory military strikes to “deter this nature would put the onus of avoiding maneuvers in areas of heavy provocations” by the Iranians. It is responsibility on Tehran for any sub- sea traffic; and requiring surveillance also preferable to the suggestion by sequent loss of life or limb stemming ships to maintain a safe distance so as Pentagon military historian David from an encounter in the Persian to avoid “embarrassing or endangering Crist in the Jan. 20 New York Times Gulf. the ships under surveillance.” Other that we urge our allies to let Tehran provisions included using accepted know “that any attempt by the Precedents and Approaches international signals when ships Revolutionary Guard to interfere with The result of discussions with maneuver near one another; not simu- the free navigation of international respect to naval vessels (and aircraft) lating attacks at, launching objects waters will be treated no differently of the two sides should be an under- toward or illuminating the bridges of from a terrorist attack.”

MAY 2008/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 15 S PEAKING O UT

A Step Toward embassy hostage crisis. Reducing Tension After all, it is the tensions among, There is no practical reason why Events like this go back and between, the regional actors in such talks, if initiated by the Bush the Middle East that are fundamen- administration, could not be con- to 1987 when the U.S. tal. Given U.S. interests and our pres- cluded early next year by its succes- ence in the area, these issues have fed sor. In any case, merely initiating was protecting Kuwaiti into and nurtured enmity between such negotiations would be a positive Washington and Tehran. A coopera- step, while success would increase oil tankers in the Persian tive venture such as a naval agree- confidence that other steps could be ment would facilitate understandings taken to reduce tension in the region Gulf toward the end of between the local players, thereby and could facilitate broader under- making the environment more stable standings that would benefit all par- the Iran-Iraq War. and secure for all. ties. U.S.-Iranian relations have been Benjamin Tua is a retired Foreign burdened for too long with a legacy Service officer who served in the for- of confrontation and misunderstand- mer Soviet Union, Israel, Japan, the ing. Talks to reduce the potential for Bureau of Political-Military Affairs additional misunderstanding and turning point in the disastrous down- and the Nuclear Risk Reduction Cen- miscalculation between our forces in ward spiral of the bilateral relation- ter, among other assignments. He is the Gulf could come to be seen as a ship since the 1979-1981 U.S. currently an independent analyst.

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16 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/MAY 2008 F OCUS ON A FRICA

A MIXED RECORD: 50 YEARS OF U.S.-AFRICA RELATIONS Clemente Botelho

THROUGH THE FIRST HALF-CENTURY OF AFRICAN INDEPENDENCE, WITH ALL ITS DISAPPOINTMENTS AND SUCCESSES, U.S. ENGAGEMENT HAS BEEN A CONSTANT.

BY HERMAN J. COHEN

oth within the Department of State and the National Security Council, 1958 was the year of Africa. The British colony of Gold Coast had already achieved independence as the Republic of Ghana a year earlier. And some 30 French, British and Belgian colonies would cross the independence threshold over the next five years. TheB United States was initially ambivalent about that prospect. True, at the United Nations General Assembly its rhetoric was Wilsonian, calling for the self-determination of colonial peoples year after year. African intellectuals heard

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this clarion call and were encouraged in their struggles for eign equals; independence. • Accept African neutrality in the Cold War; Back at Foggy Bottom, however, policymakers were • Emphasize economic development, education and much more reserved. Yes, self-determination and inde- cultural exchange; pendence were both inevitable and desirable, but time • Look first to the U.N. Security Council for stabiliza- was needed for preparation. Too rapid a process could be tion solutions; and destabilizing. • Refrain from putting U.S. military boots on the Their caution was supported by the results of a 10- ground in violent African conflicts. week tour of Africa undertaken in late 1957 by Foreign Service officer Julius Holmes, executive assistant to Engaging the Continent Secretary of State John Foster Dulles. Dulles wanted a With these principles in mind, U.S. agencies greeted firsthand analysis of prospects for post-independence the avalanche of independence events with enthusiasm Africa, and he got just that. In a memorandum dated and a variety of programs and projects. Under Secretary Feb. 6, 1958, Holmes made some dire and accurate pre- of State for Administration Loy Henderson interpreted dictions: “I foresee a long period of uncertainty, bad man- the new NSC policy directives as a mandate to establish a agement, retrogression and conflict.” This prediction U.S. embassy in every independent African country. must have jolted Dulles, one of the most vocal leaders of An American presidential aircraft, filled with political the postwar anti-colonial movement, for he had drafted personalities, was dispatched to every independence cer- most of the “self-determination” language in the 1945 emony to witness, and give legitimacy to, the midnight United Nations Charter. lowering of the colonial flag, followed by the raising of the But it was too late for second thoughts. Independence new national standard. Those were heady moments. was coming, and the U.S. had to get ready. On Aug. 20, Within a short time, Africa was swarming with U.S. 1958, the Bureau of African Affairs was established. The experts on public health, agronomy, education, water, live- National Security Council began meeting frequently to stock and public administration. The Kennedy adminis- establish policy toward Africa. President Dwight Eisen- tration built on its predecessor’s policies, establishing the hower took a strong interest in the process, personally Peace Corps in 1961, which quickly became a popular chairing several NSC meetings. presence in Africa. It is remarkable that at the height of the Cold War, The optimism was real. Primary commodities such as Eisenhower — with significant input from Vice President tropical crops and base minerals were enjoying a global Richard Nixon — enunciated the following guidelines for price boom. Ghana, Nigeria, Côte d’Ivoire and Kenya policy toward Africa, all durable and pragmatic: had higher per capita GDPs than South Korea and • Treat all independent African governments as sover- Malaysia. Not all went smoothly, however. Pres. Eisenhower’s Retired Career Ambassador Herman J. “Hank” Cohen, first national security challenge in Africa came when the who entered the Foreign Service in 1955, was a labor Belgian Congo gained its independence in June 1960. reporting officer at four African posts. He later served as This vast territory, equal in size to the U.S. east of the ambassador to Senegal and the Gambia, and was assistant Mississippi, was totally unprepared to govern itself secretary for African affairs during the George H.W. Bush (tellingly, it had only 16 university graduates). Law and administration, among many other positions. Since retir- order quickly evaporated. Warlords and tribal leaders ing from the Foreign Service in 1993, he has worked as a filled ungoverned spaces. Soviet agents began making senior adviser to the Global Coalition for Africa and wrote political deals with Marxist-leaning Congolese politicians, Intervening in Africa: Superpower Peacekeeping in a including the charismatic prime minister, Patrice Troubled Continent (St. Martin’s Palgrave, 2000). Cur- Lumumba. rently, he is a retiree member of the AFSA Governing Eisenhower vowed to prevent a Soviet takeover of this Board, teaches at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced mineral-rich country, by military means if necessary. He International Studies and does consulting work for U.S. initially requested the establishment of a NATO commit- business in Africa. tee to plan a possible armed intervention, but cooler

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heads prevailed. Washington opted for a U.N. peace evolution. For the most part, one-party democracies that enforcement intervention that turned out to be successful faced no checks, balances or countervailing power degen- in stabilizing the Congo and restoring central government erated into corrupt, rent-seeking, authoritarian systems. control. This served as a major precedent for future cases The management of thousands of state-owned enter- of state collapse in Africa. prises became a daunting challenge. Unfortunately, a very To the chagrin and outrage of left-wing political move- low priority was assigned to profitability. Payrolls were ments worldwide, Patrice Lumumba was assassinated by padded to create employment for rural Africans flocking Congolese political rivals a few months after indepen- to the cities to escape deep poverty. Government subsi- dence. For decades afterward, the CIA was accused of dies were needed to keep the enterprises afloat, thereby having orchestrated Lumumba’s demise in a Cold War- draining capital away from required investments in edu- driven covert action. The truth was revealed in 2006 cation, public health and infrastructure maintenance, all when Larry Devlin, the CIA station chief in the Congo in of which deteriorated. To make up for lost revenue, gov- 1960, published his memoir, Chief of Station, Congo: ernments took out commercial loans from Western banks, Fighting the Cold War in a Hot Zone. Devlin acknowl- secured by future commodity earnings or as simple sover- edged that he had received instructions to assassinate eign debt. Lumumba using poisoned toothpaste, but decided to do By the early 1970s, a decade after the peak of the inde- nothing. Still, although the CIA had no actual connection pendence avalanche, the U.S. had become somewhat dis- with the dirty deed, those who did it knew that the U.S. illusioned about Africa’s prospects. In particular, would not be upset. Congress was beginning to ask tough questions. What was there to show for all that assistance? Sen. Jesse Going Their Own Way Helms, R-N.C., dismissed foreign aid as “throwing one’s While the U.S. and other donors were busy contribut- money down a rat hole.” ing to African development, the newly anointed African The Nixon and Ford administrations decided to leaders were formulating their own political and eco- revamp aid to Africa, instituting a “new directions” policy nomic policies. Rejecting Western multiparty democra- that shifted the focus from channeling resources through cy because of its supposedly adversarial nature, the early governments to delivering services directly to the rural leaders opted for “one-party democracy” in keeping with poor. Maternal-child health centers, small water projects, the African village tradition of consensus-building. farm-to-market roads and livestock management pro- Under this system, the original anti-colonial nationalist grams proliferated. movement became the sole legal party, and opposition Making matters worse, between 1975 and 1980 the political parties were prohibited by law. All civil society bottom dropped out of international commodity markets. inherited from the colonial period, as well as all media The price of copper on the London Metals Exchange and cultural institutions, were also co-opted into the rul- went from $1.40/lb to $0.75 almost overnight. Zambia ing party. and Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) On the economic front, African leaders followed the suddenly found their debt burden doubled, with their advice of their European socialist mentors in France and earnings cut in half. Throughout the continent, the U.K. to take control of the commanding heights of the economies were in free fall. Government salaries were economy in order to kick-start and accelerate develop- months in arrears, small businesses went under and mal- ment. As a result, thousands of enterprises, including nutrition deepened. banks, insurance companies, construction firms, planta- It was clear by 1980 that Africa needed some tough tions, transportation and mines were legally nationalized love and some bitter medicine. The World Bank and the with appropriate compensation. International Monetary Fund offered soft loans for debt It was not immediately evident to the U.S. and the restructuring, and bridge financing for vital government donor community in the early 1960s, an era when big gov- functions. In return, African governments had to institute ernment was still popular in both Europe and America, macroeconomic reforms designed to prime the revenue but these initial African decisions turned out to be disas- pump, make exports competitive, discourage unnecessary trous — both for economic development and political imports and curb inflation.

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This policy, called “structural adjust- It was clear by 1980 By the time Ronald Reagan took of- ment,” became controversial because fice in 1981, racist minority rule in South so many belts had to be tightened, and that the continent Africa had become a significant political the heavy hand of government had to issue in the United States. Growing be loosened. But it was clear by 1990 needed some tough repression and violence against black that countries like Ghana, Mali, South African street demonstrations pro- Botswana, Uganda and Mozambique love and some voked Sunday sermons and campus that had implemented systematic eco- demonstrations throughout the U.S. In nomic and political reforms had turned bitter medicine. 1986, Congress enacted economic sanc- their economies around. Instead of tions in a stunning override of Pres. shrinking by as much as 6 percent a Reagan’s veto, reflecting the depth of year, the gross domestic product of these countries began feeling in the nation. enjoying annual growth of 2 to 4 percent, setting the Meanwhile, American conservatives had become agi- stage for an even greater effort at poverty reduction. tated by the presence in Angola of 25,000 Cuban troops and several thousand Soviet advisers, who were propping Untying the Gordian Knot up a Marxist regime against anticommunist guerillas. While the World Bank and IMF were acting as eco- Reagan persuaded Congress to authorize covert action to nomic “bad cops,” the Carter and Reagan administrations give military support to the guerrilla forces (known as focused their attention on resolving several longstanding, UNITA), led by Jonas Savimbi. At the same time, the interlocked African crises. State Department engaged with all of the parties as it In southern Africa, repressive white minority regimes mediated a “no lose” grand bargain to bring about peace in the British colony of Southern Rhodesia and the inde- in southern Africa. pendent Republic of South Africa were coming under An intensive 24-month marathon negotiation begin- increasing pressure from free Africa, and civil society ning in January 1987 brought South Africa, Angola and movements throughout the world, to allow majority rule. Cuba to the same table under the chairmanship of By 1975, both regimes were facing growing armed insur- Assistant Secretary of State for Africa Chester A. Crocker, gencies by black nationalist movements. a Republican political appointee. (Secretary of State The Carter administration worked closely with George Shultz went out on a limb by authorizing London to pressure the Rhodesian regime to negotiate American diplomats to deal directly with their Cuban with the nationalist movements, leading to the Lancaster counterparts in a special exception to the U.S. total boy- House Agreements and the emergence of the indepen- cott of the Castro regime.) The result was the December dent Republic of Zimbabwe in 1980. 1988 New York Accords that resulted in the indepen- South Africa was a tougher nut to crack because of the dence of Namibia, the departure of Cuban troops from extreme racist ideology, known by the Afrikaner term Angola, and the withdrawal of South African forces from apartheid (separation), that governed the wealthy and southern Angola. powerful two-million-strong white minority. Ending this This agreement was a triumph of U.S. diplomacy in its system, and bringing freedom to 30 million South own right. But an added benefit was the beginning of the Africans of color, was the highest and very emotional pri- end of apartheid in South Africa itself. Highly motivated ority for all independent African nations. and reassured by the fairness of the 1988 accords, a The Carter administration began its campaign to younger generation of white politicians came to power in undermine apartheid by noting that Pretoria was in vio- South Africa in 1990, overseeing an end of apartheid and lation of United Nations and World Court directives to the start of majority rule four years later. The difficult transition Southwest Africa (now Namibia) to indepen- and complex political transition in South Africa took dence, instead expressing determination to annex the ter- place during the George H.W. Bush administration, ritory. Washington drew the noose tighter by persuading which applied a steady dose of quiet mediation among the U.N. Security Council to pass a resolution demand- the negotiating parties working through the U.S. embassy ing that the colony be freed. in Pretoria.

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Looking Back at the Cold War in Africa In fact, there was very little actual tension in Africa Even before the fall of the Soviet Union, many analysts between the U.S. and the Soviets, with two exceptions: had already concluded that U.S. policy toward Africa dur- Angola and Ethiopia. In 1974-1975, these two large ing the Cold War was totally dominated by a determina- nations both experienced deep, violent instability as tion to prevent Soviet influence from gaining a major Marxist revolutionaries replaced regimes that had been foothold on the continent. Certainly, both Republican friendly to the United States. In Angola, Portuguese rule and Democratic administrations consistently invoked the collapsed in the wake of a pro-democracy coup in Lisbon, perils of Soviet communism in requesting economic and while the feudal Ethiopian regime of Emperor Haile military assistance appropriations for African nations Selassie was overthrown by radical military officers. before congressional committees. The two new Marxist regimes faced strong military Starting in the mid-1970s, human rights groups challenges. In Angola, pro-Western guerrilla groups such stepped up their criticism of American support for gross as UNITA received support from South Africa. As for human rights violators and extremely corrupt regimes in Ethiopia, the neighboring government of Somalia took Africa. Why else would the U.S. be so generous to advantage of the chaos to invade the southeastern region President Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire and President where the population is predominantly Somali. Both of Samuel Doe of Liberia, two of the most corrupt African the new regimes called upon the Cuban government for rulers, if not for their total support for U.S. anti-Soviet military assistance. Fidel Castro responded by sending policies in the U.N. and elsewhere? Weren’t the U.S. and two expeditionary outfits of 5,000 troops each to both the Soviet Union fighting a surrogate Cold War in Africa countries, effectively saving their governments from col- through their respective friends? lapse. The Soviets followed this up with substantial logis-

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tical support and a long-term commit- The 1988 New and continues to the present, though it is ment to supply military advisers and arms. now known as the African Contingency On the whole, however, the Cold War York Accords were Operations Training and Assistance pro- played a secondary role to the consistent gram. U.S. concentration on economic devel- a triumph for U.S. In the economic sector, the Clinton opment in Africa. A look at the statistics administration worked with Congress to reveals that most U.S. economic assis- diplomacy on pass the African Growth and Oppor- tance went to nonaligned African govern- tunity Act, a trade program allowing eligi- ments that refused to take sides in the several fronts. ble African countries to export products Cold War. Looking back, we have to to the U.S. duty-free with no require- remember that we were working hard to ment to reciprocate. The purpose was to keep African nations from collapse. Regrettably, impor- make African products competitive so that investors would tant issues like human rights, good governance and set up enterprises there, creating jobs and bringing in rev- democracy had to wait for better days. enue. Special American friends like Mobutu and Doe were This program quickly became popular, attracting rewarded for their support, but mainly with modest polit- investors to a dozen African countries for the production ical and military funding. It was clear that economic of apparel under contract to major U.S. retailers. development funding in these two countries was useless; However, AGOA’s overall impact was modest, and its therefore very little was given. biggest beneficiary was South Africa, which already had a In addition, many critics of U.S. policy conveniently strong industrial base, especially in automobile assembly. overlook the fact that virtually all African countries receiv- It also could not resolve the main obstacles facing ing our assistance were corrupt and authoritarian in those investors in Africa: inadequate infrastructure and the high days, each in its own way. cost of doing business there (e.g., utility pricing, unreliable services, port inefficiencies and low worker productivity). Into the 1990s A major blot on the Clinton record was his refusal to With a view to eliminating obstacles to economic allow U.N. intervention to put a stop to genocide in development, the George H.W. Bush administration con- Rwanda during the period April-June 1994, when approx- centrated its Africa policy on conflict resolution, interven- imately 800,000 ethnic Tutsis were murdered. ing diplomatically in seven civil wars —- Ethiopia, Angola, (Admittedly, this major error in judgment was due in part Mozambique, Sudan, Liberia, Somalia and Rwanda. By to the harsh criticism the administration had endured over the time Bush 41 left office in January 1993, Ethiopia and the disaster in Somalia the previous year.) To his credit, Mozambique were in post-conflict transition, thanks sub- Clinton later went to Rwanda and apologized for his fail- stantially to U.S. diplomacy. (The other five conflicts ure to intervene. raged on into the Clinton administration, which continued intensive diplomacy in the search for peace, with mixed Picking Winners results.) Bush also initiated systematic support for The George W. Bush administration has paid a surpris- democratization in Africa for the first time. ingly large amount of attention to Africa, especially consid- Bill Clinton’s presidency was notable for two major ini- ering its understandable preoccupation with the wars in tiatives in Africa, one military and one economic. Iraq and Afghanistan and the threat of worldwide Islamist Observing that African countries were bearing the major extremism. It quickly implemented a policy of selectivity, burden of supplying troops to U.N. peacekeeping and singling out African economic performers with the poten- enforcement operations on the continent, the Clinton tial to forge ahead into the 12-to-18-percent growth rates administration realized the importance of assisting them to needed for breakthrough economic development. The do so. It created the African Crisis Response Initiative to vehicle for this new policy is the Millennium Challenge train African military units at the battalion level for inter- Corporation, a semi-independent agency that selects win- vention in conflict situations at the request of the U.N. or ners of large five-year financing packages on the basis of the African Union. ACRI proved to be quite successful independently monitored political, economic and social

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criteria. It is still too early to judge the MCC’s true value strong allies of the United States in efforts to anticipate, for African development, but it is considered to be one of prevent and thwart attacks designed to exploit vulnerabil- the most creative foreign aid initiatives in a long time. ities in security and administrative capabilities. U.S. mili- The Bush administration has also introduced innovative tary trainers have expanded their programs from peace and well-financed programs designed to reduce the preva- operations to counterinsurgency in those countries imme- lence of HIV/AIDS and malaria in Africa. Although the diately south of the Sahara, where al-Qaida terrorists from President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief has gotten Algeria have started to become active. In the very dan- several million African victims into treatment, and helped gerous Horn of Africa, which is only a stone’s throw from reduce HIV prevalence in several countries, it has been the Arabian Peninsula, U.S. Special Forces are based in criticized for the significant amount of funding that has Djibouti for the purpose of preventing and interdicting been earmarked for the largely ineffective education of terrorist activity. young people to practice abstinence before marriage, as Approximately half of the Sub-Saharan African popula- well as for rules that prohibit health organizations that tion are Muslims. Although most are devout in their reli- practice abortion counseling from participating. Both poli- gion, they tend to adhere to Sufism, which stresses toler- cies are considered to be counterproductive and wasteful. ance of non-Muslims, a less restrictive attitude toward Nevertheless, this unprecedented program has been both women, and the separation of religion and politics. Their popular and effective in Africa, and condom distribution fear of the extremist variety of Islam has created a favor- has been substantial, notwithstanding all other policies. able environment for enhanced U.S.-Africa counterterror- As far as Islamic extremism and associated terrorist ism cooperation in both military and non-military sectors, threats are concerned, African governments have become such as money laundering and commodity smuggling.

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To capitalize on this opening, the Bush administration administration’s virtual helplessness in the face of the mas- has created the Africa Command to focus exclusively on sive atrocities being committed in the Sudanese province the continent. However, AFRICOM will not become of Darfur during his second term certainly tarnishes his fully operational until Oct. 1 and, for now, its headquarters record, but does not substantially diminish it. The entire will remain in Stuttgart, Germany. international community must bear collective guilt over its Some innovative aspects of AFRICOM include a co- failure to intervene meaningfully there. deputy commander position, reserved for a senior FSO (currently Ambassador Mary Yates) responsible for civic Staying Engaged action, and a “zero option” policy that emphasizes the pre- Fifty years after the establishment of the Bureau of vention of conflict as the best guarantor of stability. African Affairs, the United States continues to be heavily The excessive hype by the Pentagon surrounding the engaged in Africa. This is remarkable considering the initial announcement of this initiative caused some many disappointments the U.S. and other international African leaders, as well as quite a few officers in State’s donors have experienced, including the failures of so and USAID’s Africa Bureaus, to express concern about many of their initiatives designed to spur economic the potential for the militarization of U.S. policy. Some of growth and to end conflicts. Africa’s propensity for them cited the total focus on the terrorist threat in snatching defeat out of the hands of victory, especially in Somalia’s renewal of civil war in 2006 as evidence that former success stories like Côte d’Ivoire, Zimbabwe and, Washington was beginning to lose interest in promoting lately, Kenya, has been particularly depressing. reconciliation and democracy. Pres. Bush tried to lay this Yet Republican and Democratic administrations alike concern to rest during his February visit to five African have persisted in the belief that African nations are capa- nations by declaring that the U.S. was not planning to ble of self-sustaining economic growth, given the right mix establish a permanent military presence anywhere on the of internal reforms and foreign aid. At the present time, continent, and would continue to emphasize economic African countries are playing an increasingly important development. role as suppliers of primary commodities to an expanding A cynical view of Bush’s one-week trip to Africa global economy. It may not be long before a half-dozen would say that Africa is the only part of the world where or so of them take advantage of today’s favorable markets he could find a little affection in his last year in office. to achieve an Asian-style economic breakthrough by Indeed, Bush was sincerely and highly acclaimed by implementing the right policies, as Ghana and Tanzania both the leadership and populations of the countries he have done. visited. The warm welcome reflected the personal Like everyone else in the world, Africans are following attention that he has paid to the formulation of Africa the 2008 U.S. presidential election process with great policy, as well as the many creative initiatives emanating interest. The candidacy of Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., from Washington during his eight years in office. who has paternal family links to western Kenya, has cer- There was the very intensive and successful U.S. tainly created a special focus of interest on the continent. effort to bring about the comprehensive peace agree- If he turns out to be our next president, African expecta- ment between the government of Sudan and the tions of closer ties will likely grow exponentially. For his Southern People’s Liberation Movement during Bush’s part, Obama has not been reluctant, as during his recent first term. He also launched a new initiative on debt trip to Africa, to talk tough about corruption and anti- relief, including the adoption of a new policy increasing democratic practices. the grant content of World Bank lending to Africa’s poor- Whoever moves into the White House in 2009 will est nations. Bush’s efforts to promote democracy and continue to balance U.S. interests in Africa as a source of market-based economic growth were showcased in oil and other important commodities, and our worldwide Benin, Tanzania and Ghana, while his stopover in efforts to combat terrorism and corruption, rigged elec- Liberia reminded everyone that it was he who gave the tions, the absence of transparency, and the continuation of monster Charles Taylor the ultimatum to get out and stay human rights abuses in too many parts of the continent. out. American tolerance of continued African leadership fail- Against the panoply of all the positive news, the Bush ures is likely to decrease considerably, as well.

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IMPLEMENTING AFRICOM: TREAD CAREFULLY Clemente Botelho

THE AFRICA COMMAND REPRESENTS A REORIENTATION THAT WILL PROBABLY WORK WELL FOR US, BUT CONFUSE LOCAL GOVERNMENTS.

BY ROBERT E. GRIBBIN

n Oct. 1, 2007, the United States Africa Command was established as a sub-unified mil- itary command, still subordinate to the European Command, which covers most of Africa. (The Central Command is responsible for U.S. military relations with the Horn, Egypt, Sudan and Kenya, while the Pacific Command covers activ- ities in theO Indian Ocean islands.) Headquartered in Stuttgart, Germany, AFRICOM will become fully responsible for U.S. military relations with all 53 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa by the end of the current fiscal year (Sept. 30, 2008).

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The command is led by General William E. Ward, whose terrorism and much of the global variety does have Islamic deputies are Ambassador Mary Carlin Yates (an FSO) and connections. We want the world’s oil supplies to be secure Admiral Robert T. Moeller. The FY 2008 transition-year and we do criticize autocratic regimes, especially those like budget is $75 million; $392 million has been requested for Robert Mugabe’s in Zimbabwe that egregiously abuse the FY 2009. rights of their people. The rationale for the new command is that it will improve the U.S. military focus on the continent and Reaching Out to African Militaries enhance American interagency support for the develop- Shibboleths aside, it is worth examining the premise ment of African military establishments. AFRICOM’s that African military establishments merit American sup- mission is to build local capacity so that African states can port at all. Even though national defense is regularly cited manage their own security issues. It is also intended to as their primary task, African armies rarely need to repel stimulate professionalization, enhance civilian control and foreign invaders. Most African conflicts — e.g., Sudan, inculcate respect for human rights. Chad, the Central African Republic, Cote d’Ivoire, While many African governments embrace the idea of Burundi, Liberia and Sierra Leone — arise from domes- more attention to their military needs, they are concerned tic issues. Only the unresolved Ethiopia-Eritrea border about possible great-power militarization of the continent. war, the recent Congolese wars and the Ethiopian pres- And they are apprehensive about the perception (as much ence in Somalia fit the mode of external aggression. as the reality) of undermining continental neutrality So instead of defense, the primary job of African enshrined in the charter of the African Union (formerly armies is to protect the ruling regime by keeping the life the Organization of African Unity). Others are generally president in power (by informal count some 15 current doubtful about of America’s intentions. leaders initially came to power via military means) and to Even though the Bush administration has articulated a thwart threats to the status quo mounted by the opposi- credible explanation for the evolution to the new com- tion, democratic or otherwise. To this end, militaries or mand, many observers — at home and abroad — remain special units thereof become tribal fiefdoms loyal to the skeptical. Details are scarce about how AFRICOM’s civil president and dedicated to his well-being. and economic objectives will be pursued. President John Yet history shows that this sort of Praetorian Guard has Kufor of Ghana, for example, seized the occasion of Presi- had mixed results in protecting the incumbent. Many, if dent George W. Bush’s recent stop to ask point-blank not most, coups were organized by those closest to the about U.S. intentions. Clearly, concerns arising from our president. The list of chiefs of staff who staged them is military posture in Iraq and Afghanistan have provided lengthy: Amin, Bokassa, Kolingba, Deby, Buyoya, Baga- fodder to critics. They variously decry the initiative as rep- za, Habyarimana, Barre, Mobutu, Ironsi, Obasanjo, Ba- resenting the extension of a global war on Islam, a prepara- bangida, Eyadema, Kountche, Bashir and more. tion to annex African oil fields, and U.S. military interfer- Perhaps recognizing this fact of political life, many ence in politics, including the threat of regime change for presidents — including military men — have been only nations that run afoul of Washington’s capricious whims. reluctant supporters of the national army. This hesitancy, Such conclusions are balderdash, to be blunt, but they reinforced by the impecunity of most states and the fact of do contain kernels of truth. American policy does combat underdevelopment, has kept African military establish- ments in the last rank. Even so, there is great diversity Retired Ambassador Robert Gribbin spent many years in across the continent. Some are a mere hodgepodge of ill- Africa posted to the Central African Republic, Rwanda, equipped, untrained thugs who are more of a threat to Kenya and Uganda. He also served on delegations to the society than an asset (e.g., the Democratic Republic of the United Nations General Assembly and the U.N. Human Congo, Chad, Sudan). Others are a repository of political Rights Commission. Since retiring from the Foreign Ser- support for a regime, either because of ethnic affiliation or vice, he has undertaken When Actually Employed assign- because of largess handed out to military leaders (Nigeria, ments to Liberia, DRC, Djibouti, Ghana, Chad, Burundi, Gabon). In some countries, army personnel are political- Mauritius and Nigeria. He is the author of In the After- ly astute revolutionary fighters who learned their craft math of Genocide: The U.S. Role in Rwanda (2005). prior to becoming part of the ruling apparatus (Rwanda,

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Eritrea). And a few military establishments are impartial, lishments. In contrast to earlier years when revolutionary professional and fairly competent, with limited objectives ideology constituted the basis for China’s military cooper- and responsibilities (South Africa, Botswana, Senegal). ation with countries such as Tanzania, Zambia, Namibia In any case, almost all African institutions suffer from a and Zimbabwe, today Beijing is pushing a full range of lack of resources and equipment. Their leadership struc- military assets, weaponry and aircraft to all buyers. At ture is often internally incoherent and subject to political least in part, this broader approach reflects Beijing’s per- interference. Still, compared with other national institu- ception that Africa constitutes a growing market, as well as tions in most of these countries, the military is well orga- a source of sympathetic partners. nized and adequately funded. Few nations have the Washington continues to provide training and some wherewithal to operate tanks or fly jet aircraft, but they equipment, such as basic troop kits, communications gear regularly cough up salaries for the troops. The challenge is and night-vision devices, but little in the way of sophisti- sorting out the regime-maintenance function and the bru- cated weapons systems. Such limited access to the tality that occasionally accompanies that from other African military market is unlikely to change, for our offer- defense responsibilities, and then judging when and where ings are simply too complex, expensive and unsuitable for to draw the line regarding militaries that merit support. the main tasks confronting the continent’s armed forces. Over the years, former colonial powers like Britain, France and Belgium, as well as the U.S. and Russia dur- Hard Calls ing the Cold War, and now China have sought to mod- So what can we do? On a case-by-case basis, we ernize and professionalize African militaries, with the aim already evaluate each country’s military forces and offer of turning them into smaller replicas of their own estab- the sort of help we deem realistic for its situation. This

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ranges from zero assistance for the AFRICOM’s mission is and up to a hundred or more intera- abusive, nondemocratic regimes, gency personnel. If nothing else, this through various types of individual or to build local capacity demonstrates a clear intent to develop unit training for the less egregious programs that focus on humanitarian ones, to communications gear, elec- so that African states and development issues. tronic equipment, transportation Some American advocates of pay- assets and a full range of support for can manage their own ing more attention to Africa, particu- peacekeeping units run by more larly in the NGO community, dismiss respectable nations. Such aid is pred- security issues. AFRICOM as a ruse to do that with- icated on a political assessment that out really providing more resources. it supports rather than contradicts broader U.S. policy in But it is a near-certainty that once the command is in support of democracy, development and respect for place, more resources will flow to it. Pentagon cynics human rights. would add that one more four-star billet and all the The nexus of two competing objectives is where the accompanying support translates into more opportunities hard calls arise. For example, an African nation’s commit- for advancement. ment to counterterrorism might entice U.S. policymakers to seek closer ties to further such activism. However, Do Something Dramatic! recognition that the forces in question are blatant abusers U.S. spokesmen have said that the new command will of the rights of a struggling democratic opposition ought be oriented toward humanitarian issues and military to dampen the prospects for American support. Which improvements. It will respond to catastrophes, help build side do we want to be on in such cases? competent national militaries, sustain nascent regional The current crises in Chad and Kenya pose policy ques- organizations, support economic development and politi- tions that might be answered differently in a robust AFRI- cal democracy. COM era. We have not meddled in Chad (leave it to the What appears to be missing in all the hoopla is an French!), but would we do so if we were focusing greater unequivocal response to Africa’s pressing security needs: attention on its army? And in Kenya, except for one brief the elimination of warlords, reduction of ethnic strife, foray into Naivasha, the army has thus far stayed in the bar- achievement of internal peace and creation of a safer racks — in part because it, too, is riven by tribal divisions, regional neighborhood. More tangible support for the so any deployment might well result in internecine vio- continent’s armed forces, including training and some lence. While we can applaud this restraint, it raises the equipment, is indeed desirable, both for its own sake and question: What use is a national military in such a crisis? to facilitate effective participation in African peacekeeping And what is the value of our investment in training it? operations — to wit: Sudan, Somalia, Liberia and the Both situations certainly fall under the rubric of main- Democratic Republic of the Congo. But while this is a taining continental security, one of AFRICOM’s stated laudable objective, the U.S. contribution has a long lead objectives. Yet it is hard to see how any direct U.S. time, leaving dangerous situations to fester. Why not move involvement, via our military or theirs, could be produc- faster? tive in resolving these crises. Although U.S. policy es- Three opportunities come to mind. Fortunately, the chews direct military involvement in such situations, first is already under way: using the U.S. Navy to combat American attacks against purported terrorist elements in piracy in the Red Sea and off the Horn of Africa. A broad- Somalia, for example, suggest a likelihood that we would er effort to patrol the sea lanes off West Africa in order to use those assets if we had them available. halt illegal oil bunkering would be similarly aimed at It is important to keep in mind that DOD and State restoring the rule of law. Clearly, this would entail enlist- intend AFRICOM to be different from other combatant ing the support of littoral states. commands (e.g., EUCOM, CENTCOM and PACOM). The most dramatic initiative would be the provision of It has still-undefined responsibilities and tasks beyond the U.S. helicopters to UNAMIS, the United Nations peace- purely military sphere. For example, staffing plans call for keeping operation in Sudan. The U.N. is seeking a an FSO as lead deputy (Amb. Yates is already in place) squadron of several dozen choppers, most for lift, as well

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as several gunships. Efforts to find helicopters have so far new Africa Command does not anticipate stationing any come up empty, posing the risk that the whole operation additional combat personnel on the continent or setting will be scuttled. up other bases, there should be no other exceptions to Offering up such support would indeed reinforce our chief-of-mission authority. intent to help Africa. But howls and arguments against As an aside, let me note that Africa Contingency the idea would be loud: we cannot bleed Iraq for Sudan; Operations Training Assistance, the program that pro- the U.S. should never participate in U.N. peacekeeping vides training and equipment to African units scheduled operations; Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir would for deployment as multilateral peacekeepers, will not — never accept American forces. Undoubtedly, these are at least initially — become an AFRICOM responsibility. legitimate issues, but if AFRICOM wants to respond to ACOTA (formerly known as the African Crisis Response security needs in Africa, no better task awaits. The mere Initiative) is America’s most successful and useful military willingness to fight the policy battle within the U.S. gov- program in Africa, one that has helped prepare contin- ernment, and with the U.N. and Sudan, to implement gents from Nigeria, Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi, Ghana such assistance would show solid commitment to Africa and other countries for service in Darfur, Somalia, Liberia and underscore the legitimacy of the new command. and the Congo. ACOTA is funded via the peacekeeping account administered by the State Department, and State Ambassadorial Responsibility does not intend to relinquish control. From the State Department perspective, we need not fear AFRICOM’s advent. Not only does it have positive Where to Set Up Shop? elements that should advance U.S. interests in various Various soundings around the continent have shown African nations, but seconding FSOs to the command will that the time is not ripe for the establishment of a large help ensure that DOD has broader thematic perspectives. military headquarters in Africa. The issue is apparently However, AFRICOM does pose some issues that, if not too emotional and too tied up in the uncertainties of what sorted out early, might become irksome. AFRICOM is all about. Logistics issues also constrain a Existing chief-of-mission authority is adequate for move. Whenever a relocation from Germany is approved, AFRICOM, so long as serving and future ambassadors facilities for it will have to be built from the ground up. exercise their responsibilities pursuant to the presidential Only Liberia, perhaps understanding the positive eco- letter of authority and under National Security Decision nomic impact of such an installation, has stepped forward Directive 38, and the military components follow their to seek emplacement of the headquarters on its soil. own chain of command. In short, the ambassador has Even though the headquarters will remain in Germany absolute authority over personnel and operations in his or for now, AFRICOM anticipates standing up three or four her country of assignment. We should think about and sub-headquarters around the continent to get at least some treat non-resident AFRICOM personnel exactly as we did personnel into the theater of operations. About 30 per- previous command elements. sonnel on standard tours of duty would be assigned to each All visitors, military and civilian, will still require coun- unit. Although locales have yet to be determined, logical- try clearances. All programs, whether involving exercises ly they would correspond to the geographic regions of (JCET), training (IMET and ACOTA), sales (FMS) or Africa. Djibouti already takes care of East Africa, but sites counterterrorism (TSCTP), are subject to ambassadorial will still be needed in the west (Ghana or Liberia are lead- approval. The only exception is the forces of the ing candidates), the south (probably Botswana) and the Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa, some 1,500 north (Tunisia or Morocco) — although this idea has less troops stationed at Camp Lemonier, Djibouti, who cur- traction. While the structure will be important for the rently fall under the operational control of CENTCOM countries concerned, what is most crucial from an intera- (but will eventually shift to AFRICOM). In accordance gency perspective will be the interaction between the with existing practice, such combat elements enjoy a sep- regional headquarters elements and the host embassy. arate chain of command, but their in-country, non-combat Note that such regional offices will be a new global ele- activities — drilling wells in Djibouti, for example — all ment to be invented in Africa. The sub-commands of remain subject to ambassadorial oversight. Because the other combatant commands — Diego Garcia, Okinawa,

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Korea, etc. — include operational forces that are exempt- An augmented in-country military presence also raises ed from chief-of-mission authority. thorny operational issues like communications. Initially, On the whole, we should consider such offices similar AFRICOM offices can utilize existing embassy networks, to USAID’s Regional Economic Development Services but they will soon want their own separate systems. How Offices: i.e., they and their personnel fall under COM can this be accommodated? Similarly, AFRICOM will authority. Thus, when they operate in a particular coun- want its own security force, which will affect the embassy’s try, the U.S. ambassador there is in charge. And when regional security office. Who will do the hiring? How will they travel regionally, they come under the purview of the State and DOD practices be melded? Will there be mil- ambassador to each nation being visited. itary police alongside Marine security guard detach- It is worth noting that both USAID and DOD already ments? And then there is the question of weapons, an deal separately with African regional organizations, such operational issue related to force protection in the wake of as the Southern African Development Community or the terrorist threats. Which members of the country team can Economic Community of West African States. But what bear arms and under what circumstances? if ECOWAS wants to conduct a military exercise in Togo Then we come to responsibilities for reporting, intel- with U.S. input, with the planning, logistical support, etc. ligence collection and analysis. Most ambassadors have coming from its headquarters in Abuja? Which ambas- existing understandings with defense attachés as to sador has authority? The answer is both, but this will which DAO messages need clearance by the political- require coordination on the U.S. side. Such multilateral economic section and the front office. But a larger mil- coordination will loom even larger and become more itary element at post will necessarily intrude upon such complex as AFRICOM expands its cooperation with the understandings. It will be incumbent upon the ambas- African Union. sador and the AFRICOM chief to work out these para- meters. To ensure consistency, written guidelines Practical Constraints should be developed. According to Pentagon sources, each AFRICOM regional office should consist of about 30 personnel; some Striking a Balance uniformed, some not. These staffers will need a lot of With the Africa Command’s advent, turf issues will office space that is clearly not available inside any existing intensify — and not just in the countries hosting those embassy. Thus, pending expansion of chancelleries or personnel. Already, U.S. military resources and projects building annexes, facilities will have to be leased. These are crossing ministerial lines across the continent. While personnel and their families will also need substantial the key local client for AFRICOM remains the ministry of administrative support: housing, health care, shipping, defense, U.S. military resources already go toward pro- transportation, contracting, cashiering and educational jects in various civilian ministries, including water devel- opportunities for dependents. Virtually all these services opment, women’s affairs, health, interior and aviation. will place an immense burden on receiving embassies. Undertakings include a full gamut of activities ranging Although many AFRICOM personnel might be assigned from humanitarian succor and HIV/AIDS prevention to on a TDY basis initially, the required logistical support democracy promotion and public diplomacy. package is just as intimidating as for those on longer tours, Obviously, military programming risks duplication except perhaps for housing. where USAID, the Centers for Disease Control, Peace While all concerned will do their utmost to make this Corps Volunteers and others are already engaged. That work, it won’t be easy. A key principle at stake is equity: said, host governments are quick to realize where the keeping the playing field level so that no one gets more, money is, so they will increasingly address their requests better or different services at post than anyone else. The to U.S. military elements. new influx of staff — particularly military personnel who The proposed structure of AFRICOM responds to this are accustomed to a global standard of support — will reality. Although the number and type of interagency bil- challenge that approach, but adherence to that principle lets has yet to be finalized, it is clear that the command will will be key to making AFRICOM offices and personnel have a significant civilian element, including experts in part of the country team. economic development and complex humanitarian emer-

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gencies. But the U.S. already does a pretty competent entity will undoubtedly focus on institutionalizing pro- job of economic development and humanitarian relief. grams. This augurs well for a more consistent partner- What additional benefits — besides money — can the ship with the continent, but how it evolves remains to be new command bring to those tasks? seen. Initially, AFRICOM wants several dozen FSOs for a I suspect that African governments will adjust to range of political/military and economic jobs. Although progress and that press-stoked fears of U.S. hegemony such assignments would certainly reinforce the intera- will diminish. However, the temptation on the Ameri- gency character of the new command, it is unlikely that can side to do too much is real. Even a small AFRICOM the Department of State can spare many personnel for looms large compared to host-country military establish- such excursion tours in light of service demands for Iraq. ments. Washington policymakers, as well as ambassadors in Furthermore, the command’s initial resources will the field, need to decide how much militarization of dwarf a number of national budgets. We should bear in non-military assistance is wise and ensure that such mind the fact that Africa’s absorptive capacity is limited undertakings are properly vetted. Such discussions will and, as noted above, few of its leaders really want com- become increasingly important when (not if) AFRICOM petent generals commanding capable forces. gets more resources to play with. To misquote Teddy Roosevelt, we don’t need a big In conclusion, the Africa command represents a re- stick in Africa, but we do need to tread carefully. orientation of American bureaucratic responsibilities Although Washington (as usual) will have the ultimate that will probably work well for us, but confuse local gov- say, it will be up to U.S. ambassadors in the field to guide ernments. Having nothing else to distract it, the new all these new boots into careful paths.

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REFLECTING ON NAIROBI: THE AFRICA BOMBINGS AND THE AGE OF TERROR Clemente Botelho

A SURVIVOR REVISITS THE 1998 BOMBINGS OF THE AMERICAN EMBASSIES IN KENYA AND TANZANIA AND PONDERS WHAT WE HAVE LEARNED.

BY JOANNE GRADY HUSKEY

he bombing of the American embassy in Nairobi happened 10 years ago. It has taken that long to lessen the pain enough to allow myself to think about the significance of what happened on that morning in August 1998. I supposeT Mohammed Rashed Daoud al-Owhali was told that if he offered his life to Allah there would be untold rewards waiting for him in heaven. Whether it was that promise or the desire to be part of the jihad that motivated him,

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we will never know. Certainly he had dedicated his life to doctor for a school physical. Afterwards we were going to this version of Islam. In 1996 he had trained in explosives meet Jim for lunch. We were all dressed up. I remember in Afghanistan, where he met Osama bin Laden. In 1998, Christopher wore his blue blazer and khaki shorts; I wore when bin Laden issued his fatwa to kill Americans any- a pink silk sheath and a blue blazer; and Caroline had on where in the world, Ohwali asked for a mission. a little red smock dress with red sandals and white ankle When he was selected by al-Qaida to be the one to socks. We wanted the day to be special for our family. deliver the bomb in Nairobi, he enthusiastically accepted Driving into the city, I learned that the children had the responsibility with his distorted sense of honor. He hidden our little cocker spaniel, Jingle Bells, in the car to willingly entered into a covenant to kill Americans. I surprise their daddy. I had to turn around and drive often wonder how many times he drove by the U.S. Jingles back home, explaining to the children that dogs embassy in downtown Nairobi, or walked around it to were not welcome at the embassy, and then set out again. check out the entrances and exits and plan his attack. Did By the time we arrived at the embassy, we were late for anyone ever notice him studying the building? our appointment. We pulled into the parking lot behind I was in Kenya because my husband, Jim, was assigned the embassy at precisely 10:33 a.m., and parked next to an to the embassy as a political officer. We had been in the unfamiliar truck covered with canvas, with two men sitting Foreign Service for close to a decade by that time, having in the front seat. I didn’t pay much attention to them, served in Beijing and Madras (now Chennai) before com- though I did notice that there weren’t many other cars in ing to Nairobi in 1996. We were there to represent our the back parking lot that day. country, and because we both believe in and love the Perhaps Owhali watched as we walked past his truck. international life. We enjoy getting to know other cultures He saw my little red-haired daughter in her red dress and and people from different backgrounds and histories. We my son all dressed up, scampering excitedly to see their believe in the power of personal diplomacy. Moreover, we father. He saw me animatedly chatting with the guard at want our children — “made in China” and raised in India the back gate as he let us in. Was Owhali swearing under — to experience and understand the world. his breath that we were intruding on his plans? Did it Although Jim represented the United States in his role bother him that we were going into the very building he as diplomat, I had many differences with the way my was about to blow up? Did it even cross his mind that he country conducted its foreign policy. I was often critical was planning to kill us? Or perhaps he was saying his last of what our government did, like many Americans. prayers before he committed suicide and did not even notice us. Even if he had, I suspect we were only an image in his mind, not real human beings — just repre- On the morning of Aug. 7, 1998, after we’d been in sentations of the American “hegemonic evil empire.” Nairobi for two years, I went downtown with our two chil- While I was entering the building and walking my chil- dren, Caroline (5) and Christopher (8), to see the embassy dren down the long corridor into the embassy medical unit in the basement, Owhali was demanding that the Joanne Grady Huskey is a Foreign Service family member embassy guard let his truck into the compound, through who has been posted with her husband and children to the gate we had just entered on foot. The guard Beijing, Madras, Nairobi and Taipei, where she currently adamantly refused — even when threatened. As I hand- resides. ed the school physical forms and the children’s shot A cross-cultural trainer and international educator, Ms. records to the embassy nurse, Owhali threw a stun Huskey founded Global Adjustments in India, a relocation grenade at the guard to scare him off. company that specializes in cross-cultural training. She is also a co-founder of the American International School in Chennai and a former international director of Very “What was that loud noise?” I asked the nurse. Special Arts International at the John F. Kennedy Center. “Probably a bus has blown out its tires in front of the She has published articles in Newsweek, the Washington embassy,” she surmised. Post, State magazine, the Foreign Service Journal, and As Christopher and Caroline were building a Lego Centered on Taipei. tower on the floor in the doctor’s office, fear must have

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seized Ohwali. Things were not going Ten years after the bombing, and with other victims and according to his plan, and he fled in their families. We watched as the four panic. Seconds later, Owhali’s col- bombings in Nairobi men charged with bombing the league in the truck, known only as embassies in Nairobi and Dar es “Azzam,” gave up on getting into the and Dar es Salaam, Salaam filed into the courtroom. embassy basement and pushed the Owhali looked right at me, but only remote detonator button. The bomb what have we learned? for a second. His gaze was blank. I exploded in the parking lot a few feet remember thinking what slight, pas- from our car. sive-looking little men they all were. I was thrown to the floor in pitch darkness. As I was How could they hate so vehemently and indiscriminately? trying to figure out what had happened, searching franti- As we listened to the testimony connecting Osama bin cally for my children, Owhali was running away as fast as Laden to terrorist incidents going back to the 1993 bomb- he could from the building he had helped destroy and the ing of the World Trade Center, Owhali sat comfortably, people he had helped kill. While I crawled through the enjoying the full benefits of the American legal system. rubble in the darkened embassy holding tightly to my chil- That evening, when I went to stay in the Marriott Hotel dren’s little hands, desperately searching for a way on the lower floors of the World Trade Center, he went through the chaos, down the long basement corridor and back to his cell. an escape from the devastated embassy, he passed hun- Six months later, in September, during the week the dreds of shocked people, many injured, all looking in hor- World Trade Center was obliterated, he would be sen- ror at the burning building. As he ran past Kenyans whose tenced to life in prison. When Owhali went to jail, was he lives had been thrown into turmoil, did it occur to him laughing, as I and other Americans lit candles and that he had helped kill many of them? mourned our dead? Of the dead, 212 were Kenyans and 12 were Americans. In the days that followed, while I helped orga- nize the American Women’s Association Relief Fund and Ten years after the bombings in Nairobi and Dar es worked with many Kenyan victims of the bombing, Salaam, what have we learned? Although he had been Owhali was cowering in hiding. Though he had hoped to ready to die as a martyr, Owhali sits in a maximum-secu- destroy us, we — Americans and Kenyans — took care of rity prison for life, while my family is serving at yet anoth- each other, re-established a functioning embassy, set up er overseas diplomatic post. Does Owhali feel any blood banks, located bodies in morgues, attended memo- remorse for the horror he created, or would he do it rial services, and buried our friends and family members. again? As the families that lived through the bombings Even before he was arrested in Nairobi, we were already try to heal and forget, do we have any understanding of mobilizing funds for the rehabilitation of Kenyans injured why it happened? Has there been any progress toward a in the bombing and getting to know them as friends unit- peaceful solution? Has there been productive dialogue ed in grief. between leaders and diplomats from our respective cul- tures, or are we stuck in a “clash of civilizations” and a spi- raling of endless violence? I met Owhali again two years later, but only briefly. Ironic and frightening as it may seem, our only hope is Kenyan authorities had turned him over to America to be many more honest, nonviolent meetings between cul- tried for the bombing. In March 2001, I was invited, as a tures — not accidental, but purposeful encounters victim, to witness the trial — United States v. Osama bin between human beings who see and hear one another and Laden, et al., held at the U. S. Department of Justice try to understand, although our perspectives may be as building in the Southern District of New York City. different as night and day. Otherwise, this insanity will Owhali had not only admitted his guilt, but had boasted continue. The African bombings will be nothing more about driving the truck into the embassy compound. than two more horrific incidents among hundreds of oth- I sat in the gallery with Sue Bartley, who had lost both ers, and the suffering in Kenya and Tanzania will have her husband, Julian, and her 19-year-old son, Jay, in the been for naught.

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LESSONS LEARNED 10 YEARS LATER Interview with Prudence Bushnell, former U.S. ambassador to Kenya JGH: For the last 10 years you have been speaking around the ground and could show empathy, weep at funerals, help orphans, country about your experiences as the ambassador in Nairobi at the shake hands with mutilated teenagers, and provide rehabilitation time of the embassy bombing. What has been your main message? assistance helped validate what the Kenyans had gone through. PB: I talk about leadership during times of crisis, based not only on what I learned after the bombing of the embassy in Nairobi, but JGH: There seems to be such a fine line between the incredible what the community taught me as it responded to what had hap- need for personal diplomacy and the safety of Foreign Service offi- pened. The foreign affairs community, both the American and locally cers. How can it be defined? employed members, were a group of professionals who, despite the PB: It comes down to defining what we, as a country, stand for. fact that they had just been blown up, picked themselves up, set their I have not seen that defined either by the current administration or by objectives and rebuilt everything from the bottom up. I put my own our presidential candidates. The lack of an articulation of the values needs on hold to make myself worthy of the community I was lead- on which we base our foreign policy makes it difficult to rationalize ing. I, too, was a victim, and having empathy for what others were decisions, including the security risks. I do not think that fighting ter- experiencing was critical to me as a leader. rorists is a value; it may be an imperative, but that is different. If it is a world at peace we are seeking, then we would likely be creating a JGH: Do you think the State Department has become better at different range of policies and strategies. For example, if the U.S. helping people cope with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder since seriously articulated the value of peace in the world, we could create 1998? a range of strategies to have diplomats promote peacemakers, rather PB: I noted a lot of anger at the town meeting that Director than relying so heavily on our military to train warriors, as we are General Harry Thomas hosted last October. I think it comes in part doing now. Without a definition of what we stand for as a country, it from a need for validation from department leadership for what is hard to create coherent policies or correctly balance the need for employees are experiencing. In the case of Nairobi, no one in a lead- safety and outreach in a way people can understand. ership position ever said to us, “I am sorry for what you all have gone through.” There is still a belief in the department that if you reward JGH: Have we learned anything, as a country or as a State people who have been through danger and trauma with a good Department, in the decade since the bombing? onward assignment, you have taken care of them. Most people need PB: As an organization, we have learned a lot. I think Aug. 7, more validation of their experience and their response to it, whatever 1998, was the State Department’s 9/11. I know that ambassadors that may be. This is the foundation of reconciliation. and employees are far less likely to complain about security restric- tions. One of the differences that the East Africa bombings created was JGH: What is the reason that our relations with Kenya remain a shift in attitude about the responsibility of department leadership — strong, despite the trauma of the bombing and the fact that so many from the idea that our leadership doesn’t owe us anything because we Kenyans died? choose to be at a post, to: By God, they do owe us something because PB: Our relations were shaken after the bombing because so we have seen colleagues die and we could die, too. many Kenyans were angry at the overwhelming death and devasta- As a country, unfortunately, we didn’t really pay any attention to tion. But almost all of the American community stayed, met with the bombings in East Africa. That changed, of course, on Sept. 11, Kenyans and faced their anger. I think the fact that we were on the 2001.

The Dalai Lama has expressed it eloquently: “Amid Secretary of Defense Robert Gates put it this way our perceived differences, we tend to forget how the while speaking last November at Kansas State University: world’s different religions, ideologies and political sys- “We must focus our energies beyond the guns and steel of tems were meant to serve humans, not to destroy them. the military. We must focus our energies on the other ele- Today, more than ever, we need to make a fundamental ments of national power that will be so crucial in the years recognition of the basic oneness of humanity the foun- to come. The military is no replacement for civilian dation of our perspective on the world and its chal- involvement and expertise. Where civilians are on the lenges.” ground, even in small numbers, we have seen tangible and We must demand more and better diplomatic efforts often dramatic changes.” from all government leaders, and we must ask our reli- How should we mark the tenth anniversary of the gious leaders to lead us out of this morass. Most impor- embassy bombings in Africa? We need to renew hope tant, we must individually take on this universal responsi- and each make efforts at global understanding the goal for bility to promote dialogue and understanding at every this next decade, if we want to survive until the twentieth level, publicly and privately. anniversary of the East Africa attacks.

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THE AFRICA BUREAU’S INTELLECTUAL GODFATHERS

THOUGH THEY REPRESENTED VERY DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES, RALPH BUNCHE AND RICHARD NIXON HELPED MAKE AF A REALITY 50 YEARS AGO.

BY GREGORY L. GARLAND

he Eisenhower administra- tinent for decades to come. tion’s creation of the Bureau of African Affairs half a cen- Interestingly, both men hailed from early 20th-centu- tury ago signaled a bold step away from what had been a ry Southern California, a kind of post-frontier open soci- Eurocentric,T quasi-colonial policy view of Africa. Far ety far from the racial castes of the Jim Crow South and from being a decision made in a bureaucratic vacuum, the class tensions of the industrial North. Both rose from AF’s birth resulted from the interplay of three of the humble backgrounds with the aid of academic scholar- great forces of the mid-20th century: the civil rights ships to college. And both considered themselves movement, the Cold War and decolonization. Californians first and last, even as they bucked the west- Ralph Johnson Bunche (1903-1971) and Richard ward national migratory trend by living out much of their Milhous Nixon (1913-1994) personified these forces and, adult lives in the New York City metropolitan area. in a very important sense, are the intellectual godfathers of AF. These towering and very different men of the A Professional Africanist … mid-20th century embodied the many, often contradic- By the 1940s, Ralph Bunche had established himself tory threads of U.S. policy toward Africa. Their paths as a pre-eminent political scientist, a Harvard Ph.D.- rarely crossed, but the power of the ideas and interests holder who built up from scratch an African studies pro- they personified to a large extent determined and help gram at Howard University in Washington, D.C. He explain the course of America’s relationship with the con- grasped acutely the intimate connection between institu- tionalized racism in the U.S. and colonialism in Africa. Gregory L. Garland has been chief for press and public “As African-Americans,” he wrote, “we are not permitted affairs of the Africa Bureau’s Office of Public Diplo- to share in the full fruits of democracy, but we are given macy and Public Affairs since September 2006. A career some of the peelings from the fruit.” Foreign Service officer with 20 years of experience in the This professional Africanist had a far broader outlook, U.S. Information Agency, the Board for International however. In 1941, he joined Swedish sociologist Gunnar Broadcasting and the State Department, he has served in Myrdal’s team as it conducted a Carnegie Endowment- Maputo, Tijuana, Luanda, Conakry, Warsaw, Mexico funded study of American race relations. Bunche wrote City and Washington, D.C. much of the groundbreaking work that study would pro-

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duce, An American Dilemma (1944), Nixon and Bunche Hiss, who had worked at State from which provided the blueprint for the 1936 to 1946 in a variety of jobs next two decades of the civil rights crossed paths for the focusing on post-World War II plan- struggle. He also understood the full ning. Showing a genius for publici- implications of the Atlantic Charter, first time in 1957 at the ty, Nixon pressed a HUAC investi- the 1941 U.S.-U.K. document that gation of Hiss’s links to the Ameri- proclaimed the freedom of all peo- ceremonies marking the can Communist Party, which led to a ples as a central objective of the conviction for perjury and 44 Allied war cause. independence of Ghana. months in prison. His anticommu- After Pearl Harbor, Bunche nist credentials burnished, Nixon briefly worked for the Office of Stra- went on to the Senate, and then won tegic Services — precursor to the CIA — as an Africa a place alongside Eisenhower on the 1952 ticket. specialist. He then joined State’s Bureau of Near Africa did not rank high on the White House’s list of Eastern, South Asian and African Affairs as the resident favored parts of the world in the 1950s. As for the State Africanist, before moving to the newly established Department, it treated Africa functionally as an adjunct United Nations in 1945. There he focused on decolo- of Europe — which, politically, it was. The Bureau of nization when he wasn’t inventing international peace- Near Eastern, South Asian and African Affairs encom- keeping or serving as the U.N.’s premier troubleshooter, passed not only the African continent but the whole colo- winning the 1950 Nobel Peace Prize for mediating the nial world. Until Ghana gained its independence in 1957, 1948 Israeli-Arab cease-fire. there were only three sovereign countries in Sub-Saharan In 1949, President Harry Truman offered Bunche a Africa: Liberia, Ethiopia and South Africa. job as assistant secretary of State for Near Eastern, South The rest of the continent consisted of colonies pos- Asian and African Affairs, but Bunche turned it down. sessed by our Western European allies. There were After having taught at Howard University and served in some U.S. consulates scattered around what would even- the U.S. government in World War II, he refused ever tually become national capitals but, as such, they report- again to live in a Washington, D.C., ruled by Jim Crow, or ed to and took instructions from our embassies in to work in a department where Africa was, at best, a pro- London, Paris, Brussels and Lisbon. These colonial pow- fessional afterthought. As he explained at the time, “It is ers were the heart of NATO, and it was the security and well known that there is Jim Crow in Washington. It is reconstruction of Western Europe that mattered most to equally well known that no Negro finds Jim Crow conge- them and to Washington. No ambassador to a NATO nial. I am a Negro.” member-state was going to advocate placing support for He spent the rest of his career and life at the United African decolonization ahead of completing reconstruc- Nations, where he deserves considerable credit for the tion and containing communism. organization’s leadership in pushing ahead with an early Ever the realist, Nixon saw the stakes differently, par- timetable for decolonization in Africa. As the organiza- ticularly after a 1957 trip to Africa awoke his strategic tion’s ranking American, he provided crucial behind-the- imagination. There he witnessed firsthand the dynamic scenes encouragement to Washington to pressure changes under way and recognized Africa’s potential: Europeans to accelerate the independence of their Afri- Support for decolonization meant cultivating potential can colonies. And it is here that Bunche’s career inter- allies against communism, or at least deterring commu- sected with that of Nixon. nist expansion. It was during that trip that he and Bunche literally … And a Hard-Nosed Realist crossed paths for the first time. Nixon was representing A decade younger than Bunche, Richard Nixon was a the U.S., and Bunche the U.N., at the ceremonies mark- member of the Greatest Generation, a Navy veteran ing the independence of Ghana, the first British colony in from World War II. As a member of the House Un- Sub-Saharan Africa to win full independence. However, American Activities Committee, he built a reputation as there is no record of any conversation between the two a Cold War attack dog. His most famous target was Alger high-ranking Americans. A charismatic third American,

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Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., attracted Until the late 1950s, Africanist, Professor Emeritus the lion’s share of attention from Crawford Young of the University of both the media and Ghanaians State treated Africa Wisconsin, describes as “regionalists themselves. within the system.” These advocates Nixon’s trip report recommended functionally as an did not often win the big policy bat- a new and assertive Africa policy of tles with other regions and with what universal presence, economic devel- adjunct of Europe. Young called “globalists,” but they opment assistance, support for edu- generated the kind of well-informed cation, vibrant and visible cultural perspective that had been missing. and information programs, and the creation of a Bureau of African Affairs headed by an assistant secretary. His Burying Jim Crow approach offered a coherent vision of partnership with a Eisenhower and Nixon also faced the changing land- region that has remained the hallmark of U.S. policy. scape of racism back home. They saw clearly that segre- Nixon pressured State in subsequent months to gationist policies were undermining America’s credibility move forward with creation of the new bureau. as the world leader for freedom and democracy. Those Historian Jonathan Helmreich has concluded that policies stood in stark opposition to the principles of the Nixon’s aggressive needling was crucial in pushing the Atlantic Charter and the 1948 Universal Declaration of department’s bureaucracy to follow through quickly on Human Rights, the seminal human rights documents of what was already a widely supported objective. In fact, the post-World War II era. Nixon’s report dovetailed with Secretary of State John Africans perceived this contradiction more acutely Foster Dulles’ well-established view that an orderly than anyone. As the rhetoric of the Cold War heated up, decolonization process was in the American interest to the Soviet Union took full advantage of Jim Crow to win minimize Soviet influence. It is also clear that the African hearts and minds. Africans didn’t have to be ambitious Nixon was moving to beef up his foreign pol- reminded that white Europeans had built up their icy resumé for a presidential run, and Africa offered a empires on the backs of black men, leveling or co-opting non-controversial opening that neither Eisenhower nor their pre-European institutions in the interest of imperi- Dulles opposed. al stability and profit while keeping them subordinate All that said, Nixon’s legacy is more than a bureau- within the colonial system. Soviet propaganda had only cratic reorganization. Over the ensuing years, the Africa to add that white Americans had built their own prosper- Bureau would succeed in nurturing a corps of Africanists. ity on the back of black descendants of Africans, and kept AF’s first assistant secretary, career FSO Joseph Satter- them subservient under Jim Crow. Marxism offered the white, set this process in motion, taking full advantage of easy answer of an ideology that categorized racism as cap- the positions at all ranks suddenly being offered in dozens italistic, promising that the dictatorship of the proletariat of new embassies. During the Kennedy and Johnson would eliminate such prejudices. administrations, former Michigan Governor G. Mennon At the same time, it is not commonly known that the Williams raised the bureau’s public profile in Washing- State Department, beginning during the Truman ton and around the country with his campaign skills and administration, had encouraged civil rights efforts to political access. defeat legally based racial discrimination. In a land- Serving under Secretary of State James A. Baker III a mark 1948 restrictive covenant case, Shelley v. generation later, FSO Herman Cohen seized the oppor- Kraemer, the Justice Department filed an amicus curi- tunity presented by the end of the Cold War to achieve a ae (friend of the court) brief that used State remarkable series of policy successes in southern Africa Department language asserting the damage to foreign that helped pave the way to majority rule in South Africa relations of racial discrimination at home. A similar itself. (For a full chronology of AF assistant secretaries, amicus brief was filed in support of what became Brown visit www.state.gov/r/pa/ho/po/12045.htm.) vs. Board of Education (1954), in which the Supreme These and other assistant secretaries, and the profes- Court ruled racially segregated public schools inherent- sionals they led, have become what one renowned ly unequal and therefore unconstitutional. The Brown

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decision was a classic example of the diplomacy of received a Ph.D. from Northwestern University. deeds, actions speaking louder than words: America was Starting in the 19th century, American missions oper- finally living up to its ideals. ated schools that brought primary education to Africans Three years later, Eisenhower faced another civil where none had existed. These schools — open to all — rights crisis in Little Rock, Ark. The White House took educated generations of African leadership and in many account of official embassy reports from Africa and else- countries have bequeathed a heritage of good will toward where about how foreign publics were closely following Americans. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the current president the crisis as a test of American intentions to enforce of Liberia, attended a United Methodist high school. Brown v. Board of Education. Eisenhower’s decisive President Jose Eduardo Dos Santos of Angola has said handling of the crisis further strengthened the image of that he learned to play basketball in a Methodist mission. an America living up to its creed. It was in the immedi- His long-time nemesis, the late Jonas Savimbi, attended ate aftermath of Little Rock that the Bureau of African school in a Congregational mission. And Holden Affairs was born. Roberto, leader of Angola’s third and weakest liberation To be sure, as with so much else in his career, political movement, graduated from a Baptist mission school, opportunism featured in Nixon’s support of civil rights — where he learned fluent English. the backing of African-Americans in the pivotal northern Today, historically black colleges and universities and industrial states. Still, there’s a consensus that his posi- the Protestant missionary community remain the core tion at this point in his career was driven as much by constituencies for African affairs in the United States. morality and Cold War strategy as by ambition. In 1960, This base has expanded to take in a broad swath of uni- Jackie Robinson, the gifted second baseman of the versities who have developed their own African studies Dodgers who had integrated professional baseball, wrote curricula and have benefited from grants conferred by a favorable commentary about Nixon. Then a presiden- USAID and other agencies. Clemson and UCLA tial candidate, Nixon thanked Robinson in a letter, noting (Bunche’s alma mater) are just as likely to weigh in on that, “I have consistently taken a strong position on civil African issues as Howard or Fisk. rights, not only for the clear-cut moral considerations The evangelical movement among American Protes- involved, but for other reasons which reach beyond our tants has prompted the Assemblies of God, Christian nation’s borders.” Without strong action on civil rights, Missionary Alliance, the Church of Latter-Day Saints, Nixon continued, “we will suffer in the eyes of the emerg- Southern Baptists and many other denominations to ing nations and uncommitted peoples. Beyond this, our expand missions around the continent. Faith-based non- present struggle with the forces of atheistic communism governmental organizations such as Samaritan’s Purse is an economic as well as an ideological battle. To deny and World Vision have established themselves as credible ourselves the full talent and energies of 17 million Negro suppliers of humanitarian and development services. Americans in this struggle would be stupidity of the Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church in Orange greatest magnitude.” County, Calif., and Franklin Graham (Billy’s son) stand out as only two of the most visible and influential evan- Forging Close Trans-Atlantic Ties gelicals active in Africa. And the exchange is two-way. Ralph Bunche’s legacy epitomized the profound inter- Recently, when a number of theologically conservative est of African-Americans in Africa. Decades before Vice Episcopal congregations broke away from the parent President Nixon called for cultural exchange programs to organization, they joined the Church of Nigeria help educate future African leaders, a handful of colleges (Anglican), home to the fastest-growing Anglican com- and universities (many of them historically black) were munion in the world. already performing the task, largely unnoticed by white One crucial African legacy of the civil rights move- America. Ghana’s Kwame Nkrumah, a graduate of Penn- ment is the current U.S. immigration regime. The sylvania’s Lincoln University and the University of Penn- Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 scuttled the sylvania, led Ghana to independence. Mozambique’s national quotas that had long favored European coun- Eduardo Mondlane, founder of the FRELIMO libera- tries, opening the doors to large-scale immigration from tion movement, graduated from Oberlin College and the developing world. Africans lagged at first, but by

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the 1970s, the first influx of Ethiopians reached the U.S. Celebrities ranging from Bono and Danny Glover to as refugees from the brutal dictatorship of Mengistu Mia Farrow have carried the banner for African causes Haile Mariam. Nixon the politician would have appre- and, most important, drawn the attention of young peo- ciated the fact that Ethiopian-Americans now constitute ple to the continent. A series of commercially and criti- a sophisticated, well-organized ethnic community, fol- cally successful Hollywood films such as “Blood lowing in the pattern of Armenian, Polish and other Diamond” and “Hotel Rwanda” have featured serious powerful ethnic lobbies. Somalis, Eritreans, Kenyans, African themes, starred African actors and been made in Cameroonians and Nigerians have all settled in the U.S. Africa. U.S. business is beginning to pay closer attention in large numbers, and are wielding influence in the for- to Africa, as well, with the Corporate Council on Africa eign policy debate. and Business Council for International Understanding Another legacy of the civil rights movement is the gen- serving as voices of the private sector. erational change in attitude toward Africa on this side of Over the past half-century, the U.S.-Africa relation- the Atlantic. Bunche would have been proud to behold the ship has grown as deep as it has become wide. African- engagement that Americans are conducting with Africans Americans not only make up a significant part of the and vice versa. The Peace Corps has remained active since population, but have spent four centuries building 1961, with thousands of alumni maintaining a lifelong com- America and defining socially, culturally and morally mitment to Africa. And churches around America learn what it really is. As Bunche implicitly assumed, Africa about Africans through their missions and routinely wel- is a part of who we are as Americans. Nixon’s realistic come them to our shores in this age of instant communica- acknowledgment was simpler: Africa matters geopoliti- tion and travel measured in hours instead of weeks. cally. America ignores that fact at its own peril.

40 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/MAY 2008 F OCUS ON A FRICA

THREE DAYS IN N’DJAMENA

AN EYEWITNESS ACCOUNT OF THE RECENT CIVIL WAR IN CHAD AND ATTENDANT EVACUATION OF EMBASSY PERSONNEL.

BY RAJIV MALIK

ditor’s Note: Life in Chad, like most Foreign Service hardship posts, poses major challenges even on the best days. But it takes something like civil war for such countries to make the news even briefly. The following account of a recent evacuation from N’Djamena to Yaoundé is based on a letter the author e-mailedE to friends and family back in February.

Because of the rapidly deteriorating security situation monitored radio communications from our homes. in the capital, the embassy Emergency Action Around 2 a.m. on Sat., Feb. 2, we were awakened with Committee decided at 4 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 31, orders that all family members needed to get ready for 2008, to ask all Foreign Service National employees to evacuation within two hours. go home immediately and all Americans to go home before sundown. A sundown-to-sunrise curfew was A Difficult Farewell imposed and all Americans were asked to consolidate My wife Sandy and I hurried to get the kids’ bags into the embassy housing compound. Post management packed and woke them up. Even though we had tried to then decided to close the embassy on Friday, Feb. 1. prepare them in advance for this eventuality, they were The next day, there were reports of fighting and high not ready for the reality. My 5-year-old son Nikhil broke casualties between the Chadian government forces and into tears about not being able to take his new magic box rebels about 50 kilometers outside the city. Throughout with him, while my 7-year-old daughter Sonali couldn’t the day, we were on a high-alert status and constantly understand why Daddy wasn’t coming along. By 5 a.m., Sandy and the kids, along with all other family members Rajiv Malik joined the Foreign Service in March 2007 as of the American embassy staff, were driven off in a con- a financial management officer; N’Djamena is his first voy to board a military aircraft to Yaoundé. post. Prior to joining the State Department, he worked in Because I was part of the embassy’s essential person- the private sector for many years, mostly with the Los nel complement, I was scheduled to stay back along with Angeles Times, in various finance and management roles. several colleagues. It was still early Saturday morning, so

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I decided to go back to my bed- We were caught in a Conditions were even worse room. However, I soon began elsewhere. There were bodies hearing machine-gun fire and crossfire between the rebel scattered all around the embassy bombings in the background, fol- housing complex and throughout lowed by a burst of gunfire omi- forces heading towards the the city. Many of the offices and nously close to the housing com- restaurants along Charles De pound. Presidential Palace and the Gaulle Avenue, the capital’s main Immediately, we all received thoroughfare, were destroyed. orders by radio to consolidate at government forces trying Early Sunday morning, Feb. 3, the assistant regional security offi- I got a call from Sandy, who was cer’s home right next to mine. to stop them. safely in Yaoundé with the kids. With bullets flying around us, we She had heard reports of the fight- each ducked and ran there. Once ing and was very worried about all we were all inside, the ARSO did a head count. He of us. Then she mentioned that if I evacuated, she want- ordered all 11 of us to get down on the floor in his bed- ed me to get the kids’ pictures and my daughter’s special room as incessant machine-gun fire broke out around us. snow globe that I had given to her as a gift. Since there We soon realized that we were caught in a crossfire was a lull in the fighting, I asked for permission to run out between the rebel forces heading toward the Presidential to my home and was allowed to go back for just five min- Palace and the government forces trying to stop them. utes. Soon thereafter, a Chadian Army tank drove up to the Once inside my home, I saw the hole in the ceiling boundary wall of the compound, barely 50 meters from from the shell that had come through the roof, piercing where we were hunkered down, and started lobbing my graduate diploma from the University of Virginia that, artillery shells. The rebel forces were armed with rocket- amazingly, was still hanging on the wall. As I hurried to propelled grenades and kept shooting in our direction, gather family pictures, I was flooded with memories from trying to take out the tank. The sound of the shelling and our 10 years of marriage and the birth and life of our two the heavy machine-gun fire was truly deafening. As we dear children. There was no time for decisions about kept low on the cement floor with our heads covered to what to take and what to leave; I simply grabbed what I protect ourselves from stray bullets and shrapnel, I could fit into my small backpack. prayed that the shells would not land on us and everyone would get out safely. On to Yaoundé God was watching over us. While my home and the The fighting resumed soon thereafter, and it was one on the other side were both hit by RPG shells, losing another miserable morning. Later that afternoon, we part of their roofs, the ARSO’s home where we were got the order to evacuate and boarded armored cars for gathered stayed intact, despite violent shaking as bombs the perilous drive to the French military base. There went off. Heavy fighting continued all day Saturday, but we were reunited with the rest of our colleagues who it was only sporadic at nighttime, so we could grab a little had stayed in the embassy over the last two days, before shuteye. being airlifted in a helicopter. After spending the night in a tent, we left for Assessing the Damage Cameroon in a C-130 early on Monday morning, Feb. We learned that the chancery had taken several hits 4. There I was reunited with my wife and kids. My son and one RPG had penetrated the upper offices but, saw me from a distance at the hotel entrance and came thankfully, no one was hurt. The regional security staff, out running to give me a hug; it was the best welcome I Marines and the DOD folks at post all did a great job of could have gotten. I arrived in Yaoundé exhausted and protecting us. However, several embassy homes were without even a change of clothes. But I had made it out looted and many of us lost everything. Accordingly, post alive and was able to enjoy dinner with my family, and for management decided to destroy all classified material that I am grateful. and shut down the embassy as soon as possible. We stayed in Yaoundé for a few days before depart-

42 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/MAY 2008 F OCUS

ing for the U.S. I am now working in the Africa Bur- eau with some other col- leagues from post. We are living in temporary accom- modations in Falls Church, Va., and have enrolled our children in elementary schools there. N’Djamena remains under ordered departure, but the embassy has reopen- ed and I will be returning to post soon — though without my family this time. In Washington, we wit- Fighting in the Chadian capital caused extensive damage. At left, an embassy employ- nessed an outpouring of gen- ee’s car that had been stripped. Right, looking thru the shattered windows of a gutted erosity from our friends and embassy residence. colleagues, who picked us up from the airport and provided us with warm clothing and and I want to deeply thank everyone for their kindness, jackets. It has been a humbling and gratifying experience, prayers and best wishes for our safety.

MAY 2008/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 43 F OCUS ON A FRICA

AFRAID OF OUR SHADOW: CORRUPTION DEVOURS AFRICA’S MIDDLE CLASS

THE U.S. NEEDS TO MOVE MORE AGGRESSIVELY AGAINST ENTRENCHED CORRUPTION IN AFRICAN SOCIETIES FOR THE SAKE OF THE CONTINENT’S FUTURE.

BY DANIEL WHITMAN

orruption presents the issued at the January 2004 Summit of the Americas in United States with as urgent a challenge as any in the Monterrey, Mexico, provides a tool to intervene con- developing world, but also one of the easiest to tackle. structively to help break the cycle of misery and injustice. TerrorismC follows the money, and failed states are terror- The proclamation, which strengthens U.S. immigration ism’s playground. The African Union estimates that cor- laws, mandates the denial of visas to “persons engaged in ruption costs its members at least $150 billion per year, or or benefiting from egregious official corruption.” about one quarter of the continent’s meager GDP. In No unilateral foray, the proclamation meshes with the many African capitals, opulent palaces serve as blatant, “No Safe Haven” approach of our Group of Eight part- daily reminders of where the treasure resides. ners. In the Evian Declaration of May 2003, G-8 mem- Dig below the surface of wealth in a corrupt country, bers resolved: “We will each seek in accordance with however, and you will discover the most prized posses- national laws to deny safe haven to public officials guilty sion in a cache of ill-gotten gains: the foreign visa, espe- of corruption, by denying them entry, when appropriate, cially one issued by the U.S. The psychological comfort and using extradition and mutual legal assistance laws and of the visa is incalculable: it is the safety net of egress in mechanisms more effectively.” times of civil unrest or coup; a destination for shopping Yet four years later, Proclamation 7750 has hardly sprees and medical treatment; and an educational plat- been used. Though it has apparently been applied with form for the sons and daughters of the plutocracy. some success in the Western Hemisphere, according to George W. Bush’s Presidential Proclamation 7750, State Department officials who declined to provide any further information, it has been used only “dozens, not Daniel Whitman is deputy director of the Office of Public hundreds of times” worldwide. Moreover, in Africa, Diplomacy and Public Affairs in the Bureau of African where it is most needed and where it could arguably be Affairs. He was a Fulbright lecturer in Brazzaville, then most effective, it has rarely, if ever, been invoked. served as an FSO in Copenhagen, Madrid, Pretoria, Port- au-Prince and, most recently, Yaoundé. The opinions The Scourge of Kleptocracy expressed here are his own, not necessarily those of the Loyalty to clan and family notwithstanding, the extent Africa Bureau or the U.S. government. of theft in many African nations disproportionately limits

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productivity and even reduces the pool of wealth available • A 23-year-old victim of three muggings in six weeks to those who would steal it. Cultural relativism does not seeks to report her losses to the police, who turn her away. apply here: the pilferage is flagrant and visible on any She travels at the cost of a month’s income to her native street corner in the form of trickle-down graft as gen- village, where she must give local officials $100 for a copy darmes hit up taxi drivers, pedestrians and fruit sellers for of her birth certificate as proof of identity. their meager earnings. All clans suffer. There are many countries, both in Francophone Africa Who Will Bell the Cat? and beyond, where one can see the kleptocracy in action. These abuses will shock no reader of this publication. These eyewitness accounts happen to stem from my last That the system of corruption helps maintain the wide gap overseas post, Cameroon, though they are commonplace between a tiny, obscenely rich elite and the mass of elsewhere, as well: impoverished citizens, cannibalizing the middle class, is • A security guard at the American embassy, working well understood. But such anecdotes remind us that on a salary of $80 per month, is hit up for a $250 bribe to while corruption in rich nations leaves a bitter taste, in register his teenage daughter in public school. poor countries it destroys lives. And they also lead us to • The manager of a tiny hair salon, after bribing her ask why the U.S. does not act resolutely to redress this way into the rear annex of an automobile repair shop, is scourge with the tools at hand — in particular, approached by self-appointed tax collectors who threaten Proclamation 7750. to cordon off the salon if she does not pay, on 24 hours’ Official words and declarations have had little effect. notice, a quickly improvised impôt de bail (renter’s tax) on Intercepting illegal financial transactions is praiseworthy; the rent she has already paid for use of the premises. She but it is highly technical, difficult to do and ineffectual borrows the 50,000 FCFA ($100, a month’s income) to while other countries siphon off the lucre that we bar. keep her precarious microbusiness alive. She then pays Legal action requires confidentiality and stealth. But an impôt libératoire (estimated tax on business profits) on 7750’s use, together with more public discussion of the the income received, and yet another tax on the actual use subject, would cost little, energize and encourage victim- of the rented space. The total comes to one-third of her ized majority populations, and create a badly needed yearly income of $2,000, in exchange for zero services ren- deterrent. dered by the state. To his credit, Ambassador R. Niels Marquardt broke • Gendarmes stop a hundred taxis per day in the sound barrier on the corruption issue in Cameroon on December, in plain view in the city’s busy social center, to Jan. 19, 2006, in a public statement in Yaoundé that provide money for Christmas gifts to their families. The changed the tenor of public discourse in that country. armed “mange-milles” (thousand-franc scavengers) — Willing to use the C word, he noted in a televised state- who demand the equivalent of $2 — are cordial to those ment: “It saddens me to say that a well-developed culture who pay up, threatening to those who don’t. of corruption appears to have taken root … over recent • A local restaurateur has his papers confiscated by years. No institution seems to be immune from this gendarmes three times in one evening as he drives his pri- scourge.” vate vehicle through a prosperous section of the city to The ambassador continued: “With the war [on corrup- visit friends. He pays $10 and spends an hour each time tion] declared, the authorities must have the tools to fight to retrieve his documents. it. It is not enough to publish the names of those sus- • A citizen from the northern part of the country gives pected of corruption or even to fire them from their posi- up a week’s earnings to endure a 20-hour bus trip to the tions. Those accused must be investigated, formally capital, in order to obtain a national ID card that will enti- charged, tried in court and sentenced if found guilty.” tle him to vote, travel to neighboring countries and obtain Amb. Marquardt’s popularity in Cameroon soared, a bank account. After five days in the sweltering heat of ramparts were breached, and conversation at all strata and an outdoor facility (no water, no bathroom), the citizen in every milieu scarcely strayed from the topic for more must either return home empty-handed or pay hefty than two months. Six minor local officials were brought to bribes to four officials along the bureaucratic chain who trial and, under Western eyes, sent to the slammer. The can “facilitate” the issuing of the document. familiar names of the most corrupt, pillars of the elite,

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were on the tongues of a highly Proclamation 7750 Proclamation 7750 is a potentially informed and sophisticated public that powerful tool in the hands of waited for the other shoe to drop. put a significant new American officials for this purpose. As Embarking on a cogent and consis- published in the Federal Register on tent strategy, Amb. Marquardt met tool into the hands of Jan. 14, 2004, the order bars entry to regularly with high-ranking local offi- the U.S. not only to corrupt public and cials behind closed doors, offering an American officials. former public officials whose behavior open hand of cooperation in a cam- “has serious adverse effects on the paign against corruption to the coun- national interests of the United try’s officials. States,” but also to their families. It specifically bars entry At the same time, one “Most Corrupt Official” was in instances where individuals’ actions result in “serious working to derail, for personal gain, a $100 million airline adverse effects on … the stability of democratic institu- deal that promised enormous mutual benefit for both the tions and nations.” U.S. and the host country. But when the MCO sought a Under the measure, now part of Section 212(f) of the visa, the embassy gave him a tip-off to withdraw his appli- U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act, a visa should be cation instead of invoking Proclamation 7750 to deny it — denied to individuals in the following categories: apparently on instructions from Washington. “(a) Public officials or former public officials whose In the official silence that ensued, unfounded rumors solicitation or acceptance of any article of monetary value, began percolating that the ambassador had been on the or other benefit, in exchange for any act or omission in the take or was successfully threatened to halt an effective anti- performance of their public functions has or had serious corruption campaign. In the end, the airline deal fell adverse effects on the national interests of the United through. States. Now, however, more than two years later, the MCO in “(b) Persons whose provision of or offer to provide any question — and another — have been removed from article of monetary value or other benefit to any public their government positions, and appear to have been official in exchange for any act or mission in the perfor- arrested, on March 29, for embezzlement. A symbolic mance of such official’s public functions has or had serious number of other crooked ministers have also been dis- adverse effects on the national interests of the United missed, though none of the important ones has yet been States. prosecuted. “(c) Public officials or former public officials whose Amb. Marquardt deserves ample credit for managing misappropriation of public funds or interference with the the quiet process that led to these arrests. Still, questions judicial, electoral, or other public processes has or had remain: Will the arrests lead to real convictions, and resti- serious adverse effects on the national interests of the tution of stolen public funds? Were they staged to placate United States. Western embassies, with a wink to the accused? Can the “(d) The spouses, children, and dependent household public trust be regained after years of disappointment and members of persons described in paragraphs (a), (b) and dashed hopes? In February of this year, rage boiled over (c) above, who are beneficiaries of any articles of monetary and cities burned; 100 people were killed and 1,500 value or other benefits obtained by such persons.” arrested, many of them arbitrarily. Might the process In an explanatory cable sent by the Department of have been accelerated to spare the violence? State to all diplomatic missions on March 1, 2004, Secretary of State Colin Powell noted that “the threshold A New Weapon for ineligibility under the proclamation is quite high.” The Cameroon experience shows that a U.S. effort to Required is “evidence indicating whether the person has work with host governments to challenge corruption can engaged in or benefited from public corruption.” Further, strike a responsive chord in Third World countries when the “serious adverse effects” of the corruption on the carried out with persistence. It also suggests that even “international economic activity of U.S. businesses, U.S. more aggressive action on the issue could be successful foreign assistance goals, the security of the United States and beneficial. against transnational crime and terrorism, or the stability of

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democratic institutions and nations” must be spelled out. Visa officers or other embassy officials must submit their cases to the Bureau of Consular Affairs and the Under Secretary for Political Affairs in Washington, with P making the final call.

The Case for Implementation The case for broadening the implementation of Proclamation 7750 is compelling. Corruption devalues the foreign assistance dollar: after skimming at each level, only a relatively small fraction gets to the intended project or beneficiary, and its productivity is thereby greatly reduced. And, under some circumstances, institutionalized graft makes private investment absolutely prohibitive, thus undermining the basis for economic growth and prosperity. As Colin Powell noted in his explanatory cable: “Corruption fundamentally threatens public trust and the integrity of basic institutions, and therefore undermines both democracy and security.” He linked 7750 explicitly to the formula for eligibility for the Millennium Challenge A Cameroonian view of a U.S. ambassador preparing Account, whose aims and objectives its use would com- his exit from an African country. His carry-on luggage plement. is marked “Champion in the struggle against the fat cats Powell also noted in his 2004 cable that the initiative is of corruption.” He thinks: “I just hope I will have left a linked to the “No Safe Haven” approach. Indeed, two legacy.” Meanwhile, “the corrupt and the pillagers” years later, at their 2006 summit in St. Petersburg, the piled into a wheelbarrow collectively ruminate: “Whew, G-8 underlined its importance: “Corruption by holders of finally he’s on his way. Now we’ll have some breathing public office can deter foreign investment, stifle econom- room.” By Nkumbe Joseph Epie, in The Humorist. ic growth and sustainable development, and undermine legal and judicial systems. The net effect of corruption is felt most directly, and disproportionately, by the poor.” In fact, it is nearly impossible to obtain any clear, con- They also called for greater cooperation on prosecution crete information about 7750’s use to date. While U.S. and implementation of the OECD Anti-bribery visa law understandably forbids divulging the findings of Convention, regional and bilateral trade agreements, fis- individual cases, the reluctance of government officials cal transparency, combating money laundering, and glob- even to mention the measure in public echoes the scene al ratification and implementation of the U.N. Convention from “Dr. Strangelove” in which a nasal and stressed Against Corruption. American Peter Sellers addresses a stolid Soviet Peter So far, however, according to Global Financial Sellers: “But Dmitri, if you had a doomsday weapon, why Integrity, a think-tank based in Washington, D.C., the didn’t you tell us you had a doomsday weapon?!” declarations have not blocked the entry of corrupt officials Lesson: deterrence works only if you talk about it. to any of the G-8 countries as intended. Clearly this mul- tilateral initiative needs some leadership. A Patriotic Act Suspension of U.S. visas does not require indictment Making Presidential Proclamation 7750 an effective or conviction in the judicial sense; it simply entitles and deterrent by actually using it will cost the American tax- obliges consular officers to deny entry to persons “we payer nothing. It will engage the United States in a valu- believe have engaged in corruption.” The measure is able multilateral effort and will demonstrate that sound, ethical, potentially effective and not hegemonic. Washington means business without creating perceptions Alas, we seem to lack the backbone to use it. of swaggering, which the populations of many developing

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countries rightly or wrongly associate with our current for- else should speak in our name. Don’t insult Africa, this eign policy. continent so rich yet so badly led. Instead, insult its lead- Tolerance for corruption is rampant on all continents, ers, who have ruined everything. We need to rid ourselves but the scourge can be effectively addressed in much of of these cancers. We would have preferred for the musi- Africa, where U.S. prestige is still high. It can help release cians in Philadelphia and London to have marched and large populations from the insult of silence that stifles sung for political revolution. Instead, they mourned a their hopes for fair play or a chance to live decent if mod- corpse while forgetting to denounce the murderer.” est lives. Such an initiative threatens the sovereignty of no Public denunciation of specific wrongs would be an act nation, requires no military or constabulary to deploy, and of American patriotism in a time of generally undermined restores hope to the large majority of people who look to U.S. prestige abroad. It would remind us, and others, of the outside merely for validation of their circumstances, who we are as a nation, and how we may best honor and seeking no handouts. assist the people of foreign nations and their enormous, Cameroonian writer Jean-Claude Shanda Tonmé pon- betrayed potential. dered the well-intentioned 2005 “Live 8” demonstrations We should send a clear message: those who cheat the in Edinburgh, Paris, Johannesburg and Philadelphia that people of their modest wealth and dignity are not friends were meant to draw attention to Africa’s material needs of the U.S., and will not be welcome to our shores. The and secure commitments of assistance from Western job of prosecuting them may belong to the local govern- countries to meet them. As he wrote then in the July 15 ment, but whether they are formally prosecuted or not, New York Times: we will deny them entry. It is our right and obligation to “We Africans know what the problem is, and no one do so.

48 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/MAY 2008

AFSAAmerican ForeignNEWS Service Association • May 2008

REPORT FROM CAIRO AFSA VP Attends Entry-Level Conference In This Issue:

Briefs: PIT Buyback ...... 50 FSA State Vice President Steve role was to address the latter subjects, VP State: Overseas Pay Disparity ....51 Kashkett traveled to Egypt to par- including career planning and family VP USAID: Time for a Trade-in ...... 52 A ticipate in the March 10-12 Near management in the era of Iraq/Af- Reinventing Resources Eastern Affairs Bureau’s regional entry- ghanistan and the proliferation of unac- at the Overseas Briefing Center ...... 54 level conference. Entry-level Foreign companied posts; strategies for securing FLO: 30 Years of Support Service members at Embassy Cairo did a assignments and promotions; family- for FS Family Members...... 55 superb job organizing this annual event, member employment overseas; and Tragen Award for Family which brought together more than 60 Member of Household policies. Member Advocate ...... 56 first- and second-tour FS generalists and The attendees displayed keen interest Thanks, Now Here’s Your Pay Cut ..57 specialists from every NEA post. in AFSA’s views on the future of an “expe- Field Notes from Belgrade...... 58 Like most entry-level conferences ditionary” Foreign Service that is more Classifieds ...... 59 over the past two years, this one was divid- focused on transformational diplomacy ed between presentations on regional pol- and dealing with active war zones and icy issues and sessions devoted to career- areas of conflict than ever before. Not sur- JOSH development concerns. VP Kashkett’s Continued on page 53

SMALL INCREASE IN SEPARATE MAINTENANCE ALLOWANCE Involuntary SMA Gets a Boost AFSA HQ long-awaited increase in the employee is assigned to an unaccompa- Renovation Involuntary Separate Maintenance nied post. In fact, ISMA has long been AAllowance — which AFSA has been woefully inadequate, failing to cover the Project Update fighting for over the past three years — was cost of a D.C.-area rental home, not to he AFSA headquarters renovation announced March 14. AFSA appreciates mention food, household needs and is progressing. The current ex- the efforts of Under Secretary for Manage- transportation. Tpected move-in date will be late ment Patrick Kennedy to get an increase AFSA’s contention was that a dramat- this year. We’ll keep you posted. through the system. Unfortunately, the ic increase — perhaps even a doubling of In the meantime, please continue to boost was much less substantial than AFSA the ISMA — was needed and would send reach AFSA staff and officers at their reg- had urged, amounting to about 10 percent. an unmistakable signal to the Foreign Ser- ular phone numbers and e-mail Involuntary SMA at the posts in ques- vice community that State was now going addresses, or stop by the Labor Manage- tion (which differs from the Voluntary to start taking proper care of families sep- ment office in Room 1251 of the Separate Maintenance Allowance in that arated by unaccompanied postings. Truman Building or the temporary these assignments are mandatorily unac- The new rates took effect March 16, and headquarters in Suite 1250 of State companied, no families allowed) should can be found on the Internet at: Annex 15, located at 1800 North Kent cover most of the costs of maintaining a http://aoprals.state.gov, and on the intranet St., Arlington VA 22209. family at a separate location when the at http://aoprals.a.state.gov/. J

MAY 2008/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 49 A F S A N AFSANEWSBRIEFS E W PIT Buyback Contribution Refunds S If you worked as a PIT (part-time intermittent temporary) employee and contributed to the Federal Employees Retirement System for less FSJ Welcomes New Business Manager than five years — which is the minimum length of service needed to We are pleased to report that former FSO Alicia J. Campi joined qualify for a FERS annuity — you may wish to ask for a refund of your the Foreign Service Journal staff as the new business manager in retirement contributions. March. (Former Journal Business Manager Andrew Kidd moved on You can apply for a refund of your retirement contributions if you in January.) The holder of a Ph.D. in Mongolian studies, Ms. Campi have been separated from federal service for at least 31 days (or have served in Singapore, Taiwan, Tokyo, New York, Ulaanbaatar and occupied a position not covered by FERS for at least 31 days). If you Washington, D.C. After leaving the Foreign Service in 1991, she have more than one year of service, interest on the contributions will became president of the U.S.-Mongolia Advisory Group, and be part of the refund. remains in this position today. Her book on the history of U.S.- Please be aware that if you receive a refund for your PIT service and Mongolian diplomatic relations is due for publication this year. later are re-employed by the federal government, you will not be able As research coordinator for the Immigration Policy Center from to repurchase credit toward retirement for your prior PIT service. 2004 to 2007, Ms. Campi gained extensive publication experience. In Applicants who have been separated from federal service for at least addition, since 1996 she has been teaching courses on China at the 31 days may request a refund by submitting Form SF-3106, Washington Center for college students doing a Washington semes- Application for Refund of Retirement Deductions, to this address: ter. She can be reached at [email protected]. Office of Personnel Management, Federal Employees Retirement System, P.O. Box 45, Boyers PA 16017-0045. The form can be down- Seeking Information from Vietnam, 1965 loaded at www.opm.gov/forms/pdf_fill/SF3106.pdf. Peter M. Hunting was working with International Voluntary Services in Vietnam when he was killed in the Mekong Delta by the Collective Grievance for Vietcong on Nov. 12, 1965, on Highway One, 15 kilometers south- Newly-Promoted SFS Members west of Can Tho. His sister, Jill Hunting, is conducting research for a At the request of a majority of those promoted across the senior book that expands on an article she wrote for Washington Post threshold in 2006, AFSA has prepared a collective grievance to con- Magazine (March 18, 2007). test the denial to them of any annual performance-based salary Ms. Hunting would like to hear from anyone who knows some- increase. The claim for redress is based on the grounds that the effec- thing about the incident or who is familiar with the U.S. Operations tive date of their promotion to the Senior Foreign Service — which is a mission in the Delta at that time. She can be contacted at info@ product of the paper flow between the White House and Congress — jillhunting.com, or (202) 834-5339. did not occur until less than 120 days before the end of the 2006- 2007 rating cycle. Nearly three-fourths of this promotion cohort have signed onto this grievance.

AFSA HEADQUARTERS: Staff: Governing Board: Executive Director John Mamone: [email protected] (202) 338-4045; Fax: (202) 338-6820 PRESIDENT: John Naland STATE DEPARTMENT AFSA OFFICE: Business Department Controller Twee Nguyen: [email protected] STATE VP: Steve Kashkett (202) 647-8160; Fax: (202) 647-0265 Accounting Assistant Cory Nishi: [email protected] USAID VP: Francisco Zamora USAID AFSA OFFICE: Labor Management (202) 712-1941; Fax: (202) 216-3710 General Counsel Sharon Papp: [email protected] FAS VP: Vacant FCS AFSA OFFICE: Labor Management Attorney Zlatana Badrich: [email protected] FCS VP: Donald Businger Labor Management Specialist James Yorke: [email protected] (202) 482-9088; Fax: (202) 482-9087 RETIREE VP: Robert W. Farrand AFSA WEB SITE: www.afsa.org Grievance Attorneys Neera Parikh: [email protected] and Holly Rich: [email protected] FSJ: [email protected] Office Manager Christine Warren: [email protected] SECRETARY: F.A. “Tex” Harris USAID Senior Labor Management Adviser Douglas Broome: [email protected] PRESIDENT: [email protected] TREASURER: Andrew Winter USAID Office Manager Asgeir Sigfusson: [email protected] STATE VP: [email protected] Member Services STATE REPS: Anne Aguilera, Oscar DeSoto, RETIREE VP: [email protected] Member Services Director Janet Hedrick: [email protected] David Firestein, Jim McRea, USAID VP: [email protected] Member Services Representative Michael Laiacona: [email protected] FCS VP: [email protected] Web-site & Database Associate: vacant Sandy Robinson, Shayna Steinger, Administrative Assistant Ana Lopez: [email protected] Daphne Titus, Andrea Tomaszewicz Outreach Programs AFSA News USAID REP: Michael Henning Editor Shawn Dorman: [email protected] Retiree Liaison Bonnie Brown: [email protected] (202) 338-4045 x 503; Fax: (202) 338-8244 Director of Communications Thomas Switzer: [email protected] FCS REP: Stephen Anderson Congressional Affairs Director Ian Houston: [email protected] FAS REP: Vacant On the Web: www.afsa.org/fsj Executive Assistant to the President Austin Tracy: [email protected] Scholarship Director Lori Dec: [email protected] IBB REP: Al Pessin Professional Issues Coordinator Barbara Berger: [email protected] RETIREE REPS: Janice Bay, Herman Cohen, How to Contact Us: to Contact How Elderhostel Coordinator Janice Bay: [email protected] Harry Geisel, David Passage

50 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/MAY 2008 A F V.P. VOICE: STATE BY STEVE KASHKETT S A N Overseas Pay Disparity: Debunking the Myths E W he ever-widening overseas pay disparity remains the top ture internally to compensate for the loss S concern for Foreign Service employees, increasingly frus- of locality pay. Ttrated at having to swallow what has now become a 21-per- MYTH 2: Foreign Service “perks.” cent cut in base salary when they leave Washington to take an over- The insinuation that other allowances seas assignment. It drags down morale and discourages people authorized by the Foreign Service Act from seeking foreign postings. It is a glaring inequity that Congress make up for the 21-percent pay cut is and the administration should have corrected long ago. just plain offensive. Those allowances exist to address specif- While the pay gap may not yet be driving good people out ic costs and hardships unique to working for long years over- of the Foreign Service in large numbers, what will happen in the seas. next few years as it keeps widening? D.C. locality pay for feder- Danger pay compensates for the extreme risks of living in a al employees usually increases by at least a couple of percentage country wracked by war, terrorism, political violence or endem- points annually, so three or four years from now we will take a ic lawlessness. Educational allowances make it possible for FS 30-percent drop in base pay to serve overseas. And how about members to cover their kids’ schooling in countries where no viable five or six years from now, when you will need a maximum hard- public schools are available. Cost-of-living allowances help defray ship 35-percent differential posting just to earn what you would the cost of food and other daily needs of life in countries where have earned staying at a desk job in Washington? There will be those things are vastly more expensive than in the United States. a breaking point when this gross injustice starts seriously under- These were never meant to obviate the need for the basic local- mining recruitment and retention. ity pay adjustment that all other federal employees get. Yet this looming crisis facing our profession is barely on MYTH 3: Free housing. Just because FS members are placed Congress’s radar screen and is widely misunderstood by Hill in government-supplied housing when posted overseas does not staffers, the media and the public. As AFSA lobbies constantly mean that they reap a financial windfall. Most of our members for overseas comparability pay — and when members raise this own a home in the U.S. on which they have to pay a mortgage, issue with visiting congressional delegations (and even with friends upkeep, insurance and property taxes — and renting it out (often and family) — we confront the same yawning disinterest and cyn- impossible) rarely covers all of these expenses and is itself a cost- ical questions: Aren’t you diplomats already overpaid compared ly proposition. Moreover, numerous “hidden” costs of over- to other government employees? Don’t you already get perks seas service vastly outweigh any benefit from government hous- that nobody else enjoys? And of course: Doesn’t your free hous- ing: ing overseas make up for the pay cut? • Pursuing an overseas career makes it virtually impossible These questions reflect the myths we struggle against in try- for Foreign Service families to maintain two professional incomes, ing to convince Congress to act. Debunking these myths is vital which is the norm for domestic federal employees. Rarely can if we are ever going to get overseas comparability pay. All of us FS spouses successfully pursue a professional career when mov- in the Foreign Service need to speak out to set the record straight. ing from one foreign location to another. Lack of opportuni- Some thoughts on how to answer these questions: ties, licensing obstacles and language barriers often force FS fam- MYTH 1: Overpaid diplomats. The Foreign Service pay scale ilies into a single-breadwinner situation, which translates into tens is directly parallel to the Civil Service schedule, and — as any- or hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost income. one trying to rise through the FS mid-level ranks can attest — • Numerous, frequent out-of-pocket costs of pursuing an over- our highly competitive promotions are slower than for most U.S. seas career far outweigh any benefit from government-supplied government workers. All other federal employees in the U.S., housing. Examples: flying your family back to Omaha from some however, get locality pay added to their base salary as a way to remote central African post for your brother’s wedding, for your bring professional government salaries a bit closer to those in the sister-in-law’s life-threatening illness, for a beloved relative’s funer- private sector. But because Congress never legislated an over- al, or for many other important family/friend occasions not cov- seas counterpart to locality pay, FS employees abroad simply do ered by authorized visitation travel. These common expenses rou- not get this adjustment. Why should foreign affairs profession- tinely cost FS members thousands of dollars. als serving in some of the most difficult hotspots around the globe AFSA’s latest briefer on overseas comparability pay is at: be excluded? Other U.S. government agencies, notably our friends www.afsa.org/OCP2008Jan.pdf. Debunking these myths is a bat- up the river, have adjusted their overseas employees’ salary struc- tle we all must fight, before it is too late.

MAY 2008/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 51 A F S V.P. VOICE: USAID BY FRANCISCO ZAMORA A N If It’s Broken, It’s Time for a Trade-in E W S he repeated mention of “wheels” in the May FSJ article try-specific development take place with by Gordon Adams, a professor at American University, the full participation of our counter- T“Don’t Reinvent The Foreign Assistance Wheel,” parts. USAID missions, our greatest reminded me of the old Toyota Camry station wagon that served strength, have historically been adept me well for more than 12 years. Although it got me where I at doing this because of their in-coun- needed to go most of the time, it started breaking down more try presence. The F process misses the point entirely, making cook- and more frequently. I replaced two broken electric window ie-cutter decisions established by the hypercentralized operational motors, brittle door handles and had problems with the wheels. plan system. When the automatic transmission stopped working, I final- Adams notes that the F process organizes foreign assistance ly decided it was time for a trade-in for a more dependable new into different strategic goals: promoting peace and security, car. I knew that pouring more money into the old car was not strengthening just and democratic government, helping popu- smart in the long run. lations improve their quality of life, fostering economic growth This is the situation we find and development, and providing ourselves in with foreign assistance humanitarian assistance. Guess today. We can no longer just fix In reality, the F framework pigeonholes countries what? USAID has been doing all it by installing an “F” Bureau in the that for decades. Nothing new chassis. The foreign assistance into a one-size-fits-all mold. Countries are complex about it. model itself must be replaced. entities, and it is important that country-specific Adams disagrees with the When President John F. plan to create a Cabinet-level De- Kennedy created the U.S. Agency development takes place with the full participation partment of Development, citing for International Development of our counterparts. three basic flaws with the idea. back in 1961, his intent was to First, he says, it would “just take establish a new agency that would us back to those unhappy days eliminate the “bureaucratically when USAID and State were at fragmented, awkward and slow … multiplicity of programs” that each other’s throats on a regular basis … and would only wors- constituted foreign assistance then. During the next 40 years of en the problem by elevating disputes about assistance to senior the Cold War, USAID worked fairly well at bringing good will policymakers.” My response is that disputes can be healthy, and and development assistance to the underdeveloped world. that policymaking, a much higher-level activity, should be in the Now the foreign assistance machine, like my old car, is show- hands of the political leadership, not the implementers of strat- ing its age. The situation has changed dramatically and, as Prof. egy. Adams correctly observes, the current administration has again Development strategy (under a Cabinet-level department) and created a multiplicity of additional mechanisms — including the diplomatic strategy (under the State Department) should, of course, Millennium Challenge Corporation, the President’s Emergency be coordinated, but they are not the same animal. Unresolved Plan for AIDS Relief, the President’s Malaria Initiative and the disputes on policy should be raised to a higher level, just as they Middle Eastern Partnership Initiative — outside the USAID vehi- would be if the Department of Defense and the State Department cle, generating confusion. were in disagreement. Would anyone advocate that DOD be sub- Unfortunately, Adams and others believe you can keep driv- jugated under the State Department? ing the same old foreign assistance model forever by creating anoth- The chief fallacy of the F process is that the State Department er mechanism, this one known as “F.” Instead, we need to trade is now solely in control of interpreting policy, strategy and tac- it in for a new model, a Cabinet-level agency with clout and sup- tics when it comes to development. State micromanages devel- port from the administration, Congress, the public, our partners opment assistance by overcentralizing even decisions that are bet- and the international community. ter left at the country level. Under the guise of aligning policy The F framework supposedly targets individual countries, with strategy, the State Department is now approving every tac- emphasizing that they are at different stages of development and tical detail of development program implementation. This is the need. In reality, it pigeonholes them within a one-size-fits-all mold. reason many USAID personnel are so unhappy with the oper- Countries are complex entities, and it is important that coun- ational plans into which they are straightjacketed. Housed inside

52 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/MAY 2008 A F Report from Cairo • Continued from page 49 S the State Department Truman Building, the F Bureau does not A have the staff, talent or resources to manage thousands of com- plicated technical activities being implemented worldwide. prisingly, as many The second objection to creating a Cabinet-level development of these entry- N department is that “it would create a large, expensive and unman- level employees E aged orphan.” That is debatable: the fragmented programs that had received Ara- W exist today could at last have some logical, efficient and well-man- bic-language S aged structure. Some activities, such as the MCC and PEPFAR, training prior to could be brought under the control of the new entity. The exper- arrival at their tise exists to create a well-designed department that would elim- NEA posts, there inate current duplicative administrative structures and provide was considerable logical lines of authority. That would also gratify our develop- discussion of the impact of foreign language training on assign- ment partners and the international community, which would ments and the need for more extensive courses and other finally understand the points of reference for dealing with us. options for perfecting abilities in particularly hard languages. The third objection, and in my opinion the most absurd, is As was the case in previous entry-level conferences, that development assistance does not have the heft and popu- Kashkett explains, most of the attendees expressed readiness larity at home needed to command additional funding, leading to take on the challenges of the “new” Foreign Service career. to the dwindling away of development assistance rather than its But they are eager to see what measures State Department growth. This defeatism goes management is prepared to adopt to ensure fairness and equi- along with the idea that we ty in assignments and family-friendliness under the increas- need the State Depart- ingly difficult circumstances that State’s more junior colleagues ment to protect our interests. State micromanages will face in coming years. Such paternalistic attitudes development assistance by “The conference participants thoroughly enjoyed the par- can only be answered by, ticipation of Steve Kashkett and his candidness addressing “Please don’t do us any overcentralizing even department issues and participant questions,” comments favors!” decisions that are better Embassy Cairo Vice Consul Tammy Crittenden Kenyatta. Who can deny that for- “He was a big hit!” eign assistance has grown left at the country level. more and more into our national conscience? When rock star Bono and the president himself make very public exhi- bitions of their support for helping the less fortunate of the world, this is no indication of “dwindling away.” And, as Defense Secretary AFSANEWSBRIEFS Robert Gates made abundantly clear, DOD is anxious to pass off to another agency the increasing foreign assistance burden they Overweight Household Effects have been forced to manage more and more often. During the past year, AFSA has assisted in quite a few cases in In addition, there are many champions of foreign assistance which members have run afoul of the weight limits for household in Congress whose support for development programs and USAID effects because the department-approved packing companies had is increasingly felt. The bottom line is that the establishment of grossly underestimated the weight of the employee’s shipment. a Cabinet-level Department of Development has a better chance In some cases, employees have been assessed overweight charges of occurring now than ever. At least two of the presidential can- in the thousands of dollars after they had departed post. didates have expressed interest in the idea. Unfortunately, in almost all of these instances, the department The most disturbing recommendation that Adams makes is has taken refuge behind the rule that the traveler is responsible that State’s best option is to “build on the F model, not to return for ensuring that his/her shipment is within the weight limit (14 to the past or accelerate the diaspora of our foreign relations insti- FAM 612.3), and in general the Foreign Service Grievance Board tutions.” I agree that we can’t return to the past because the cur- rent model is showing its age. However, repairing the vehicle with has supported the department. The lesson in these cases is: the F model has not moved us closer to a solution. F does not schedule your packout as early as possible, don’t rely on the pre- stand for “fix,” as Adams states, but for “failure.” packout estimate, and insist on receiving the final weight prior to We should not keep wasting money on repairs. We need a your departure. This will give you time before getting on the bolder, JFK-type program to bring us into the 21st century, one plane to ensure that items are either removed altogether or that will serve us far into the future. moved to storage to bring your shipment under the limit.

MAY 2008/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 53 A F S THE OVERSEAS BRIEFING CENTER AT 30 A Thinking Outside the Box: Reinventing Resources at OBC N BY KATE GOGGIN, WRITER EDITOR FOR FSI’S TRANSITION CENTER E W he halls of the Foreign Service wading through variously organized everyone from staff in bureau executive S Institute are abuzz with talk of a Web sites or waiting for responses from offices to career development officers. As Tnew YouTube video about Niamey, post personnel. In addition, the collec- attendees munched on fortune cookies, Niger. Discussing life in a foreign coun- tion allows users to share the results of they learned that these resources are not try is not unusual at FSI, of course, but post-specific research through a built-in only for Foreign Service members bidding the ability to access post-specific videos on jobs. Post management, communi- on the Internet is a huge step forward for ty liaison office coordinators and human FSI’s Overseas Briefing Center. resource officers also use Post Info To The YouTube videos were generated Go to save time answering the most by participants in OBC’s Clips to Go con- frequently asked questions from test, sponsored during the office’s 30th- family members and bidders. anniversary celebration last year. Overseas Long-term goals for OBC include contestants were challenged to create short creating password-protected Internet but interesting videos of Foreign Service access to Post Info To Go, as well as life at post. Winning entries were then other online resources such as the added to the growing list of audiovisu- Personal Post Insights collection. This al resources available online and in per- frank and anonymous collection of 1,400 son at the OBC’s offices in Arlington, recent first-person opinions on life at Va. post from those under chief-of-mission The OBC’s resource center, tradi- authority answers practical questions tionally a source for hard-copy infor- about daily living, such as: How do secu- mation and videos, takes a step for- rity concerns at post affect activities? What ward with the YouTube video links, are the conditions at school? Where is the part of a creative effort to provide housing? What are the family member research materials to the greater employment opportunities? Foreign Service community, includ- Other current outreach efforts include ing all the foreign affairs agencies, a partnership with BNET, the State Members of Household and family Department’s video broadcast unit. members — many of whom cannot visit There are 19 post on-demand videos the briefing center or access the State e-mail mechanism. As a result of these accessible online at: (intranet) http://obc. Department’s intranet where the major- innovations, the program’s usage has bnet.state.gov/category.asp?category_id ity of OBC’s online research tools reside. increased by almost 300 percent since =146, and more will be available soon. The anniversary allowed OBC to September 2006. According to BNET, post videos are the shine a spotlight on other innovative Still, only a small portion of the for- most requested of its offerings. OBC products, too. The Clips to Go program eign affairs community currently bene- encourages all posts to update their audio- was an offshoot of a popular OBC fits from the database. To better market visuals to present their best information resource, Post Info To Go, an online appli- the technology and make the Web to colleagues and a realistic view of life for cation that collates photos, documents resources more widely known, OBC bidders. Details about producing a post and intranet Web links from posts, as well secured a small grant from the Cox video are on the intranet at: http://fsi.state. as from other offices, such as the Family Foundation for an information campaign gov/rd.asp?ID=123. Liaison Office and the Office of Overseas during the 30th-anniversary event. OBC So, get online and join more than Schools. Because every post has an Coordinator Connie Hansen designed 3,890 viewers of the Niamey Clips to Go intranet Web site that is organized some- Chinese carry-out “to go” boxes with the entry. Anyone interested in creating Clips what differently, it can be confusing to tag line “OBC Delivers!” The boxes were to Go may view recent winners and entry locate key information quickly. Post Info filled with fortune cookies highlighting guidelines at: www.state.gov/m/fsi/tc/ To Go offers a predictable format so spe- OBC Web resources. 92015.htm. Submissions will be accept- cific information is accessible without Ms. Hansen organized briefings for ed until Aug. 1.

54 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/MAY 2008 A F FAMILY LIAISON OFFICE CELEBRATES MILESTONE S 30 Years of Support for FS Family Members A BY KATHRYN VIGUERIE, FLO COMMUNICATIONS AND OUTREACH COORDINATOR N E W hree decades ago, in March 1978, the That same AAFSW report also sug- S Family Liaison Office opened its gested that overseas posts fund a similar Tdoors for the first time. FLO began office to coordinate community activities, its service to the broad Foreign Service fam- locate community resources and work to ily with a staff of just two full-time maintain or improve post morale, thus employees. Its mandate was considerable: heralding the creation of the FLO program to both disseminate information to fami- overseas, which evolved into the Com- ly members and communicate the views munity Liaison Office Program. Although and needs of Foreign Service families on the family-friendly workplaces are now more policy matters that affect their welfare to U.S common, back then the State Department foreign affairs officials. was ahead of the times with the creation of To celebrate this milestone, Director FLO and CLO. General of the Foreign Service and Director FLO was established primarily as an of Human Resources Harry K. Thomas Jr. advocacy organization, and for 30 years the hosted a ceremony and reception in the FLO staff has worked to effect policy Benjamin Franklin Diplomatic Reception changes and create programs and services Room at the Department of State on March for the benefit of the Foreign Service “fam- 5. Deputy Secretary John D. Negroponte, ily” — employees, spouses, partners, Under Secretary for Management Patrick MOHs, children and other family mem- F. Kennedy, FLO Director Leslie Brant bers. FLO’s successes include the CLO pro- Teixeira and one of the founders of FLO, gram; improved educational allowances; Leslie Dorman, all spoke. voluntary and involuntary Separate For Teixeira and the current staff, this Maintenance Allowances; family member anniversary year is a time to step back and employment programs like the Global remember the past and the efforts of the Employment Initiative/Strategic Network- small group of people who were respon- friendly workplaces. The idea of an office ing Assistance Program; access for Members sible for the creation of the office. It is also designed to improve the morale of fami- of Household to many services and re- a time to look to the future. lies, and by extension employees, was greet- sources (to the extent currently permissi- The 30th-anniversary celebration was also ed with skepticism in many quarters. But ble under the law); expedited naturalization the launching pad for a brand-new FLO logo, a revolutionary 1977 report, “The Concerns help for family members; support for unac- which ties in well with the event’s focus on of Foreign Service Spouses and Families,” companied tours; and a host of publications meeting the needs of an ever-changing produced by the Association of American and support services designed to help Foreign Service. FLO wanted a visual image Foreign Service Women — now known as employees and family members navigate that would reflect the fact that it is a dynam- the Associates of the American Foreign significant life events including post evac- ic and energetic organization that embraces, Service Worldwide — changed that. The uation, divorce and adoption. supports and empowers a unique com- report recommended the creation of an For the past 30 years, FLO staff have munity and is ready to respond to changes office within the Department of State ded- been identifying issues of concern, advo- in demographics, family structure and client icated exclusively to improving the quali- cating for solutions and providing pro- needs. Teixeira says she is thrilled with the ty of life of the Foreign Service family. grams and client services to make the new design, with its “movement, reassur- AAFSW went on to convince State Foreign Service way of life easier and more ing sense of encirclement and abstract fig- management and members of Congress of productive. Says Teixeira, “We have made ures that represent our diverse client the necessity for such an office. When a difference, and we are proud of that — base.” Secretary of State Cyrus R. Vance opened but we don’t want to rest on our laurels. FLO has always been poised to adapt to FLO the following year, it was formally There will always be more we can do and, the changing needs of the Foreign Service. established as a presence within the bureau- like our predecessors, we are well prepared In 1978, nobody was talking about family- cratic structure of the department. for the challenge.”

MAY 2008/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 55 A F S HONORING SERVICE TO THE FS COMMUNITY A Family Member Advocate Leslie Dorman Receives Tragen Award N BY ANNE KAUZLARICH, DACOR EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT E W ifetime advocate for Foreign Service S family members Leslie Dorman L was honored with the Eleanor Dodson Tragen Award on Dec. 4 during an awards ceremony held in the Benjamin Franklin Diplomatic Reception Room of the State Department. The Tragen Award is presented annually at the Associates of the Foreign Service World- wide event, where the Secretary of State Awards for Outstanding Volunteerism Abroad are also presented (see the April Journal for details on the SOSA volunteer awards program). Daniel A. O’Donohue, president of Diplomats and Consular Officers, Retired, presented the Tragen Award to Leslie Dorman for her decades of work for the AAFSW, her instrumental role in estab- lishing the Family Liaison Office and her ANNE KAUZLARICH continuous advocacy for the rights, ben- DACOR President Daniel O’Donohue presents the Eleanor Dodson Tragen Award to Leslie Dorman. efits and welfare of FS spouses. Endowed by Mr. Irving Tragen in memory of his late wife, “Ele,” the and paved the way for establishment of tuated by pungent commentary about the award honors a Foreign Service spouse or the Overseas Briefing Center (1977) and past, delivered in the unmistakable Member of Household who, like Ele, the Family Liaison Office (1978). “This accents of her English upbringing. advocated effectively for rights and ben- year’s honoree is a woman Ele admired Inspired by her mother, who was a suf- efits for FS spouses and family members. for her energy and leadership of the fragette, Leslie Dorman was commis- In creating this award, Mr. Tragen rec- AAFSW and her contribution to its mod- sioned as a lieutenant and served during ognized the contribution of spouses/life- ernization and expansion,” Mr. Tragen World War II as a plotting officer and lec- partners who “saw injustice and worked noted in his remarks. “Ele’s words still turer at a cadet instructional school. She hard to eliminate it. They saw critical gaps echo in my ears about Leslie’s efforts to was working as a speech pathologist when in coverage for families, widows and deal with injustices in the rules and reg- she met her future husband, FSO Philip divorced people and took steps to fund ulations as well as the need to fill critical Dorman. They married in 1950, and she remedies. They saw the family as an inte- gaps in the department’s support of accompanied him around the world for gral part of the Foreign Service and took Foreign Service families, widows and the next 26 years. initiatives to promote and protect it. They divorced people.” In Zambia, she was a founder of the became our conscience and took bold Commenting on the current genera- YWCA Craft Shop, still going strong steps to goad the Foreign Service to tion of spouses/life-partners, Tragen today. She traveled the country, encour- respond to these human challenges.” said, “Today is as challenging to the aging different ethnic groups to make jew- Mr. Tragen, unable to attend due to Foreign Service spouse and family as was elry and other items for sale. A portion weather-related flight cancellations, sent the Cold War and the U.S. civil rights rev- of the funds helped build the YWCA hos- congratulatory remarks that were read by olution,” noting that the Tragen Award tel. At other posts, she produced and O’Donohue. The comments recalled how is meant to stimulate action by members acted in plays. Philip Dorman retired the efforts of his late wife, Mrs. Dorman of the FS community to benefit future from the Foreign Service in 1976, the same and other spouses resulted in the issuance generations. year Mrs. Dorman became president of by State in 1972 of a “Policy on Spouses” Mrs. Dorman’s comments were punc- AAFSW.

56 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/MAY 2008 A F FS VOICE: FAMILY MEMBER MATTERS BY DONNA SCARAMASTRA GORMAN S A Thanks for Your Service ... Now Here’s Your Pay Cut N E here are First-World types in the Foreign Service, and sons cited was the “improved quality of locally provided health W Third-World types, but the Gormans,” a friend once care.” I could relate numerous examples why this simply does- S “T said of us, “are Second-Worlders.” It’s true. We always n’t ring true, and so could many other family members here in seem to pick those middle-of-the-road places: hard, but not to Beijing. Many of us have a story of some health problem we’ve the point that we can’t take the kids. Our current post, Beijing, developed since arriving at post. Another reason cited: improved is our fourth hardship post (15-25 percent) in a row. air quality. We spouses all had a good laugh at that one. At the There’s a method to our madness. Because we have three small time, our kids were having an indoor playdate, because the air children, with another on the way, it makes sense for me to stay that day was so bad that they couldn’t go outside. In fact, two home right now and care for them — the day-care costs would days after Christmas the air pollution index was 433 in downtown make short work of my husband’s government salary. But this Beijing, 500 in the suburbs where we live. To put things into per- means we have to find posts where we can afford to live. One of spective, on an unhealthy pollution day in a major U.S. city the the reasons we bid on Beijing was because of the 15-percent hard- API is between 40 and 60. ship pay. We’re all just a bit suspicious When you go to a hardship post, about this pay cut we’ve been slapped you expect hardships. And we’ve had with, following as it does on the heels plenty. The pollution here can be so of the decision to take away business- bad that a thick fog settles over every- class travel for flights over 14 hours. thing, making your eyes feel like (Our travel time to post is right they’re bleeding whenever you step around the 14-hour mark.) But, okay. outside. My husband’s commute — Reduce the hardship pay if you must. most nights well over an hour — Here’s the thing, though: we combined with the long working chose this post based in part on what hours required at a vast post such as it meant for our pocketbook. We this pretty much guarantee that we’ll knew the risks involved, though we The Gorman family at the Great Wall of China. never eat dinner as a family. couldn’t have imagined what the real- In October, my previously healthy ity would be. We need that money, husband developed severe breathing troubles. A lifelong runner, and it isn’t right to take it from us, and from families like ours, he began wheezing as he climbed the stairs; at night, it sounded who came here in good faith, believing they would be compen- like he was drowning in his sleep. He was initially diagnosed with sated for the risk they chose to take. reactive airway disease and then a severe sinus infection. After If State needs to reduce hardship pay, for financial or other an inhaler, steroids and some four to five courses of antibiotics, reasons, they ought to grandfather in the policy. People who are his condition improved. But only after a trip to Hong Kong, where already assigned to post should not be given pay cuts — they should the air is cleaner, did his symptoms subside. be allowed to keep what they were promised when they moved And the worst hardship of all, in my opinion? About two here. Future bidders can be promised less, and they can make months into our tour, I caught a mysterious virus that caused me decisions for their families based on their own financial calcula- to go deaf in one ear. The doctors in Beijing weren’t equipped tions. to handle the emergency, so I was medevaced to Hong Kong. But please, don’t try to tell me that the quality of life in Beijing There, doctors tried to restore my hearing, though warned that has risen to such an extent that my family deserves a pay cut. Given the odds were against me, given how much time had elapsed. Back all that we’ve been through in our first six months at post, I don’t home in the States, or at a post that was more medically advanced, buy that argument — I just can’t afford it anymore. I would have been able to get treatment at the ER within hours, Donna Scaramastra Gorman is a freelance writer whose work has appeared improving my odds. Here, not so. I’m now permanently deaf in Newsweek, the Washington Post and the Christian Science Monitor. Her in one ear. Then again, as a colleague pointed out, “I suppose family has been posted in Moscow, Yerevan and Almaty. They are currently that’s one of the reasons you get hardship pay over there.” assigned to Beijing. Editor’s Note: A letter signed by a majority of Foreign I suppose it is. Imagine my shock, then, when a few months Service members at Embassy Beijing — 98 employees — was sent to the later, State decided to reduce our hardship pay. One of the rea- director general to express concern about the decrease in the differential.

MAY 2008/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 57

A F S Field Notes A from Belgrade N FROM BILL WANLUND, PAO BELGRADE AND E FORMER FSJ EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBER W S hen Embassy Belgrade was attacked on Feb. 21 by demonstrators Wangered by American support for and recognition of an independent Kosovo, a protestor ripped the brass embassy identi- fication plaque from the building’s facade. U.S. EMBASSY BELGRADE The plaque was later found in a pile of debris at the German embassy, which had also been attacked by rioters, by none other than the German ambassador, who returned it to U.S. Ambassador Cameron Munter. Amb. Munter turned the battered plaque into a one- of-a-kind award, which he presented to Regional Security Officer Tim Riley as “par- U.S. EMBASSY BELGRADE tial compensation for many sleepless nights BILL WANLUND and unwavering professional devotion to Clockwise, from top: Burned debris removed from Embassy Belgrade; Ambassador Cameron Munter duty.” J (left) presents the special plaque award to RSO Tim Riley; scorched embassy façade.

2008 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL READER SURVEY Coming Soon! Since the FSJ began publication in 1919 as The Consular Bulletin, it has undergone numerous changes in design and content. To plan ahead, we need your help. The 2008 FSJ Reader Survey is your chance to let us know your views on our flagship publication and how it is meeting your needs today. Please watch for the survey and take the time to respond: ONLINE: An AFSAnet announcement will contain the link BY E-MAIL: Contact FSJ Business Manager Alicia Campi at [email protected] IN HARD COPY: Call FSJ Business Manager Alicia Campi, (202) 338-4045, ext. 534, to request a printed copy Thank you in advance for your participation. Results will be published in the FSJ.

58 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/MAY 2008 A F S CLASSIFIEDS A N E W S

MAY 2008/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 59 A F S A CLASSIFIEDS N E W S

60 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/MAY 2008

BOOKS

An Elusive Figure Powell — is determined to burnish No one will go the image of her friend, President The Confidante: Condoleezza away unrewarded from George W. Bush, as a grand planner and foreign policy champion. To do Rice and the Creation of the this feast, but many Bush Legacy so, she must atone for her previous Glenn Kessler, St. Martin’s Press, will be hungry again weaknesses as his loyal but inept 2007, $25.95, hardcover, 288 pages an hour later. national security adviser. with index. According to the author, Rice’s “options and opportunities … are lim- REVIEWED BY BEN JUSTESEN ited by one deeply ironic fact: She was one of the weakest national security Condoleezza Rice is an intriguing so much of the “instant history” that advisers in U.S. history.” Nothing figure, as Glenn Kessler reminds passes for thoughtful journalism these new here; intellectual brilliance aside, readers early on in this biography: a days. History requires distance, per- Rice lacks high-level managerial expe- glamorous, tough-minded African- spective, detachment. Journalism rience and shows little aptitude for American woman in a world dominat- deals in relevance, timeliness, dead- details or imagination for sweeping, ed by middle-aged white men; flawed lines. They are, in short, opposing long-range planning. But whose but perhaps destined for greatness; a disciplines. opinion is this? Kessler’s? Dare he world-famous person about whom the Both critics and defenders of Rice risk Rice’s fabled, icy wrath by con- world knows surprisingly little. will find things to please or infuriate, fessing? Not here. Based largely on interviews with if not to illuminate, for there is less Yet Kessler is a thorough, observant friends, colleagues and (unnamed) news here than one would hope. reporter. He chronicles Rice’s many critics, and Kessler’s reporting for the What one never finds, however, is the trips abroad — and offers vignettes, Washington Post, The Confidante: heart of the elusive subject herself. particularly amusing regarding coun- Condoleezza Rice and the Creation of One hears her words; one hears her terparts Jack Straw and Tang Jiaxuan the Bush Legacy paints a mixed por- friends praise her, and (unnamed) — in fact-filled style. Interesting bio- trait of the current Secretary of State. State Department snipers taking their graphical details abound. But he She is generous to her friends and best shots at her. One sometimes sees should have omitted the fashion notes happily vindictive toward those who even the portrait Kessler tried to — and mystifying references to sexu- cross her; unhappily trapped in paint, but never the finished product ality — as more “Style Section” than Washington and wistful for escape. — for this is, at day’s end, only a “World News.” No one will go away The book is well-written, though sketch. There is no flesh here, nor unrewarded from this feast, but many not exceptional — a disappointment blood. There is only façade: steely, will be hungry again an hour later — because Kessler, described in one stubborn, glittering, opaque façade. or, worse, suffer indigestion trying to blurb as “a tough, independent beat What emerges is a hastily-assem- remember what they ate. reporter of the old school,” has won bled pastiche of overlong newspaper Kessler intends his account to Pulitzer Prizes. Some call him Rice’s articles, stitched together by two serve as “a rough guide for historians favorite reporter. So the book promis- uneven premises. First, Dr. Rice — of the future as they puzzle out this es much, yet delivers somewhat less. admirer of George Shultz, imitator of period in U.S. foreign policy.” As a Then again, it was written to sell, like James Baker, eschewer of Colin former journalist, I, too, view it as

62 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/MAY 2008 B OOKS A time of service…a time of need Help for Seniors May rough, but not much of a guide (and not history at all) — and advise Be Just a Phone Call Away— Kessler to keep his day job. The Senior Living Foundation may be After his days as a reporter, Ben able to help you or someone you know. Justesen was an FSO from 1983 to Some examples of assistance are: 1997, before becoming an author and historian. His latest book is Broken N Home Health Care Brotherhood: The Rise and Fall of N Adult Day Care & Respite Care the National Afro-American Council N Prescription Drug Copayments (Southern Illinois University Press, April 2008). N Transportation to Medical Appointments N Durable Medical Equipment

For more information, please contact the Making the SENIOR LIVING FOUNDATION Earth Move OF THE AMERICAN FOREIGN SERVICE 1716 N Street, NW N Washington, DC 20036-2902 Phone: (202) 887-8170 N Fax: (202) 872-9320 The Elephant and the Dragon: E-Mail: [email protected] N Web Site: www.SLFoundation.org

The Rise of India and China and SPONSORED BY THE AMERICAN FOREIGN SERVICE PROTECTIVE ASSOCIATION What It Means for All of Us Robyn Meredith, W.W. Norton, 2007, $22.95, hardcover, 252 pages.

REVIEWED BY JIM PATTERSON

Throughout The Elephant and the Dragon: The Rise of India and China and What It Means for All of Us, Robyn Meredith, a foreign corre- spondent for Forbes magazine, uses the word “tectonic.” It is an apt term for, as she observes, the rise of these two Asian giants “has caused the entire earth’s economic and political landscape to shift before our eyes.” In both cases, a change of national leadership was the key ingredient. The late Deng Xiaoping almost sin- glehandedly put China on its course to becoming an economic power- house in 1976, when he succeeded Chairman Mao Tse-tung and imme- diately instituted massive economic reforms. As Meredith observes, “Deng may have betrayed Mao’s memory, but he did so to preserve the party that Mao brought to power. The result was ‘a perpetual dragon economy.’”

MAY 2008/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 63 B OOKS

tion, she also asserts that U.S. compa- nies are currently drawn to India and To her credit, China not to exploit cheap labor, but because they want to establish their Meredith doesn’t overuse products and services in two countries that each have a billion people. They statistics to make her know that as Chinese and Indians become wealthier, they will have the points and draws on economic means and the desire to buy the products and services they can considerable reporting now ill afford. “Chinese factory workers, whether experience in both making light bulbs, talking toys or ten- nis shoes, earn each day about what countries. Americans pay for a latte at Star- bucks,” Meredith writes. And Star- bucks is already doing very well, even in a nation where tea has long been favored over coffee. Indeed, it has become a status symbol, not despite Next door, the Indian economy but because of its extravagant prices: A would remain a lumbering elephant tall latte costs 22 renminbi, about until 1991. When Rajiv Gandhi, the $2.75, enough money to buy a sub- ruling Congress Party’s candidate for stantial lunch for an entire Chinese prime minister, was assassinated, the family. party selected 70-year-old P.V. Nara- As American factories have relocat- simha Rao to run in his place. Upon ed to China and customer call centers taking office, Rao’s administration ini- and IT centers have moved to India, tiated broad changes that truly opened unprecedented job losses in the U.S. India to international economics and have stirred angry workers to push trade for the first time since its inde- Washington to take protectionist mea- pendence. sures. Meredith competently catalogs the Fortunately, recognizing economic benefits globalization has brought the reality, U.S. politicians have done little two Asian giants, such as lifting 200 more than offer retraining programs million Indians and Chinese out of for workers who have lost jobs to the poverty during the 1990s alone. China international labor market. Meredith doubled its per capita GDP in just agrees that protectionism and unre- nine years starting in 1978, and then strained free trade are undesirable doubled it again by 1996. Yet, as she policy choices, arguing that Ameri- acknowledges, it has been a mixed cans must become more innovative blessing. Both countries suffer from and better educated to enjoy the ben- poor infrastructure and massive envi- efits of globalization. ronmental pollution, with associated This is a reader-friendly book health problems. Meredith suggests because the author doesn’t overuse both countries would be ideal markets statistics to make her points and draws for U.S. environmental companies, on considerable reporting experience especially those with experience in in both countries. Her analysis is bal- massive cleanup operations. anced throughout, though she does Challenging a common misconcep- put slightly more emphasis on China

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than India. In sum, this book would indeed on the right track. Accordingly, Chiang was instructed to be a valuable addition to any Foreign Over the past half-century, many seek accommodation with Mao and Service employee’s bookshelf. closely held documents, including then denied arms and economic sup- FBI files and Senate records, have port when hostilities flared up, in Jim Patterson, a former Foreign now been declassified. We also now effect giving the communists a veto Service officer, is an economist and have access to the Venona intercepts, over U.S. aid to the Nationalists. freelance journalist whose work has U.S. Army recordings of Soviet tele- In the same vein, Evans cites fasci- appeared in the Foreign Service graphic message traffic that could not nating evidence of a proposal — Journal, New York Times, San be decrypted until recently. And after apparently a John Vincent project — Francisco Chronicle, The Hill and the the fall of the Soviet Union, scholars after the Nationalist government’s Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch, among were (all too briefly) given access to removal to Taiwan to offer Gen. Sun other publications. the Soviet archives. Evans, a journal- Li-jen money and arms if he would ist, author and Cold War scholar, calls agree to overthrow Chiang. The upon much of this newly available evi- author notes that this incident eerily Joe Was Right dence to make his case. presages events in Vietnam, where Many Soviet agents are profiled in U.S. officials conspired in the over- this volume, but the ones of most throw and murder of President Ngo Blacklisted by History: The interest to Foreign Service readers are Dinh Diem. Untold Story of Senator Joseph probably John Paton Davies, John Sen. McCarthy got into trouble and McCarthy and His Fight Against Service and John Vincent. All three of discredited himself with a lot of America’s Enemies these State Department officers Americans when he accused promi- M. Stanton Evans, Crown Forum, served in China and worked hard to nent officials, including Gen. Mar- 2007, $29.95, hardcover, 672 pages. throw sand in the gears of the shall, of being under Soviet influence. Nationalist Chinese, led by Chiang As Evans observes, just because an REVIEWED BY BOB MCMAHAN Kai-shek. official makes bad decisions does not In 1946, before Soviet military aid mean that he does so intentionally. It is conventional wisdom that the and training began flowing to Mao Thus, in this case at least, McCarthy efforts of Senator Joseph McCarthy, Tse-tung’s forces, they were weak and overstepped. But on the whole, his D-Wis., to reveal and contain the on the run from the Nationalist arm- fears of communist subversion were extent of Soviet infiltration of our gov- ies. Drawing on numerous sources, well placed. ernment and society back in the 1950s Evans concludes that such Soviet One of the truly nifty benefits of were both wrongheaded and counter- agents as Alger Hiss and Harry Dexter growing old is learning that what we productive. Even at the time, senior White (inter alia) in high positions at were sure we knew is all wrong, or at members of the Truman and both State and Treasury successfully least not as clear as we thought. This Eisenhower administrations chose to delayed the provision of economic and book will change forever how you attack him and his supporters instead military aid to the Nationalists, blunt- think about Sen. McCarthy and the of removing communists from govern- ing what might have been an early vic- Soviet penetration of the U.S. govern- ment positions. (In fact, many sus- tory over the communists. This effort ment and society. pected Soviet agents were allowed to included reporting by several Foreign transfer to other federal agencies or to Service officers assigned to the com- Bob McMahan was a Foreign Service the United Nations and other interna- munist base at Yenan, including Ser- officer from 1976 to 1999, serving in tional organizations.) vice and Davies, to the effect that Mao Ecuador, Thailand, Taiwan and Wash- McCarthy was a discredited figure was simply a democrat, opposed to the ington, D.C., among other posts. He when he died in 1957, at the age of 48. rule of “privilege.” currently seeks, somewhat ineffective- But in Blacklisted by History: The General (later Secretary of State) ly, to influence the political process at Untold Story of Senator Joseph George Marshall was apparently the local level. Though he serves as McCarthy and His Fight Against under the influence of both Davies secretary/treasurer of the Foreign America’s Enemies, M. Stanton Evans and Service. He developed the idea Affairs Retirees of Northern Virginia, persuasively argues that, however dis- that the two competing Chinese enti- this review represents his personal agreeable his tactics, the senator was ties should seek “peace and unity.” views only.

MAY 2008/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 65 IN MEMORY

Mabel Irene Conley Barrows, and, during a 25-year career, served in served as ambassador to Ecuador and 97, widow of the late Ambassador Le- Bombay (Mumbai), New Delhi, La- Venezuela, died on March 9 at his land Barrows, passed away on Feb. 24 hore, Accra and Dhaka, as well as home in the Collington Episcopal Life in Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C. From 1971 to Care Community in Mitchellville, Md. Mrs. Barrows was born in Cleve- 1974, he was the Foreign Service visit- Born in Chicago in 1910 to immi- land, Kans., in 1910. She earned a B.A. ing faculty member at West Point. grant parents, Maurice Bernbaum and M.A. in English and world litera- After retirement in 1981, Mr. Bax- attended public school and graduated ture, respectively, at the University of ter joined the faculty of Juniata Col- magna cum laude from Harvard Kansas, and was admitted to Phi Beta lege in Huntingdon as professor of College in 1931. With a degree in eco- Kappa in 1934 while pursuing gradu- politics and history. He also served as nomics, he had planned to go into ate studies. In 1935, she married a consultant to several groups involved investment banking; but because the Leland Barrows, accompanying him with South Asia. Depression was in full force at the to postings with the Marshall Plan, the Mr. Baxter was the author, co- time, that was not an option. He Foreign Operations Administration, author or editor of 19 books on South worked briefly as a social worker in and the Foreign Service in Paris, Asia, including the textbook Govern- Chicago and then took jobs in 1935 Rome, Athens, Saigon and Yaoundé. ment and Politics in South Asia (West- and 1936 with the Treasury Depart- Following her husband’s retire- view Press, 2001), now in its fifth edi- ment and the Tariff Commission, ment, Mrs. Barrows served for a num- tion. He is also the author of numer- respectively, in Washington, D.C. ber of years as a tutor for the Kings- ous articles in academic journals and There he met his wife-to-be, Eliza- bury Center in Washington, D.C., and chapters in collective works. He was beth “Betty” Hahn, on a blind date. then freelanced as a tutor. the founding president of the Ameri- Intrigued by the idea of diplomacy Irene Barrows is survived by her can Institute of Bangladesh Studies and travel, he took the entrance exam- son, Leland Conley Barrows, and and also served as president of the ination and joined the Foreign Service daughter-in-law, Adra Benaissa Bar- American Institute of Pakistan Stud- in 1936. His first posting, as vice con- rows of Blackville, S.C.; her daughter, ies. sul, was in Vancouver, followed by Jennifer Golden of Washington, D.C.; Mr. Baxter’s wife, Barbara Stevens Singapore in 1939. There he took the and her granddaughter, Nassima Baxter, preceded him in death on Dec. initiative, for which he was later repri- Irene Barrows. 23, 2003. He is survived by a son, manded, to grant visas to Jewish Craig Baxter II of McLean, Va.; a refugees on a ship bound for the daughter, Louise S. Baxter of Vienna, Philippines, thereby saving their lives. Va.; and a brother, William J. Baxter Jr. He himself left Singapore shortly Craig Baxter, 78, a retired FSO, of Chadds Ford, Pa. before the Japanese took it from the died on Feb. 7 in Huntingdon, Pa. British in World War II. Mr. Baxter was born in Elizabeth, On returning to the U.S., he mar- N.J., on Feb. 16, 1929, and raised in ried Elizabeth Hahn in Washington, Union, N.J., and Cleveland, Ohio. He Maurice M. Bernbaum, 98, a D.C., in 1942. The newlyweds spent entered the Foreign Service in 1956, retired Foreign Service officer who their honeymoon shopping for house-

66 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/ MAY 2008 I N M EMORY APPRECIATION THE PASSING OF A HUMANITARIAN EP OM ANTOS hold goods in New York on their way R . T L , 1928-2008 to his next post, Caracas, where he BY IAN HOUSTON, AFSA LEGISLATIVE AFFAIRS DIRECTOR worked to limit the commercial influ- ence of the Axis powers. In 1945, they were transferred to Growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area, I was surrounded by places of Managua, which temporarily had no great splendor and spots uniquely blessed by nature’s strokes. Shore- U.S. ambassador. In a surprising devel- lines, golden-grassed valleys covered with rolling fields of wildflowers and soar- opment for someone so junior, Mr. ing redwoods are but a few of the marvelous and subtle brushes on the surface Bernbaum found himself chargé d’af- of the area’s canvas. No place, however, reaches its true potential for beauty faires, the highest-ranking officer in without quality and varied people. Attracting and embracing distinct people of the embassy. For 18 months he man- diverse backgrounds is a particular attribute of the Bay Area. Tom Lantos was aged to prevent the United States such a person. from recognizing a Nicaraguan gov- As a young boy and teenager, I particularly admired the complexity of those ernment installed in a coup by the dic- who seemed to genuinely step off the pages of history — people who were tator Anastasio Samoza. deeply patriotic and served with pride in the local community while laying claim In 1947, the couple moved to with a textured accent to distant countries. Like my own immigrant parents, and Quito, where Mr. Bernbaum served as countless other examples, all were unique and sturdy in their own right. deputy chief of mission. Ecuador suf- Tom Lantos was born on Feb. 1, 1928, in Budapest and raised in Hungary. fered a devastating earthquake, and He was a strapping 16-year-old when Nazi Germany shattered his family’s world both Bernbaums helped the country with a brutal invasion. Forced into labor camps in Budapest, he eventually deal with the disaster. The couple also escaped the senseless grip of the Holocaust, which claimed the lives of so many survived a whirlpool in a jungle river he loved deeply. These experiences profoundly shaped his outlook and course after their dugout canoe capsized and in life. they were left for dead. After receiving a Ph.D. in economics from the University of California at Returning to Washington in 1950, Berkeley, Lantos and his wife, Annette, began to settle into the unique culture Mr. Bernbaum attended the Nation- and life of the Bay Area — first in a small apartment in San Francisco, then in al War College, worked on a detail at San Bruno and then Millbrae, a few miles south of San Francisco. A Democrat, the United Nations with Eleanor he was elected to Congress in 1980 and served there until his death on Feb. 11 Roosevelt, and handled North and from cancer. West Coast Latin American affairs at Lantos, the only Holocaust survivor elected to Congress, was the co-founder the State Department. In 1952, he of the 24-year-old Congressional Human Rights Caucus. Advancing human was transferred back to Caracas, this rights, alleviating poverty and enhancing democracy were the pillars marking his time as DCM under his favorite congressional record. A particular area of success was finding legislative vehicles ambassador, Fletcher Warren. He had to support the process of democratization in Central and Eastern Europe and in the difficult job of dealing with anoth- Russia and the republics of the former Soviet Union. er dictator, Marcos Perez Jimenez. I watched and listened to Tom Lantos closely, albeit at a formal distance, like Mr. Bernbaum returned to the an admiring student studies his teacher’s words in a crowded lecture hall. department to become director of Through the years and right to the end of his life, I paid attention to what he said South American affairs in 1954. Dur- about human rights and the ideas he pursued to protect innocent victims in the ing this period he accompanied Vice backyard of his district and in countless patches around the world. There was a President Richard Nixon on his con- wisdom, a boldness, a grace in the caring eyes and rich voice of Tom Lantos. troversial trip to South America. At I learned as a youth and continue to appreciate that Tom Lantos was like an his next post, as DCM in Buenos Aires architect whose craft, done well, resulted in the design and construction of a from 1959 to 1960, he worked with bridge across which people link to improved and more fulfilling lives. But he was Ambassador Willard Beaulac to re- more than this. He evolved into the bridge itself. On his shoulders, across his establish good relations with the strong back, over the firmness of an extended arm, we who have been touched Argentine government following the by his vision, safely cross, suspended well above the tides he himself toiled overthrow of Juan Peron. through. Perhaps befitting one of San Francisco’s most treasured landmarks, his In 1960, just before leaving office, life represents a Golden Gate, a bridge, a guide to peace through the world’s fog. President Dwight Eisenhower ap-

MAY 2008/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 67 I N M EMORY

pointed him ambassador to Ecuador, Not long after the couple moved to two more years to help establish pro- an appointment that President John F. Collington in 2003, Amb. Bernbaum’s cedures for declassifying documents. Kennedy renewed. During the next wife, Elizabeth, passed away. He is She settled in Washington, D.C., four years, Mr. Bernbaum dealt with survived by his two children, Edwin where she was active in Diplomatic complex issues such as Ecuador’s dis- Bernbaum of Berkeley, Calif., and and Consular Officers, Retired, serv- putes with Peru over borders and with Marcia Bernbaum of Washington, ing on the group’s education commit- the U.S. over tuna fishing rights. He D.C.; four grandchildren, Shana and tee and, twice, as a member of the managed to deal skillfully with two Leah Zallman, and David and Jona- board. She also volunteered with the challenging Ecuadorian presidents, than Bernbaum; a sister, Sandra Fei- Senior Living Foundation and the both overthrown in coups, and the genberg; and a brother, Harry Bern- Asia Society. military governments that followed baum. Ms. Byrne is survived by a sister. them; and he oversaw the birth of the Memorial contributions may be Alliance for Progress program in made in his name to the Senior Living Ecuador. Foundation of the American Foreign In 1964, President Lyndon John- Service, 1716 N Street NW, Washing- Thomas P. H. Dunlop, 73, a re- son appointed Mr. Bernbaum ambas- ton DC 20036 (www.slfoundation. tired FSO, died on Feb. 1 at his home sador to Venezuela. He devoted much org). in Alexandria, Va. of his four years in Caracas to dealing Mr. Dunlop was born on June 12, with problems with petroleum and 1934, in Washington, D.C., but spent Venezuelan resentments over prefer- his youth in Asheville, N.C. He ential treatment for Canada. He took Patricia M. Byrne, 82, a retired attended both the University of North special satisfaction in playing a key FSO and former ambassador to Mali, Carolina and Yale University, receiving role in averting a war between Vene- Burma and the United Nations, died his bachelor’s degree cum laude from zuela and neighboring Guyana. on Nov. 23, 2007, at The George Yale in 1956. He was also a member Amb. Bernbaum retired as a career Washington University Medical Cen- of Phi Beta Kappa. After spending a minister in 1969, and he and his wife ter in Washington, D.C. year in Berlin as a Fulbright scholar, moved back to Washington, D.C. He Ms. Byrne was born in Cleveland, he served in the United States Air continued to take a keen interest in Ohio, and graduated from Vassar Col- Force in France and Germany as an foreign affairs, and was an active lege. She received a master’s degree intelligence officer. member of the International Club. from the School of Advanced Inter- In 1960, Mr. Dunlop joined the He served as the president of national Studies at Johns Hopkins Foreign Service. During a 33-year Diplomatic and Consular Officers, University in 1947. diplomatic career, he served as a polit- Retired, from 1981 to 1983, and main- In 1949, she joined the Foreign ical officer in Yugoslavia, Vietnam and tained close contact with his col- Service, serving in Greece, Vietnam, Korea. Washington assignments in- leagues in the Foreign Service. And Turkey, Laos, France and Sri Lanka, cluded a tour as country director for he was a member of the Cosmos Club where she was deputy chief of mis- Romania and Korea, as well as details to the end of his life. sion, in addition to Washington, D.C. to the Defense Department and the When he and his wife left their In 1969, Ms. Byrne became the first office of the Director of Central Intel- home in Bethesda to go to the female graduate of the National War ligence. Mr. Dunlop also attended the Maplewood Park Place retirement College. She was named ambassador Senior Seminar. community, Amb. Bernbaum started to Mali in 1976 by President Gerald Upon retirement in 1993, Mr. and ran a popular current affairs dis- Ford, and in 1979 President Jimmy Dunlop served on a civil rights mission cussion group there. In his later years, Carter dispatched her to Burma. to Yugoslavia, obtained a master’s when he could no longer pursue his President Ronald Reagan named her degree from George Mason Univer- lifelong love of golf, he became an avid deputy U.S. permanent representative sity in linguistics, and taught English walker, covering three miles a day well to the United Nations, with the rank of as a second language. He was also into his 90s. He also traveled widely ambassador, a position she held from employed by the State Department to with his wife and loved to spend time 1985 to 1989. review classified official documents with her, his children and his grand- Ms. Byrne retired in 1989, but with a view to making them available children. returned to the State Department for to historians and the general public.

68 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/MAY 2008 I N M EMORY

Mr. Dunlop is survived by his sons, Naval Training Center near Chicago. D.C. Mr. Ferguson became a distin- Preston and Alexander; a daughter, He was stationed in Newport News, guished graduate of the National War Angela; and his former wife, the Rev. Va., and served as an electronics tech- College in 1976. His language special- Betty Dunlop. Gifts in remembrance nician aboard the USS Mt. Olympus, a ty was Chinese. He was honored by can be made to Parents and Associates communications ship in the Carib- the State Department with the Com- of the Northern Virginia Training bean. mendable Service Award for work in Center (www.parentsandassociates In 1953, Mr. Ferguson married Washington during the early 1960s nvtc.com/). Daryl Emerick, a fellow student in the and with the John Jacob Rogers Award School of International Relations at in 1985. the University of Southern California. The citation for the latter award Mr. Ferguson studied under the G.I. reads, in part: “for outstanding dedica- Donald C. Ferguson, 79, a Bill and earned a master’s degree in tion and distinguished accomplish- retired FSO, died on March 1 in San international relations from USC in ment during 29 years as a Foreign Diego, Calif., after a nine-year battle 1956, joining the Foreign Service the Service officer. Your achievements in with cancer. same year. Asia during the period of transition of Born on April 1, 1928, in Wichita, During a 30-year career with the United States and Taiwan relations Kans., Mr. Ferguson graduated from Department of State, Mr. Ferguson and overall bilateral science and tech- East High School in 1946, and joined served in Colombia, Taiwan, Hong nology relations between the two gov- the Navy, completing his boot camp Kong, Vietnam and Thailand, in addi- ernments reflected the highest stan- and electronics training at Great Lakes tion to several tours in Washington, dards of public service.”

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Mr. Ferguson retired in 1986, and published his first novel. The Man years, Nancy Ely-Raphel, Mr. Ham- settled in Vista, Calif., where he began Who Lost the War (Dial Press) tells rick is survived by four children from a new career as a computer consultant the story of a disillusioned Central his marriage, Samuel Jennings III of and grew avocados and exotic fruits. Intelligence Agency operative at the Seattle and John of Port Angeles, He enjoyed travel — to China, time of the Berlin Wall crisis in the Wash., Hugh of Paris, and Anne England, Italy and other places — as early 1960s. Two novels on East-West Hamrick Burns of Greencastle, Pa.; well as bridge, opera, theatre and proxy wars in Africa followed: The three sisters; and five grandchildren. friends and family. In 1996, he relo- Ants of God (Dial Press, 1981), set in cated to Point Loma in San Diego. Sudan; and Rogue’s March (Harper & Survivors include his wife of 54 Row, 1982), set in the Congo. Mr. years, Daryl Ferguson; daughters Hamrick wrote three more novels: George M. Humphrey, 72, a Andrea Leach and Holly Rio; and The Shadow Cabinet (Harper & Row, retired FSO living in Berlin, Germany, grandchildren Tony Leach, Jamie 1984), The Lion and the Jackal (Lin- died there of a sudden cardiac arrest Leach, Andre Rio and Melanie Rio. den Press/Simon & Schuster, 1988) on Sept. 11, 2007. The family requests that commemora- and The Consul’s Wife (Henry Holt, Born in Albany, N.Y., Mr. Hump- tive donations be made to the Scripps 1998), the latter two set in Africa. hrey grew up in State College, Pa. He Health foundation, 10666 North Tor- Rogue’s March, which features a graduated from Antioch College in rey Pines Road #109N, La Jolla CA traitorous intelligence officer mod- 1958 and, in 1960, received a master’s 92037. The donations will be desig- elled on British counterspy Kim Phil- degree in international relations from nated to the bone-marrow transplant by, was rejected by Mr. Hamrick’s the Johns Hopkins School of Ad- program. British publisher. As Stuart Lavietes vanced International Studies. That wrote in his obituary of the author for same year, he joined the Foreign Ser- the New York Times, this decision vice. reinforced Hamrick’s admitted anti- His first assignment, along with Samuel J. Hamrick, 78, a retired British attitudes, a predisposition that several other Russian-speaking junior FSO who wrote spy novels under the had earlier led him to a pen name officers, was to act for a year as a pseudonym W.T. Tyler, died of colon derived from Wat Tyler, the leader of a guide/interpreter on U.S. traveling cancer on Feb. 29 at his home in bloody peasant rebellion in 14th-cen- cultural exhibitions in the USSR. Boston, Va. tury England. In a 1984 profile in the With these exhibits, Mr. Humphrey Mr. Hamrick was born on Oct. 19, New York Times, Mr. Hamrick ex- spent considerable time in Moscow, 1929, in Lubbock, Tex. A 1951 gradu- pressed displeasure at being com- Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), Kiev, ate of the University of Louisville in pared to British writers John le Carré Kharkov, Tbilisi and Stalingrad (now Kentucky, he served with U.S. Army and Graham Greene because he felt Volgograd). Having daily contact with counterintelligence from 1951 to 1953. both were hostile to Americans. Soviet citizens gave him a deeper than After working in the private sector In 1994, he served briefly as a State usual insight into the mindset of per- for eight years, Mr. Hamrick joined Department consultant in Somalia, a sons belonging to all strata of Soviet the Foreign Service in 1961. During a country he knew well. society. Following this, he spent two 19-year diplomatic career, he served in Mr. Hamrick wrote one book under years on short assignments to the Beirut, St. John’s, St. Pierre and his own name, Deceiving the Deceivers Soviet and Cuban desks. Miquelon, Montreal, Kinshasa, Addis (Yale University Press, 2004). In this In 1964, Mr. Humphrey was Ababa and Khartoum. “One of the revisionist history of the Kim Philby assigned to Port of Spain as a consular greats of the Foreign Service in my case, he argues that Philby and his officer. From Trinidad, he moved to time” is the way former colleague Bob associates, exposed in 1967 for passing Vienna, serving as aide to Ambassador Keeley remembers Hamrick, adding top-secret information to the Soviets, James Riddleburger. In 1970, Mr. that he was “outspoken, ethical, seri- had, in fact, been unwitting tools in a Humphrey was sent again to the ous, intelligent, humorous, reliable disinformation campaign staged by USSR, this time spending one year in and ‘not successful’ for all of the right their superiors in British intelligence. the consular section and one year in reasons.” Mr. Hamrick’s marraige to Joan the political section at Embassy Mos- Shortly after leaving the State Neurath Hamrick ended in divorce. cow. Department in 1980, Mr. Hamrick In addition to his companion of 12 Having been awarded a congres-

70 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/MAY 2008 I N M EMORY

sional fellowship, he then spent a year by the three occupying powers in the Mr. Kuhn was born on April 6, on Capitol Hill. Before returning Western sectors of the capital. Until 1941, at the Schofield Barracks Army abroad again, Mr. Humphrey served June 1991, the bureau served as an Hospital on Oahu, Hawaii, and grew for two years in the Arms Control and entity to which Berlin citizens could up in Fairborn, Ohio. He received his Disarmament Agency, followed by bring claims they might have had high school diploma from Chaminade two years on the Soviet desk and two against any or all of the three Allied High School in Dayton, and his under- years on the German desk. powers. graduate and graduate degrees in eco- In the summer of 1977, Mr. Mr. Humphrey is survived by his nomics from Xavier University in Humphrey was assigned to the U.S. three children, Lisa, Nina and Peter; Cincinnati (1963) and Ohio State mission in Berlin, serving there as his former wife, Sandra Humphrey; University in Columbus (1965), re- public safety adviser until 1981. He two sisters, Phyllis Brown and Phoebe spectively. He joined USAID in 1967. returned to Washington and worked Cottingham; a niece and nephew; and During his 30-year career as a for two years on the Yugoslav desk. In his companion of many years, Foreign Service officer, Mr. Kuhn spe- 1983, he was assigned a second time to Heidemarie Rennman. cialized in Asia and the Pacific Islands. Berlin, this time as political counselor. He spent 23 years on assignment as a Mr. Humphrey retired from the program officer with USAID in State Department in 1986, remaining Thailand, Indonesia, Fiji, Papua New in Berlin, where he was selected in Louis H. Kuhn, 66, a retired FSO Guinea and Sri Lanka. In addition, he 1988 to direct the Allied Mediation with USAID, died on Feb. 15 in was on assignment for seven years at Bureau that had just been established Naples, Fla., after a long illness. the Department of State.

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Mr. Kuhn served as an officer in served overseas with the U.S. Navy The family requests that memorial the U.S. Army reserves for nine years, from 1946 to 1948. Mr. Nenno earned donations be made to WGBH, 1 and was on active duty in Thailand, his bachelor’s degree from Brown Guest St., Boston MA, or to HOPE Georgia and Indiana. In October University in 1951 and went on to Worldwide, 353 W. Lancaster Ave., 1972, he was honorably discharged as Georgetown University, earning an Wayne PA. a captain in the U.S. Army Finance M.A. in 1954 and a Ph.D. in 1964 in Corps. political science. Following retirement from the Mr. Nenno joined the Foreign Foreign Service in 1997, Mr. Kuhn Service in 1955. During his diplomat- David Taylor Paton, 85, a retired settled in Naples, where he served as ic career, he was posted in Frankfurt, Foreign Service courier, passed away an adjunct instructor in economics at Vienna, Madras, Canberra and East at the Masonic Village in Sewickley, both Edison College and Florida Gulf Berlin, in addition to Washington, Pa., on Oct. 9, 2007. Coast University. He was also a peri- D.C. A specialist in politico-military Mr. Paton was born and raised in odic lecturer on foreign affairs at affairs, he was a State Department Tenafly, N.J., and graduated from FGCU’s Renaissance Academy and representative for the Mercury space Tenafly High School in 1940. Follow- other local groups. He actively volun- program and in 1974 helped to estab- ing his service in the Navy during teered on both the program and lish the first U.S. embassy in East World War II, he attended Miami of school outreach committees of the Berlin. Following his retirement in Ohio College, earning a bachelor’s Naples Council on World Affairs, and 1982, Mr. Nenno continued to work degree. was a board member of the Foreign for the Pentagon, the National In 1951, Mr. Paton joined the Service Retirees Association of Archives and the Department of State Department of State as a diplomatic Florida. until 2003. courier, traveling constantly from Mr. Kuhn is survived by his wife of Delivering a eulogy for her father overseas courier bases in France, 26 years, C. Iswati “Wati” Kuhn from on Jan. 12, Claudia Trombly recalled Germany, Thailand and Panama. Mr. Jogyakarta, Indonesia, who is a his diplomatic career with pride: Paton’s final overseas posting was teacher’s assistant at St. Ann School in “Language was his gift and he used it Mexico City, where he served as the Naples; their two children, Ardi well. In Frankfurt, his first post, he embassy conference attaché for Robert of New York City, and Isti hung out mainly with native Germans approximately 12 years. His last Pauline of Naples; and four brothers so much so that he became fluent in assignment prior to retiring from the and sisters: Christopher B. of German. Even years later, when he Foreign Service was as a Pearson Annapolis, Md.; Robert B. of Bangor, helped open the first U.S. embassy Fellow for the city of San Antonio. Maine; Cesarea Miday Belden- behind the Iron Curtain in East Berlin, Mr. Paton was a member of AFSA, Johnson of Avila Beach, Calif.; and he was mistaken for a native speaker all as well as a 32nd-degree Mason and Katherine F. Kuhn of Naples. the time. Dad had a quiet charm that member of the Alzafar Shrine in San Memorial contributions may be drew people to him, not only at Antonio. He will be missed by his made to the Salesian Missions, 2 embassy functions and the local restau- many friends and family, one of whom Lefevre Lane, New Rochelle NY rants of India but also in the vegetable recalled: “Dave was big on wit and 10801-5710. section at the grocery store.” personality. In social gatherings, he Mr. Nenno was a resident of was often the center of attention, Washington, D.C., until 2005, when keeping things stirred up.” he moved to Haverhill, Mass. He was Mr. Paton’s beloved wife, Agnes de William Claude Nenno, 80, a married to the late Shirley E. (Rick- Lima Paton, passed away in 2004. He retired Foreign Service officer, died ard) Nenno. He is survived by left no immediate survivors. on Jan. 10 at Caritas Holy Family two daughters and sons-in-law, Nancy Contributions in his memory may Hospital in Methuen, Mass. P. Nenno and Michael Marano of be made to the Senior Living Founda- Mr. Nenno was born on Aug. 5, Charleston, S.C., and Claudia G. tion of the American Foreign Service, 1927 in Olean, N.Y., the youngest of Trombly and Michael W. Trombly of c/o AFSPA, 1716 N Street NW, Wash- four children. He was raised in East Haverhill; a granddaughter, Tatiana ington DC 20036-2902, or to Forbes Aurora, N.Y., and graduated from East Trombly of Haverhill; and several Hospice, 115 S. Neville Street, Pitts- Aurora High School in 1945. He nieces and nephews. burg PA 15213.

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Max Newton Robinson, 64, a sul general. His other overseas post- with border collies, and he loved retired FSO, died on Jan. 18 at a hos- ings included Dakar, London, Mos- books, flea markets, long-distance pice in Burlington, Wash., following a cow and Helsinki, where he served as bide rides, saltwater boating and chop- lengthy, debilitating illness. deputy chief of mission. His tours of ping wood. Family and friends recall Mr. Robinson was born in 1943 in duty in Washington included postings that he was a man who loved life and Scottsbluff, Neb., and grew up in in the Bureau of Human Resources, lived it to the fullest. Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, and Yakima, the Operations Center and the Mr. Robinson is survived by his Wash. He earned his B.S. from Bureau of European Affairs, as well as wife, Anne, of Mt. Vernon, Wash.; his Seattle Pacific University in 1965, and a tour as deputy executive secretary. son Daniel and daughter Natalie, who a master’s degree in social work from In addition to several Superior Honor reside in Big Lake, Wash.; and by two the University of Washington in Awards, Mr. Robinson received the children from his first marriage: a son, Seattle in 1971. After a tour with the President’s Meritorious Service Award Joel, an FSO currently at Embassy Peace Corps in Uganda and employ- and an Award for Valor, both in 1993. London with his family, and a daugh- ment as a social worker, he joined the Mr. Robinson enjoyed working ter, Elisabeth (Lisa) of Newtonville, Foreign Service in 1974. with stained glass, framing art and Mass.; three granddaughters; a broth- Over the course of 24 years, Mr. home remodeling projects. He was er, Bill Robinson; and many nieces and Robinson attained the Senior Foreign known for his patience with children nephews. Service rank of minister counselor. A and his uncanny ability to calm fussy Memorial contributions may be consular officer, he retired in January babies. He also had a reputation as a sent to The Senior Living Foundation 1998 from London where he was con- dog whisperer because of his knack of the American Foreign Service, 1716

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N Street NW, Washington DC 20036- during the Battle of the Bulge. “a distinguished career of creative 2902. In 1946, Mr. Schaufele returned to contribution to American foreign poli- Yale, where he majored in govern- cy, of unerring execution of that policy ment and international affairs and often under crisis conditions, and of graduated in 1948. He received an leadership that instilled in [his] subor- Nathan Rosenfeld, 85, a retired M.A. from the Columbia School of dinates a sense of pride in and dedica- FSO who served with USIA, died on International Affairs in 1950. tion to the service.” Dec. 28, 2007, at Fairfax Hospital in Mr. Schaufele joined the Foreign Following his retirement, Amb. Fairfax, Va. Service in 1950. His first assignment Schaufele served as president of the Mr. Rosenfeld was raised in was to Frankfurt as a “resident offi- Foreign Policy Association until Jan- Herkimer, N.Y. He graduated from cer.” Later that year, he was trans- uary 1985. He was also director of the Utica College in 1952, and received a ferred to Pfaffenhausen, and in 1952 Institute of World Affairs in Taconic, master’s degree from the University of to Augsburg and, finally, to Dusseldorf N.Y. Pennsylvania in 1959. A decorated as a labor officer. A transfer to Munich He is survived by his wife, Heather, veteran of World War II, he served as an economic and consular officer of Salisbury, Conn., and two sons, with the U.S. Army Air Forces in followed in 1953. He returned to Steven and Peter, and two grandchil- Europe and the Pacific and the U.S. Washington in 1956 to fill an econom- dren, Alaric and Margaret. Air Force in Korea and Japan. ic affairs position, and was detailed to Prior to entering the Foreign the faculty of the Foreign Service Service in 1963, Mr. Rosenfeld held Institute in 1957. academic positions in East Asia, Latin Mr. Schaufele was next posted to American and at the University of Casablanca in 1959 as a political/labor New Mexico. During his Foreign officer. In 1963, he opened the con- Service career he served with USIA as sulate in Bukavu (formerly Coster- a cultural affairs officer, director of the mansville) in the newly independent, Binational Center, and an American turbulent Congo. He returned to studies officer in Latin America. State a year later to serve as Congo Domestic assignments included post- desk officer, and between 1964 and ings at State, the Fulbright Commis- 1969 held increasingly responsible sion and USIA. positions in the Bureau of African Mr. Rosenfeld is survived by his Affairs. wife, Maria Rosenfeld of Burke In 1969, President Richard Nixon Station, Va.; and two daughters, appointed Mr. Schaufele ambassador E-mail your Stephanie Sursi and Yillah Rosenfeld. to Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso). “In Memory” Two years later, he was named U.S. submission to the representative to the U.N. Security Council with the rank of ambassador. Foreign Service William E. Schaufele Jr., 85, a After four years in New York, he retired Foreign Service officer and became assistant secretary of State for Journal, attention former ambassador and assistant sec- African affairs. Susan Maitra at retary of State, died on Jan. 17 at President Jimmy Carter named Noble Horizons in Salisbury, Conn., him U.S. ambassador to Poland in [email protected], following a long illness. 1978. There he witnessed the election or fax it to Born in Lakewood, Ohio, the son of Carol Cardinal Wojtila, archbishop of William Elias Schaufele and Lillian of Krakow, as Pope John Paul II, and (202) 338-6820. Bergen, he entered Yale in 1942, then the rise of the Solidarity movement. enlisted in the Army in March 1943. Amb. Schaufele retired from the He served in Europe with the 10th Foreign Service in 1980 with the rank No photos, please. Armored Division of Patton’s Third of career minister. He received the Army, and was at Bastogne, Belgium, Wilbur Carr Award in recognition of

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MAY 2008/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 79 REFLECTIONS “Wow — You Must Really Like Winter!”

BY JOAN B. ODEAN

don’t know how many times peo- wegians, the Rideau Canal in the mid- ple have said this when I tell them The beauty more than dle of the city becomes “the longest Ithat my husband and I have served made up for the cold. ice-skating rink in the world,” as for the past 10 years in Oslo, Moscow Canadians are quick to boast with the and, now, Ottawa — three of the cold- backing of Guinness World Records. est posts where the U.S. maintains a My morning commute to work takes diplomatic presence. me along the length of the Canal; the I know that these are not the cold- home would take more than an hour. skaters, who move with grace and sta- est posts (Ulaanbaatar, I hear you!), It seemed that every Norwegian in mina to an inner song, never fail to but these capitals definitely put on a Oslo was on their way up the mountain enthrall me. good show of a real winter for more to hit the city’s 130 kilometers of light- People ask me how I coped with than six months each year. And when ed cross-country ski trails. the winters in Oslo and Moscow. one is talking about a temperature But Oslo is dark — as in long, dark Truthfully, my negative memories of range of between 5 and minus 15 winters. Toward the end of Decem- cold so intense that it hurts are reced- degrees F over a period of several ber, night would settle in by 3:30 p.m., ing. What I do remember is the love- months, trying to define “coldest” and the sun would not rise until 9 a.m. ly, muted early morning light on firs, becomes moot. the next day. Norwegians rejoice in their boughs coated silver with hoar- Let me say up front that, no, actual- this darkness. Candles are every- frost, surrounding and overlooking ly I really don’t enjoy winters. The day where, even on the tables in Mc- Oslo Fjord. And I remember Red after Christmas, it’s time for spring to Donald’s. Square on Christmas Eve, with snow arrive in my book. I was born and From Norway, I chose Moscow as softly piling on the tops of the multi- raised in Texas. My husband, on the my next post. I will be the first to colored turrets of St. Michael’s. other hand, is from Chicago. For him, sheepishly admit that I had starry-eyed So while I am looking toward my the colder the winter, the happier he adolescent memories of “Dr. Zhivago” last winter here in Ottawa with a bit of is. I can still hear my mother-in-law when choosing this assignment. But trepidation, I know that when I depart, saying, “Cold weather is good for you when my husband and I arrived at the my strongest memories will be of skat- — it kills germs.” dreary, decrepit Sheremetevo Airport, ing on the frozen Rideau Canal, drink- Our first foray into an arctic climate there was nary a Cossack in sight. ing mugs of hot chocolate and savoring was an assignment to Oslo after de- Instead, there were eight lanes of hot, buttery, flaky “beavertail” cookies. parting Tel Aviv. While Norway is sit- whizzing traffic one block from the Who knows? I may just convince uated quite far north, its winters actu- embassy, and Russians passed-out on my husband that Ulaanbaatar would be ally were not too bad because they icy sidewalks on Sunday mornings an interesting onward assignment. were moderated by the Gulf Stream. after a night of being fueled against the And the beauty more than made up cold with vodka. Joan Broyles Odean, an office man- for the cold. After Moscow, I wanted to be clos- agement specialist who joined the Our apartment was halfway up er to home, and so I sought an assign- Foreign Service in 1985, has served in Hollmenkollen Mountain, at the top of ment in Canada. But nothing pre- Geneva, Bonn, Tel Aviv, Oslo, Mos- which is one of the longest ski jumps in pared me for the cold in Ottawa — cow and Washington, D.C. Currently the world. When it was snowing heav- and the length of the winters! posted in Ottawa, she was second- ily — big, fat snowflakes drifting down Although Canadians do not em- place winner in the Journal’s 2007 FS — my four-mile evening commute brace winters with the zeal of Nor- fiction contest.

80 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/MAY 2008