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FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL FEBRUARY 1973: VOLUME 50, NO. 2

Needed: A Second Generation of

Supranational Institutions 9 LESTER R. BROWN

The Decline and Fall of American Efficiency 15

EDMUND A. SCHECTER

Open Letter to Consular Appointees 16

CHARLES S. KENNEDY, JR.

Soldiering for State and Surviving 18

RONALD D. PALMER

OTHER FEATURES: Rosebuds ’Round Her Navel, by Jorma L. Kaukonen, page 4; American Wine, by Robert J. Misch, page 29.

DEPARTMENTS

Letters to the Editor 2

The Bookshelf 20

Editorials 34

AFSA News 35

American Foreign Service Association

DAVID H. McKILLOP, President PRINCETON LYMAN, First Vice President HORACE G. DAWSON, JR., Second Vice President

Board of Directors

WILLIAM C. HARROP, Chairman THOMAS D. BOYATT, Vice Chairman BARBARA J. GOOD, Second Vice Chairman DAVID W. LOVING, Secretary-Treasurer JOHN J. TUOHEY, Assistant Secretary-Treasurer HERMAN J. COHEN JAMES L. HOLMES, JR. F. ALLEN HARRIS WILLIAM R. LENDERKING, JR. LINDA LOWENSTEIN W. A. WHITTEN

Staff

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Journal

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The FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL is the journal of professionals in foreign affairs, published twelve times a year by the American For¬ eign Service Association, a non-profit organization.

Material appearing herein represents the opinions of the writers and is not intended to indicate the official views of the Department of State, the United States Information Agency, the Agency for International Development or the United States Government as a whole.

Membership in the American Foreign Service Association is open to the professionals in foreign affairs overseas or in Washington, as well as to persons having an active interest in, or close association with, foreign affairs.

Membership dues are: Active Members—Dues range from $13 to $52 annually depending upon income. Retired Active Members—Dues are $30 annually for members with incomes over $15,000; $15 annually for less than $15,000. Associate Members—Dues are $20 annually.

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Articles appearing in this journal are abstracted and indexed in Historical Abstracts and/or America: History and Life.

Microfilm copies of current as well as of back issues of the FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL are available through the University Microfilm Li¬ brary Services, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106 under a contract signed October 30, 1967. COVER: Oberrieden, Switzerland, by Eva Marsh

LETTERS TO |

Dissent and Heresy ■ A number of inquiries as to ap¬ propriate organizations to which contributions may be made in mem¬ ory of John Carter Vincent have been received and it was decided that the American Civil Liberties Union in seeking to preserve and defend the basic human rights of individuals at times of unrest and popular reprisals is the most repre¬ sentative of his ideas and philoso¬ phies. He knew well the form such reprisals can take, and their effect on the individual.

My husband’s favorite philoso¬ pher and theologian was Spinoza, who also went through great trials and tribulations and who said, “The misfortunes of history made dissent from the most palpable absurdities, capital heresy” and so it was with John Carter Vincent and the whole China service, in the 1940s.

ELIZABETH THAYER VINCENT

Cambridge

A Congregation of Grievants This section was inadvertently omit¬

ted from Ambassador Ellis O. Briggs’ letter in the January JOURNAL.

■ Your basic premise is further nourished by the notion that State Department “management,” unless curbed by the vigilance of those armed with the weapon of “exclu¬ sive bargaining,” and with what you term “impartial review” (by which you really mean a mechanism de¬ signed to override a decision of the Secretary of State), will inevitably result in exploiting the workers— i.e. the personnel of the Foreign Service.

Wherefore you propose that mat¬ ters henceforth be “co-determined” between the State Department on the one side, and AFSA, as the pro¬ tector of the workers, on the other.

In the circumstances of profes¬ sional diplomacy, that philosophy, as outlined in the printed “AFSA Platform,” is nonsense.

Worse, it is nonsense of a dan¬ gerous and pernicious character. If adopted, it would hamper the ability of the Secretary of State to perform his functions. It would en¬

mesh his subordinates handling per¬ sonnel. It would impair if not even¬ tually destroy the morale of the Foreign Service.

The recent publicity and one¬ sided propaganda emanating from AFSA has already adversely affected that morale by focusing the atten¬ tion of Foreign Service personnel on their privileges, grievances and security, at the expense of their responsibilities, opportunities and obligations.

As I observed upon first reading Executive Order 11636 (which never should be applied to the officers of the Foreign Service, who are not “employees” but men and women commissioned by the Presi¬ dent of the United States, by and with the consent of the Senate), one searches through those dreary paragraphs for such phrases as “pride of accomplishment,” “patri¬ otic performance,” “willingness on behalf of the country to face hard¬ ship and peril”—or in one word, “service”—but he who reads that Executive Order searches for those words in vain.

Instead, for all the obeisances to professionalism and merit, I find AFSA, under that Executive Order, promoting a Congregation of Griev¬ ants, whose greatest triumph will not be in meeting the challenges you salute, but in spitting in the eye of Management—and getting away with it. How, moreover, does your solici¬ tude for “grievants” jibe with your statement that only a “minute pro¬ portion” of Foreign Service person¬ nel believe they have been unfairly treated? To gratify that “minute pro¬ portion,” is it necessary to erect that elaborate array of boards and panels and commissions and committees, dedicated, if I correctly read the portents, to the survival of the un- fittest?

Lastly, in your preoccupation with anti-elitism and your pursuit of egali¬ tarian drabness, you would make of elite an ugly word, a term of op¬ probrium. Who questions that the mechanic in the motor pool, the ac¬ countant who balances the books, the courier who carries the diplo¬ matic pouches, and the Ambassador who deals with the Foreign Minister, are not all American citizens work¬

ing abroad for the United States Government. Agreed—but they are not all diplomats, and you are naive if you assume that shared nationality equals a line drawn for the benefit of non-diplomats through the lowest common denominator of achieve¬ ment.

A Modest Proposal

I T’S still the same old problem. Even after ex-President Hoover, Secretary Herter, Dr. Wriston and a host of others, most lately Bill Ma- comber, have had their way with reformation and reorganization, ev¬ erybody still seems to go on hating the State Department. Bob Short has taken the Senators to Texas, and now State has moved up to the position of number one Washington whipping boy.

The blunt truth is that the For¬ eign Service itself is obsolete. In an era of jet planes and hot lines, we are still relying on the old Foreign Service, disciplined in the arts of diplomacy and protocol. Even the so-called “new diplomacy” is merely the logical extension of the old di¬ plomacy to the new responsibilities of the United States as a world power in the second half of the twentieth century; it has nothing to do with the age of technetronics. The State Department’s top echelon may know what is wrong with the Stanley Steamer on today’s su¬ perhighways, but somehow they haven’t yet grasped the fact that they too are using the wrong kind of power. They are still on the wrong track, no pun intended. I suppose an ecologist would say that eutroph¬ ication has reached irreversible lim¬ its in Foggy Bottom. Anyway, the Foreign Service has become as ex¬ tinct as the passenger pigeon and just about as useful. Retool or re¬ direct the Service all you like, it can never again be a substitute for Air Force One.

Somehow the worst is over when this hard fact is faced. After all, in an era when every American tourist is officially labeled an Ambassador of Good Will, there must be some place for career ambassadors. Not to mention first, second, and third secretaries. If an army can become a “peace-keeping force,” if a cob¬ bler’s bench can be turned into a

(Continued on page 35)

2 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL, February, 1973

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A RETIREMENT CHRONICLE by JORMA L. KAUKONEN

iL AST spring, when I was in Washington briefly, I called on Margaret Turkel—an old and dear friend— and she was intrigued by how I spent some of the hours of my retirement. I am by nature a dignified, polysyllabic, somewhat pompous man and she thought it amusing that I should have become involved peripherally in the world of rock music. It was her idea, I guess, that there might be something inspirational in my story for other Foreign Service officers, suddenly thrust into a non nine-to-five environment, out of reach of a major, metro-

Jorma L. Kaukonen’s government service began in 1935 and ended in 1970. He worked for the Social Security Board, the Public Health Service, the Federal Agency and the War Man¬ power Commission. WWI1 took him to Japan as a censorship officer, to Korea as a labor advisor, to Pakistan as representa¬ tive of the Asia Foundation and to the Department of Labor as a Far Eastern area specialist. In 1957 he joined the Foreign Service as Labor Attache and First Secretary in Manila, trans¬ ferring to Stockholm in 1962 and to Ottawa in 1967.

politan newspaper, no daily morning staff meetings to attend, and nothing to do except prune the roses.

Let me begin with a factual statement of some of the fringe benefits of my new life. I was at a concert recently here in San Francisco at the Winterland where the Jefferson Airplane, in a manner of speaking, was making a triumphant return to its birthplace. The Airplane had not concertized for quite a while in its native city and this was a major cultural event in any man’s book. I was backstage in the dressing room, listening to my son Jorma, the guitarist, and Jack Casady, the bassist, warm up. Later they would be joined in this backstage mini¬ concert by other members of the group, but at the moment I was listening to a great piece of stringed virtuosity in an ambiance which was peculiarly San Franciscan—permissive, free and easy.

The dressing room was pretty crowded, except for the corner where young Kaukonen and Casady were warm¬ ing up, and people garbed in the non-Brooks Brothers,

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Peter, Jorma, Sr., and Jorma, Jr. in Jorma, Jr.’s living room. “The big eye behind us is friendly."

non Neiman-Marcus costumes of the day wandered back and forth. Shades of Hogarth and Custer and the Plains Indians and the Cavaliers and the Forty Niners and the 25th century! As I sat there bemused, a bare midriff appeared in front of my eyes and was stationary for a moment. It belonged to a “chick,” if I may be permitted the vernacular, in the first full flush of her nubility. She had a wreath of rosebuds tattooed around her navel and I knew from the colors that this was the work of Lyle Tuttle who is responsible for a veritable renaissance of this ancient art in the Bay area.

This was a fringe benefit indeed. I never would have seen it, had I not been impelled to become a rock music aficionado and to write from time to time—not so much about the Airplane as about the music of Hot Tuna and Black Kangaroo. I ought to conclude this sidelight by saying that the concert that evening was great, the Airplane invigorated by the guest reappearance of Marty Balin whose duets with Grace Slick were highlights of the late ’60s. Lights flashed, people danced, and the music was evocative—some of it—of that simpler time of which Woodstock was the symbol.

But I think I like the music of Hot Tuna even more than that of the Airplane at this moment. Hot Tuna has some of the same personnel as the Jefferson Airplane— lead guitarist Jorma Kaukonen, bassist Jack Casady, and violinist Papa John Creach. It has an immediacy, an intensity, a compelling palpable power which moves people physically as well as intellectually and it is Hot Tuna which has propelled me into my retirement voca¬ tion as campfollower and writer about rock and as a part time sound archivist. The first thing I wrote about Hot Tuna was what has been described as their official biography. This was followed by an article on the art in a popular rock magazine and I was gratified recently to be stopped by a young man in Constitution Hall who had an article of mine in hand and who said he had liked it.

Anyway, Hot Tuna is something—a passionate en- 6 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL. February. 1973

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gine, perhaps. I have heard it develop from its earliest days when it opened the bill at Fillmore East for the Airplane, with Kaukonen Jr. and Casady shifting easily from one identity to the other, assisted by Jorma’s brother Peter.

But it isn't just the Airplane and Hot Tuna which interest me. There is a group called Black Kangaroo which culminates a development that began with Petrus, a band of great musicality which had a reputation in the early days of the San Francisco musical renaissance and which led to Lizard, a trio utilizing an acoustic bass which attracted a considerable following in Bay area clubs. Black Kangaroo is the name of Peter Kaukonen’s band and of his recently released record. With tape recorder in hand, I have heard and recorded much of Peter’s musical development during the past several years. He has responded to his own musical imperative which took him out of Hot Tuna at an early stage of that group’s development to begin a journey which has taken him a long way toward his goal as an artist recognized in his own right.

Recently, Black Kangaroo and Hot Tuna appeared on the same bill in New York at the Academy of Music. Incredible. It made me think of the year in Stockholm when Peter was studying at Stockholm University and playing and singing American blues to the prescient Swedish audiences in such places as the Domino and Grona Lund, to mention but two. Now in 1972, he has his own band and is on tour to play on the same bills as Hot Tuna, The Byrds, Alice Cooper, and Albert King, among others, with a brief excursion to play for the students of Hotchkiss in Lakeville, Connecticut where he prepared himself for Stanford and the nine to five career Foreign Service officers try to inflict on their children.

Well, they’re both free of that and I occasionally ask myself what I did that was right when they were growing up. Nothing, I guess, except throw every obstacle I could think of in their way. But I doubt that was the spur either. I think they are lucky to be doing what they want and to be doing it well.

As for me, I’ve gotten a number of insights I wouldn’t otherwise have had, over and above the nubile navel surrounded by Lyle Tuttle’s artistry. Like for instance, Mick Jagger needs a new choreographer and his music doesn’t say anything new to me, although the Rolling Stones are very slick and professional and watching their audience is like watching sea plants responding to the forces of wind and wave. Or that the Who live is a musical experience not to be missed. Or that I like J. J. Cale and Osibisa and John Hammond who appears frequently with Hot Tuna and whose blues are almost beyond compare. And that I don’t have to have the New York TIMES, the Manila CHRONICLE, DAGENS NYHETER,

or the GLOBE AND MAIL first thing in the morning and that since nothing changes in what used to be my real world, I can make do with that occasionally charming provincial paper the San Francisco CHRONICLE. And, finally, in the world of the performing arts, even for the bystander, there is no nine to five syndrome and I am glad of that. ■

8 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL, February. 1973

H Second Generation of

Supranational Institutions LESTER R. BROWN

world is so interdependent and so interwoven today that economic, political or scientific deci¬ sions taken within one country may affect far more people outside that country than within. Decisions by a multinational corporation may affect the well-being of the people in a given country more than those taken by the government of that country itself. In many cases, those who are adversely affected have no political recourse to those responsi¬ ble for their plight.

Decisions by a US Congressional Committee allocating sugar import quotas may have a greater impact on the well-being of rural laborers in northeastern Brazil than almost anything the Brazilian Government itself can do. Permission by the Government of Afghanistan to its hard-pressed farmers to produce opium for sale to illicit drug han¬ dlers could negate efforts to arrest the spread of drug addiction in the

Lester R. Brown is a Senior Fellow with the Overseas Development Council. He was formerly Administrator of the Inter¬ national Agricultural Development Serv¬ ice and served as policy adviser to the Secretary of Agriculture on world food needs and agricultural development abroad. Recognized as a leading au¬ thority on the world food problem while still in his 20s, Mr. Brown was selected by the Jaycees as one of the “Ten Outstand¬ ing Young Men of America” in 1966.

United States. An African govern¬ ment’s expropriation of the holdings of a US mining company can affect the retirement income of an elderly couple in Minneapolis. A decision by the United States Government in August of 1971 to devalue the dol¬ lar relative to other major curren¬ cies caused a precipitous drop in the value of common stocks on the Tokyo stock exchange, a drop that the Japanese Government was pow¬ erless to prevent.

Economic actions have social consequences extending far beyond national borders. So, too, do ecolog¬ ical forces. Deforestation in Nepal increases the severity of flooding in the Indus and Gangetic Plains in India and Pakistan. The discharge of waste mercury by Japanese and Taiwanese industrialists can cause swordfish to be taken off menus in the United States. Oil spills from Norwegian tankers affect beaches in Florida. The discharge of industrial smokestacks in the Ruhr and Great Britain blackens snowfall in Scan¬ dinavia, chemically contaminating rivers and streams.

We live in an age when problems are increasingly world-wide—the world monetary crisis, threat of world inflation, world environmen¬ tal crisis, world drug problem, world population problem, the world food problem, and so forth. Few, if any,

of mankind’s more pressing prob¬ lems have purely national solutions. They can be solved only through multinational or global cooperation.

While the more perplexing prob¬ lems man faces today are global in scope, the institutions to cope with them are largely national. New technologies are creating problems but not the institutions capable of solving them.

The political complexities and obstacles involved in creating ef¬ fective supranational institutions should not obscure the fact that many existing international agencies have already served mankind well. One need only think of such agen¬ cies as the World Health Organiza¬ tion or such bodies as the Interna¬ tional Monetary Fund, which has thus far weathered many crises en route to creating an international monetary system.

In the environmental field, the UN conference held at Stockholm in June 1972, has made a good begin¬ ning toward creating a global infra¬ structure to cope with problems of the environment. The Stockholm Conference provided a unique forum in which both developed and de¬ veloping countries took the initial political decisions that will help them to act together in a manner consistent with the earth’s physical limits and interdependencies. With

9 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL, February. 1B73

some 90 percent of the earth’s peo¬ ple represented, important new principles were adopted to serve as guidelines for future national per¬ formance. Despite strongly held convictions about national sover¬ eignty, the nations agreed that they have a mutual responsibility for common property such as the atmos¬ phere and the oceans. The un¬ precedented Declaration on the Hu¬ man Environment also stresses the responsibility of nations not to in¬ flict environmental damage on each other, and calls for the conservation of finite resources, from minerals to plant species.

The Stockholm delegates pro¬ duced a 109-point program of inter¬ national actions, and recommended the establishment of a permanent vehicle within the United Nations to coordinate these actions, as well as a voluntary environmental fund to finance it. The United Nations envi¬ ronmental unit will have a broad mandate which stretches from moni¬ toring the earth’s atmosphere, land and oceans, to providing environ¬ mental education to the peoples of the developed and developing worlds. The proposed machinery is envisaged both as a source of assist¬

RECENT efforts to establish an in¬ ternational oceanic authority provide a specific example of the kind of problems, and the difficulties in¬ volved in resolving them, that ur¬ gently call for international agree¬ ment and cooperation. The need for such authority is a consequence of new technologies that permit the exploitation of energy, mineral and fish resources in the world’s oceans; of the fierce competition for these resources as evidenced by disputes over fishing rights off the West coast of Latin America, and of the con¬ flicting claims of jurisdiction over newly discovered underwater re¬ serves of oil in the South China sea by Mainland China, Taiwan, Japan and South Korea.

In order to avoid potentially dan¬ gerous conflicts over exploitation of oceanic resources, Malta’s ambassa¬ dor to the UN, Arvid Pardo, pro¬ posed in 1967 that an international oceanic regime be established after appropriate study under the aegis of the UN “to ensure that national activities undertaken in the deep seas and on the ocean floor will conform to the principles and provi¬ sions incorporated in the proposed treaty [the treaty creating the new

Effective environmental instituations cannot be expected to flourish in a weak UN system. New supranational institutions are needed to

cope with numerous problems now emerging.

ance to governments in dealing with their own environmental prob¬ lems, and in cooperating with each other in attacking problems whose solutions must necessarily be mul¬ tinational.

However, nations must go beyond what they are willing to discuss at Stockholm and explore crucial, long- range aspects of international co¬ operation which are needed now that the global nature of many envi¬ ronmental concerns has been estab¬ lished. For effective environmental institutions cannot be expected to flourish in a weak UN system. New supranational institutions are need¬ ed to cope with numerous problems now emerging. Prominent among these are the management, conser¬ vation and exploitation of ocean resources, regulation of the national corporate interface; global research strategies and institutes and coordi¬ nated global disaster relief.

10

regime].” The ambassador also rec¬ ommended that the UN refuse to recognize any new national claims of sovereignty over the oceans and that poor countries be given prefer¬ ence when considering the use of possible financial proceeds from regulating oceanic exploitation.

The United States indicated its support for an international authori¬ ty governing the exploitation of the world’s oceanic resources in a White House statement issued in the sum¬ mer of 1970. It declared that the resources of the oceans were the common property of all mankind and should be made available to all nations large and small, marine and landlocked. The 42-member UN Seabed Committee made consider¬ able progress in 1970 in formulating the guidelines for regulating exploi¬ tation of the oceans. In the same year the General Assembly Political Committee unanimously adopted a

statement of principles “placing the seabed beyond the reach of national sovereignties, linking benefits from its peaceful use to the needs of developing countries and looking toward conservation and antipollu¬ tion measures.” The United Nations Conference on Trade and Develop¬ ment (UNCTAD) meeting in Santi¬ ago, Chile in May of 1972 called for a moratorium on exploitation of resources of the seabed until an international oceanic regime was es¬ tablished.

A UN Conference on the Sea is now scheduled for 1973, but as preparatory work has encountered numerous obstacles, it may not be convened until 1974. Should an In¬ ternational Oceanic Regime come into being organized along the lines now being considered, it would es¬ tablish UN sovereignty over two- thirds of the earth’s surface in much the same manner that the 160 na¬ tion-states have sovereign rights over the remaining one-third. Rev¬ enues from licensing governments or corporations interested in exploit¬ ing the ocean’s potential would provide an independent source of income, giving the UN a certain independence it does not now en¬ joy, and, thus enhancing its capacity to serve mankind.

Such a fall-out from the establish¬ ment of an oceanic regime would be of great significance because a ma¬ jor obstacle to the existence of a stronger UN has been the limited support provided by the super¬ powers as reflected in their paltry financial contributions. The Ford Foundation’s disbursements in 1970 exceeded the total budget of the UN, which amounted to just over $200 million. In other terms, the sum of all national contributions to the UN budget amounted to one- fifth of one percent of UN mem¬ bers’ total military expenditures. If nations are serious about creating meaningful global institutions, mere tokenism will not suffice.

THE internationalization of produc¬ tion—that production which results from combining labor, capital, man¬ agement and technology from two or more countries under the frame¬ work of the multinational corpora¬ tion—has brought with it many new problems along the national- corporate interface. The lack of a

FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL, February, 1973

consistent set of rules regulating the relationship between national gov¬ ernments and corporations, particu¬ larly in areas such as anti-trust reg¬ ulations, ownership rights, capital repatriation, labor relations, tax laws and the issuance of securities has generated costly apprehension and mistrust. No two nation-states have identical rules governing all as¬ pects of a multinational corpora¬ tion’s activities. This results in over¬ lapping, conflicting and inconsistent regulations in some instances and in others no regulation at all. Leaders in the poor countries have feared the power of some of the corporate giants, while at the same time every instance of expropriation by govern¬ ments has contributed to a hesita¬ tion if not actual pulling back of corporations investing in these coun¬ tries. The net effect has been to in¬ hibit the flow of capital and, per¬ haps more importantly, technology from the rich to the poor countries.

Part of the difficulty in this rela¬ tionship arises from governments at¬ tempting to deal with multinational institutions with what are essentially national policies. The anachronistic character of this approach was rec¬ ognized in the method of patenting new technologies. In order to avoid the repeated patenting procedures for individual nations, 35-countries had signed a Patent Cooperation Treaty as of early 1971. The Treaty established a standardized interna¬ tional patent application to be cen¬ trally filed.

International tax regulations of global corporations could clear some of the existing problems confronting home and host countries. If handled by an international organization such as the United Nations this new source of global public revenue might be better distributed to areas where the need is greatest. Although many poor countries are exercising their increased leverage in demand¬ ing a greater share of the profits derived from subsidiaries located in their country, many corporations are still profiting from ill-defined or liberal tax laws.

There is a pressing need for a supranational institution to regulate the interface between global corpo¬ rations and nation-states, particular¬ ly where the poorer nation-states are concerned. The sooner these corporations and national govern¬

ments can find ways to cooperate, the greater will be the chance that the new technology will bring the poor countries into mutually benefi¬ cial association with the industrial countries. Dr. Melville Watkins who headed a Canadian commission to examine foreign investment in Canada described this need as fol¬ lows: “The major policy concern of the government surrounded by cor¬ porations should be to create an environment within which the cor¬ porations function for the public good. Since the operations of the multinational firm transcend the jur¬ isdiction of any single nation, a case can be made that it should be sub¬ ject to international or supranation¬ al control and, indeed, will not oth¬ erwise be effectively controlled in all respects. Multinational corpora¬ tions have substantial economic power and political influence and their operations are far too impor¬ tant to many people for a nation¬ state to ignore them.”

Beyond the need to arbitrate dis¬ putes there remains the problem that few multinational corporations are truly multinational; most identi- which is supranational or global in

outlook and purpose. Two problems which would lend themselves readi¬ ly to this approach are population stabilization and waste disposal, the latter largely a matter of recycling. The population issue requires a ma¬ jor research effort ranging from reproductive biology and more effective contraceptive methods to social motivation research analyzing factors influencing child bearing de¬ cisions. Governments now support family planning efforts in countries containing a great majority of the world’s people, but are handicapped by a lack of successful experience to draw upon in organizing their own programs.

The waste disposal question needs attention for two reasons: ex¬ isting methods of disposal are ex¬ ceeding the ecosystem’s capacity to absorb waste and recycling is also the key to conserving scarce raw materials. If methods of recycling can be perfected, progress will be made on two critical fronts. The waste disposal problem, though affecting virtually every country, is one which few individual govern¬ ments can afford to research ade¬ quately. Technologies evolved to fa¬

The major policy concern of the government surrounded by corporations should be to create an

environment within which the corporations function for

the public good.

fy with the nation-state in which they are domiciled. This has led Orville Freeman, former Secretary of Agriculture and now President of Business International, and Arnold Toynbee, British historian, to sug¬ gest that the exclusive authority to grant charters to all corporations wishing to operate across national borders should be granted to a neu¬ tral authority, perhaps one situated on a small island. This would have the effect of divorcing or at least greatly weakening ties between na¬ tion-states and corporations, reduc¬ ing the extent to which one could use the other to help further its basic political or economic objec¬ tives.

As the multitudinous problems fac¬ ing mankind become increasingly global in scale, they call for a new form of research institution, one

cilitate recycling, however, are often universally applicable.

Not all research needs are global; some are regional or affect only those countries in a certain ecologi¬ cal area or at a certain stage of development. The locust threat which emerges periodically and af¬ fects countries of East Africa and the Middle East is an example of the latter. Other institutes might fo¬ cus on specific diseases such as does the cholera institute in Bangladesh.

These proposed institutes would be mission-oriented with specific so¬ cial objectives. The boards of direc¬ tors and staff would be both inter¬ disciplinary and international in composition, and independent of any national government or interna¬ tional organization. Long term fund¬ ing should be assured, perhaps through an initial endowment sup¬ plied by an individual country such

11 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL, February, 1973

as the United States, which is in the process of shifting some of its aid resources from bilateral to multi¬ lateral channels. Or perhaps better yet, the United States and Soviet or Japanese governments could com¬ bine resources, jointly launching such an institute. An institute on population or any other subject relating most directly to the poor countries should be located within the poor countries themselves. For social technologies such as family planning or waste recycling, these institutions would play much the same role in disseminating technolo¬ gy across national borders as mul¬ tinational corporations now do for industrial technologies.

A s the world has become smaller by virtue of advances in transporta¬ tion and communication, it has be¬ come feasible to consider a single disaster relief force for the entire world. The economic advantages of maintaining a single force to serve all nations is that, with a given investment of resources in men, equipment, food stores and medical supplies, a much more effective job can be done with a single force covering the entire world than with numerous smaller forces of varying degrees of effectiveness serving indi¬ vidual countries.

Poised to respond whenever called to national disasters—storms, floods, hurricanes, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions—such a group would be manned by professionals with the most modern equipment. Given the hourly weather informa¬ tion now available through the global system of meteorological satellites, potential weather-induced disasters could be identified as they arose, and with continuous monitor¬ ing relief could be moved into po¬ sition on the basis of a severe threat, not even waiting for the disaster itself. Such a disaster relief force should have a sizable medical contingent including doctors, nurses, paramedical personnel trained in the immediate care of the injured, and portable hospitals and power generating equipment. It would be able to provide food and temporary shelter for large numbers of people. It would also have a well developed logistical capability in the form of planes, helicopters, jeeps and a so¬ phisticated air drop capacity.

12

The earthquake in Peru, the cat¬ astrophic typhoon in East Pakistan, the floods in Italy, the earthquake in Turkey, and a number of mine disasters, all come to mind. None of these individual countries, with the possible exception of Italy, pos¬ sessed the resources to respond to disaster on the scale experienced. All welcomed external assistance. Once a United Nations Disaster Re¬ lief Force was established and oper¬ ational, it would be called upon at the first sign of a natural disaster, as automatically as calling the local fire department in case of fire. It would be a source of comfort to all and a source of aid to those caught up in a natural disaster. Not only would this provide a sense of securi¬ ty but it would also contribute to a sense of mutual dependence, a sense of community among nations. In ad¬ dition to reducing the loss of life and alleviating suffering among those in disaster areas it would give the United Nations a much needed psy¬ chological shot in the arm.

B RINGING into existence the su¬ pranational institutions discussed above is an enormous, complex un¬ dertaking. But this is only a begin¬ ning. This chapter is not intended to provide an exhaustive listing of the many supranational institutions needed, but rather to select for illus¬ trative purposes a few of those most urgently needed.

The need for the United Nations itself is much greater today than it was a generation ago when the or¬ ganization was created. And public recognition of the need for a United Nations is much greater than ever before. But despite some landmark achievements such as assisting with decolonization of territories contain¬ ing nearly a billion people, ratifica¬ tion of the partial test ban treaty, peacekeeping activities in Zaire and Cyprus, the nuclear weapons non¬ proliferation treaty, the declaration of principles governing the seabed and other important accomplish¬ ments, most people are disillusioned with it. The problem is not that a global institution cannot function effectively. What is lacking in the United Nations is the political desire among many of its members for it to assume an effective role.

There are several specific actions which can be undertaken to

strengthen the United Nations. Foremost among these is the need for universality. The recent admis¬ sion of Mainland China, resulting in part from relaxation of US opposi¬ tion and the US initiative to reestab¬ lish the dialogue with Mainland China, is a giant step in the right direction. If a way could be found, perhaps a package deal as Richard Gardner has suggested, to bring East and West Germany, North and South Korea and North and South Vietnam into membership, the cre¬ dentials of the United Nations would be much more credible.

Given the difficulties in establish¬ ing new supranational institutions, it might be desirable in tactical terms to concentrate on establishing those global institutions which are easiest to establish, such as in the research field. Some could even be launched unilaterally, as with the United States initiative in the creation of INTELSAT, or that of the Canadi¬ ans with the International Develop¬ ment Research Center, an institu¬ tion funded by the Canadian Gov¬ ernment but managed by an inter¬ national board of directors.

In many situations it may be necessary to start with something less than a global organization. In¬ deed many supranational institu¬ tions now including most of the world’s nations in their member¬ ship, such as the GATT, IMF and INTELSAT, started with a relative¬ ly limited number of participants. The United Nations itself began with only two-fifths of the members it now has.

Building new supranational insti¬ tutions which are effective and have authority will not be easy. Nations are still torn between wanting both the benefits of autonomy and those of cooperation. Only with public recognition that the balance of ben¬ efits is shifting toward the latter can we expect significant adjustments to occur. And this in turn requires an educational effort designed to provide a better understanding of the relationship between various problems confronting people at the local or national level—such as ris¬ ing seafood prices, threatened spe¬ cies, polluted beaches, drug addic¬ tion, aerial hijacking, urban deterio¬ ration and rising unemployment— and the cooperative supranational efforts needed to solve these prob¬ lems. ■

FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL, February, 1973

"Efficiency of a practically flawless kind may be reached naturally in the

struggle for bread."—Conrad

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

AMERICAN EFFICIENCY

w ■ WE returned to Washington a few months ago after a long stretch of assignments overseas—first in Europe and then seven years in Latin America. Of course, I had come back to the United States from time to time, either on consul¬ tation or on home leave. But in both instances I lived more or less as a visitor, shuttling back and forth be¬ tween USIA and State when on consultation, or traveling around the country when on home leave. For many years, therefore, I had little exposure to what I like to call the “mechanics of life” in the United States.

When we left the country in 1958 “things” worked well in the United States. Telephones, electricity, air¬ lines, department stores, banks, bro¬ kerage firms, car manufacturers functioned perfectly and their serv¬ ice was courteous and above all— efficient. There were gripes—after all griping is one of the treasured privileges of a free citizen—but these were concerned with entirely different matters. People would complain that Washington was a “hick town”; that there was not enough cultural life; that restaurants were provincial. But nobody doubt¬ ed that in the more mundane, day-

Edmund Schechter, FSIO 1, retired a few months ago after 28 years with USIA. His last post was Caracas, Vene¬ zuela. where he served as Counselor for Public Affairs. Previous assignments in¬ cluded La Paz, Rome, Washington, Bonn, Munich and Berlin. Mr. Schechter is presently on the staff of the Presidential Study Commission on International Ra¬ dio Broadcasting.

EDMUND SCHECHTER

to-day aspects life was smooth enough.

In this last long period of service abroad I found all this, at least initially, fully confirmed. Europe was sophisticated, its cultural fare stupendous, its restaurants superb, its sidewalk cafes inviting, but when¬ ever local friends complained about endless difficulties with their bu¬ reaucracy, or their banks and stores, or public and private institu¬ tions, 1 had my complacent smile ready. They might have their Cost¬ ings all right but what really counts for the average citizen are the easy “mechanics of life” and in this field the United States was unbeatable

These convictions grew, of course, even stronger after our transfer to Latin America. There, even sworn enemies of “Norte America” would reluctantly ac¬ knowledge that though the United States was “imperialist” and its “capitalist” society “inherently evil,” efficiency was our very spe¬ cial attribute and practically synonymous with the word “Ameri¬ can.”

Sure enough, in the last few years all of us abroad read in papers, magazines and books about the changes in our society, learned about them from visitors, witnessed some on occasional trips home—but it is one thing to hear about changes and another to experience them first hand.

When returned to take up resi¬ dence again in Washington, we had to find an apartment, buy a car, furniture and clothing, select a school for our son, straighten out our neglected problems with banks, brokers, savings associations and in¬

surance companies—in short, effect a quick readjustment to a routine, stateside life.

Thus, without the benefit of a gradual transition we were suddenly exposed to the shattering experience of the incredible deterioration of American efficiency, traditionally one of the pillars of the American life style.

I would like to illustrate this sweeping statement by a number of examples from various fields and I am sure that associates in the serv¬ ice will recognize these experiences as very much resembling some of their own.

• We ordered living room furni¬ ture from a well known and reputa¬ ble store. No earlier delivery date than eight weeks was possible. A couple of days prior to the “magic” date my wife checked by phone. Everything fine, the answer was, the store had just talked to the factory and delivery was confirmed. Noth¬ ing happened, however, and after another frantic phone call a cheer¬ ful voice from the store advised us that the factory had just discovered that they did not have the fabrics and thus were unable to deliver at all. However, the store manager added helpfully, we could naturally have our deposit back immediately!

• We bought our bedroom furni¬ ture from one of the big department stores in the area. In this case we got our precious merchandise quick¬ ly, except that the mattresses were all of a different color. “No prob¬ lem,” said the store in reply to a quick inquiry. It will be exchanged immediately. And so it was—four times because three times they re¬ turned with the original wrong col-

13 PORBIUN SERVICE JOURNAL, February. 1973

ors. The “captain” of the delivery team explained matter of factly that the whole procedure resembled a lottery game and that they might have to go on exchanging indefinite¬ ly since the wrappings did not indi¬ cate a color. One day, he added optimistically, they would hit on the package with the right color! We trusted the law of averages and our trust was eventually rewarded.

• We had to change our ad¬ dresses with magazines, banks, sav¬ ings institutions and what have you. This proved to be an undertaking of truly major proportions and unex¬ pected adventures. However, by dogged insistence we made signifi¬ cant inroads and gradually letters, statements, magazines and checks started to arrive at our new address rather than making the fascinating detour via Latin America. In two cases, unfortunately, our defeat seems to be final: Both my wife and I hold passbooks with a Virginia savings association. Somehow I had managed to have the address on my passbook properly changed. I also was in possession of a treasured written promise of imminent change in my wife’s book. By the end of March I sent both books in for dividend credit, shrewdly putting both in one envelope and marking the correct return address on all sides of the forms and the envelope. Helas, I had not taken into account the zeal and devotion to duty of the people in the Virginia office. The next day my passbook was back as hoped for, but my wife’s was care¬ fully “selected out” and sent to Caracas!

The other “holdout,” a New York bank, provide to be even more thor¬ ough. They never answered my let¬ ters, never changed the address and simply sent an interest check to Caracas with a deduction of 30 per cent. The accompanying note ex¬ plained that a foreign address pre¬ sumes that the recipient is a foreign national and the tax deduction, therefore, is compulsory!

• The other day I bought some stocks. Immediately after I received the “buy” slip, I hand-carried the check to the broker’s office with a note indicating the name and num¬ ber of the account. This accom¬ plished, I limited my further invest¬ ment activities to the daily examina¬ tion of the downward move of my

14

particular stock. However, a few days later the broker’s secretary phoned and stated with a voice full of compassion for my financial plight that there was a debit on my account and exchange regulations are adamant in requiring settlement within a prescribed period. I felt duly chastized but took the liberty of pointing out that I had brought the check over personally days ago. After a few hours the young lady phoned back and briskly announced that the “misunderstanding” was “completely” cleared up. The mon¬ ey had been credited to a wrong account but rectification was on its way. “No harm done,” she said. I agreed and expressed my everlast¬ ing gratitude for the prompt action.

• A few weeks ago we started preparations for a summer trip to Israel and Europe. Indoctrinated by long years of Foreign Service regu¬ lations in regard to travel by Ameri¬ can flag airlines I started my in¬ quiries with one of the two big US carriers flying the Atlantic. I asked about the 22 to 45 days excursion fare and the authorized number of stopovers. “None” was the quick answer, this year IATA had de¬ cided to discontinue stopovers dur¬ ing the peak season for that particu¬ lar excursion fare category. Even for IATA this seemed to me to be an improbable ruling since few peo¬ ple would like to spend their 45 days vacation in just one place.

Since airline schedules and travel arrangements happen to be my hob¬ by as gardening and carpentry is with others, I walked over to an European airline across the street and asked about stopovers. The re¬ ply was that there was a reduction in stopovers all right, but one stop¬ over was, of course, authorized on the return portion of the trip! I went immediately back to the US airline telling them what I had just learned, pointing out that the stopover au¬ thorization is a decisive factor in planning a costly trip. The lady at the counter became visibly annoyed with the distrustful client but con¬ sented to make some more in¬ quiries. The outcome was a terse and disgusted: “Yes, Sir, one stop¬ over allowed” and with this she turned to another client.

LET me try to destroy two preva¬

lent myths about this new phenom¬ enon of American inefficiency. The first is heard around town more in the form of a “whisper- campaign.” Inefficiency, so the story goes, is caused mainly by the sud¬ den influx of blacks into jobs for which they are “simply not ready.”

No question that blacks carry their share of rudeness and careless¬ ness but it is pure escapism to blame these dramatic developments on blacks. In most of my examples the culprits are as white as can be. There is no black in the broker’s office, none in the Virginia savings association, none in the New York trust company and I did not see a black face in the ticket office of the transatlantic airline. It was newly acquired American inefficiency re¬ gardless of race, creed and color.

The second myth and this one of old standing and still believed in by the vast majority of people, includ¬ ing Government employees them¬ selves, is the superiority of private business over Government bureauc¬ racy.

I submit that at the present stage of affairs the average services provided by Government agencies are more efficient and more courte¬ ous than those by the private sector.

I had in the last few months numerous dealings with Govern¬ ment offices on such items as new passports, vouchers, retirement, so¬ cial security and, on the whole, things functioned very well. I even got a tax refund from the much maligned D.C. tax office a few weeks after filing my return, where¬ as it took many months and a letter of complaint to the president of the company to get the refund of my excise tax from one of the big three American car manufacturers.

I am fully aware of the vast area of potential improvement still open to Government operations; the lack of imagination and initiative in some agencies and the mania for clearances in others. But T believe it is fair to state that the trend in Government services has been up¬ ward and the trend in private busi¬ ness downward.

There are many reasons for this change of traditional roles and they probably would merit a serious study. Some reasons might lie in the “glass house” character of Govern¬ ment operations and consequently

FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL, February, 1973

Success, betterment, advancement were the great

movers in American life. Work had a per se value beyond

its immediate financial recompense. Not

working was, if not a sin,

certainly not something to be proud of.

the easy detection by Congress and information media of shortcomings, waste and plain inefficiency; a more complex and careful hiring system; and “old-fashioned” rating and pro¬ motion procedures.

My almost sacrilegious statement in favor of Government operations applies not only to the rank and file but even more so to top manage¬ ment. Government officials in the upper ranks can be wrong a very limited number of times before sooner or later they will have to pay the price for their wrong judgments. In the private sector top executives “rule” in an almost autocratic fash¬ ion, their decisions known only to relatively few people but the price for their errors paid by literally mil¬ lions of users of their products and services.

People might agree or disagree that the acquisition of the large and costly 747 jumbo jets was an error in judgment at least as far as the timing was concerned; or that the attempt to develop and introduce into the market a picturephone was misjudging the public interest; or that the refusal to believe that there was a genuine demand for a small and parkable car led to the invasion of the American market by Euro¬ pean and Japanese manufacturers. But few persons will disagree that tolerating malfunctioning at lower levels as described in my story, is certainly not an example of “strong leadership.” And few people will quarrel with me that it is not the ultimate in “imaginative” manage¬ ment to meet all corporate difficul¬ ties with the stereotyped and sim¬ plistic remedy of increase in prices, rates and fares or with demands for higher custom duties to keep out foreign competition.

I shared with most other Ameri¬ cans the almost mythical awe of and admiration for the top executives in big business. Their know how, efficiency, planning capacity, fore¬ sight, seemed in popular imagina¬ tion to approach virtual infallibility. This nice American dream is not the only one lost in the shuffle of the last decade.

In this context it is interesting to note the impressions gained by prominent persons from the private sector when confronted for the first time with the so-called inefficient Government machinery. Over the

past two years I twice headed a USIA inspection team abroad; I was inspected myself at my last post; and I served on the last USIA selection panels. In all four in¬ stances prominent “public mem¬ bers” were part of the team who started their work with a healthy and somewhat condescending scep¬ ticism in regard to the “quality” of Government personnel and ended as great admirers of the compe¬ tence, hard work and, yes, efficien¬ cy of the people involved.

NOT all homecoming surprises were on the negative side. The big posi¬ tive change was the strong upsurge of interest in culture. I have no great sympathy for the quibbling over fine points in the planning or construction of the Kennedy Center. The fact is that at long last Wash¬ ington has a concert hall, an opera house and a legitimate theater worthy of the capital of a big coun¬ try. Performances are frequently sold out, a good part of the people who attend are young, prices, though not cheap, compare favor¬ ably with Europe though the income level there is still considerably be¬ low ours.

In comparing the two phenom¬ ena, the decline of efficiency, the quality which was most characteris¬ tically American, and the upsurge and respectability of culture which was the least typically American, a number of interesting observations emerge.

These days good trains, efficient telephone service, practical and well constructed small cars, modern in¬ dustrial plants, renovated inner cit¬ ies, good maintenance are to be found in Europe, at least Western Europe, and Japan. On the other hand, wonderful orchestras, new ap¬ proaches in theater and opera, ex¬ periments in ballet, modern muse¬

um techniques and popular interest and participation in cultural events of all sorts have become very much part of the American scene. Thus we witness today a fascinating re¬ versal of traditional roles between Europe and the United States with Europe taking over America’s tech¬ nical and efficiency prerogatives and the United States moving rapid¬ ly to become one of the world’s great cultural centers.

WHAT happened to America’s efficiency? Why its decline? Is it the law of history that after reaching the peak there is only one direction open—downward? Every sociologist and historian will have his theory and probably all will contain some small truth. The major issues in American life have their impact such as the drug scene, the Vietnam war, the rightful pressure of minori¬ ty groups for a place in the sun and the general distrust in the “estab¬ lishment.” And there are other even more specific reasons such as the computer and as a consequence an ever diminishing personal involve¬ ment; the ever more specialized as¬ sembly line with its depersonalizing effects and the affluent society and the fading memories of the depres¬ sion.

As a consequence of all these and other causes we are now witnessing the erosion of the American Work Ethic. This work ethic used to con¬ vert—consciously or unconsciously —every American of whatever reli¬ gious or ethnic origin. Success, bet¬ terment, advancement were the great movers in American life. Work had a per se value beyond its immediate financial recompense. Not working was, if not a sin, cer¬ tainly not something to be proud of.

I always felt that the difference between this legendary American

(Continued on page 24)

FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL. February. 1973 15

AN OPEN LETTER TO NEW APPOINTEES TO THE CONSULAR CONE

CHARLES S. KENNEDY, JR.

| WOULD like both to congratulate you and warn you as you enter the ranks of professional consular officers. I extend my congratulations because you are going to have more interesting work, more responsibility and more fun than most of your colleagues in the other specialties, and I give you warning that you will have far less of an opportunity to rise high in the Foreign Service than your fellow officers.

Let’s look at the positive side first. You are going to be dealing with people on an individual, face-to-face basis for your entire career. Unlike political officers you will not have to consider abstractions such as “the German people,” “Africans,” “the population of the southern provinces” and unlike economic officers, you will not see people as “the consumers,” “the workers,” “the upper middle class” and the like; you will be eyeball-to-eyeball with honest-to-God peasants who smell of garlic, tough cops who don’t like foreign officials messing in their cases, and Americans who have gotten themselves into the damnedest messes and expect you to get them out. Not for you are the pretty boys of the Foreign Ministries who are interchangeable stock items that vary little from one country to the next, including, I might add, your own. You will soon learn that if you want to get something done you have to bypass the Ministries and go to the policeman on the beat, the doctor, or the county clerk to get results.

You will find that consuls have a broader mandate than do diplomatic officers. Diplomats are accredited to a country’s Foreign Ministry, and while they can, in some countries, develop contacts with other parts of the gov¬ ernment of the country to which they are accredited, they have to be careful not to stray too far. Consuls, on the other hand, usually have a treaty or convention which allows them to approach anyone in the host country who can help them with the legitimate concerns of Ameri¬ cans. While stationed in Yugoslavia, I more than once found myself trying to convince the registrars of small Bosnian or Montenegrin villages that the consular con¬ vention of 1881 between Serbia and the United States allowed me to check their records for Social Security claims.

These Social Security, VA or other federal benefit investigations, by the way, are a wonderful way to get you out of theoffice and into the country since most immigrants come to the United States from out of the way villages and you have to go there for records. It is hard work but batting around the backwoods in a jeep, arguing with local officials and sleeping in fourth rate hotels away from any other Americans for days at a time

Charles Kennedy entered the Foreign Service in 1955 and has been Consul General in Athens since 1970. Prior to that he was Consul General in Saigon, Consul in Belgrade and Vice Consul in Dhahran and Frankfurt. He has also served in PER and 1NR.

16

make the Foreign Service fun. You will remember these trips after all diplomatic receptions are mercifully forgot¬ ten.

Visa work has always been regarded with a certain amount of dislike by Foreign Service officers. The fact is that most work, whether it is reporting on essentially the same political scene for months at a time or rehashing economic statistics, can be dull and repetitive. However, there are two things that make visa work stand out. First, there are decisions to be made, decisions which have a real effect on real people. In fact, you may find that your judgment is never again so important as it is in your decisions on visa cases. Secondly, visa interviews offer you a unique opportunity to talk to a large number of people, and on the non-immigrant side, to meet a broad cross-section of the country to which you are assigned.

Protection and welfare work is becoming the guts of consular business as our visa and citizenship processes become more liberalized. The number of Americans abroad is increasing each year. Our fellow citizens, God bless them, bring trouble by the bushelful with them. Hospitals abroad are full of our people who stumbled over unfamiliar cobblestones or who climbed the Acropo¬ lis at noon in August at the age of 75. Because of language problems, or understandable fright, or confu¬ sion over foreign ways, they need your help. A test of real diplomacy is not how well you can negotiate a treaty, but how well you can help an absolutely impos¬ sible, demanding little old lady in a dispute with a local doctor on whom you will have to rely long after the little old lady has left.

Protection and welfare work also means prison visiting. Before the Now Generation hit us, we could count on having at the most one or two Americans serving a few months in jail for negligence resulting in auto accidents. Perhaps in every tenth country there would be a resident American murderer. Hash and pot have changed all this. Despite our own gradual relaxation on marijuana enforce¬ ment, governments abroad are not playing the game and are tossing our kids in jail at an ever increasing rate. In spite of a tremendous effort on the part of our Government to warn our young travelers that they can get in serious trouble with drugs of any sort abroad, the young set just won’t believe it—perhaps it is a built-in immunity to any type of advice coming at them, whether from their parents, soap companies or the Department of State. Anyway, you are going to spend a good bit of your time in jails and prisons trying to help Americans. You can do quite a bit of good by prodding the lawyers, seeing the public prosecutors, persuading the wardens of the prison to treat our people gently, and helping the Americans themselves to realize the situation they are in and persuading them to act accordingly.

The real reward in consular specialization is that very early in the game you stand a good chance of being in charge of your own consular section. It may be only you, an American secretary and a local clerk, as was my situation in Dhahran, but it is yours. Unless you foul up, you will find that the rest of the post will be very happy to let you take care of your problems. The responsibili¬ ties are yours and the decisions are yours—these are the rarest gems to be found in the Foreign Service. You also will see some immediate results of your work: the visa applicant does go to the United States; the woman

FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL, February. 1973

recovers from her accident because of your arrangements for medical treatment.

Now let us take a look at the dark side of the moon. Our present personnel policy, which probably will be with us for some time, guarantees that if you are a normal officer you will have 20 years in the Foreign Service from the time you become a FSO-5. Therefore you certainly have a very good chance, as do officers in the other specializations, of reaching FSO-3. The ques¬ tion is then, what are the opportunities for consular officers to rise to the FSO-2, FSO-1 ranks? (I am excluding Career Minister and Career Ambassador as being too exalted for consideration.) The answer, I am sorry to say, is that the chances are slim. The April Department of State NEWSLETTER Supplement gave its analysis of the last promotion list. For consular officers the message was loud and clear—abandon hope all ye who enter here (if you want to rise to the top of the tree). Only one consular officer went to FSO-2 (out of 57), and only one other went to FSO-1 (out of 18). The 1971 list was as grim. I don’t have the figures at hand, but I believe that there was only one professional consular officer going from 0-3 to 0-2, and none from 0-2 to 0-1. Unless there is a recurrence of the Black Death, striking only senior consular officers, there is little likelihood that the promotion list will change much in future years.

Why is the prospect so bleak for consular officers? One reason is the simple fact that the professional consular officers number, I would guess, between 10 and 15 percent of the officer corps, Remember that a good number of the lower ranked consular positions are filled with junior rotational officers marking time before they turn into political or economic specialists. Other positions are filled by language officers or area specialists. For example, I doubt if there is more than a handful of professional consular officers on the whole continent of Africa and certainly not one over the rank of 0-4. Another reason for the dismal prospect is that we are now tying promotions to rank openings in each cone. There has been a gradual lowering in the rank require¬ ments for consular positions throughout the world. In the lower ranks this is fine: it means that you can be the senior consular specialist in a country as an FSO-5 (as I was in Yugoslavia, for example). When you rise in rank, however, you will find the staffing patterns are working against you.

Normally you would think that the 68 Consulates General around the world would be fair game for consular officers. Don’t kid yourself! Let me introduce you to your own personnel policy analysis kit. Take the current Foreign Service List (October 1972) and the stud book (the Biographic Register); list all the consuls general heading our consulates general; then look them up in the stud book. While there are rather fancy formulas for putting officers in their cones, you can probably do the job as effectively by a two-minute examination of an officer’s bio data. One of our Supreme Court Judges said that while he could not define pornog¬ raphy, he knew it when he saw it. The same applies to cones. You will know a professional consular officer when you see his assignments. As a rule of thumb, he should have had at least one consular assignment as a middle grade officer since many junior officers are vice consuls before moving on. Now going back to the 68

Consulates General, logic would say that the heads of these posts should be heavily weighted towards econom¬ ic/commercial and consular officers. With our desire to expand trade, we should have specialists out where the foreign consumers are in order to persuade them to buy American. Millions of Americans are traveling overseas and we are required to protect them, and logic would say that specialists in the field of protection should be in charge of posts where there are many tourists or resident Americans. Now using my coning analysis system, let’s look at our 68 posts. Here is what I found:

Political 40 Economic 14 Administrative 6 Consular 6 Unfilled (as of the publication

of the FS List) 2

Apologists for the system may explain that these consular posts are not headed by consular, economic, political or administrative specialists but by the highly selected members of the executive cone. This does not hold water. Consular and Administrative officers are supervising large sections for most of their careers while a large number of economic and political officers are lucky if they have half a secretary under them until they reach the 0-2, 0-1 levels. This is not to disparage their work because it is mainly analysis and representing American interests to the host government. These just don’t happen to be executive skills. Another argument is that political activities in the provinces are so important that we must have skilled reporters on the spot. This may be true in a few countries, but by and large, with modern communications and the growth of centralized power, the action is in the capital. For example, we have four consulates general in France. The last significant political movement outside Paris was during the time of the Royalist revolt in the Vendee in 1793.

Much of the consular problem goes back to the early division between consuls and diplomats. Consuls were often businessmen involved in “trade,” while diplomats were aristocrats personally representing their kings. The division carried over into our republican form of govern¬ ment. Traditionally diplomats were drawn from the upper classes and had to have private means to support themselves in the style they were used to. Consuls, on the other hand, could actually make money at lively com¬ mercial ports such as Liverpool. They got a cut of all charges for documentation of ships and cargoes going to the United States. Nathaniel Hawthorne and Bret Harte were given consular posts to help them over their finan¬ cial embarrassments. This system no longer prevails, and while the snob distinction still lingers, unfortunately there is no monetary compensation. In the British colonial world it was said that Kenya was for officers and Rhodesia was for “other ranks.” Consular work in our service has been traditionally for “other ranks.” We are not alone in this distinction. Call up the nearest British Embassy sometime and talk to the consul: then call a political officer. Listen to the difference in accent.

Back in 1968 there was a study of the consular cone. At that time slightly less than one half of the officers were college graduates. Recruitment had been mainly

(Continued on page 27) FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL, February, 1973 17

This memoir, written in 1968, describes a diplomat’s tour of duty with the taps-to-reveille group—and how he enjoyed it

SOWING FOR STATE AT WEST POINT m AHH RONALD D. PALMER

THE average junior FSO goes along in his career without a thought of being uprooted and thrust into a classroom to teach, armed with nothing other than his native wit and a startlingly rusty and outdated under¬ graduate and perhaps graduate education. Well, take heed, there are three such positions for which officers are considered when they near the lofty heights of class four. These teaching slots are at the Military, Naval and Air Academies. The jobs date from 1965, in the case of the Military Academy, 1964 for the Naval Academy and 1963 in the case of the Air Academy.

Since little has been written to date to inform the service on the rewards and pitfalls of these jobs, I will seek to do so for the position I currently hold at West Point.

First, to answer the question of how one is chosen for such assignments, my answer is that I do not know. However, it appears to have something to do with being between 30 and 40, being an FSO-4, or nearly so, and having had a sufficiently interesting and varied career to have a diverting, if not laughable, file. Doubtless one useful asset in such a file will be indications of the capability to survive in small, isolated posts.

In my own case, Personnel must have observed that since I was on loan to USIA and a cultural attache in Copenhagen at the time of my assignment to West Point, and that I had endured and succeeded in not being laughed out of Denmark, would indicate that I apparently had enough brass to survive in a classroom.

Second, if you are assigned to a Service Academy and are presently overseas and addicted to la vie diplomatique, get your fill of it before you go to Colorado Springs or West Point (Annapolis is a different order of reality altogether and my remarks to follow will not apply to

Ronald Palmer comes from a coal mining and blacksmithing family in western Pennsylvania. He was educated at Howard University, the University of Bordeaux and the School of Ad¬ vanced International Studies of Johns Hopkins University. Since entering the Foreign Service in 1957 he has spent about half his time in the Department (INR, S/S-O, CU and EA) and half abroad in Indonesia, Malaysia and Denmark. Upon completing his '67-68 tour at West Point he was awarded the Department of the Army Certificate of Appreciation for Patriotic Civilian Service. His present assignment is American Embassy, Manila.

18

Babylon-on-the-Severn) because both these schools con¬ tinue to cultivate the Spartan spirit. Early to bed and early to rise; lots of good, clean work; a healthy mind in a healthy body, all of that!

Life here rotates about the cadets and their schedule. The cannon that goes off at 5:50 A.M. to awaken the Corps also awakens the Faculty. Cadets form up for breakfast at 6:15 A.M. when they march into their mess hall to the accomplishment of drums and bugles for the first of the meals that reportedly provide some of them up to 4000 calories a day. After breakfast the cadets are free until 7:45, when the academic day begins.

When most First Classmen (or seniors) arrive in my classroom, it will be on a day when they are attending classes in military history, literature and ethics and military instruction. On the next day they will attend a course in Civil Engineering, Ordnance Engineering, and at least one elective subject. Everyone takes the same courses except for a limited elective program and more advanced core curriculum courses for the more apt and industrious. Twice a week, additionally, cadets not on varsity squads are required to participate in intramural sports after classes end at 3:15 P.M. In the fall and spring there are two full-dress parades a week. In the winter, weather permitting, there is either a parade or a full-dress inspection in ranks on Saturdays. Moreover, all First Classmen at some point in the year will have chain-of-command responsibility for running the Corps of Cadets.

The First Classmen earn some 20 academic credit hours a semester in their final year; by the time they graduate they will have accumulated nearly 160 credits overall. They end their four year program with the equivalent of an engineering science major, with a heavy lacing of social sciences and humanities (some 40 percent of the required curriculum). The added military training and physical training further reduce the oppor¬ tunity for idle boys to play at the games of the Devil.

The point of this digression is that the FSO at West Point teaches core curriculum courses six days a week from 7:45 to 10:25 A.M. Therefore he receives stu-

FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL, February, 1973

dents with attitudes toward the social sciences ranging from the enthusiastic through the indifferent to the antagonistic. To succeed in creating interest and impart¬ ing information at 7:45 A.M. to busy young men, some of whom would prefer to be anywhere other than in a classroom, is a worthy challenge.

Being an early riser by preference and, according to my wife, a scandalously cheerful morning person, the cadets and I have worked out an implicit bargain: I will not be too sunny and boosterish in the morning, if they study. If they do not study I make up bad puns and otherwise harass them with good cheer. They generally prefer to have studied.

Afternoon working hours at the office may extend to 4:30 or later; there are no specified “office hours.” In the afternoon one is supposed to study, prepare exams, counsel cadets, and be available for administrative duties. The gregariousness of the working situation is such, however, that in my case—as the only civilian present—all too much of my research and lesson prepa¬ ration seems to take place between dinner and the “Tonight Show.”

There is a Department of Army Regulation calling for semi-annual physical proficiency tests. This, com¬ bined with the fact that almost half of my Department’s members have successfully survived Ranger training, tends to make my colleagues take physical conditioning seriously. Social pressure to go to the huge and fantasti¬ cally equipped Cadet Gymnasium is low-keyed but persistent. One’s colleagues tend to indulge in PT from 10:30 A.M. to noon. My predecessor at West Point, Jim Rosenthal, did successfully lead a movement with the brave title of “Athletes Anonymous,” the purpose of which was to stay as far away from the Gymnasium as possible. But I found I was made of less indomitable material and succumbed rather quickly to my col¬ leagues’ jibes about the cases of Tuborg beer I was

The painful thing about being an FSO at West Point is that one is considered

to be the expert on all things relating to diplomacy and the daily events

taking place in the world.

carrying in a spare tire around my middle when I arrived here from Denmark.

To my consternation I now find myself an occasional starting member of my Department’s basketball team in the sado-masochistic “Officers Noontime Basketball League,” the local version of group therapy. Such participation got me eight stitches over my right eye last spring, but it was worth it when I walked into class the next morning and my cadets gasped in awe and one of them said, “Gee, sir, that’s going to make a cool scar.”

My colleagues and I have become so proficient and arrogant that we recently defeated a good cadet in¬ tramural team by 20 points. Unfortunately, we have now been challenged to a match by the Brigade In¬ tramural Champions who have sworn to avenge the

honor of the Corps of Cadets. Occasionally, I look back wistfully to the quieter diversions of Copenhagen.

On the more traditionally academic side of things, I would offer a third injunction: be prepared to be intellectually humble while you catch up on everything that has happened since you went to school. At West Point the FSO teaches in the Department of Social Sciences which is loaded with former Rhodes Scholars, former cadet First Captains and young officers from West Point and other schools who have distinguished themselves militarily and academically. They generally teach for three years and then resume their military careers.

Colonel George A. Lincoln, who headed General Marshall’s War Plans Staff in World War II, and who gave up general’s stars to come back to the Academy in 1947 to become Department head and permanent pro¬ fessor, believes in recruiting military officers of unusual promise to work for him. General Charles Bonesteel, 8th Army Commander; General Andrew Goodpaster, Deputy Commander, USMACV; the then Colonel Dean Rusk and many others worked on that wartime staff.

Alumni of the Lincoln era at the Department of Social Sciences seem to be generally highly regarded as both command and staff officers and are often found dealing with the tougher military/political/economic problems in their later assignments. Quite a few have gone on to distinguished academic careers also.

Colonel Lincoln’s personnel theory is to find highly motivated and well-rounded officers, put them in class¬ rooms and then let them alone. However, since he enjoys visiting and participating in classes and will sometimes bring guests, one is never quite sure when he will turn up. Therefore his faculty members tend to keep a finely honed edge. Nevertheless, these occasional visitations are invariably pleasant and relaxed.

In sum, the FSO will operate in a highly decentral¬ ized and relaxed atmosphere and will have as colleagues men at the rank of major who tend to be 25 to 35 years old, most of whom will have had command positions and generally combat experience in Vietnam, all of whom will have recently studied at some of the best graduate schools in the United States. Necessarily, many of these young men are clearly destined to have out¬ standing military careers.

Obviously, the best advantage an FSO has is his experience, but a wise man will quickly begin reading the standard works in the area of political science and international relations that have been produced in stag¬ gering number since he went to graduate school and with which his younger military colleagues seem to be all too casually familiar. A short list of such authors would include Seymour Lipset, Gabriel Almond, Sam¬ uel Huntington, David Easton, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Edwin Reischauer, Henry Kissinger, Herman Kahn, Lucian Pye, Raymond Aron, Adam Ulam, Samuel Beer, Sidney Verba, Talcott Parsons, Max Weber and James S. Coleman. This list excludes the obvious bibliog¬ raphy which would include the standard works on Vietnam, and those of Hans Morgenthau, George Ken- nan, etc.

Fourth, the painful thing about being an FSO at a facility such as West Point is that one is considered to be

(Continued on page 25)

FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL, February, 1973 19

P3J BOOKSHELF

George F. Kennan

Redivivus

MICHAEL DAVIS

MEMOIRS, 1950-1963, by George F. Kennan. Atlantic-Little, Brown, $12.50.

W HEN I entered the Foreign Serv¬ ice, a little more than a year ago, I thought my background as a histori¬ an and professor made me unusual¬ ly qualified for the diplomatic serv¬ ice. My intellectual temper and academic discipline, I reasoned, would help me become the very model of a modern diplomatist. To make a gift of my talents to the government was, I thought not an ignoble thing.

My smugness lasted for about three days after my arrival in Wash¬ ington. The very day my junior officers’ class first assembled at the Foreign Service Institute, I opened the pages of the Washington POST

to read that people like me were precisely what was wrong with the Foreign Service and in large part responsible for the decline of the State Department in the councils of foreign policy making. This opinion was cast in the form of a long review of the late John Franklin Campbell’s book, “The Foreign Affairs Fudge Factory.” The re¬ viewer went on to say that Mr. Campbell’s proposed reforms would not suffice to rescue the State De¬ partment from limbo; what was needed was a different type of For¬ eign Service officer. The academic elitist, the intellectual, the writer of brilliant memoranda content to cast his pearls of wisdom and let them lie—he would no longer do. What the department needed were efficient managers and bureaucratic pol¬ iticians. The State Department must realize, the reviewer went on, that it is no longer an elite with an exclusive province in foreign affairs, but that it is one bureaucracy among many competing for influ¬ ence in the making of foreign poli¬ cy. The lamb of Foggy Bottom could not lie down with the lion of the Pentagon and expect to survive. Skilled bureaucratic infighters were needed if the Department were to

20

prevail in the tooth-and-claw Wash¬ ington jungle.

I mention this little incident be¬ cause it illuminates, in a small and personal way, the dilemma confront¬ ing today’s State Department, of which it might be said, as was said of post-war Britain, that it has lost an empire and has not yet found a role. It illuminates as well the dilemma in evaluating the public career of George F. Kennan, the later years of which are meditated upon in these memoirs—a career which Kennan himself called a fail¬ ure.

For many like myself, with heart divided between cloister and chancery, Kennan is a kind of hero a man who made important con¬ tributions in both worlds. That he considers his diplomatic career a failure is disturbing, and I find upon inquiry that a number of his For¬ eign Service colleagues will not dis¬ agree with him. “George was always a better scholar than a diplomat,” a retired ambassador told me. Critics of Kennan say that the scholar, however brilliant, was intolerant of the domestic political imperatives which weigh upon a President and was indifferent to the bureacuratic competition which bends the twig of a growing foreign policy. Kennan admits as much. He confesses “a total disregard for the American do¬ mestic-political process.” Diploma¬ cy, he believes, is an art above the main chance, above politics.

Kennan practiced the art throughout a long and varied career (the first 25 years of which were recounted in an earlier volume of memoirs). He was 28 years a For¬ eign Service officer, Ambassador to Moscow and Belgrade, head of the Department’s Policy Planning Staff, and articulator of the “contain¬ ment” policy, which, though some¬ times twisted into Procrustean shapes which dismayed Kennan, re¬ mained the basis of American for¬ eign policy for over twenty years. Along the way, and continuing after his retirement from public life (a most active retirement spent largely at Princeton’s prestigious Institute of Advanced Study), he reached hun¬ dreds of thousands of American through his lectures and writings; penned several books, at least two of which remain standard reading on university campuses; and ad¬ vanced a number of interesting

ideas on the limitations of dem¬ ocratic societies in conducting war and diplomacy. Finally, he has writ¬ ten memoirs which in brilliance of style and content must assume a position in the front ranks of Ameri¬ can autobiography. No mean achievements, these, and hardly the stuff of a failed career.

Like Henry Adams, Kennan dis¬ plays a peculiar temperament which influenced his views of men and events and his assessment of his own work. At least three predilec¬ tions are prominent in this tem¬ perament: conservatism, profession¬ alism, and intellectualism.

Kennan’s conservatism reveals it¬ self in countless ways in these memoirs: his carefully measured prose, his preference for hierarchy and authority, his respect for his¬ tory, his affection for the rural Mid¬ dle West of his youth (“I view it. . . as the heart of the moral strength of the United States”), his admira¬ tion for the values and statecraft of the Founding Fathers. His diary of travel in the United States in 1951 expresses sorrow for a country growing overpopulated, industrial¬ ized, and urbanized, an America- becoming-California. This despair influenced his thoughts upon diplo¬ macy: “What use was there, I had to ask, in attempting to protect in its relations to others a society that was clearly failing in its relation to it¬ self?”

Closely allied to Kennan’s conserv¬ atism is his sense of professional¬ ism (which some might construe as “elitism”). He has never doubted the basic good sense and good in¬ tentions of the American people. But diplomacy is too subtle and exacting an art to be left to the people’s representatives. Art should be practiced by artists. “Our func¬ tion, the function of career diploma¬ cy,” Kennan writes, “was, as it ap¬ peared to me, a pure one: a matter of duty, dedication, reason and inte¬ grity.” The practice of diplomacy and the rendering of advice to the President on foreign affairs is the proper province of men of such professional commitment, and not of congressmen and bureaucrats, whose interests are parochial and who often are ignorant of foreign peoples; of generals, whose perspec¬ tive is military, not diplomatic; or of silent men in the White House con¬ cerned solely with reelecting the

FOREIGN- SERVICE JOURNAL, February, 1973

President. Kennan does not say it, but if Presidents had listened less to these voices and more to the profes¬ sional diplomatists, perhaps our course in Vietnam would have been less tragic and destructive.

An offended sense of profession¬ alism contributed to Kennan’s disenchantment with federal serv¬ ice. He was dismayed and demor¬ alized when the State Department failed to support his colleagues John Paton Davies and John Service, slanderously accused by Joseph McCarthy. Somewhat earlier he had had the occasion to reflect upon the limitations of the professional diplo¬ mat in influencing the foreign policy of his government. As Ambassador to Moscow, Kennan had submitted a perceptive memorandum on the Soviet Union’s response to NATO and the rearming of West Germany thoughts which prefigured by sever¬ al years the arguments of the “revi¬ sionist” cold war historians. The memorandum, apparently, was without effect in Washington, and Kennan concluded that even am¬ bassadors counted less than, say, labor leaders or congressmen in charting the course of American foreign policy. “The realization of this fact,” he writes, “diminished my enthusiasm, in the ensuing months, for remaining in a profession where passivity, inscrutability and tactical ingenuity were valued so highly, and serious analytical effort—so little.”

Kennan’s disposition for, and ac¬ complishments in, serious analysis suggests his intellectualism. Like “conservative” the word “intellectu¬ al” is the victim of many attempts at definition, quite a few of them pej¬ orative. But central to intellectual¬ ism is a belief in the integrity and efficacy of ideas. Ideas are abstract instruments the mind uses to com¬ prehend reality. Ideas are not sub¬ ject to compromise to win public approval but only to being demon¬ strated useful or not useful in fur¬ thering understanding. Politicians, whether in Congress, city hall, or the federal bureaucracy, are not concerned with abstractions but with concrete quantities such as money, votes, and services. Unlike ideas, these quantities are subject to compromise; they can be manipu¬ lated, multiplied, divided. If the whole loaf is not available, the pol¬ itician takes a half, or even the slice

of bread. The emphasis is upon the concrete, the immediate, the thing done.

There is, then, a difference in function and in temper between the intellectual and the politician. Per¬ haps this is why intellectuals usually do poorly in politics; the few who have been successful politicians gen¬ erally cease functioning as intellec¬ tuals while in public life. In retire¬ ment, Kennan was approached by his neighbors to run for Congress. He considered the prospects, then turned the offer down. To accept political contributions, he believed, would compromise his independ¬ ence. Independence of judgment is essential to an intellectual; it is in¬ comprehensible to a politician.

Perhaps his propensity to intellec¬ tualism explains in part why Ken¬ nan was not a very successful bu¬ reaucratic politician (I am not speaking of his skills as a diplomatic negotiator, where compromise is a necessary virtue). From his fertile mind has sprung many clever ideas on the nature of American and So¬ viet societies, the future of commu¬ nism, and the inflated role of mili¬ tary and political considerations in our diplomacy. For Kennan, the in¬ tellectual advocacy of these ideas consisted in brilliantly stating them. He submitted them to history rather than to public or bureaucratic opin¬ ion. He reveals his disagreements with American decisions to invade North Korea, support Chiang Kai- shek on Taiwan, station forces in Japan, rearm West Germany, and depend upon a policy of massive nuclear retaliation under Eisenhow¬ er. He declared his objections to these policies at the time of their executions, but apparently, he did not lobby actively against them. Perhaps the former is all a dissent¬ ing intellectual can do, save to resign dramatically.

But Kennan did not resign. He accepted the Moscow ambassador¬ ship in 1951. Without effective in¬ structions and without support from the effete, lame-duck Truman ad¬ ministration, harassed and isolated by a hostile Stalin regime, Kennan’s ambassadorship was an unhappy climax to his professional career. A chance remark at the Berlin airport about Stalin’s repressions (a slip for which Kennan makes no excuses) led to his recall at the request of the Soviet government. He was persona

non grata in Eisenhower’s Washing¬ ton, as well, but he hung on until Dulles retired him in 1953. The brief Belgrade ambassadorship un¬ der Kennedy was an addendum to his career in diplomacy.

There remains the summing up. In no sense can Kennan’s career, taken as a whole, be called a fail¬ ure. The public and private phases of his career combined to produce some brilliant thinking and writing about American diplomacy. The in¬ tellectual, scholarly temper made the Foreign Service officer an ex¬ ceptionally keen observer and an¬ alyst; the professional diplomatic experience was the leaven to the intellectual accomplishments of the last two decades.

And what of the State Depart¬ ment? There are those who claim there is no place in the modern Foreign Service for men of Ken¬ nan’s gifts and temper. Let them hie themselves to the academy, or the foundations or think tanks, but not to the diplomatic service. But I can¬ not believe this is the wisest course. If the State Department wishes to reassert itself as the primary agency for foreign affairs, it must do more than improve its method of manage¬ ment. It must proffer to the pres¬ ident the best possible advice on foreign policy. To do so, it must encourage and reward critical and innovative thinking about that poli¬ cy; it must provide a medium where experience in diplomacy can enrich analysis. Most of all, it cannot afford to send its best minds into exile. ■

The Vietnam War Trial THE BEST AND THE BRIGHTEST, by David Halberstam. Random House, $10.00.

F OR the makers of American na¬ tional policy in the early 1960s, those who were the “best and the brightest,” Vietnam was a historical trap. Its jaws wounded their country and shredded their own personal reputations. Following up his earlier pathological studies of Vietnam, Da¬ vid Halberstam in this long, smooth¬ ly written, and fascinating book ex¬ amines the men who made Vietnam policy and the process that took us where we went.

Halberstam argues that the Ken¬ nedy men were too proud, too anx¬ ious to appear tough, too reluctant

21 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL, February. 1973

to examine the basic propriety and worth of our policies. Military op¬ timism and can-do spirit polluted their judgments. They scorned the doubters—Stevenson, Bowles, Ball ■—even as they increasingly shared the doubts in private. Halberstam rides particularly hard on McNa¬ mara, General Taylor, and Mc- George Bundy, although few escape unscathed. President Johnson, for instance, is portrayed as tortured and confused, and a most difficult man to work for.

Vietnam will long influence Amer¬ ican policy, and much of what Hal¬ berstam discusses concerns basic problems of our profession. For in¬ stance, how does the State Depart¬ ment win arguments with the De¬ fense Department and the military services? Should government report¬ ing be trusted, or in fact is the New York TIMES more reliable? Should reporting be shaped to support policy or argue a case? What loyalty is owed superiors with whom you dis¬ agree? What are the talents and background, character and ambitions of your superiors, and their effect on his decisions and recommenda¬ tions? What real choices are there as the day’s decisions are made, de¬ cisions that form small waves in a cumulative flow of policy?

One of Halberstam’s major criti¬ cisms of the Vietnam decision mak¬ ers is that they never did examine the other basic alternative, that of abandoning Vietnam. They chose in¬ stead a gradualist course which in the end sucked the US all the way into war. The principals may feel, however, that in their own minds they had thoroughly considered this basic alternative, and had rejected it because the costs in domestic criti¬ cism and international instability seemed too great. All too much should have been done otherwise, but perhaps the major reason Viet¬ nam was such a trap was that all the basic alternatives were lousy ones.

For now Halberstam’s incisive study of the decision making on Vietnam is clearly the mainstream of historical judgment. The princi¬ pals deserve their rebuttals, but most of them maintain a hurt silence. Per¬ haps someday, however, even on Vietnam a revisionist school of inter¬ pretation will emerge.

—JOHN SYLVESTER JR.

Love Those Wheels THE GREAT ROAD RACES, 1894-1914,

by Henry Serrano Villard. Arthur Baker Limited, London, £2.00.

H ARRY VILLARD’S love affair with the automobile continues to flourish. For years he provided JOURNAL

readers annually with a sort of high class Consumers Report on the new models. Now he has gone back to the beginnings to give us a graceful, elegant and informative period piece on road races from the 1894 Paris Rouen (winner’s average speed, 11.6 mph) to the 1916 Vanderbilt Cup (winner’s average speed, 86.9 mph). It will surprise many Americans to learn that the US was way behind Europe in the development of the automobile; of the 300 cars in the US in 1895 only four had been made in this country and it was not until 1908 that an American car won a major race. The author has written a delightfully readable book with a high energy nostalgia generator in¬ cluded as original equipment. But he has also managed to make it a real Who’s Who of the pioneers and a practical handbook of technical development for the layman. How¬ ever, it would be more useful in this respect if the index were more com¬ plete. This is a book which should be in the library of every car buff.

—J. K. PENFIELD

Feet of Clay A SENSE OF THE SENATE, by Seymour F. Freidin. Dodd. Mead & Company, $8.95.

THE author, a syndicated colum¬ nist, decided to study the Senate from a Senator’s office. His host was the late Senator Dodd—the only Senator to be officially chastised by his fellows in the last decade. With the piety of a good guest, Freidin seldom mentions Dodd in his study, concentrating on the failings of oth¬ ers. His concluding chapter heading, “The Senate—Nearly Two Hundred Feet of Clay,” indicates his mood.

Few of those mentioned come out unscathed; Senator Fulbright being a main target. The book lacks organi¬ zation, and reads like a jumble of comments transcribed from 3x5 cards. It has no index to its innuen¬ does. In sum, a disappointing treat¬ ment of an important subject.

—DAVID R. RAYNOLDS

The Cultural Revolution

MAO AND CHINA: From Revolution to Revolution, by Stanley Karnow. Viking Press, $15.00.

T HIS is an important book by a person most qualified to write it. For some eleven years Stanley Kar¬ now, one of our most esteemed China-watching journalists, followed the developments on the Mainland from that active pimple on China’s underbelly—Hong Kong. In a sense, this book is a culmination of his ex¬ perience there.

Mr. Karnow begins with back¬ ground material on Mao, his rise to power and his philosophy, as well as with the policies, problems and personalities that dominated the first fifteen years of the regime. Since, however, he was in Hong Kong from “The Opening Salvos” (Chap¬ ter 8) of the Great Proletarian Cul¬ tural Revolution through most of “The Road to Recovery” (Chapter 20), Mr. Karnow’s book is essen¬ tially a detailed treatment of the “when,” “who,” “how,” and some¬ times the “why” of that self-induced national trauma.

Pieced together from hundreds of sources, interviews and personal communications (almost 50 pages of footnotes), Karnow’s version of the Cultural Revolution is a com¬ fortable combination of fact and speculation. Although there are al¬ most as many interpretations of the whys and wherefores of this phase in China’s history as there are in¬ terpreters, the author shuns the “probably’s” and “possibly’s” and writes his story not only as if he were in China during that period, but as if he were actually in the presence of the key participants. If this were written by a less qualified man, the approach might well be questioned, but although it is easy to disagree with some of his details, one feels himself to be in good hands with Mr. Karnow. His writing is persuasive, he succeeds in being quite objective despite his positive approach, and one is willing to ac¬ cept some of the author’s interpreta¬ tions more readily than some of the other writings on the subject.

Mr. Karnow believes that al¬ though Mao may not be very real¬ istic in his visionary goals and in his efforts to change human nature, the

22 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL, February, 1973

Cultural Revolution did manage to lead the Chinese people “to the re¬ discovery of their grandeur by in¬ culcating them with a spirit of na¬ tional identity, a sense of purpose, and a dedication to self-reliance.” Whether the end was worth the means depends on the outlook of the individual observer.

Despite ourselves, some of us tend to write for our colleagues even when we try to reach a more gen¬ eral audience. This probably hap¬ pened to Mr. Karnow. The detail in the events and the innumerable names may be just a little too much for the uninitiated. The insights gained into this period, however, should well compensate the reader’s effort.

—LEO A. ORLEANS

China’s Population

EVERY FIFTH CHILD, by Leo A. Or¬ leans. Stanford, $8.50.

DOES China threaten her neigh¬ bors, and the world, because her large, expanding population presses upon her limited resources? Is there danger that her masses will spill

over into the “rice bowl” of south¬ east Asia?

In his authoritative study of China’s population, Dr. Orleans points out that most southeast Asian countries have been rice-surplus areas but that, even before the ex¬ pansion of the Indochina war, the area’s total rice exports amounted to but two percent of China’s grain output. Hence, the area is no “rice bowl” to feed China’s hungry mil¬ lions. Also, any forceful occupation of the area would require sizeable numbers of occupation troops and would disrupt food production. China realizes that there is no im¬ mediate solution in adjacent coun¬ tries to her population/food dilem¬ ma and is making every effort to re¬ solve it internally.

Fears have been voiced that the twenty million overseas Chinese (96 percent of whom live in Asia) may constitute a built-in Fifth Column for a militant China. In this regard, Orleans states that the overseas Chinese are deeply engaged in cap¬ italist enterprise; they are neither willing to serve as tools of Peking nor to give up economic security for ideological struggle. They do, of course, feel a sense of cultural heri¬

tage and pride in China’s status as a world power after a century of hu¬ miliation.

Apprehensions about an expan¬ sionist China should not rest on her population problems. China does seek to expand her influence and ideology among the new states of Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Among them, she may well carry on disruptive, revolutionary activities when conditions seem auspicious. China’s militancy, however, may spring from any number of national objectives: desire to spread inter¬ national communism, to restore China’s past grandeur, to eliminate the “white peril” in her part of the world, and to elicit greater sacri¬ fices from the Chinese people. “But this militancy is not the result of pressures generated by masses of Chinese people in search of Lebens- raum.”

The chapter on the implications and consequences of China’s popu¬ lation will interest laymen. Most of this scholarly work is, however, for specialists concerned with economic and demographic conditions in China.

—ROBERT W. RINDEN

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AMERICAN EFFICIENCY from page 15

devotion to work and the former easy-going European attitude could best be understood by watching the number of able-bodied, healthy and youngish men sitting in European cafes at all times of the day, doing absolutely nothing and what was worse—-visibly enjoying it.

In the United States, on the con¬ trary, a man who was temporarily out of a job, or on vacation, or in between, always felt somehow guilty and compelled to explain why he would “loaf” and be seen walking or strolling outside his only legiti¬ mate day-time abode—his place of work.

It is interesting for the thesis of the reversal of roles between the continents to read Joseph Wechsberg’s amusing but sad article in the New York TIMES sometime back, describing the slow death of the European cafe as an institution. And every tourist to Paris and Mi¬ lan can testify to the quick lunches of unspeakable hamburgers which replaced the delicious two hour meals and civilized siestas. In this

country, on the other hand, the de¬ cline of belief in the all redeeming quality of work is something to be observed everywhere and was dra¬ matically documented in its rela¬ tion to the young blue collar worker in the excellent Washington POST

series published last April.

THE spectacular decline of Ameri¬ ca’s efficiency and parallel to it the disintegration of belief and interest in work and service, is bound to have far reaching consequences for this country—nationally and inter¬ nationally. Internally, it contributes materially to the increasing deterior¬ ation of the quality of life thus nurturing even further the feelings of malaise and discontent prevalent in many sectors of our society. In¬ ternationally, it will make us in¬ creasingly less competitive with oth¬ er nations, thus further damaging our exports and balance of pay¬ ments and contributing to a vicious circle of poor quality and high price products, diminishing exports, high¬ er imports, more unemployment and greater discontent.

We can only hope and pray that these negative phenomena are not manifestations of an irreversible process but rather the natural con¬ sequences of the ferment of the first fully developed industrial society in human history wrestling with new values and aspirations.

To end on a lighter, though mel¬ ancholy, note: Whatever the future holds for our “efficiency,” in the long run it holds the same for Eu¬ rope and the other developed na¬ tions. The pressures of industrializa¬ tion, modernization and mechaniza¬ tion in the postwar period were so strong that Europe had faithfully followed the so-called Americaniza¬ tion process, copying all its good and bad manifestations. Whether they and we like it or not, it is therefore, only reasonable to expect that the next stage—deterioration of their efficiency and quality of life—will also be unavoidable.

And certain impressions during my very recent official trip to some European countries lead me to be¬ lieve that that sad future has al¬ ready begun. ■

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If you can wade through some extraneous (but funny) material on post reports, selec¬ tion out, assignments and representation allowances, you will find some valuable tips on etiquette in

An introduction to foreign service life for the student contemplating the career, a chuckle for friends and relatives back home, this 64-page book is only $1.00 from:

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FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL, February, 1973

SOLDIERING FOR STATE AT WEST POINT from page 19

the expert on all things relating to diplomacy and the daily events taking place in the world. You can disap¬ point a few of the people some of the time, but you can’t disappoint all of the people all of the time; therefore one must study strenuously and earn respect for one’s professional and academic prowess.

The courses the FSO teaches help a great deal toward the development of that easy academic, but profession¬ al, insouciance one’s colleagues and students appear to expect. The FSO teaches Comparative Political Systems in the fall semester and International Relations in the spring semester.

Comparative Political Systems requires teaching the David Easton concept of “the Political System” and the Gabriel Almond and G. Bingham Powell concept of comparative politics. Once the theoretical model is established one then teaches the British, French, West German, Soviet, Chinese Communist, Indian and Japa¬ nese political systems on a comparative basis.

The International Relations course, like the Com¬ parative Political Systems course, is a standard under¬ graduate survey. It includes sections on the nature of international politics; decision making for foreign policy; foreign policy problems, which will include close read¬ ings this semester of Kissinger’s “Troubled Partnership” and Heilbroner’s “The Great Ascent,” and an examina¬ tion of Warsaw Pact Politics and other current prob¬ lems, including Vietnam, the Middle East, and the UN.

The course will end with a role-playing exercise called “Operation Statesman.”

The FSO and the other eleven officers who teach these senior courses are expected to be able to teach at various levels of cadet proficiency. The West Point System of “order of merit” ranks the First Classmen or seniors from man number one to man number 745. To achieve such an order of merit rather frequent, short daily examinations or writs are given. Normally, a cadet will have been examined on about one-third of his classroom attendances. There are 48 such attendances for International Relations, for example; thus, a cadet would probably have had 14 to 18 daily writs by the end of the course, dependent upon his luck in getting a professor who likes or dislikes to correct writs. The second third of a cadet’s final grade consists of his term paper, and the last third is his final examination grade.

Classes are “resectioned” by order of merit two or three times a semester. Thus, one can expect usually to teach high, middle and low sections. Unfortunately, the average FSO tends to use big words so unless he is careful he can be somewhat ineffective in the bottom sections where a disproportionate number of football players and similar scholars reside and where the main requirement is to use simple, direct and forceful lan¬ guage. These amiable bottom section cadets generally have one principal interest and that is “to get the straight poop,” no frills and no extraneous, hard-to- digest, extra stuff. They are understandably concerned with surviving until graduation when they can emerge

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from their academic chrysalises and become soldiers. There are not many “mute, inglorious Miltons” in the bottom sections.

Teaching upper sections is easy since these boys are bright and literally hunger for information.

The middle sections are the greatest challenge as these young men have carefully developed protective shells of “cool” to protect them from the cadet’s existen¬ tial existence. Joseph Heller’s character Yossarian, of “Catch-22,” is well-known to the cool middle. Camus is the hero of a cadet of my acquaintance. The middle sections have the ability but need motivation. This has been the group with whom I have enjoyed working most and had the most return in terms of student interest and performance.

Fifth, as a function of being an FSO and thereby an expert on everything and also a civilian and therefore an expert on the care and feeding of other civilians, the FSO is implicitly expected to be present for all academic and social functions where visitors from outside are welcomed. While this can lead to meeting a dazzling assortment of academicians, Establishment potentates, high government officials and leading generals, it can represent a formidable pressure on the waistline and liver similar to that of being posted in Graustark. There is another danger, too. One develops a certain oracular quality in the classroom, particularly as the only profes¬ sor dressed in civilian clothes. Charmed by the sound of my own voice I found myself recently making grave ex cathedra pontifications to former Under Secretary

Katzenbach. He was amused, but barely so. Sixth, as far as amenities are concerned, the schedule

leaves little time for foreign service-style entertaining, but though partying tends to end early, it is intense during its duration. Similarly, the New York theatre district is only a little over an hour away. Also, one can maintain ties with foreign diplomatic friends, for the UN diplomatic colony is relatively near at hand.

Housing is excellent. The post school is a three minute walk from the assigned FSO quarters. The PX is relatively well-stocked. Women’s activities are low- keyed and non-compulsory. Facilities for children are remarkable.

In summary, West Point is an excellent post. The atmosphere at the Academy is friendly and people here are well-disposed toward Foreign Service officers. The job is demanding, but rewarding and immensely satisfy¬ ing, if one finds that he enjoys teaching.

The personal and career benefits of immersion for two years in an academic environment should be appar¬ ent in terms of newly created or rejuvenated intellectual and physical energy.

Above all, it is a great experience to become ac¬ quainted with the cadets and to come to understand the positive role a teacher can come to play with regard to the intellectual and spiritual development of young people.

Lest I sound too much like Pollyanna, I rather look forward to resuming again the wicked life of an FSO in his true habitat. ■

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26 FOREIGN SERVIOE JOURNAL, February, 1973

AN OPEN LETTER from page 17

through the promotion of secretaries, couriers, and com¬ munications personnel. I should add that the Administra¬ tive cone was recruited in much the same manner. Many excellent people came in, in this way, but the class dis¬ tinction remained, and to some extent remains today, al¬ though there is now a much greater effort to use the same criteria for all cones. Today there is the danger that there will be a subtle form of discrimination in that women and minority group members recruited into the Foreign Service officer ranks, to the accompaniment of tremen¬ dous publicity, will be shunted disproportionately into the consular cone. We will be gaining good officers, but such disproportion would only perpetuate the present attitude towards the cone.

Much of what I have said also applies to the Adminis¬ trative cone, but at least to an outsider the situation does not look as serious. The class discrimination may be there, but administrative men hold the levers of power in the Department of State and at its posts abroad and they can take care of themselves. The Administrative cone has not let the series of position cuts seriously diminish the rank levels of administrative positions overseas.

As an exercise, I took the Foreign Service List of February 1972 and listed the rank of the chief of the consular section and of the chief of the administrative section from each of our embassies which had both consular and administrative officers. (There are some very small African embassies which do not have separate

sections.) The results are as follows:

Consular Officers

Administrative Officers

0-1 1 7 0-2 6 22 O-3/S-l 20 23 0-4/S-2 22 28 0-5/S-3 21 12 0-6/S-4 18 2 0-7/S-5 7 1 O-8/S-6 1 0

You can see that the Administrative cone has kept a reasonable ladder to the top, while there is next to none for consular officers. (Had I included the top political and economic officers in each embassy section the differ¬ ence between their positions and those of the senior consular officers would have been far greater.) One could say that if there is any sense to the rank system, the higher the rank, the more expertise. Apparently in our order of priorities we have been giving more expert attention to government property than to American citi¬ zens in trouble overseas.

I don’t point the finger at the administrative officers. In fact I think they have acted properly to see that there is a proper career structure open to them. For consular officers, as you can see, the situation abroad is bad and it may be getting worse. There have been recent examples of turning the consuls general at some of our major embassies into “meeters and greeters.” There is nothing

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wrong with this idea except that you can be sure that the system will not ask the rough diamonds of the consular cone to do this work, but only insure that the FSO-1 Political Cone Consul General has a professional consular FSO-3 as an assistant to tell him where to sign his name. Every one of these social type assignments takes the bread out of a consular officer’s mouth.

If the situation in the field is depressing, the one in Washington is impossible. The great joy of consular wbrk abroad is that you have very little supervision from the Department. Most of your decisions have to be made right away and you don’t have time to consult with anyone. This means, however, that there is a very small support staff in the Department and consequently very, very few high ranking consular jobs. See if you can name the top professional consular officers in the business. If the consular establishment is small in the Department, what about senior executive jobs in other areas? After all, almost from a consular officer’s first assignment, he is running an office and making his own decisions and it would seem he should be qualified to hold executive positions. If my experience as a personnel officer trying to place consular officers in the Department outside of the consular area is any criterion, then you can forget about it. The other cones hold the positions, and they are not interested in taking on consular officers; they have enough trouble finding slots for their own senior officers. They do have, I would suspect, proportionately far more senior slots allocated to them than do consular officers. The only reason that the problem is not acute is that

there aren’t many consular officers promoted to senior ranks anyway.

All right, I have painted a bleak picture. What is the solution? Frankly I don’t think there is any. The facts will remain the same. We are a very small group in the Foreign Service; our work is concentrated abroad, which is removed from the seat of power over positions and promotions; and we don’t have much of a chance of gaining effective representation in the upper echelons of the professional Foreign Service. Perhaps there will be some room for registering our unhappiness in the new grievance procedures and employee organizations that are being established, but the same people who represent us will probably be our competitors from the other cones. We can however fight the downgrading of our positions and we can keep an eye on what senior positions have been left to us and scream like hell if anyone outside our ranks muscles in on our turf.

Why then should any officer stay in the consular field? If movement up above the 0-3 level is a primary concern, I suggest that early in your middle career you move to another cone. The personnel policy keeps chang¬ ing, but there is always a chance for maneuver if you don’t wait too long. For the rest, I come back to the original point, that consular work is fun and is its own reward. For one thing, you will not be a 50-year-old officer carrying some one else’s attache case, nor one whose main job is getting the requisite number of initials on a piece of paper. You will be helping people, and often having a hell of a good time doing it. ■

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28 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL, February, 1973

“Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach’s sake.”—1 Timothy

amertean Wines R. J. MISCH

A M 1 MERICAN wines have had a lot to contend with, over the years, and are just now coming into their own. The first strike against them—as with so many products of American origin—is the fact that the word

A founding member of the "Wine Com¬ mittee for the State Department,” to counsel the diplomatic corps on wine service, around the world, Mr. Misch is also a Chevalier du Tastevin. His publi¬ cations include "Robert J. Misch’s For¬ eign Dining Dictionary" and “Quick Guide to Wine.” He also writes a weekly syndicated food column for 150 news¬ papers.

“import” has enormous charisma to the American. The most chauvinis¬ tic American Legionaire positively melts at the label “imported fabric,” “imported cheese”—even an “im¬ ported” Count to marry his daugh¬ ter. Not that this was—or is— baseless. Many imports are unique and should be revered for what they are. What brandy in the whole world approaches the Cognac of Charente? I have yet to taste a cheese as delectable as a ripe Brie, or to feel a sweater as melting as Scottish Cashmere. But, there should be recognition for our first

rate products—and one of them is wine.

The second vicissitude to con¬ front native wines was Prohibition— all those fallow years between 1913 and 1934, when the bathtubs of the nation ran white with gin, and wine was something you made with ex¬ tract and yeast in the clothes closet. Well, we suffered through that, and came out on the other side with vineyards a shambles, skilled vint¬ ners gone back to the homeland, and a couple of generations entirely untutored in matters vinous. Amaz¬ ing that a wine industry survived at all.

But its roots were deeper than we realize. Way back in 1769, the good Fathers of Mission San Diego had grown grapes and made wine in southern California. These were Mission grapes and they didn’t make very good wine. They still don’t. The generally accepted father of modern California wines was a Bordelaise named, highly appropri¬ ately, Jean Louis Vignes. He tapped his bungs near Los Angeles, in the early 1840s.

FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL, February, 1973 29

Usually the somewhat lugubrious Count Agoston Haraszthy is cred¬ ited with being the true founder of California’s industry. It is true that he was sent to Europe by the State of California to bring back foreign grape vine slips. He couldn’t take a joke, returning with 200,000 or so cuttings. To the everlasting disgrace of the State, California reputedly never repaid him. That doesn’t ex¬ actly explain why he ended up in Central America and was devoured, a point, by an alligator—but he did and he was. The descendants of Haraszthy’s fledglings are the present-day vines of California.

In the East, there was a different situation—vast acres of grapes of the Labrusca and other native families, growing wild. Remember the Viking’s reference to “Vin- land?” Not content with wine from such obvious sources, we find a cer¬ tain Lord De la Warr, in 1616, asking France to send vintners and vines. They were sent, but the vines could not survive the rigors of the Eastern climate, nor could the vint¬ ners.

It remained for Thomas Jeffer¬ son, our one and only Renaissance man, to say, referring to the native “Alexander” grape, “I think it will be well to push the culture of this grape without losing time and efforts in the search of foreign vines. . . .” How well his words were heeded is borne out by the roster of Eastern States where, in the 1880s, wine was being made: Missouri was first, then Ohio; New York was a poor third, just a mite ahead of Alabama in production. All this is changed today. The Finger Lake region has arrogated to itself the greatest share of the Eastern wine picture, with Taylor and Great Western (one management) dominant.

A number of significant events helped US wines achieve their cur¬ rent popularity. There was the creation of the California Wine Ad¬ visory Board and its hand-maiden, the Wine Institute—no wall-flowers, they. They sponsored national pub¬ lic relations campaigns—sent lectur¬ ers to address college audiences and to speak on radio and TV. New York’s Waldorf held a “California

Wine Festival” in 1964—making California wines more respectable. The prestigious Trader Vic featured and extolled the Californias in his exotic restaurants. Just why Zinfan- del and Polynesian spare-ribs should be a get-together, deponent sayeth not. Such oases as Pot Luck with its wine card of old Californias tabbed at $20, $25, $35 a bottle, helped to convert the wine snob.

Probably the most significant factor, however, was the yeoman work of the oenologists of Davis, University of California, under Maynard Amerine and others. Their work on grape hybridization, viti¬ culture, viniculture and all allied vinous subjects, really brought about the American wine revolu¬ tion.

They must be doing it right be¬ cause in 1971 California sold 226 million gallons of wine, an increase of 15 percent over 1970, and the sixth straight record year. But you want to hear about wines, not statis¬ tics.

You can divide California’s wines into, roughly, four parts. The first

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part are the dessert or fortified wines, the so-called Ports and Sher¬ ries and Angelicas, etc. Where once they rode high, they are losing out— praise be—to the low alcohol, natu¬ ral table wines. These latter can in turn be classified as Varietals, Ge¬ nerics and Monopoles or private brands.

Let us discuss Varietals, first, as they are our proudest offerings. By law, these are wines which, to use the “varietal” name of the grapes as their nomenclature, must contain 51 percent or more of that grape vari¬ ety; viz. Cabernet Sauvignon (from the grape of Bordeaux, the one that makes the great Chateaux; it is probably California’s best red wine), Pinot Noir (Burgundy’s great red wine grape), Gamay (the grape of Beaujolais), Zinfandel (a grape which has lost its parents but produces vast quantities of a rela¬ tively pleasing drinkin’ wine). With 51 percent or more of any one of these grapes in the bottle, the label may bear that grape’s name.

In white wines, the same is true. Chardonnay or Pinot Chardonnay is

the Varietal name of the white wine grape of Burgundy; Sauvignon and Semilion are the great grapes of the white Bordeaux, from dry Graves to sweet Sauternes; Riesling or Johan- nisberg Riesling is the premier grape of the Rhineland. All of these make wines using their respective grape names-—and they do it almost exclusively in the cooler reaches of the northern counties of Napa, So¬ noma, Santa Clara. More southerly climes and hotter valleys are not conducive to the growing of these so-called “noble grapes.” Here, Cal¬ ifornia must rely on lesser European varieties, even raisin and table grapes, and special hybrids created at Davis to meet the climatic need.

When we speak of California’s good wines we generally mean the “Varietals,” discussed above—wines from such splendid Houses as Mar¬ tini, Wente, Buena Vista, Inglenook, Beaulieu, Berenger, Krug, Mirassou, Mondavi, Concannon, Korbel, Heitz, Sebastiani—plus some of the better wines of the huge producers such as Almaden, Masson and Christian Brothers.

The next rung are the Generics. These are, as the name implies, simply blends of any wines from any grapes, and all too often named for foreign wines which many re¬ semble not at all. California Claret, California Burgundy, California Sauterne—these are the wines of this category. Many reputable pro¬ ducers make them in vast quantity. Gallo (which accounts for nearly V3

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The third group are the “name” brands—wines with specific Compa¬ ny labels. These are represented by such wines as Emerald Dry (a house brand of Paul Masson—and a good one); Paisano (a house brand of Gallo—and a lot of wine for the money); Rubion (a house brand of Masson—deservedly pop¬ ular), etc. If it is these wines you want, then you must buy them from

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their one and only maker. If it is a Varietal or a Generic, then your scope is far greater, for dozens of vintners make their version of each of these wines, and you must let your palate be your guide.

Before leaving California, a word about a relatively new develop¬ ment—the growth of the small (sometimes tiny) producer of quali¬ ty wines, often so small the wines never even leave California, or even the vineyard. Some are outstanding and many are the highest priced bottles in California. To mention a few: Stony Hill (especially Chardonnay), Ridge (especially Cabernet Sauvignon and Zinfan- del), Chalone (especially Chardon¬ nay), Mayacamas (Chardonnay). You’ll pay 4 to 6 or even 7 dollars for some of these—and of course at these prices, you must decide if they represent as good value as foreign counterparts at these, or even lesser, figures.

Vintage? Forget it. It’s helpful to have it on the label so you can tell how long the wine is in the bottle California reds are generally sold

too young. California whites can’t be sold too young.

In New York, we have a some¬ what different picture, but the more it is different, the more it is the same. There is a proportion of sweet appetizer and dessert wines— fortified and purporting to be Sher¬ ry, Port, etc.

Then there are the New York (and Ohio) Varietals such as Ca¬ tawba, Diamond, Dutchess, Dela¬ ware, Niagara, Scuppernong (often going under such brand names as Lake Keuka, Lake Niagara, etc.) New York and Ohio Generics are the biggest category: Rhine Wines, Chablis, Sauternes, Burgundies and the like. The Taylor people, with a bit more candor, call theirs simply Lake Country Red, or White or Pink. If a slightly grape-y taste is to your liking, you’ll enjoy these wines. Charles Fournier has done some fine things at his Gold Seal winery and Great Western has been experimenting with the newest thing in Eastern grapes—the French hy¬ brid. These manmade grapes grow on hardy US root stock but sport

French wine grape super-structures. The results are quite fascinating— Chelois (pronounced Shelloy) for instance. This is only the beginning. Young Walter Taylor, in his new and excellent small property, Bully Hill, is doing the same, and offering some excellent reds and whites, while Phil Wagner at Boordy (formerly in Maryland, now in Westfield, N.Y.) offers some out¬ standing wines of hybrid extraction.

That’s about the story. As a wrap-up, I will say this.

United States wines are on the march —improving steadily and growing in importance. American vintners are among the best in the world, and certainly among the most hon¬ est. If they were asked—are the wines of the United States as great as the very best of the French, they would reply to a man, “No—not the greatest, not yet and maybe never— but certainly the equal of many.” Wine shouldn’t be a contest nor a vituperative name-calling, as I have too often witnessed. Suffice to say: “American wines are different and they are good.” ■

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LETTERS continued from page 2 coffee table and an old VW into a dune buggy, there is hope for the Foreign Service.

We cannot expect that other na¬ tions will readily dismantle their di¬ plomatic establishments even if we do. This would cause a representa¬ tional vacuum for the United States in the capitals of the world if we did not manage to fill it somehow. Then too, our embassies, our chanceries and their highly skilled local em¬ ployees represent a formidable American investment abroad and also a real American asset. The problem will be to exploit these existing facilities by streamlining them into useful and constructive channels.

What form shall American rep¬ resentation abroad take in this era of instant communication? What are the useful functions left to our am¬ bassadors and our embassies now that several Chief Executives have replaced the cumbersome apparatus of the State Department with a mini-Foreign Office in the White House basement? What shall we do with our men in the field when the President himself, or a Kissinger, Harriman, Vance or Agnew (de¬ pending on the party in power) orbits the globe on missions of state?

One possible answer would be to transform today’s embassies into a global system of official American motels. These would have the immediate purpose of providing safe and suitable shelter for the jet¬ setting official travelers and their entourages. Motels have the advan¬ tage of being uniquely American and yet eminently exportable. Their flexibility would permit us to adapt each individual structure to its par¬ ticular locale and to American oper¬ ations there—open to the air and sun in some climates, surrounded by concrete walls and slit trenches in others.

Peking would seem to provide an ideal site on which to inaugurate the new system. Our first ambassador, far from being a political expert who might again give China away, would instead be a skilled Chinese¬ speaking maitre d’hotel. With a firm grasp of management and cost ac¬ counting, he would be able to oper¬ ate the vast establishment necessary to accommodate all the members of the legislative and executive

branches, and their wives, who will soon find it essential to make their own on-the-spot analyses of this newest member of the United Na¬ tions.

Political reporting from the Peo¬ ple’s Republic of China could be passed over to the CIA in a move that would finally end the eternal problem of duplication of efforts. Their operation would be housed neatly and inconspicuously in the official American motel, along with the permanent representative of Dr. Kissinger’s staff. The entire staff of the motel, above the rank of waiter and busy boy, would be included on the diplomatic list, headed by the maitre d’ who would, of course, have the title of American Ambas¬ sador.

The emphasis on executive train¬ ing and management skills for American ambassadors in recent years has qualified them remarkably well for this new type of assign¬ ment. Most would require only a brief course in motel management before they assumed their new re¬ sponsibilities. The tact, dignity, and group leadership considered essen¬ tial attributes of successful Ameri¬ can ambassadors are also pre¬ eminently necessary to the maitres d’ of the official American motels.

Retooling the other members of the Foreign Service could proceed gradually. Consular and visa officers would take over the motel travel and booking operations in addition to their present duties. The general services staff would be trained to handle the important housekeeping end of the motel. The administra¬ tive office would naturally move into billing and record-keeping. The economic section would have to spe¬ cialize in home economics in order to operate the food-handling end of the establishment, which would in¬ clude restaurant, coffee shop, and the motel’s catering service. The bar and cocktail lounge would be the natural purview of the political officers. USIA men and women would handle press and public rela¬ tions, and they would also be in charge of the entertainment sched¬ uled in various public rooms. (Officers with a potential as masters of ceremony should immediately be screened out for special training.) Junior officers would all do a stint as bell hops and bus boys, thus

learning the job from the bottom up.

It will be necessary to revise the newly inaugurated track system in order to adapt it to the new situa¬ tion. Food-handling, office manage¬ ment, and motel housekeeping might be among the new streams of choice, all leading to the peak of the pyramid—the maitre d’ or ambassa¬ dor.

There is no need to go into great detail about the operation of the official motels beyond underlining the point that they would provide secure and comfortable accom¬ modations (a motel luxe) for the multitude of official US visitors who have become such a part of Ameri¬ can operations abroad.

Additional advantages would ac¬ crue to the conversion of today’s embassies into the motels of tomor¬ row. Food- and beverage-handling operations of US motels in many countries might be self-supporting and even profit-making. The prolif¬ erating agencies of the US govern¬ ment which long ago outmanned the Foreign Service at posts abroad would now rent office space at mini¬ mum rates from the Embassy motel management and provide another fiscal write-off. With the courtesy title of Military Attaches, the De¬ fense Department alone would take over at least one floor in each motel and provide a steady clientele for the catering operation as well as the restaurants and bars. Perhaps De¬ fense could be persuaded to set up a PX operation somewhere in the lobby, under the supervision of some of its expert sergeants. The boutiques would naturally come un¬ der the Commerce Department, while Agriculture could supervise exterior planting and the motel greenhouse.

The possibilities are endless, the opportunities unlimited. The prob¬ lem will be whether or not the For¬ eign Service is up to the challenge. It seems unnecessary to suggest that Conrad Hilton would make an ideal Under Secretary of State. Of course there will be scoffers like Senator Thurmond who will insist that the Foreign Service cannot change. I would simply like to point out that most of them already possess their striped pants.

—D. B. L. Washington

FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL, February, 1973 33

P2J EDITORIAL

Membership—Key to AFSA Success

^^IE ASSOCIATION is dedicated to the development of an increasingly professional and effective Foreign Service of the United States, and to an improved career system for the people who make up the Service.

Now that AFSA is two-for-two in representation elec¬ tions at State and USIA and optimistic about results in AID, we face a major challenge^serving as exclusive representative of the Foreign Service. The key to success as exclusive representative is membership—for two good reasons—at least:

1) AFSA policies, priorities and leadership will be decided through membership meetings and by means of all-member pollings. Each AFSA member will be direct¬ ly involved and directly consulted: the vigor and quality of our organization will be determined by the extent of participation in it;

2) A large membership means financial resources to continue work already started, to meet the new responsi¬ bilities which come with exclusive representation, and to further expand our professional activities. Also, the larger our membership the more influence AFSA has within the government, with the Congress and the public.

This latter theme is a familiar one, and crucial to our success. You will note in the financial statements appear¬ ing elsewhere in this issue that our revenues have been brought into balance with the expenses of current pro¬ grams and operating levels. But to maintain this balance in the face of expanding requirements we need a sub¬ stantial expansion of our membership.

Our objectives are clear; 1) Establishing a fair and impartial career system for

FS personnel in regard to promotion, tenure, assignments and grievances.

2) Establishing appropriate comparabilities to the Civil Service and the military in pay, allowances, retire¬ ment and other fringe benefits.

3) Strengthening AFSA’s role as a foreign affairs professional organization, improving the quality of our performance in service to the nation and expanding our Openness Program to improve two-way communication with Americans outside the Foreign Service.

We intend to work constructively with Management, but we also expect some hard bargaining. Even under optimistic circumstances we will have to devote more time and money to provide necessary staff support for

34

these consultations and to broader communications with our membership.

To obtain the necessary resources, AFSA will launch a series of membership drives. We will conduct the first among Washington-based State personnel February 5-23, and then move on to our other two agencies at home and to our posts in the field. Our goal is to have a cam¬ paign representative personally contact every member of the Foreign Service who does not now belong to AFSA. We need your help in this endeavor. For readers who are not members, we urge you to join. For those who are, we urge you to help get others to join.

Certification - Certification - Certification

W W W EDNESDAY, January 24, was a day of mixed emo¬ tions at AFSA. Sorrow at Lyndon Johnson’s untimely death was tempered with rejoicing over the end of the Vietnamese conflict and with a purely internal celebration of the Certification of Representative handed AFSA by the Employee-Management Relations Commission.

The objections to AFSA’s certification in the State Department election in which the Association garnered 3093 out of 4858 votes cast were reviewed by the Com¬ mission. The Commission found there was no evidence to support the objections and said:

“Having overruled all of the Objections to the elec¬ tion and inasmuch as AFSA has received a majority of the valid ballots cast, we shall certify it as the exclusive representative of the employees in the unit for the pur¬ poses of consultation with the Agency under the provi¬ sions of the Executive Order.”

It went on to say: “IT IS HEREBY CERTIFIED that the American

Foreign Service Association has been designated and selected by a majority of the Foreign Service employees of the Department of State, excluding management of¬ ficials and confidential employees as defined by Execu¬ tive Order 11636, as the exclusive representative of such employees for the purposes of recognition and consulta¬ tion with the Department of State under the provisions of Executive Order 11636.”

FOREION SERVICE JOURNAL, February, 1973

JOURNAL NEWS This issue is not built around a

single theme; rather, it is intended as a kind of mirror image of the diversity of functions the Foreign Service performs outside of the “classic” diplomatic jobs of polit¬ ical and economic reporting and of representation. We feature an “Open Letter” to consular ap¬ pointees, reflections on an FSO’s teaching assignment at West Point, and a probing analysis of the kind of international organiza¬ tions needed for the future.

AFSA and the Journal will sore¬ ly miss Ambler Moss, who re¬ signed from the Journal’s editorial board in January in order to take up his new job in the Brussels office of Coudert Brothers. Amb¬ ler had served on the Journal board since 1968, and was vice- chairman for over a year. The Journal was the richer for the pro¬ vocative articles he was able to solicit during this time, and we fondly hope that he will remem¬ ber us as he moves on to new adventures.

AID NEWS PER Survey Results

The Foreign Service Evaluation Study Group held an Open Meet¬ ing in Washington on January 17 to present the results of its world¬ wide employee survey on the AID Performance Evaluation System.

Sociology Professor Donald War¬ wick, the consultant to the Study Group, emphasized two findings of the Study as demonstrating a need for fundamental revision of the AID Performance Evaluation System. First was the high level of dissatisfaction with the present

evaluation system. Fifty-eight per¬ cent of those polled were either very dissatisfied or somewhat dis¬ satisfied with the present system. In response to questioning by an AID official, Dr. Warwick pointed out that in his experience gen¬ erally 40 percent of employees can be expected to be dissatis¬ fied with their performance evalu¬ ation system. However, he pointed out that the AID level of dissatis¬ faction was 15 to 20 percent above what he would consider to be the industrial norm.

Secondly, Dr. Warwick ex¬ pressed interest in the result that only 8 percent of the responses characterized merit as being the factor which counts most in be¬ ing promoted. Approximately one- third of the respondents thought that style was most important and another third thought that the in¬ terest of one's supervisor was the key factor.

The two pay classifications most dissatisfied with the present sys¬ tem were the FSLs and FSSs. By job category, most dissatisfaction was found among Staff, secre¬ taries, program officers and econ¬ omists. The survey results indi-

INDEX

AID News 35

Staff Corps News 37

USIA News 35

State News 38

General F. S. News 36

AFSA Activities 38

Members’ Interests 39

AAFSW News C III

Foreign Service People C III

cate not only that AID employees are dissatisfied with the present system, but that a substantial number believe the system is un¬ fair. Clearly, the results are a man¬ date both to management and to the exclusive representative of AID employees to substantially improve the Performance Evalua¬ tion System.

The Study Group has drafted several sample PERs which use a goal-setting and evaluation pro¬ cedure. The AFSA Reform Com¬ mittee suggested this approach in its meeting with the Study Group. The Association has urged the Study Group to seek comments from AID personnel in Washington and overseas on its proposal, be¬ fore sending its recommendations to AID management.

Management is pushing the Study Group to make its recom¬ mendations by April 1, so that the new system can be put into effect on May 1. AID management in¬ tends to change the current cal¬ endar year rating cycle to one run¬ ning from May 1 to April 30. AFSA has pointed out that this may en¬ tail a four month delay for promo¬ tions in 1974. Management wishes to adopt the new timing so that it can appoint personnel to sit on selection boards during the early summer months when they are in Washington between tours or on home leave.

USIA NEWS USIA Elections

AFSA won the USIA election with a vote of 574 (AFSA), 470 (AFGE), and 66 (against). Although AFSA received a plurality of the USIA votes, it did not receive the needed majority of the ballots cast

35 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL, February, 1973

for certification, as there were 113 challenged ballots. Consequently, the Employee Management Rela¬ tions Commission must now de¬ cide which of the 113 challenged voters are eligible to cast their ballots. Of these voters, 92 were challenged by AFGE in support of their FAS lawsuit which contends that these employees are unlaw¬ fully employed in the Foreign Service and should be converted to Civil Service status.

If the EMRC finds most of the challenged voters eligible to vote, AFSA needs roughly one-third of these votes in order to be certi¬ fied as exclusive representative in USIA.

Grantees Sue for Retirement Credit

A large number of former Bi¬ national Center grantees presently ly employed in USIA are support¬ ing a lawsuit, Taylor vs. Hampton, to obtain retirement credit for their prior service in the Grantee Program.

In a recent administrative de¬ termination, the Civil Service Commission ruled that Binational Center Grantees were not Federal employees and could not receive credit toward retirement for serv¬ ice in the Binational Program. Mr. Samuel Borzilleri is the Attorney for the Grantees. AFSA is explor¬ ing the possibility of entering the lawsuit as a friend of the Court in support of the former Grantees.

GENERAL F. S. NEWS Grievance Promotions

The following letter, regarding promotion as a result of grievance board findings, resulted from a series of meetings held in the State Department by a group of concerned Foreign Service of¬ ficers. This group was not affili¬ ated with AFSA, although many members of the Association par¬ ticipated. The letter was signed by 120 FSOs. A comment by the Board of Directors follows thte let¬ ter.

There is wide agreement in the Foreign Service that there must be an effective procedure for the re¬ dress of grievances of Foreign Serv¬ ice personnel involving their per¬ formance ratings and other major

36 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL., February,

factors affecting their careers. On the other hand, there is also wide¬ spread concern that the awarding of promotions on a non-competitive basis, as a compensation for injus¬ tice, may be harmful to the prin¬ ciple of promotion by merit and thus may create another kind of injustice.

The problem, as we see it, is that the Department and the Foreign Service have not yet devised a work¬ able mechanism which strikes an equitable balance between the right of the individual employee to full redress for unjust treatment and the right of all the other members of the same group and grade in the Foreign Service class. While a non¬ competitive promotion may fully re¬ dress the injustice suffered by a given employee, it could well, in those instances where other Foreign Service employees in the same cate¬ gory were more deserving of promo¬ tion than the aggrieved employee, re¬ sult in tangible injury to other mem¬ bers of the Service.

We propose a mechanism that will satisfy both the requirement of justice and the requirement of the merit principle.

In cases where redress by means short of promotion is being recom¬ mended, there would be no change in the present procedures (removal of unjustified prejudicial material from the file, lengthening of time in grade, etc.).

Where it is found that promotion is the appropriate means of redress, we understand the present pro¬ cedure is for the Board of the For¬ eign Service to recommend such pro¬ motion, including even retroactive promotion, and that those recom¬ mendations are given effect without regard to the competitive standing of the employee in his or her class. We think this is not completely just.

We recommend that in such cases the Department should convene a specially constituted selection board in accordance with Section 623 (a) of the Foreign Service Act, to com¬ pare the amended record of the grievant with the records of the 20 officers just above and below the cut-off line (i.e., the 10 lowest- ranked employees of the same grade who were promoted, plus the 10 highest-ranked employees who could not be promoted). If, on the basis of this comparison with 20 files, the special selection board determines that the employee in question ranked high enough to have been promoted but for the injury suffered, then it would recommend promotion to the Secretary.

A specially convened selection

1973

board that considers only 20 files for a retroactive findings as to where the grievant would have stood in re¬ lation to officers close to the promo¬ tion line could probably accomplish its task in one day. If the process needed to be repeated retrospective¬ ly for additional years, that task could be accomplished in a few ad¬ ditional days. Such action would Be a small price to pay, in our opinion, for maintenance of the integrity of the merit promotion system.

Our proposal would also make it unnecessary for the Secretary of State to be placed in the position of having to accept or reject a rec¬ ommendation for promotion on the basis of a finding that he lacks the means to review. Such a finding can only deal with the injustice suf¬ fered by a grievant, not with the specific quality of the person in re¬ lation to others in his (or her) class. No one, except a selection board, can make that kind of finding in complete fairness and equity.

At the same time, no grievant should feel disadvantaged by the slight delay entailed by the work of a special selection board. Indeed, a promotion on the basis of the find¬ ings of such a board would be of greater value since it would assure the employee of the respect of his (or her) peers who otherwise might feel that it was the grievance pro¬ cedure, more than actual merit, that resulted in the promotion. AFSA Comment: We believe that much of the concern surrounding this issue is caused by the mis¬ understanding that a promotion resulting from grievance board findings is a merit promotion. It is not, and does not pretend to be. Rather, it is a compensatory promotion to redress injuries suf¬ fered.

The AFSA Board believes that in our personnel system a promo¬ tion is the only remedy which can adequately compensate an indi¬ vidual in cases of truly egregious discrimination or inequity. We be¬ lieve it is impossible for a griev¬ ance board or a special selection board to reach a responsible theo¬ retical judgment as to where an individual, had he not suffered a proven misjustice, might have ranked by merit in comparison with his colleagues in any given rating period. In most cases the performance file which would be reviewed would have had material deleted as prejudicial by the griev¬ ance board.

It is therefore the Board’s view that the promotion remedy must be available as an ultimate com¬ pensation for injury. The Board strongly believes that this remedy should be awarded in only the most severe cases, and that the Association, as exclusive employ¬ ee representative, should code¬ termine with management strict guidelines for this ultimate com¬ pensation. We anticipate that very few such cases would arise, and we believe that the Service should be able to absorb them. If the in¬ cidence were to rise to any sub¬ stantial number—to, say, over two or three in a single year—then the effect on overall promotion opportunities would become such as to require careful rethinking. Frankly, AFSA has confidence in the system we are developing, and does not anticipate any high rate of discrimination or arbitrariness in the future.

Commission on Foreign Policy

The House of Representatives and the Senate have appointed their representatives to the Com¬ mission on the Organization of Government for the Conduct of Foreign Policy. The Senate ap¬ pointees are: Sen: Mike Mansfield (Montana), Sen. James B. Pearson (Kansas), Mrs. Charles W. Engel¬ hard, Jr. (New Jersey) and Mr. Frank C. P. McGlinn (Executive Vice President, Fidelity Bank, Philadelphia).

The House has appointed: Rep. Clement J. Zablocki (Wisconsin), Rep. William S. Mailliard (Cali¬ fornia), Dr. Stanley P. Wagnor (President, East Central State Col¬ lege, Ada, Oklahoma), and Dr. Arend D. Lubbers (President of Grand Valley State College, Allen¬ dale, Michigan).

The Executive Branch has not as yet appointed its members to the Commission. However, a re¬ cent story in the Washington Star indicated that retiring Assistant Secretary for Congressional Rela¬ tions David M. Abshire will be ap¬ pointed to the Commission.

FS and GS Combined in ACTION

The Assistant Secretary of Labor has denied the establishment of a collective bargaining unit in AC¬

TION made up of only GS em¬ ployees. Assistant Secretary Usery found a “community of interests" between the Foreign Service and Civil Service employees of ACTION despite the lack of common bene¬ fits, pay scales and different ul¬ timate control.

This decision underscores the importance of Executive Order 11636 for the three Foreign Affairs Agencies. It is now clear that the Labor Department does not view the distinctions between the For¬ eign Service and the Civil Service as being significant enough to re¬ quire separate bargaining units. Fortunately, the Assistant Sec¬ retary of Labor’s decisions do not affect the Foreign Service’s sep¬ arate management system.

Duty Rosters Expanded

AFSA’s Bonn and Santiago Chapters have been instrumental in revising the duty rosters at their posts. The action of these AFSA Chapters has resulted in certain employees being added to the duty roster who were previ¬ ously excluded for a number of tenuous reasons. AFSA Chapters should ensure that the duty rosters in their Embassies are equitably drawn up, so that the burden of duty work is fairly shared through¬ out the mission.

Proposal for More Liberal Granting of Diplomatic Titles

AFSA’s State Advisory Commit¬ tee on Career Administration has proposed that the Association seek a liberalization in the grant¬ ing of diplomatic titles. The Com¬ mittee points out that our typical middle grade officer finds that of¬ ficers of comparable age in other diplomatic services hold the rank of First Secretary, and that for¬ eign counterparts of American Class-3 officers are usually Coun¬ selors while the American is a First Secretary. AFSA would ap¬ preciate submissions from Chap¬ ters in the field on the compara¬ bility between ages and diplomat¬ ic titles of American and foreig' diplomats.

STAFF CORPS NEWS One Solution to Overtime

After AFSA’s headquarters and its Keyman made representations about the failure to pay overtime to Staff employees at an ARA post, its Administrative Officer in¬ stituted a system of staggered work weeks and other measures to avoid overtime. As the post did not have funds budgeted to pay overtime for FY 1973, the post management has taken a number of imaginative steps to avoid overtime work in the Mission. Funds have, however, been re¬ quested to pay overtime for FY 1974. This is an example of how solutions acceptable to Staff em¬ ployees can be worked out to avoid forcing Staff secretaries to “volunteer” to work overtime reg¬ ularly.

The Training Myth

Do you speak English? Parlez vous Anglais? Mylate Agglyka? Czy paw mowi po Angielsku? Ong noi tieng anh duoc Khong?

Useful phrases for Foreign Serv¬ ice secretaries who didn’t learn their post’s language at home.

AFSA has just found out that Management Reform Bulletin No. 30of November8,1971, “Increased Training Opportunities for Staff Support Personnel,” is not being carried out vis-S-vis secretaries— we were unsuccessful in getting statistics on other Staff Corps em¬ ployees and are still trying.

If you have recently been as¬ signed to a Foreign Service post, you may be that one in fifteen secretaries who received foreign language training prior to depar¬ ture for post. As for the other four¬ teen, some might be lucky enough to be allowed to study at post one hour a day—bosses’ morning cof¬ fee and other “needs of the Serv¬ ice," notwithstanding.

As for area studies, if you were not one of the three out of every 60, consult your local library for self-help. In the meantime, we have asked the Department for a full explanation and will let you know.

FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL, February. 1973 37

STATE DEPT. NEWS FSRU Appointments

The Department has begun to make FSRU appointments under the Foreign Affairs Specialist Pro¬ gram for two categories of Foreign Service personnel: those whose applications were fully processed and approved prior to the Court's injunction, and those who by the end of 1972 would have exceeded the age limits set out in Manage¬ ment Reform Bulletin No. 8.

The Association continues to urge management to implement the FAS Program in a manner con¬ sistent with career principles. AFSA opposes the backdoor entry of nonspecialists and political ap¬ pointees to career status under the FAS Program.

Junior Threshold

The AFSA Board was unani¬ mously instructed at an Open Meeting of Class-6 Officers in late December to urge the Board of the Foreign Service (BFS) to sepa¬ rate the tenure decision which is made at the Junior Threshold from promotion to Class-5. On January 8, AFSA appeared before the Board of the Foreign Service to present the views of Class-6 Of¬ ficers on revising the junior thres¬ hold. The Association pointed out that the Junior Threshold was not in fact fulfilling its purpose of identifying officers with the po¬ tential and ability to do mid-career work over a 20 year period; in¬ stead, the Department was spend¬ ing an enormous amount of money and energy on a threshold pro¬ gram which had one major goal— to recone junior officers. AFSA al¬ so indicated that the present sys¬ tem was having a serious adverse effect on the morale of junior of¬ ficers.

The Board of the Foreign Serv¬ ice did not adopt the AFSA/ JFSOC proposal to revise the threshold; instead, the Board of the Foreign Service included an additional precept directing the Threshold Board to consider the extent to which the Junior Officer has developed the core skills of the Foreign Service. This added emphasis is certainly needed and welcome. However, it does not

38 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL, February,

meet the Junior Officers and AFSA’s major concern that the Threshold has not to date evalu¬ ated officers for performance at mid-career.

AFSA mentioned in its presen¬ tation to the BFS the adverse ef¬ fect of training assignments on an officer’s ability to cross the threshold. The Precepts were amended, giving an officer full credit for achievement in training. The BFS did not accept AFSA’s proposal that all Junior Officers who are in effect on probation, be evaluated and reviewed for pro¬ motion twice yearly. Nor was AFSA’s suggestion adopted that the Precepts be amended to pre¬ vent the Director General from returning an individual name to the selection board for further

AFSA ACTIVITIES 1972 Audit Report

Your Board and the Secretary- Treasurer are pleased to release a summary of the Association’s Audit Report for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1972, as prepared

consideration. Although the Association was

pleased that the selection out pro¬ cedures to be used by the Thres¬ hold Board are to be based on an established standard of perform¬ ance for that class, the Associa¬ tion is disappointed that no pro¬ vision was made for making the standard public. Furthermore, the Association failed to have the same selection out procedure ap¬ plied to Classes 7 and 8 in State and USIA. The Class 7 and 8 Board is charged with lowranking the bottom three percent of Classes 7 and 8 nonprobationary officers, many of whom have only two or three reports in their files. AFSA believes that the same absolute selection out process should be used for all junior officers.

by Leopold and Linowes, Certified Public Accountants.

For comparative purposes, the Revenue and Expenditure Sched¬ ules, which follow, contain FY 1971, audit information also pre¬ pared by Leopold and Linowes.

COMPARATIVE STATEMENT OF REVENUES AND EXPENDITURES JUNE 30, 1971 AND JUNE 30, 1972

GENERAL FUND*

Year End Year End June 30, 1971 June 30, 1972

REVENUE:

Membership Dues $119,916 $184,499(1) Club Sales 103,618(2) Advertising Sales 52,086 53,257 Subscriptions Earned 35,867 41,090 Miscellaneous Income 6,526 8,433

Contributions 16,138 14,876 Total Revenues $230,533 $405,773

EXPENDITURES: Salaries and Benefits $118,416 $146,094(3) Food and Beverages 41,732(2) Printing 65,105 65,720 Professional Fees & Contract Services 11,999 16,659(4) Other Expenses 107,287 60,314 Capital Expenditures 19,333 8,220

Total Expenditures $322,140 $338,739

Excess of Revenues over Expenditures ($ 91,607) $ 67,034

(1) Revised membership rates were effective May 15, 1971. (2) The Association terminated its contract with the Automatic Retailers of

America in August, 1971 and assumed direct management of the club. (3) Includes Club salaries of $58,283; Club salaries approximating $58,000 are not

included in the 1971 total of $118,416. See note 2 above. A salary figure for 1971 comparable to $146,074 expenditure in 1972 would be $118,416 plus $58,000 or $176,416.

(4) Includes legal, advertising and auditing fees. *Abstracts of audits by Leopold & Linowes completed October 2, 1972 and October 24, 1971.

1973

The improvement in operations in FY 1972 was largely due to the impact of the dues increase, ef¬ fective May 1971, to the assump¬ tion of direct management of the club by the Association, and to a general reduction in operating costs, including salaries.

Caution must be taken, how¬ ever, in the interpretation of the

audited figures in terms of FY 1973 projections During the cur¬ rent fiscal year, the Association must fund new activities connect¬ ed with its recently won status as exclusive representation of for¬ eign service personnel in State and USIA. (It is anticipated that this new responsibility will in¬ clude, in the near future, repre¬

COMPARATIVE STATEMENT OF REVENUES AND EXPENDITURES JUNE 30, 1971 AND JUNE 30, 1972 SCHOLARSHIP AND AFSA FUNDS*

Scholarship Fund AFSA Fund

June 30 June 30 June 30 June 30 1971 1972 1971 1972

REVENUES:

Contributions $ 88,892 $79,621 $35,237 $ 7,179 Investment Income 17,883 17,279 (348) 4,441 Miscellaneous 68

Total Revenues $106,775 $96,900 $34,957 $11,620

EXPENDITURES:

Salaries and Benefits $ 13,148 $17,768 $15,143 $20,130(2) Professional Services 1,235 7,105(1) 2,929 1,176 Other Expenses 1,316 7,480 1,435 4,418 Awards and Grants 43,950 40,536 3,000 3,000

Total Expenditures $ 59,649 $72,889 $22,507 $28,724

Excess of Revenues over Expenditures $ 47,126 $24,011 $12,450 ($17,104)

(1) Incident to the cost of the successful resolution of tax status of the Scholar¬ ship Fund.

(2) Includes 50% of costs of salaries for Association Counselor and Secretary funded from gifts to AFSA.

*Abstracts of audits by Leopold & Linowes completed October 2, 1972 and October 24, 1971.

STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL POSITION AS OF JUNE 30, 1972

GENERAL—SCHOLARSHIP—AFSA FUNDS*

General Scholarship AFSA Fund Fund Fund

ASSETS:

Cash $ 37,193 $ 69,183 $ 2,502 Accounts Receivable 9,763 32,735 9,949 Inventory and Prepaid Expenses Securities

6,617 392,617(1) 14,250

Mortgage Receivable Land, Building & Equipment

100,000

(Less Depreciation) 515,672

Total Assets $569,045 $594,535 $26,701

LIABILITIES:

Accounts and Notes Payable $ 91,120 $ 43,234 $ 738 Accrued Expenses Dues & Subscriptions Paid

21,234

in Advance 102,230 Mortgages Payable 369,311

Total Liabilities $583,895 $ 43,234 $ 738 Fund Balances (14,850) 551,301 25,963

Total Liabilities and Fund Balances $569,045 $594,535 $26,701

(1) Market value $472,511. 'Abstracts of audits by Leopold & Linowes October 2, 1972.

sentation of AID employees.) In addition, the Headquarters build¬ ing will require maintenance that was not carried out in FY 1972.

In brief, to sustain the favorable position achieved last year, the Association will need additional members, a better return from Club operations and more efficient use of the Headquarters building.

Laos Chapter Elects Officers AFSA’s active Chapter in Laos

recently elected new officers and board members. John Woods was elected President and Messrs. Melvin B. Ein, Herbert N. Miller, Joseph M. Chudzik, Howard W. Hardy and Ms. M. Lea Knott were elected to the Board.

AFSA/Laos has urged that the wives of AID employees be listed in the Biographic Register as are names of wives of State and USIA employees. AFSA/Washing- ton concurs.

MEMBERS INTERESTS Tax Deductible

A Federal District Court in Ne¬ braska has ruled that a former State Department Inspector can deduct as a business expense the cost of taking his wife on foreign trips. The Court found that the unreimbursed travel expenses at¬ tributed to the Inspector’s wife are deductible as ordinary and necessary business expenses of her husband, in that the wife’s presence served a bona fide busi¬ ness interest The Court found that the Inspector’s wife substan¬ tially contributed to the gathering of information and provided a psy¬ chological lift to the morale of Foreign Service personnel. In ad¬ dition, the wife, by performing numerous incidental tasks, freed her husband to devote more of his time to substantive duties. The Justice Department plans to appeal.

Housing for Single Employees

Deputy Under Secretary of State for Management Macomber re¬ plied to AFSA’s request of last May that housing allowances paid to single employees be brought into line with those paid to mar¬ ried couples without children. After a “thorough review of cur-

39 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL, February. 1973

rent policy,” the Department has affirmed its current practice of making changes based on quar¬ ters expenditure reports sub¬ mitted from the field. The De¬ partment concludes that the aver¬ age single United States civilian employee receives more favor¬ able treatment in his or her quar¬ ters allowance under the Depart¬ ment’s policies than his or her counterpart in other systems. In addition, the Department stated that they were unable to identify any other organization which as a matter of policy paid the same quarters allowance to single em¬ ployees and employees with one dependent.

The Association has received a detailed housing survey from our Chapter in Madrid. Studies are under way by AFSA Chapters in several other posts. AFSA’s Mem¬ bers’ Interests Committee needs further information from its Chap¬ ters and members to support our concerns with regard to the dis¬ parity between housing allowances paid to single employees and those paid to employees with one dependent. We are going to have to prove our case in dollars and cents and not with arguments about fairness.

Transatlantic Air Fares The November 26, 1972 Euro¬

pean edition of Stars and Stripes reported that Pan American Air¬ ways had proposed special trans¬ atlantic discounts for Defense De¬ partment civilians stationed in Europe beginning January 1, 1973. AFSA investigated this proposed new discount in response to a number of queries from members who were protesting the obvious discrimination against civilian employees working for other USG agencies in Europe. AFSA was in¬ formed that the Civil Aeronautics Board has vetoed the proposal as being discriminatory against civil¬ ians in general. Consequently, the new fare discount will not.be im¬ plemented except for uniformed members of the armed forces sta¬ tioned in Europe.

Kindergarten Allowances AFSA’s request to the GAO for a

ruling that the payment of kinder¬ garten allowances is legal under

present legislation was turned down. The GAO response upheld an earlier GAO opinion rendered in 1966 at the State Department’s request. The GAO view is that the term “elementary and secondary education” as stated in the Over¬ seas Differentials and Allowances Act could only mean grades one through twelve in accordance with the standard dictionary defi¬ nition at the time the legislation was enacted in 1960. The GAO also cited a Senate Committee re¬ port on the legislation which pointed out that education allow¬ ances in the Foreign Service were limited to grades one through twelve.

AFSA is disappointed with the GAO response which is somewhat weak in argumentation for that prestigious organization. But it would be pointless to continue to seek redress through that chan¬ nel, and AFSA must now work to enact the kindergarten allowance legislation currently before the OMB. Meanwhile, 15,000 children of DOD employees abroad attend kindergarten at government ex¬ pense on the basis of an annual line item in the DOD appropria¬ tions guaranteeing free elemen¬ tary and secondary schooling cov¬ ering grades kindergarten through twelfth grade.

Emergency Visitation Rights Expanded

In case you missed the notices, the regulations covering emergen¬ cy family visitation in the event of death or serious illness have been expanded. In the event an em¬ ployee’s dependent residing at an overseas post dies, the employee or another member of the family

can now accompany the remains to the US at government expense. This was previously not permitted and constituted an anomaly that generated a considerable amount of mail from AFSA members.

The reform was first recom¬ mended by Task Force V in 1970 and has been pushed by AFSA and working level administrators in the State Department until it was implemented. The citation in the regulations is 3 FAM 699.5 in case you want to read the full details.

AFSA is still not satisfied with the regulation even as amended because only one family member can travel at government expense to accompany the remains when obviously the entire family nor¬ mally would wish to do so. The number of deaths among employ¬ ees and dependents abroad is for¬ tunately small enough to allow full family travel rights without major budgetary burdens or the agen¬ cies involved. AFSA is also dis¬ satisfied with the $200 and $100 deductible provisions on emergen¬ cy visitation travel which we hope to negotiate out of existence.

Overseas Transfer Allowance: The new expanded overseas transfer allowance went into effect on Oc¬ tober 25, 1972, the date the Presi¬ dent signed the State/USIA ap¬ propriation. GAO regulations pre¬ vented a retroactive start up date of July 1, 1973. AFSA has per¬ suaded management, however, to modify the start up eligibility reg¬ ulation. The original rule made employees eligible for the new allowance if their travel orders were authorized on or after Octo¬ ber 25, 1972 The eligibility rule

AFSA—Legal Fund c/o American Foreign Service Association 2101 E Street. N.W. Washington, D.C. 20037

Enclosed please find my contribution of $ to help finance a second court test on home leave deductions. I understand that my contribution will be returned if insufficient funds are received.

Name_ —

Address

40 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL, February, 1973

now includes employees who travel after October 25, 1972 re¬ gardless of when their orders were authorized. This change will help a significant number of people take advantage of the new ex¬ panded allowance who might otherwise have been ineligible. The next step is to modify other provisions of the regulations to make it easier to qualify for the full allowance.

R&R for Ambassadors: Chiefs of Mission in Latin America have been authorized R&R travel at government expense. ARA had been the only State bureau pro¬ hibiting Ambassadors at unhealth¬ ful posts from taking R&R. AFSA joined Ambassador Siracusa in the successful appeal for relief. As Ambassador Siracusa argued, chiefs of mission can always find a way of leaving the country on official orders, but their families are stuck.

F.S. CLUB NEWS Duncan Lyon, the Foreign Serv¬

ice Club’s able and dedicated man¬ ager, has resigned to take a posi¬ tion as food and beverage man¬ ager at the Hospitality House, Williamsburg, Virginia. This new establishment will be opening in early March and Duncan hopes that many AFSA members will plan a trip to Williamsburg, drop¬ ping in to see him at that time. Drinks, of course, are on the house!

Duncan's successor will be Lo¬ well B. Walker, ex-Marine, who brings considerable experience gained from the management of military and civilian clubs in this country and overseas. In addition to this, Mr. Walker has had addi- ditional formal training in man¬ agement, administration and sup¬ ply. Mr. Walker served in the Ma¬ rine Corps from 1952 to 1971. His plans for the Club's future opera¬ tions include all on-going pro¬ grams plus stricter methods of quality control.

flflFSW NEWS AAFSW President, Mrs. William

Leonhart has arranged for the AAFSW to hold a luncheon at the

Officers’ Club at Ft. Lesley Mc¬ Nair, Thursday, March 15. Our speaker will be Liz Carpenter, whose topic is the Women’s Revo¬ lution

The AAFSW will try to make available the main points dis¬ cussed in the panel on the For¬ eign Service wife at the January meeting, as well as the question and answer period. If you would like to receive this report, please contact Program Chairman Dallas Finn, 229-6652, 7007 MacArthur Blvd., Washington, D.C. 20016.

Second Careers

Orville H. Goplen, who retired from USIA last fall after 28 years of government service, promptly assumed new duties as Sports In¬ formation Director for Hamilton College, Clinton, New York. Ham¬ ilton competes in 11 inter collegi¬ ate sports.

Mr. Goplen said that among the highlights of his career with USIA was conducting press conferences for three Nobel Peace Prize Win¬ ners in Oslo, Ralph Bunche (1950), Martin Luther King (1964) and UNICEF (1965). In addition to two tours in Oslo, Mr. Goplen had overseas assignments in Reyk¬ javik, Frankfurt, Koblenz and Sai¬ gon.

Raymond L. Thurston, former Ambassador to Haiti and to Som¬ alia, served as Dean with the World Campus Afloat-Chapman College for the fall 1972 semester at sea. WCA left Los Angeles for a study-voyage to ports in the South Pacific, Asia and Africa, terminating December 22 at Port Everglades, Florida. Dr. Thurston is part of WCA’s permanent staff.

BIRTHS

Amundson. A son, Eric Wayne, born to FSR and Mrs. Ellsworth Amundson on December 8, in Bangkok. Kuhn. A daughter, Kimberly Lynn, born to FSR and Mrs. Ernest Kuhn on December 11, in Vientiane. Stickler. A son, Matthew Alexan¬ der, born to FSO and Mrs. Theo¬

dore E. Stickler on December 17, in Asmara.

MARRIAGES Sharp-Borger Beverly Sharp, daughter of Frederick Dent Sharp, FSO-retired, and Mrs. Alleyne Howell, was married to Dr. James A. Borger in Fairfield, Connecticut on December 2. Mr. Sharp is now with the National Savings and Trust Company in Washington.

DEATHS

Kaufmann. John H. Kaufmann, AID, died on December 30 in Hollin Hills, Virginia. Mr. Kauf¬ mann joined AID as director of its Near East office in 1961. He later served as assistant director of the AID mission to Brazil and as as¬ sistant administrator for the bu¬ reau for program and policy coor¬ dination for the last three years- Mr. Kaufmann is survived by his wife, Helen Reynolds Kaufmann of 7317 Stafford Road, Hollin Hills, Va. 22307, a son, Jeffrey, and a daughter, Rebecca K. Williams, who was married on December 29 in a family ceremony at his bed¬ side at his wish. Krausse. Henry G. Krausse, FSO- retired, died on October 3 in Brownsville, Texas. Mr. Krausse entered the Foreign Service in 1917 and served at Matamoros, Nuevo Laredo, San Luis Potosi, Saltillo, Reynosa, Merida, Vera¬ cruz and Mexicali before his re¬ tirement in 1956. He is survived by his wife, Otila, of 1654 W. Washington St., Brownsville, a son, FSO Henry G- Krausse, Jr., American Consulate General, Sao Paulo and five grandchildren. Osborne. Virginia Wharin Osborne, wife of Melville E. Osborne, FSO- retired, died on October 13, in Dallas, Texas. She had served with her husband in Mexico City, Rio de Janeiro, and La Paz and, prior to her marriage, had been Chief of Files and Records in San¬ tiago and in Guatemala City. She is survived by her husband, since 1969 Director of the Center of Ibero-American Civilization at Southern Methodist University, of 3641 Stratford Avenue, Dallas, Texas, a daughter, Anne C. Kent, a son, Clifford B. Wharin, and six grandchildren.

k ^

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I 1

CONCIERGE

it- . - t

Everybody knows that Foreign Service people

are unusually perceptive, literate, multi-talented,

amusing and well-informed.

In the pages of the FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL

all these admirable qualities show up monthly—

in colorful covers painted by Foreign Service personnel,

and in a wide range of articles brimming with

vital information, authoritative analysis, sometimes

controversial viewpoints, fascinating historical sidelights,

and a generous sprinkling of humor.

It’s the professional journal of the American

Foreign Service Association. Members may send gift

subscriptions to friends and relatives at the

special low rate of $5.00 a year.

FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 2101 E Street, N.W., Washington, D. C. 20037

Please enter a JOURNAL subscription for one year, $6.00, to be sent to:

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