The Foreign Service Journal, January-February 2016

12 JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2016 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL of where matters stand and where they are headed. It is welcome and useful. Edward Peck Ambassador, retired Chevy Chase, Maryland Remembering Holbrooke [Back Story] Congratulations to Shawn Dorman for her wonderful interview with David Holbrooke (“A Love Letter to Diplo- macy,” November FSJ ). As Dick Holbrooke’s special assistant and the first State Department officer he hired when he became assistant secretary in 1977, I had the opportunity to watch David and Anthony skateboard down the long “2 Corridor” on the sixth floor on Saturday mornings, while Dick was at work at his desk in the East Asia and Pacific Bureau’s front office. Even though he was a political appoin- tee as assistant secretary in 1977, Dick was still a bit of a rebel FSO at heart. He gave me cover and advice when I formed the Group of 46 and conspired over lunch in the EAP conference room, compos- ing the Statement of Concerns (which eventually garnered more than 500 FS signatures) that I then presented to Secre- tary Cyrus Vance in 1978, after demand- ing a meeting with him. George Moose, Barbara Bodine and Alan Romberg joined me in outlining the critical issues our group of mid-level officers saw undermining the career Foreign Service. This meeting led to a process that resulted in pas- sage of the Foreign Service Act of 1980. Our work was carried forward by Ken Blakely, who replaced me as Dick’s special assistant and later became president of AFSA. Not many people know that the enactment of that landmark legislation began in and was pressed forward from Dick Holbrooke’s office, with his encouragement. I think Dick was supportive of our rebellion against the Seventh Floor because he saw that we were motivated by the same principle that energized him—a commitment to excellence. One of the more interesting trans- formations of Richard Holbrooke was his focus on the critical importance of agriculture to his mission in Afghanistan. In fact, one of the very last emails Dick ever sent was a message to me on Dec. 9, 2010, the night before he collapsed, expressing his appreciation for my hav- ing brought the agriculture ministers from Afghanistan and Pakistan together at the World Food Prize in Des Moines a few months earlier. David Holbrooke did a marvelous job of capturing his dad. Kenneth M. Quinn Ambassador, retired President, The World Food Prize Des Moines, Iowa Much More than Just “One Woman” [Back Story] I congratulate Ambassador William C. Harrop on receiving this year’s AFSA Lifetime Contributions to American Diplomacy Award. However, I was struck by one statement in his FSJ interview (September, p. 25). Discussing AFSA ’s early 1970s decision to seek union status, he said: “One woman in particular, a former FSO, wanted AFGE [the American Federation of Government Employees] to be the union represent- ing FSOs. … I actually knew her slightly; she’d been in Kinshasa just before I arrived in Congo.” Take AFSA With You! Change your address online, visit us at www.afsa.org/ address Or Send changes to: AFSAMembership Department 2101 E Street NW Washington, DC 20037 Moving?