The Foreign Service Journal, February 2005

F O C U S F E B R U A R Y 2 0 0 5 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 29 State has? In interagency politics, you win some; you lose some. Yet regardless of the outcomes on these and other issues around the table at the National Security Council and in the Oval Office, Powell was always a team player. Explaining his loyalty, Powell frequently recounted an anecdote from the days when General George C. Marshall (one of his heroes) was Harry Truman’s Secretary of State. In 1948, Truman was considering whether to recognize Israel as a state. Marshall strongly opposed the idea, fearing it would ruin relations with the Arabs, and told Truman so. The president decided to ignore Marshall’s advice and recognized the new Jewish state. Some of Marshall’s advisers recommended that he resign in protest but he refused, reminding his staff that Truman had been elect- ed president, not he, and it was the president’s job to make decisions. Marshall added that the Secretary of State was to give his best advice and then support the president’s decision. Like Marshall, Powell never threatened to resign even if he did not agree with the final decision on a given issue. It is a tribute to Powell’s character that once the president articulated a policy, he supported him and moved forward. The Rice Era When she is confirmed by the Senate as America’s 66th Secretary of State (possibly by the time this issue is printed), Condoleezza (Condi) Rice will not have the distinction of being the first woman (Madeleine Albright) or the first person of color (Colin Powell) to hold the post. But more important than her race or gender is the prospect of her success as this country’s next top diplomat. It has become a parlor It is true that Powell did not win every foreign-policy battle over the past four years. But what Secretary of State has?