The Foreign Service Journal, April 2018

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | APRIL 2018 55 DEFINING DIPLOMACY for YEARS Above inSILVERFOILonCover FSJ January 1963 AID’s First Year The past year has seen the analysis and articulation of development thinking, programing, and implementation carried to the point where we are looked to by all countries as the pioneers in this field. … Now we are engaged in a creative effort to devise long range assistance strategies for a dozen countries, a task long overdue and promising of dramatic rewards. –Frank M. Coffin, USAID deputy administrator (1961-1964) FSJ January 1965 Vietnam: The War That Is Not a War The headlines of the war in Vietnam have in recent months emphasized the internal struggle for leadership of the Gov- ernment of South Vietnam. Buddhists vs. Catholics, civil- ians vs. military, sect vs. party seem to be the key struggles. Yet the Vietnam imbroglio is much deeper and historically more involved than these headlines imply. It is essentially a struggle for men’s minds and loyalties, a chapter in the confusing battle between a Communist-led “war of national liberation” and a Western-supported nationalist war of independence. How did Vietnam get where it is today? How did the war that-is-not-a-war get started? Who is fighting against whom? and why? How is the United States involved in this struggle? –Robert S. Smith, FSO, member of the FSJ Editorial Board FSJ February 1966 A Foreign Service Training Corps?— The Wrong Problem Attempting to meet all training needs at the beginning of a career is an impossible task. … Let us stop worrying about a mythical ideal education until we are better able to deter- mine how good junior officers become good senior officers. Once we can offer an exciting future, plus firm patterns of career development, then those interested in the Foreign Service will take responsibility for their own education and those with the necessary academic training will be more motivated toward such careers. –John D. Stempel, FSO, response in a series discussing training FSJ October 1968 Viet Cong Propaganda Abroad To supply this vast market for pro-Viet Cong materials requires large-scale production by Hanoi and its southern creation, the National Liberation Front. Published and captured documents and the radio broadcasts of Hanoi and the Front describe this effort. These communist sources prescribe the major themes for overseas stress—the “immo- rality” of the American intervention in a “civil” war; the “democratic,”“national- ist” and “neutralist” aims of the Viet Cong; the inevitability of a communist victory; the corrup- tion and unresponsiveness of the Saigon government. –Chester A. Bain FSJ July 1957 Are Efficiency Reports Lousy? “The principal value of an efficiency report is in giving the Department a line on the guy who wrote it.”Homer M. Byington, probably the best Chief of Personnel the Service ever had, made that crack to our class in the Foreign Service School back in 1933. I never fully appreciated how true it was until I served on the Selection Boards last fall. If it were not for the increased bulk, it might be a good idea to include an extra copy of each efficiency report an officer writes in his own performance folder. …Eachmember of our Board probably read between three and four thousand, and I can recall only a handful which, taken by themselves, gave a really good picture of the officer rated. …Perhaps another eight percent are pretty good, but the remaining ninety percent are vague, superficial and inadequate. –Theodore C. Achilles, ambassador FSJ March 1959 Contacts with the Soviets Some 38 American technical, academic, cultural, sports and entertainment groups have gone to the Soviet Union, while some 33 similar Soviet groups have come to this country. …What impression of this country does the Soviet visitor carry away? The majority of delegation members are of high caliber as individuals, and are quite aware that what they see in the United States, both material and spiritual, tends to contradict the distortions of the anti-American propa- ganda at home. Others are naive and highly indoctrinated. –Frederick T. Merrill, FSO 1960 ~ 1969 FSJ July 1962 The Great Period of the Foreign Service We have had some new ideas in the last year in foreign policy; some new approaches have been made.We want them to come out of the State Department with more speed.What opportunities do we have to improve our policies abroad? How, for example, can we make the Alliance for Progress more effective?We are waiting for you to come forward, because we want you to know that I regard the Office of the Presidency and theWhite House, and the Secretary of State and the Department, as part of one chain, not separate but united, and committed to the maintenance of an effective foreign policy for the United States of America. Therefore, in the final analysis, it depends on you. That is why I believe this is the best period to be a Foreign Service officer. That is why I believe that the best talent that we have should come into the Foreign Service, because you today—even more than any other branch of government—are in the front line in every country of theWorld. –President John F. Kennedy, from a talk delivered to 1,000 members at AFSA’s Foreign Service Club on May 31, the first time that a U.S. president addressed AFSA JFK with Dean Rusk