The Foreign Service Journal, January 2013

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | JANUARY 2013 9 nates how a true story gets dramatized and how atmosphere can mean more than facts. I watched the film from another perspective, having served as an FSO in Tehran from 1976 to 1978 and worked in the embassy compound. I knew the city streets and was familiar with Tehran’s airport. I would say that “Argo” is not a documentary, but a highly successful entertainment vehicle. Parts of the film achieve real verisi- militude. For example, using Istanbul as a stand-in for Tehran, Affleck and company achieve the right look for the streets. Moreover, in casting the fugitives, Affleck assembled a cast of character actors who strikingly resemble the actual FSOs. For even more authenticity, the director was able to get unusual access to both the CIA headquarters and the State Department to frame his drama. At the same time, “Argo” introduces elements that create drama but are utterly implausible. Where the film truly departs from the actual Canadian Caper is in its ending. All the momentumof the film leads to a nail-biting finale at Tehran’s Mehrabad Airport. After a tense passport check and a last- minute mission approval fromWashing- ton, the group is scrutinized by a wary (and scary) member of the Iranian Revolution- ary Guard. All this happens as a group of Iranian zealots edges ever closer to identifying the fugitives from reassembled shredded photos. Then comes the last- ditch chase sequence on the tarmac. None of that happened, of course. The real-life airport escape was tense but remarkably uneventful—even if the minds of those escaping were in turmoil. But, hey, it’s a Hollywood ending, and who would deny Affleck his boffo finish? Not me, certainly. It’s a rousing close for a film that notably offers rare kudos for the dogged work of U.S. intelligence services and diplomats. Mike Canning FSO, retired Washington, D.C. Editor’s Note: Please see p. 39 for a combined review of new books by Mendez and Lijek about the incidents depicted in the film. The Kissinger Interview It was depressing, to say the least, to read AFSA President Susan Johnson’s interview with former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in the September Journal . Kissinger treated the Foreign Service like dirt, excusing the 1973 murder of FSOs by Yasser Arafat in Khartoumwhen faced with threats of more of the same (all in the service of realpolitik). I recounted that sordid tale, including the roles of Arafat and Kissinger, in my June 2009 FSJ article, “Counterterrorism: Some Lessons to Consider.” Particularly galling was the time offered to Kissinger to expound on the matter of diplomacy. Allowme to quote his self-exculpatory prescription for successful statesmanship in the Nov. 13, 2011, issue of The New York Times Book Review : “The challenge of statesman- ship is to define the components of both power and morality and strike a balance between them. This is not a one-time effort. It requires constant recalibration; it is as much an artistic and philosophi- cal as a political enterprise. It implies a willingness to manage nuance and to live with ambiguity. The practitioners of the art must learn to put the attainable in the service of the ultimate and accept the element of compromise inherent in the endeavor.” I very much hope Winston Lord will respond to Kissinger’s remarks about his reaction to the 1972 bombing of Cambodia. One final question inmy mind: given Susan Johnson’s expressed inter- est in reducing the incidence of politi- cal appointments to ambassadorships, why did she not ask supreme diplomat Kissinger for his opinion on this point when seeking his views on the importance of having “a strong, professional, career Foreign Service for the conduct of diplo- macy”? China expert though he may be, in my view Kissinger deserves no place of honor in our professional and fraternal associa- tion—nor in the journal it publishes. Alan Berlind Senior FSO, retired Bordeaux, France Bring ’Em in Young Shawn Dorman’s October Foreign Ser- vice Journal report on “The New Foreign Service Generation” is certainly interest- ing. There is much to admire in what these men and women are bringing to our profession. Reading her reporting called to mind my own service as a 26-year-old junior officer in Helsinki during the John F. Kennedy administration. The White House was then so concerned that our embassies lacked meaningful contact with emerging leaders abroad that every embassy was told to report, every week, on its contacts with folks in their 20s and younger. In Helsinki, this way-into-the-wee- hours “work” soon proved too much for our embassy elders, so the responsibility for this weekly report fell to the only two of us who were in their 20s. My colleague, poor fellow, was married, so I got a chance to render stellar service. That was back when one could be no older than 32 when entering the Foreign Service! Even so, there still were only two of us at Embassy Helsinki who could