The Foreign Service Journal, May 2023

42 MAY 2023 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL Socialist-Workers Party.”That dumbfounded Soviets, that we could have three communist parties, and that they were allowed to stand for election. On impulse, before leaving the United States, I bought a bunch of American flag patches. I stitched one on my denim baseball cap and carried a few in my shirt pocket. Periodically someone would come up and ask how to get one of those patches, and I would say that I had a few to swap for souvenirs. One fellow swapped me a flag patch for his Soviet army belt, not just the buckle, but also the leather belt he had worn as a soldier. Another swapped a collection of matchboxes commemorating Soviet farm tractors and implements, and one fellow swapped me a catalog from a farmmachinery exposition. Every exhibit visitor received a button and an exhibit brochure. A lot of visitors loved anything related to America, which to themwas a mysterious country that evoked enor- mous curiosity and, to a certain degree, envy. Many years later, in the 2000s, while in Rostov-na-Donu on embassy business, I met the executive of an agribusiness firm who rememberedme from the exhibit in that city. He was a little boy in the 1970s, and he distinctly remembered the tall guide in a jean jacket and denimcap with an American flag patch on it talking about dairying. So we left some impressions. As for unanticipated outcomes, I didn’t expect to be recruited into the Foreign Service, but in Moscow one eve- ning at the embassy’s Marine Corps bar, one of the agricul- tural attachés, Jim Brow, suggested that I join the Foreign Agricultural Service. He said, “You know agriculture and speak good Russian; you should come work for us. You just need a master’s degree in agricultural economics.” I got my M.S. in 1982 and started work at FAS in April of that year. As far as lessons for today are concerned, we should bring exhibits back. President Carter canceled the exhibits after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and the programwas only restarted late in the Reagan administration for two more exhibitions. Then the program died, and USIA was absorbed into State Department, which was a mistake. We closed the regional programs office in Vienna that served our posts in the Soviet bloc. USIA needs to be reestablished, exhibits need to be restarted, and Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/ Radio Liberty need a big boost in both funding and staffing. These programs were hugely successful in countering Soviet propaganda. We know how to do it, but we’ve unilaterally disarmed ourselves in the information war. When the war in Ukraine finally ends, we also need a massive exchange program, ranging from summer work/travel to high school and college academic exchanges, not just Fulbrights for post-docs. Russians believe what they see with their own eyes, just like everybody else. But because not everybody can visit America or the West, we need exhibits and VOA to reach out to the rest of Russia. Allan Mustard started his Foreign Service career as an FSS-9 guide- interpreter on the U.S. International Communication Agency’s Agriculture USA exhibition (1978-1979) and capped 38 years of public service as U.S. ambassador to Turkmenistan, retiring in 2019 at the rank of Career Minister. A Foreign Service officer with the Foreign Agricultural Service, he served in Moscow (twice), Istanbul, Vienna, Mexico City, and New Delhi, in addition to Washington, D.C. He is currently chairman of the board of American Youth Philhar- monic Orchestras, a nonprofit. The Soviet army belt traded for a U.S. flag patch to Allan Mustard in Kishinev (today’s Chisinau, Moldova). He wears the belt today as a Cold War trophy. Inset: the large bolshoi znachok guide badge from Agriculture USA. ALLANMUSTARD; INSET:JOHNBEYRLE