8 MARCH-APRIL 2026 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL LETTERS Heartened by the Next Generation I was thrilled to read in the January- February FSJ Noah Rose’s Off-Road piece about an excursion into eastern Türkiye. The adventurous instinct, his engagement with regular Turks, and his use of Turkish—it’s great to know that the newest generation of Foreign Service officers are doing this. Stephen G. McFarland Ambassador, retired Vienna, Virginia Encomium for Heroes I just read Tom Boyatt’s quite moving “remembrance” of Bill Harrop in the November-December 2025 Foreign Service Journal. His praise for Harrop is fully deserved, and the events he recalls need to be remembered. Harrop—along with other AFSA heroes like Tex Harris, Charlie Bray, and, yes, even Tom Boyatt himself, although he was too modest to include himself in that pantheon—were the “young Turks” of their generation, the forebears of the modern American Foreign Service Association. They fought through the purchase of AFSA headquarters at 2101 E Street NW so AFSA would not be physically beholden to the whims and vicissitudes of political appointees at the top of the State Department. Harrop and his colleagues also pushed through labor-management reforms that had been talked about for years but never acted on, and they gave real voice to the Foreign Service’s relations with State management. Boyatt lays out the impact of the reforms for which successive generations of Foreign Service officers have been the beneficiaries. With the changes in labormanagement relations the Trump administration is pushing through (many of them being challenged in court), it’s clear that many of AFSA’s hard-won achievements are under threat. I listened to AFSA President John “Dink” Dinkelman run through them at a recent luncheon of the Foreign Affairs Retirees of Northern Virginia, and Dinkelman ticked off the challenges before us. But for now, let’s remember how we achieved the rights that were won for us by the generation that preceded us. David Passage Ambassador, retired Washington, D.C. Spreading the Word On September 24, 2025, I wrote the following letter to the editor that was published in the Wyoming Tribune Eagle, a local newspaper in Cheyenne: Are USAID funding cut decisions humane or efficient? I don’t think so. Three items in the September-October 2025 issue of The Foreign Service Journal both disturb and sadden me. My husband worked for USAID for almost 30 years in Honduras, Panama, Pakistan, the Dominican Republic, and Ukraine. His career promoted humanitarian aid and fostered economic assistance to help countries improve themselves. It made me and my daughters proud to represent the United States at our overseas posts. Page 12 from the [Journal] says, “Critics cite a new Lancet study projecting more than 14 million additional deaths by 2030 due to USAID cuts, including millions of children under the age of 5. In describing this new approach, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the U.S. is ‘prioritizing trade over aid, opportunity over dependency, and investment over assistance.’” Is this humane? Page 13 says, “The Trump administration has ordered the destruction of nearly 500 metric tons of emergency food originally purchased by USAID to feed malnourished children in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The high-energy biscuits, which are valued at $800,000 and capable of feeding 1.5 million children for a week, will be incinerated at a cost of $130,000 to U.S. taxpayers.” Is this government efficiency? Page 61 says the current administration has “pushed 80,000-plus people with AIDS into early graves, caused the deaths of more than 75,000 children due to malnutrition and the cessation of USAID food assistance and wasted more than $8 billion in a misguided, ill-prepared, illegal and unconstitutional shutdown of our beloved agency.” Is this humane? Does it show government efficiency? I often wonder if my letters to the editor affect anyone, but this time I have proof. On September 26, the following letter was published: Carol Mathia’s recent letter identifying the enormous degree of human suffering and deaths caused by this administration’s USAID cuts was truly enlightening. She quoted [The Foreign Service Journal] and referenced a scientific study that anticipates more than 14 million deaths, including many children, as a result of this lost funding in the next five years! After quoting Marco Rubio as stating this is “prioritizing trade over aid, opportunity over dependency and investment
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