38 JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2025 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 1977 From Ford to Carter: Morris Draper “Not a Bureaucratic Exercise” There was some change. The transition of administrations was managed by Phil Habib, who stayed on as under secretary for political affairs. That made for a very smooth transition. It was also exciting because, as is customary, we prepared transition papers on every country and every issue. On the Middle East, around Christmas time—that is after the election, but before inauguration—we had reason to believe that the Secretary of State–designate and probably Carter himself had looked over our papers and were considering a major initiative. If historians ever examine these transition papers, they will find that the quality was very high. Moreover, we were encouraged by Habib to be imaginative and not to prepare the papers just as a bureaucratic exercise. I remember the period quite vividly because I submitted a paper early on the Lebanon problem, which Habib circulated to the bureaus as a model of what he wanted in terms of the thrusts and options. So there was a lot of excitement in the Near East Bureau at the time, which may not have been shared by others. Of course, Carter was also introducing other concepts into our foreign policy, like the emphasis on human rights. Ambassador Morris Draper spent 35 years in the Foreign Service, including as deputy assistant secretary of State for Near Eastern affairs. This interview was conducted by Charles Stuart Kennedy in 1991. 1993 From George H.W. Bush to Clinton: Hans Binnendijk “An Opportune Time to Make Change” I mentioned that in late 1992 and early 1993, I worked on the transition team. I had some work for the Clinton campaign team, mostly for Madeleine Albright, who was at the time a professor at Georgetown and director of a small think tank that was politically active. During the campaign, one of her functions was to organize a speakers program. I was one of her “stable” and, for example, debated on behalf of Clinton at a forum organized by the Chicago Council for Foreign Relations. When Brian Atwood, whom I had known for several years, was designated to head the transition team for the State Department, he asked me to join him to work on organizational issues, which I did. So I worked for a couple of months on that, together with Dan Spiegel— another old friend from my Senate Foreign Relations Committee staff days. I found working on the transition team very stimulating because we had the sense that … the time was opportune to effect some change. It is hard to change organizations after an administration has been established—short of cataclysms such as the recent forced amalgamations of foreign affairs agencies. But in transition, we could begin with a relatively fresh page and suggest some changes. I found it stimulating to think about the department’s organization and consider various ways to increase its efficiency. Spiegel and I wrote a series of reports, which were incorporated into briefing books for Warren Christopher, the new Secretary. We briefed Christopher several times, and a number of decisions were made based on our recommendations. We reinvigorated the under secretarial system by assigning to each under secretary responsibility for certain bureaus. … We suggested that in response to practices that had grown up under Baker—he would bring in five or six people every morning, without regard to official roles that these people played, and make policy right then and there in this informal group. Our view was that such practice would probably continue under any Secretary; any Secretary would convene a small group of personal advisers, but we strongly hoped that such a group would include several under secretaries, who were the operating linchpins in the department. We tried to take a natural behavioral pattern—a small group of advisers—and institutionalize it by including in it a number of President Gerald Ford and First Lady Betty Ford (at center) with President-elect Jimmy Carter and Rosalynn Carter following the Carters’ tour of the White House, Nov. 22, 1976. GERALD R. FORD PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
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