The Foreign Service Journal, January-February 2014

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2014 51 A Noble Attempt American Statecraft: The Story of the U.S. Foreign Service J. Robert Moskin, Thomas Dunne Books/ St. Martin’s Press, 2013, $40, hardcover, 932 pages. Reviewed by Steven Alan Honley If ever a book could be described as a labor of love, it would be this one. J. Rob- ert Moskin, a historian, journalist and the author of nine previous books, clearly has great respect and affection for the U.S. Foreign Service as an institution and for its members. Nevertheless, despite the 15 years of research, interviews and travel Mr. Moskin has devoted to it, American Statecraft: The Story of the U.S. Foreign Service is—to put it diplomatically— extremely uneven. Take his first chapter, which sets out to tell “the stories of two modern Ameri- can diplomats who made a difference”: William A. Eddy and J. Hall Paxton. Both men did just that, but Eddy’s contribu- tion dates from 1945, and J. Hall Paxton’s from 1949. Moreover, Eddy was a Marine, naval attaché and undercover agent with the Office of Strategic Services (the CIA’s precursor), never a career member of the Foreign Service. Moskin does some things very well, to be sure. Most admirably, he traces the evolution and growth of the Foreign Service over the past 240 years with just the right mix of attention to detail and insight. In particular, Chapter 28, “A Single Unified Service,” contains the most lucid account of the 1924 Rogers Act that I’ve seen anywhere. And speaking as a former FSO (1985- 1997), I applaud the fact that Moskin doesn’t just talk about the Service in theoretical or academic terms. He strives to bring it to life for the lay reader, primarily by letting diplo- mats and family members speak for themselves. In that sense, it really is “The Story of the Foreign Service.” But I would add that AFSA’s own book, Inside a U.S. Embassy , already accomplishes that task in a much more readable way— and at less than half the cost. In principle, I admire prodigious research, but my initial appreciation for Moskin’s industriousness wore off quickly. In the first two-thirds of the book, covering U.S. diplomatic history through World War II, it’s understand- able that he draws heavily on secondary and tertiary sources, which tend to be less engaging than primary ones. But his penchant for telling us the height (!) and physical features of so many historical figures gets old quickly. Moskin’s overall approach is, appro- priately, chronological. But once he reaches the 20th century, most of the timespans indicated in each chapter heading bear only the most tenuous relationship to the period the content actually covers. (Some listings seem completely random, in fact.) Those who already know their U.S. history will not BOOKS be thrown off by such inconsistencies, but any- one coming to American Statecraft without a firm grounding in our country’s past will likely be confused. Nor does it help that Moskin frequently refer- ences events and individuals as though he had already discussed their roles (or existence, for that matter), when he has not. Less often, he commits the related error of citing someone by their last name many pages after the initial mention, as though one just had to look a few lines up the page to be reminded of whom he’s talking about. (Thankfully, the book’s indexing is thorough enough that a quick check there usually resolves the temporary confusion.) Considering how much territory Moskin covers, he gets most of the history right. But he has a real weakness for gra- tuitous comments that are non sequiturs, or contradict what he’s just told us. His analysis of how slavery shaped early U.S. foreign policy is a prime example of this, but far from the only one. He also seems to have only the most superficial under- standing of what AFSA is, though he does applaud its dissent awards program. On balance, I cannot really recom- mend American Statecraft to Foreign Service members, though Moskin is a vivid stylist, and I did learn some things along the way. But lay readers may find its pluses outweigh the minuses. And if nothing else, the mere existence of the book has value. n Steven Alan Honley is the editor of The For- eign Service Journal. Throughout, Moskin strives to tell “The Story of the Foreign Service.”