The Foreign Service Journal, January 2008

8 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / J A N U A R Y 2 0 0 8 L E T T E R S tween CORDS and today’s Provincial Reconstruction Teams. Perhaps another difference is that, like CORDS, the Viet Cong and their northern comrades sought to “win the hearts and minds of the people.” I see the current crop of bad guys in Iraq as totally unable to do this. Yes, they have in some places built schools and clinics and such, but they do not have the flexibility in their thinking to accommodate the concerns, ques- tions and hesitations of a scared and wavering people. Leo Cecchini FSO, retired Ft. Myers Beach, Fla. Where Are the Women? In a recent AFSA News column, Retiree VP Bill Farrand encouraged retirees who are not AFSA members to join. I agree that AFSA can play an important role. In fact, I joined during my first week of A-100 over 30 years ago and continued my member- ship when I retired two years ago. However, I felt compelled to quit AFSA last summer after the Govern- ing Board election. During my nearly three decades in the Service, I saw great progress made in creating a Foreign Service that looks like America — and it is the better for it. The AFSA election last summer, however, resulted in a board in which all retiree representatives are retired male ambassadors. Clear- ly, all were elected by the member- ship and are probably very competent. But there are reasons why the State Department seeks to recruit and develop a more diverse work force. Not only does it make the Foreign Service more representative of the citizens we serve, but it also makes for a better, more effective organization. While I do not mean to impugn any of the retiree representatives — whose service to the department and to AFSA I recognize and appreciate — I am very disappointed that an effort was not made to recruit and build a slate that would better represent the diverse concerns of retirees. Even the examples of the retiree agenda outlined by Ambas- sador Farrand may be of marginal interest to much of his constituency. I will, therefore, bide my time un- til a more representative board comes along. Sandy Dembski FSO, retired Bethesda, Md. More on a Foreign Service Murder Len Shurtleff’s October article, “A Foreign Service Murder,” was truly illuminating. I knew Al Erdos —who was convicted of the 1971 murder of Don Leahy, the administrative officer in Equatorial Guinea — in his pre- Foreign Service days and then happened to serve with him at two posts. He was obviously an able officer, but he was beset with all sorts of doubts and demons. Local politics may have played some role in the murder, but I am dubious about this assertion. In Con- akry, Erdos saw communists hiding under every palm tree and suspected just about everyone, colleagues in- cluded, of being unpatriotic, sub- versive and steeped in communist dogma. While Conakry was fertile ground for the communist bloc, some of Erdos’ conclusions were clearly un- founded. The innocent act of not listing American dollars before foreign currency on statistical charts sent him into a rage. His violent temper regularly erupted at strange times. Moreover, while there was no sophisticated DNA-analysis technol- ogy in those days, there is strong evidence available from two posts that Erdos, prior and subsequent to his marriage, kept the company of male lovers. After he was discharged from prison in Texas in late 1976, I saw him with a man he called “my lover who understands me totally.” This man happened to be a former military officer. I saw Erdos later in California, just prior to his death, with this same man and one other. All were described as lovers. Thus, I think that the evi- dence will corroborate the fact that homosexual affairs did, indeed, play a role in the murder of Don Leahy. The behavior of the State De- partment was, at best, ambiguous. In spite of countless incidents attesting to Erdos’ violent temper and the ten- dency to be a bully toward subordin- ates, the department turned a blind eye. Erdos was regularly promoted and rose through the ranks to become a deputy chief of mission. He seem- ed to lead a charmed existence. Perhaps his sterling reputation was rendered somewhat more realistic with this article by Len Shurtleff. Roy A. Harrell Jr. FSO, retired Ozona, Texas Memories of Equatorial Guinea In 1968, my ex-husband and I were celebrating Christmas in Dakar, looking forward to the new year in Senegal. The day after Christmas, the phone rang and my husband was asked if he would be willing to go to Equatorial Guinea to open a new post in that newly independent country. His Spanish-language ability was one of the reasons he was selected. The Biafran War was going on at that time, and the International Red Cross was using Santa Isabel, the capital (later renamed Malabo), as a transshipment point for food aid to Nigeria. When a group of U.S. con- gressmen traveled to the country