The Foreign Service Journal, April 1979
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FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL APRIL 1979 75 CENTS Special AFSA Election Section How Collier’s Won World War II, by Martin F. Herz John Carter Vincent as Assistant Ambassador, by Gary May Overseas insurance either replaces your household effects at today's prices or it doesn't. Actual Cash Value Current Replacement Cost Most overseas insurance policies cover your The American Foreign Service Association is household effects for their replacement cost less sponsoring a Package Insurance Program for AFSA depreciation. This means that your $500 stereo sys¬ members only. The AFSA program covers you for the tem purchased 5 years ago may have an actual cash replacement cost of household furniture and personal value of only $250 today. That’s what most overseas effects that are lost or destroyed. insurance policies (or the Claims Act) would pay if it This means that your $500 stereo system would were lost or destroyed—hardly enough to replace the be replaced with a similar system at today’s prices entire system at today’s prices. even though they may be higher than $500, subject only to the policy deductible of $50.00. Under the AFSA plan you can also add coverage for valuables or worldwide personal liability for you and your family. All with the assurance that you’ll get fast, fair claims service. And the rates are low. Basic property insurance costs only 75<J per $100 of coverage. Give yourself some peace of mind before you ✓ move overseas. Send for our free brochure to help / you determine how much insurance you need S and how much it will cost. Or call your AFSA /■' insurance specialist at: 8333 Germantown Avenue, Philadelphia, Pa. 19118, (215) CH2-8200. f Send me your free brochure ✓ (with built-in application form) that S answers my questions about overseas insurance. / Name Address City State/Zip 479 FSJ FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL American Foreign Service Association APRIL 1979: Volume 56, No. 4 Officers and Members of the Governing Board ISSN 0015-7279 LARS HYDLE, President KENNETH N. ROGERS, Vice President THOMAS O'CONNOR, Second Vice President FRANK CUMMINS, Secretary M. JAMES WILKINSON, Treasurer RONALD L. NICHOLSON, AID Representative PETER WOLCOTT, ICA Representative Memories Are Made of This— JOSEPH N. McBRIDE, BARBARA K. BODINE, But Not Memoirs ROBERT H. STERN, State Representatives EUGENE M. BRADERMAN & ROBERT G. CLEVELAND, S. I. NADLER 6 Retired Representatives Taking a Walk with Robbie DIONIS COFFIN RIGGS 10 Journal Editorial Board JOEL M. WOLDMAN, Chairman Scaring the Hell Out JAMES F. O'CONNOR NEIL A. BOYER HARRIET P. CULLEY MICHAEL A. G. MICHAUD of Everybody WESLEY N. PEDERSEN ARNOLD P. SCHIFFERDECKER MARTIN F. HERZ 12 Assistant Ambassador Staff GARY MAY 18 WILBUR P. CHASE, Acting Executive Director CATHERINE WAELDER, Counselor CECIL B. SANNER, Membership and Circulation A Strange War CHRISTINA MARY LANTZ, Executive Secretary HOWARD R. SIMPSON 24 Foreign Service Educational and Counseling Center BERNICE MUNSEY, DirectorlCounselor AFSA Scholarship Programs LEE MIDTHUN Editorials 4 Journal The Bookshelf 30 SHIRLEY R. NEWHALL, Editor Letters to the Editor 41 MARCI NADLER, Editorial Assistant AFSA News 42 MclVER ART & PUBLICATIONS, INC., Arf Direction Advertising Representatives JAMES C. SASMOR ASSOCIATES, 521 Fifth Ave., Suite 1700, New York, N Y. 10017 (212) 683-3421 ALBERT D. SHONK CO., 681 Market St., San Francisco, Calif. 94105 (415) 392-7144 JOSHUA B. POWERS, LTD., 46 Keyes House, Dolphin Sq., Cover: Mola by Ovaline Tyburski London SW1 01-834-8023/9, International Representatives. The FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL is the journal of professionals in annually. Retired Active Members—Dues are $35 annually for members foreign affairs, published twelve times a year by the American Foreign with incomes over $15,000; $20 annually for less than $15,000. Associate Service Association, a non-profit organization. Members—Dues are $20 annually. All dues payments include $6.50 allo¬ cation for the Journal and AFSA News, per AFSA Bylaws. Material appearing herein represents the opinions of the writers and is not intended to indicate the offical views of the Department of State, the For subscription to the JOURNAL, one year (12 issues); $7.50; two years, International Communication Agency, the Agency for International De¬ $12.00. For subscriptions going abroad, except Canada, add $1.00 annu¬ velopment or the United States Government as a whole. ally for overseas postage While the Editorial Board of the JOURNAL is responsible for its general Microfilm copies of current as well as of back issues of the FOREIGN content, statements concerning the policy and administration of AFSA as SERVICE JOURNAL are available through the University Microfilm Library employee representative under Executive Order 11636 on the editorial Services, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106 under a contract signed October 30, page and in the AFSA News, and all communications relating to these, are 1967. the responsibility of the AFSA Governing Board. -American Foreign Service Association, 1979. The Foreign Service Jour¬ Membership in the American Foreign Service Association is open to the nal is published twelve times a year by the American Foreign Service professionals in foreign affairs overseas or in Washington, as well as to Association, 2101 E Street, N.W., Washington D.C. ?0037. Telephone (202) persons having an active interest in, or close association with foreign 338-4045 affairs. Second-class postage paid at Washington, D.C. and at additional post Membership dues are: Active Members—Dues range from $39 to $65 office. AR^A EDnoRiAL BRADLEY V. VANCE AFSA welcomes the Supreme Court’s February 22 statements about Spike and about the career Foreign decision that mandatory retirement for the Foreign Ser¬ Service at Andrews Air Force Base, and Marshall Shul- vice is not unconstitutional. man’s eulogy, offer us some comfort. We intend to follow The decision clearly recognizes that the Congress had up with the administration and will report fully to the in mind a rational purpose when it created the Foreign membership on future actions aimed at preventing the Service Act with its distinctive package of obligations recurrence of such tragedies. and rights for Foreign Service personnel. In this respect it supersedes the language of the District Court decision which tended to obliterate the real distinctions between a career in the Foreign Service and Civil Service, and thus our claim to distinctive legislative treatment. By restoring the mandatory retirement date established for the careers of senior Foreign Service people—most of whom are not subject to selection-out—the decision of¬ fers the prospect of renewed opportunities for pro¬ motions and assignments for people at earlier stages in their careers. These opportunities will give the Service greater hope of retaining its best employees—those who could do well elsewhere—and of attracting the best peo¬ ple into careers in the Service. AFSA did everything it could to bring about this re¬ sult. We urged the Department to seek an appeal of the District Court decision to the Supreme Court. We urged the Solicitor General to appeal the case. And we filed an amicus curiae brief supporting the appeal. Many of the arguments presented in our brief were picked up by the eight-member majority opinion. The credit goes to our brilliant but undercompensated legal counsel, Catherine Waelder, who should be appointed to the Court herself. We recognize that not all our members agree with our view on this case; that mandatory retirement at any age may not, as the Court recognized, necessarily be a per¬ fect instrument to carry out the national interest in an excellent and vigorous Foreign Service: and that many colleagues at or near 60 are still both excellent and vigor¬ ous. Nevertheless, in our career Service, one person’s retention in duty is another’s missed promotion or even selection-out; annuities for those at the top may be as good as salaries at the middle; in their earlier years our present senior colleagues benefited from the career pack¬ age which included mandatory retirement. We therefore A great many of Spike’s friends and colleagues have believe the decision is not only likely to strengthen the already expressed interest in perpetuating his memory Foreign Service, but is equitable for the people of the and ideals through some kind of AFSA memorial, as re¬ Foreign Service. quested by his widow. The precise form this memorial should take remains to be determined. There should be SPIKE some association with excellence in Soviet affairs within Spike Dubs’s murder was not only tragic, but sense¬ the Foreign Service, something Spike put great store by, less. He was kidnapped by a group of guerrillas, and and some way to further the ideals that Spike exemplified held hostage to bargain with an Afghan government during his career in the Service. A committee is being which, despite his best efforts, was not notably sympa¬ formed, for which Marshall Shulman has graciously thetic to American concerns, in a country in which only a agreed to serve as chairman, and AFSA's treasurer, Jim relatively moderate security risk to American personnel Wilkinson, as executive secretary, to consider the re¬ was estimated. sources available and to decide how best to act in re¬ If there is any consolation, it is in the actions of the membrance of Spike. Those who are interested are Administration, which made every effort to save Spike’s warmly invited to send to AFSA contributions, which life by urging restraint on the part of the Afghan govern¬ will be tax deductible, in the name of the Spike Dubs ment and their Soviet advisors. The US efforts failed; but Memorial Fund, as well as suggestions on how we may the president’s and the secretary’s firm and stirring best honor Spike.