The Foreign Service Journal, May 2016

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | MAY 2016 9 LETTERS Protecting the Career Path Thanks to Ambassador Barbara Ste- phenson for her March column (“Pro- tecting the Career Path”). Nice job! I support her efforts to protect “the Foreign Service from anything that erodes this unique competitive advantage.” I take great pride in telling people that I am a Foreign Service officer, and that pride has been a great motivator throughout my 16-year career. Keep up the good work. Roy Perrin FSO Deputy Consul General Consulate General Erbil Nontoxic Workplaces If Morgan Liddick’s March letter to the editor is right in saying that th e vision of the Foreign Service as a “col- legial service of intelligent, creative people working together” is inaccurate, then neither do I recognize it as a “toxic workplace.” Our working environments are all dif- ferent, and given the assignment process we usually don’t get to choose our supe- riors or they us. Yet most of my supervi- sors were supportive, wrote reasonably constructive EERs and focused on getting the job done. I did not expect (or get) constant expressions of appreciation for doing my job or worry about petty office intrigues (yes, there were some). Differences with my bosses were usually aired—and then we moved on. Also, thank you for the March articles on women in the Foreign Service. Things have improved a lot in recent decades, but sexism isn’t dead yet. Bonnie Lincoln FSO, retired Fort Myers, Florida Leadership Tips for All I found Erin Soto’s March article, “Ten Leadership Tips for Aspiring Women,” packed with wise career recommenda- tions for both women and men. However, I believe that addressing it specifically to women perpetuates the gender differences that the Foreign Ser- vice is trying to eliminate as if, somehow, men do not need the advice. Amore inclusive title would have been better, something like, “Ten Leadership Tips for Aspiring Entrepreneurs.” Rosi Duenas Foreign Service family member Windhoek, Namibia Mental Health Care Beginnings I read with interest Dr. SamThielman’s article in the January-February Journal , “The Evolution of State’s Mental Health Services.” He is correct that the overseas programbegan in Kabul in 1974 with the assignment of Dr. RichardWestmaas, and that the success of Dr. Westmaas’ work there sparked the inauguration of the regional mental health program. But Dr. Thielman does not mention the originator of the program, Dr. Frank Pet- tinga. He was assigned to Kabul in 1973 as the medical officer serving a large official American family of more than 600 people, including men, women and children. I was then our ambassador there, and Dr. Pettinga asked me if I would support his plea to the State Department that a mental health specialist be posted to Kabul to help with the plethora of mental health issues facing this community. We had a good discussion that resulted in his sending his recommendation to Washington with my support. Dr. West- maas’ assignment was the result. Frank Pettinga had a distinguished Foreign Service career, including as direc- tor of State’s Bureau of Medical Services. In 1979, Secretary of State Cyrus Vance presided over a ceremony at the State Department celebrating the newmental health program, which can be viewed on YouTube at bit.ly/1MNIm8M. I should add that another wonderful consequence of Dr. Westmaas’ assign- ment to Afghanistan was that his daughter and my son, classmates at the American International School of Kabul, met there and a few years later married. Dr. Westmaas died on April 2, 2016, at his home in Cadillac, Michigan. Theodore L. Eliot Jr. Ambassador, retired Sonoma, California Remembering Sam Lewis It is an unusual honor, indeed, when a retired American ambassador is praised by a constituent of the country in which he served, as my friend Sam Lewis was praised in the January-February FSJ by Israeli professor Yoav Tenembaum ( “Samuel Lewis in Israel, 1977-1985 ”). But then Israel is an unusual country for American diplomats, and Israelis have a longer memory than many others. I served under Walworth “Wally” Barbour, the longest-serving American ambassador to Israel, in the mid-1960s. Barbour stayed for 11 years, but Sam Lewis’ eight are still an amazing stretch. I remember Sam as the strongest stu- dent in our class at Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies in the early 1950s. He made it clear in his oral history interview that he actively sought assignments (e.g., in USAID economic development) that would prepare him for a wider role in diplomacy. On one such occasion, after I had returned frommy service in Israel, he askedme to include him in a lunch so that he couldmeet someone then working on