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Please specify PONTIAC — □ Fiero □ Sunbird □ Grand AM □ Firebird □ 6000 □ Grand Prix □ Bonneville □ Safari OLDSMOBILE — □ Firenza □ Calais □ Cutlass □ Cutlass Supreme □ Delta 88 □ Custom Cruiser □ Ninety-Eight □ Toronado BUICK — □ Skyhawk □ Skyldrk/Somerset □ Century □ Regal □ LeSabre □ Electra □ LeSabre/Electra Wagon □ Riviera CADILLAC — □ Cimarron □ DeVille □ Fleetwood □ Fleetwood Brougham □ Eldorado □ Seville GMC — □ Light Duty Trucks. Please specify NAME. STREET ADDRESS ’. APT. CITY* STATE/PROVINCE*. COUNTRY*. * (PLEASE INSERT ANY MAILING CODE REQUIRED BY YOUR LOCAL POSTAL REGULATIONS) SEPTEMBER 1987 CONTENTS The Helms State Department 25 Bill Arthur A handful of the senator’s staffers seek to implement his conservative agenda The U.S. Needs a World Bank Loan 32 Cover: In this issue, we look at subjects from the Larry Thompson past, present, and future. On page 35, historian Jesse H. Stiller describes the budget and bu¬ reaucratic battles of New Deal Washington. On page A scenario in which benefits would accrue 25, reporter Bill Arthur looks into the minds of to both our country and the Third World Senator Jesse Helms’s skilled but controversial staf¬ fers. And on page 32, a Foreign Service officer projects the world-wide impact of a hypothetical structural-adjustment loan to an unneedv client. Messersmith’s Big Fight 35 Colophon: All the type for this issue (except for Jesse H. Stiller the ASSOCIATION NEWS) has been set using the JOURNAL’S new Superpage electronic pagination The bureaucratic battles of 50 years ago have a system. The system should save AFSA more than $30,000 over the next five years while allowing disturbingly familiar ring for greater design control and more timely mate¬ rial. We have taken advantage of the conversion to change our typeface to Galliard, which we hope Journal: Saying It with Flowers 44 our readers will find more legible and attractive. Marjorie Smith An artful arrangement improves cross-cultural communications in northern Japan Association Views 3 10-25-50 24 Letters 6 Scholarships 46 Editor: STEPHEN R. DUJACK Books 14 People 52 Associate Editor: NANCY A. JOHNSON Reprints 18 Assistant Editor: WlLLLAM E. WlCKERT III Foreign Exchange 53 Clippings 23 Association News 56 Editorial Board Chair: A. STEPHEN TELKINS Vice Chair: ANDREW STEIGMAN Members: JlM ANDERSON THOMAS DOWLING “The Independent Voice of the Foreign Service” STEPHEN EISENBRAUN The FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL is the magazine Second-class postage paid at Washington, D.C., and LINDA JEWELL for professionals in foreign affairs, published monthly at additional post office. POSTMASTER: Send WILLIAM B. NANCE except August by the American Foreign Service Asso¬ address changes to FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL, JOHN D. PIELEMEIER ciation, a private non-profit organization. Material appear¬ 2101 E Street NW, Washington, D.C. 20037. ing herein represents the opinions of the writers Microfilm copies: University Microfilm Library Ser¬ BERNARD REICH and does not necessarily represent the official views vices, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106 (October 1967 to of the foreign affairs agencies, the U.S. govern¬ present). Indexed by PAIS. ment, or AFSA The Editorial Board is responsible The JOURNAL welcomes manuscripts of 1500- for general content, but statements concerning the 4000 words for consideration by the Editorial Board. polio,' and administration of AFSA as employee rep¬ Author queries are strongly urged, stamped enve¬ resentative under the Foreign Service Act of 1980 lope required for return. All authors are paid on International Advertising Representative in the ASSOCIATION NEWS and the ASSOCIATION publication. VIEWS, and all communications relating to these, are © American Foreign Service Association, 1987. JOSHUA B. POWERS, LTD. the responsibility of the AFSA Governing Board. 2101 E Street NW, Washington, D.C. 20037. Phone (202)338-4045. 46 Keyes House, Dolphin Square, JOURNAL subscriptions: One year (11 issues), $15. London SW1, 01-834-5566 Overseas subscriptions (except Canada), add $3 per year. Airmail not available. September 1987. Volume 64, number 8. ISSN 0015-7279. 2 SEPTEMBER 1987 ASSOCIATION VIEWS aF5a A Demanding Agenda AMERICAN FOREIGN SERVICE ASSOCIATION Governing Board President: PERRY SHANKLE TX he AFSA Governing Board election is over, and I would State Vice President: EVANGELINE MONROE AID Vice President: HENRY MERRILL like to extend my thanks to the membership for its support. USIA Vice President: A. STEPHEN TELKINS After the first meetings of the new board, it is evident that Secretary: JAMES A. DERRICK Treasurer: SAMUEL MOK the members of the Renewal Team and the other board mem¬ State Representatives: WARD BARMON bers are prepared to work together constructively. This is of JONATHAN FARRAR BARBARA HUGHES utmost importance, for these are dangerous times for the For¬ GERALD LAMBERTY eign Service and for AFSA. SANDRA ODOR AID Representatives: DAVID GARMS Our board plans a renewed emphasis on those professional MICHAEL ZAK issues confronting the Service. Perhaps the most important prob¬ USIA Representative: JOHN WALSH Retired Representatives: L. BRUCE LAINGEN lem in this area concerns the budgetary pressures from Capitol EARL D. SOHM Hill. As Americans, Foreign Service employees certainly under¬ JOHN THOMAS stand the reasons for economy in federal spending. But, as Staff Secretary Shultz has pointed out, the foreign affairs agencies Director for seem to be singled out for especially harsh cutbacks. In AID, Administration: SUE B. SCHUMACHER General Counsel: SUSAN Z. HOLIK this means eliminating or reducing critical programs at a critical Director of time, such as the situation faced by Corazon Aquino in the Phil¬ Member Services: SABINE SlSK Member Services ippines. In State, we are an agency of personnel, not programs, Representative: NEAL M. CALLANDER and for us reductions in funding mean reductions in people. Controller: ELLEN TENN Membership Coordinator: MYRIAM DUNCAN To say that this comes at a time of increasing international diffi¬ Executive Assistant: DENISE BYERS culties is obvious; along with the secretary, we too question whe¬ Legal Assistant: CHRIS BAZAR Law Clerk: RICHARD M. PRICE ther cutbacks in this area are really cost-effective in the long Executive Secretaries: BONITA CARROLL run. We will have to convince both the Congress and die public PAT REYNOSO HALL that the Foreign Service is the first line of defense, and that Congressional Liaison ROBERT M. BEERS a well-funded first line is in the national interest, returning RICK WEISS dividends in a more favorable trade environment, reduced Scholarship Programs defense costs, and increased peace of mind. In this area, DAWN CUTHELL Face-to-Face Program management can expect our full cooperation. STEVEN PHILIP KRAMER Our work on bread-and-butter and personnel issues will be The American Foreign Service Association, of equal importance—and of equal difficulty. Some of these founded in 1924, is the professional association of the Foreign Service and the official repre¬ problems come from within the department itself, such as the sentative of all Foreign Service employees in the Department of State and the Agency for Interna¬ difficult issue of threshold and time-in-class restrictions faced tional Development under the terms of the For¬ eign Service Act of 1980. Active membership in by the FSO-ls and senior officers. Elsewhere, Congress is AFSA is open