8 MARCH 2025 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL LETTERS FS Needs Bold Leadership I am writing in response to the December 2024 Speaking Out by George Krol, “The Foreign Service at 100: It’s Time for Renewal.” As a recently retired Career Minister in the USAID Foreign Service, I was moved by Krol’s thoughtful and courageous essay. The current Foreign Service is not fully equipped to serve our country effectively in an era of increasing international complexity, conflict, and technological change. In addition to the major functions mentioned by Krol, the modern embassy must also manage both a sometimes fractious interagency and agencies implementing sensitive programs in the host country. To meet these challenges, the Foreign Service needs bold, inspirational leadership that articulates a coherent strategic vision of U.S. objectives and takes calculated risks to reach them. Exceptional leadership and management skills should be a prerequisite, not a preference, for chief-of-mission consideration. I was on the faculty of the National War College when our government withdrew its forces from Afghanistan. Surprise and disappointment enveloped the campus, given that many students had served there. There was subsequently much discussion about the limits of military power and the need to more effectively utilize other elements of the national security enterprise, including diplomacy and development. If the Foreign Service is to play an enhanced role, it needs to improve its game. John Groarke USAID FSO, retired Washington, D.C. The Professional Diplomat Thanks to the Journal for John Marks’ excellent December 2024 article, “Social Entrepreneurship and the Professional Diplomat.” It was gratifying to see the late Ambassador Bill Miller recognized for his outstanding work with Search for Common Ground and his efforts to create a more productive relationship with the Islamic Republic of Iran. Two additional items: The article notes Miller’s being proposed in 1979 as U.S. ambassador to Iran. According to what I understand, when Secretary of State Cyrus Vance met his Iranian counterpart Ebrahim Yazdi at the United Nations in October 1979, Vance had a letter in his pocket proposing Miller as ambassador. At that meeting, however, Vance was so exasperated by Yazdi’s posturing and by his insisting on reciting lists of Iranian grievances against the U.S. that he never gave Yazdi the letter or mentioned the subject of an ambassador. A month later, following the seizure of the U.S. embassy in Tehran, Miller accompanied Ramsey Clark on a mission that was to negotiate the Americans’ release. Miller and Clark, who were carrying a letter from Carter to Khomeini, never reached Tehran after the Iranian leader forbade any Iranian official from meeting them. John Limbert FSO/Ambassador, retired New York, New York n Correction In the December 2024 Talking Points, former State Department employee Annelle Sheline was referred to as an FSO. Before she resigned in March 2024, Sheline worked in the Civil Service as a foreign affairs officer. We regret the error.
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