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The Foreign Service Journal, April 2015

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PUBLISHED BY THE AMERICAN FOREIGN SERVICE ASSOCIATION APRIL 2015 40 YEARS AFTER THE FALL OF SAIGON THE FOREIGN SERVICE IN VIETNAM CITIZENSHIP AND UNWED BORDER MOMS FOREIGN April 2015 SERVICE Volume 92, No. 3 FOCUS ON THE FOREIGN SERVICE IN VIETNAM AFSA NEWS 2014 Survey—AFSA Listens History Revisted / 20 to Its Members / 71 BY SHAWN DORMAN 2014 Survey—State Members Respond / 72 VP Voice State: Open Plan Offices— Viet Cong Attack on Embassy Saigon, 1968 / 22 Boon or Bane? / 74 BY ALLAN WENDT VP Voice FCS: Some Good News / 75 From Whitehouse to the White House / 25 Look for Your Ballot: Vote in the AFSA Election / 75 BY KENNETH QUINN VP Voice Retiree: My Three Laws / 76 Mobilizing for South Vietnam’s Last Days / 33 AFSA Hosts Va. Congressman / 77 BY PARKER W. BORG 2014 Tax Guide: Clarification / 77 Capitol Hill Panel Discusses Women in Diplomacy / 78 Saigon Sayonara / 37 Sinclaire Language Award BY JOSEPH MCBRIDE Recipients / 79 AFSA Community: A New Way Finding My Heroes, Finding Myself: to Engage / 79 AFSA at the Bureau of From Refugee Child to State Department Official / 43 Diplomatic Security / 80 BY ANNE D. PHAM Tax News: Foreign Earned Income Exemption Denials / 80 AFSA Welcomes New Interns / 81 Doing Social Work in Southeast Asia / 50 Helping Our Afghan and Iraqi BY LANGE SCHERMERHORN Colleagues / 82 Counterinsurgency in Vietnam: Lessons for Today / 53 COLUMNS President’s Views / 7 BY RUFUS PHILLIPS How to Find the Next Bill Burns BY ROBERT J. SILVERMAN Vietnam Today / 63 Speaking Out / 16 BY MURRAY HIEBERT Citizenship and Unwed Border Moms: The Misfortune of Geography Return to Vietnam: Observations in 2015 / 66 BY AMELIA SHAW BY PARKER W. BORG Reflections / 96 Vietnam: Endings and Beginnings BY BRUCE A. BEARDSLEY APPRECIATION DEparTMENTS L etters / 8 A True Gentleman: Theodore S. Wilkinson III / 83 Talking Points / 12 Books / 85 A lifelong AFSA member, Ted served as the association’s elected president Local Lens / 98 from 1989 to 1991 and as FSJ Editorial Board chair from 2005 to 2011. BY STEVEN ALAN HONLEY MARKETPLacE Classifieds / 87 Real Estate / 90 Index to Advertisers / 95 O n the cover: On the afternoon of April 29, 1975, Joe Gettier left the embassy against the orders of the U.S. ambassador to save people. With the help of Mel Chatman and Bill Egan, Gettier used barges pulled by tug boats at Khanh Hoi Saigon Port. Photo by Nik Wheeler, courtesy of Anne Pham. THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | APRIL 2015 5 FOREIGN SERVICE S Editor Shawn Dorman: [email protected] Managing Editor www.afsa.org Susan Brady Maitra: [email protected] Associate Editor Debra Blome: [email protected] CONTACT Editorial/Publications Specialist AFSA Headquarters: Labor Management Brittany DeLong: [email protected] (202) 338-4045; Fax (202) 338-6820 General Counsel Ad & Circulation Manager State Department AFSA Office: Sharon Papp: [email protected] Ed Miltenberger: [email protected] (202) 647-8160; Fax (202) 647-0265 Deputy General Counsel Art Director USAID AFSA Office: Zlatana Badrich: [email protected] Caryn Suko Smith (202) 712-1941; Fax (202) 216-3710 Labor Management Specialist FCS AFSA Office: James Yorke: [email protected] Editorial Intern (202) 482-9088; Fax (202) 482-9087 Senior Staff Attorney Shannon Mizzi Neera Parikh: [email protected] Advertising Intern GOVERNING BOARD Staff Attorney William Read President Raeka Safai: [email protected] Contributing Editor Robert J. Silverman: [email protected] Staff Attorney Steven Alan Honley Secretary Angela Dickey: [email protected] Andrew Large: [email protected] Treasurer Hon. Charles A. Ford: [email protected] Editorial Board Labor Management Counselor State Vice President Jim DeHart, Chairman Colleen Fallon-Lenaghan: Matthew K. Asada: [email protected] Hon. Gordon S. Brown [email protected] USAID Vice President Stephen W. Buck Labor Management Assistant Sharon Wayne: [email protected] Ruth M. Hall Jason Snyder: [email protected] FCS Vice President Richard McKee Executive Assistant Steve Morrison: [email protected] Beth Payne Lindsey Botts: [email protected] FAS Vice President John G. Rendeiro Jr. USAID Senior Labor Management Adviser David Mergen: [email protected] Duncan Walker Douglas Broome: [email protected] Retiree Vice President Tracy Whittington USAID Staff Assistant Lawrence Cohen: lawrencecohenassociates@ Chuck Fee (AFSA Governing Board liaison) Chioma Dike: [email protected] hotmail.com State Representatives MEMBER Services THE MAGAZINE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS Ronnie Catipon Member Services Director PROFessiONALS Todd Crawford Janet Hedrick: [email protected] The Foreign Service Journal (ISSN 0146-3543), 2101 E Street NW, Washington, D.C. 20037-2990 is pub- Chuck Fee Membership Representative lished monthly, with combined January-February and Neeru Lal Natalie Cheung: [email protected] July-August issues, by the American Foreign Service Ken Kero-Mentz Retiree Counselor Association (AFSA), a private, nonprofit organization. Material appearing herein represents the opinions of the Ronita Macklin Todd Thurwachter: [email protected] writers and does not necessarily represent the views of Elise Mellinger Coordinator, Retiree Counseling the Journal, the Editorial Board or AFSA. Writer queries Homeyra Mokhtarzada and Legislation and submissions are invited, preferably by email. The Nancy Rios-Brooks Matthew Sumrak: [email protected] Journal is not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts, photos or illustrations. Advertising inquiries are invited. Daniel Spokojny Administrative Assistant and Office Manager All advertising is subject to the publisher’s approval. USAID Representatives Ana Lopez: [email protected] AFSA reserves the right to reject advertising that is not Jeri Dible in keeping with its standards and objectives. The appear- Jeffrey Cochrane COMMUNICATIONS ance of advertisements herein does not imply endorse- Director of Communications ment of goods or services offered. Opinions expressed in FCS Representative advertisements are the views of the advertisers and do William Kutson Kristen Fernekes: [email protected] not necessarily represent AFSA views or policy. Journal FAS Representative Mark Petry Director of New Media subscription: AFSA member–$20, included in annual Ásgeir Sigfússon: [email protected] dues; student–$30; institution–$40; others–$50; Single BBG Representative Andre de Nesnera issue–$4.50. For foreign surface mail, add $18 per year; APHIS Representative Mark C. Prescott Publications Manager foreign airmail, $36 per year. Periodical postage paid Retiree Representatives Shawn Dorman: [email protected] at Washington, D.C., and at additional mailing offices. Marshall Adair Online Communications Specialist Indexed by the Public Affairs Information Services (PAIS). Hon. David Greenlee Jeff Lau: [email protected] Email: [email protected] F. Allen “Tex” Harris Special Awards and Outreach Coordinator Perri Green: [email protected] Phone: (202) 338-4045 Hon. Edward Marks Communications and Press Specialist Fax: (202) 338-8244 STAFF Allan Saunders: [email protected] Web: www.afsa.org/fsj Executive Director ADVOCACY © American Foreign Service Association, 2015 Ian Houston: [email protected] Executive Assistant Advocacy Director PRINTED IN THE U.S.A. Patrick Bradley: [email protected] Javier Cuebas: [email protected] Senior Legislative Assistant Postmaster: Send address changes to BUSINESS Department David Murimi: [email protected] AFSA Director of Finance Professional Issues and Policy Adviser Attn: Address Change Femi Oshobukola: [email protected] Janice Weiner: [email protected] 2101 E Street NW Controller Washington DC 20037-2990 Kalpna Srimal: [email protected] SCHOLARSHIPS Assistant Controller Scholarship Director Cory Nishi: [email protected] Lori Dec: [email protected] Scholarship Senior Associate Jonathan Crawford: [email protected] 6 APRIL 2015 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL PRESIDENT’S VIEWS How to Find the Next Bill Burns BY ROBERT J. Silverman olleagues, I want to share advancement leads to a self-fulfilling lack is not solely about the number of career with you the meat of a memo of available career talent. versus political appointments. It is also I sent to the participants in Let’s stay with Bill Burns, and consider about keeping those with high policy rel- C the Secretary’s senior retreat two of his positions that led to wider evance from going political. Focusing on held on March 11. It previews a specific responsibilities. From 1988 to 1991, Bill ambassadors is relatively easy because, in proposal that AFSA made to the Director served as the principal deputy director of the end, nominating them is the presi- General to revise the Schedule B hiring the Secretary’s policy planning staff, his dent’s prerogative, and all we can do is try authority and cap the number of political- first major policy job. That position long our best. appointee deputy assistant secretaries. ago shifted to political appointees. From The harder part is to focus on senior Over the past months, several of you 2005 to 2008, Bill served as ambassador to positions in the department. I suggest have raised with me the question of how Moscow before returning to Washington as a pragmatic matter focusing on those to identify the next Bill Burns, the next as under secretary for political affairs. hired under Schedule B authority. Sched- Foreign Service leader. In the last five years, that job has gone, ule Bs were originally intended as subject Finding the next Bill Burns is more first, to a political appointee and then to a matter experts and technical advisers akin to farming than hunting. It is not retired FSO. needed for non-recurring limited-term about spotting and bagging the single Now there are other ways for career purposes. These hires are within the sole most-talented person in the bureaucracy. employees to move up other than Bill’s purview of the State Department. It is about cultivating and preserving specific path. Probably there are under- I suggest two measures. First, let’s a personnel system that allows talented standable reasons why each of these jobs return Schedule B hiring to its original career people like Bill to rise up. It is was taken out of the Foreign Service.
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