The Foreign Service Journal, January-February 2023

26 JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2023 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL outlined our objectives. I closed by informing the Secretary- designate that I would testify against unqualified ambassadorial nominees if so directed by the AFSA board. Kissinger closed by reminding me that he could “always send you to Chad,” to the hilarity of all present, save myself. Our unanimous impres- sion was that Kissinger realized we were beyond his diktat. He appeared inclined to accommodate many of our goals in exchange for “peace and quiet.” The news of the AFSA leadership’s meeting with Kissinger swept through the department like a prairie fire. Most senior officers had not met with the incoming Secretary, and our meeting sent them a message. Soon the negotiating logjam was broken. In late 1973, the incumbent AFSA board was over- whelmingly reelected as the “Achievement Slate” to serve until 1975. By the end of the term of the last of the Young Turk boards, there was a dramatic increase in agreements with State (most notably) and the other foreign affairs agencies; new initiatives were undertaken, such as the hiring of AFSA’s first staff lawyer, Cathy Waelder; representations to Congress were put in place; and the employee-management system had been well and truly launched. Of course, AFSA history did not end in 1975. For five decades, generations of AFSA presidents, officers, and boards have taken AFSA up the growth curve and brought us to our current eminence. When we defeated AFGE, our budget was under $200,000; today the budget is nearly $6 million. Then we were in debt; today we have a “war chest” of more than $3 million. Today our legal staff alone is larger than the entire staff then. When we started there were no employee-management or grievance systems, and we did not represent anybody; today both systems are enshrined in the Foreign Service Act of 1980, and we repre- sent all Foreign Service personnel of the foreign affairs agencies. Indeed, we have much to celebrate on this, our golden 50th. Today and Tomorrow Recently, AFSA demonstrated political power at the outer edge of the hopes and dreams of the “Young Turks” 50 years ago. In 2017 President Donald Trump proposed a budget that reduced international affairs expenditures (the 150 account) by 37 percent. AFSA President Barbara Stephenson and her board and staff immediately engaged and encouraged an informal caucus composed of all Senate Democrats and about 12 national security Republicans, who worked to defeat the proposed drastic cuts. In the end, the caucus defeated the cuts and engineered a slight increase in the 150 account. The same process with the same result occurred with Trump’s 2018, 2019, and 2020 budgets. It was a clear demonstration that AFSA has the means and will to defend the Foreign Service as an institution. In 2020 President Trump’s allies began a smear campaign against career FSO Marie Yovanovitch, our ambassador in Kyiv, because she would not participate in schemes to involve the Ukrainian government in anti-Biden activities in the middle of the presidential campaign. She was recalled to Washington and summoned to testify in the Trump impeachment trials and hearings. The smear campaign continued. AFSA President Eric Rubin and his team came out punching. They immediately reactivated the AFSA Legal Defense Fund for the FSOs under attack and raised $750,000 in a very short time. Our media and congressional networks were deluged with our narrative that FSOs swear to “defend the Constitution of the United States,” not a particular administration or president. Marie Yovano- vitch and her colleagues became and remain heroes. It was another clear demonstration that AFSA has the means and will to defend individual FSOs—promises made by the Young Turks and redeemed by our successors. Looking back 50 years, I am gratified, even astonished, that we achieved so much in such a short time. I am also terrified by what I now realize but had no clue about at the time— namely, with one mistake, one lost election, or a botched negotiation over E.O. 11636, today’s celebrations would not exist. Looking forward, I am delighted that AFSA has the finan- cial and political power to defend the Foreign Service and its people, but fear also lurks. Will future leaders have the wisdom to understand AFSA’s capabilities and the courage to use the means available in defense of the Foreign Service as an institu- tion and its people? I am hopeful. What is certain is that hard tests lie ahead. May God be with you, as certainly was the case with us at the rebirth of our unique association 50 years ago. n Suddenly, there was a potential pathway for AFSA to secure and build political and financial power on a presidentially sanctioned basis as a union.