The Foreign Service Journal, May 2016

10 MAY 2016 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL Arab-Israeli affairs in the White House. Samwent as ambassador to Israel just as the right wing led by MenachemBegin made its historic breakthrough, winning the 1977 general election. His advice that the United States would be wiser to treat Begin with honey rather than vinegar was par for the course for any new ambassador facing an unprecedented new government. And, nomatter how critical some of Sam’s Arabist colleagues may have been, that was probably the only viable course given the American political scene. Finally, I applaud Professor Tenem- baum’s obvious affection for Sam, whom he describes as “warm, accessible and charming.” Those sentiments are shared by Sam’s many friends, myself included. When Sam volunteered as “producer” on the Christmas play I was directing at SAIS, a friendship with him and his loving wife, Sallie, began that continued through the years until his truly untimely death. George B. Lambrakis Senior FSO, retired Paris, France Evaluating Public Diplomacy Programs In his December Speaking Out, “Prov- ing Public Diplomacy Programs Work,” James Rider makes very important points about measuring outcomes and not (only) output (i.e., process measures). His recommendations about need- ing to increase evaluations and carry out some reorganization are also appropriate. I hope someone (from the administration and from congressional appropriations committees) is listening and acting. However, the evaluations described by Rider fail to have any “controls.” Without that there is only a before/after measure of the action or intervention, and no com- parison to similar areas or situations where no intervention/action was attempted. Take the example of testing a new drug: one looks at the before and after in the study population vs. a group that has been given a placebo. One may be able to show “improvement” of patients from use of the drug in the study population; but is that better than doing nothing, or using some other existing medication? I know that a diplomatic “intervention” is not the same as taking a pill, and that it is not typically feasible to have “all other things controlled or identical” except for the diplomatic intervention in a group. But speaking as a specialist in the soci- ology of organizations, the study of pro- gram evaluation and organization change, I believe that it should be considered. Coralie Farlee Organizational Sociologist Washington, D.C. Love As an Alibi In 1989, when I was editor of The Foreign Service Journal , we received the devastating news that an FSO named Felix Bloch was being accused of espionage. The story broke on the July 21, 1989, broadcast of ABC Nightly News, with JohnMcWethy reporting from the lobby of the State Department, foreign flags hanging in the background. Within days, ABC was castigated for offering as real photojournalism a simu- lated video of one man handing over a briefcase to another, both later revealed to have been ABC News employees. Though the network apologized for its ethical lapse, the leaked allegation of espionage was not similarly decried. Instead, the American public was regaled with hypotheticals to explain why the FSO had spied, with “allegedly” often dropped from the question. One explanation dangled was disgrun- tlement over being bypassed for promo-