The Foreign Service Journal, June 2010

I n 1967, FSO Robert Harlan, his wife Lois and two of their three children, Heidi and Steven, bor- rowed a car and trailer and pro- ceeded to tour the central United States during their summer home leave, making stops along the way to talk with people about the Foreign Service. This unique program was the brainstormof Deputy Assistant Sec- retary Katie S. Loucheim, who in 1963 created the Community Advi- sory Services Office at the Depart- ment of State. She felt that few people at home or abroad had a pos- itive image of American diplomats and their families. The office set about to help promote a truer,“folk- sier” image through several pro- grams. One of them was “to help wives of American officials abroad set up welfare projects in countries in which they are stationed.” An- other, in which the Harlans and oth- ers participated, aimed “to dispatch Foreign Service officers, when they are at home in the United States, to various communities on speaking assignments.” ( The Reading Eagle — Reading, Pa., April 27, 1964). At its launch, the new program got a write-up in both the Washington Post and the New York Times , complete with captions such as “Stripping Striped Pants.” As the Oct. 30, 1963, New York Times reported,“The State Department is trying to wipe out the image of the American diplomat as a three-button, Ivy League snob who lives in a palace overseas, has a staff of servants and can’t speak the language.” By the time the Harlans embarked on a home leave four years later, which they spent talking about the Foreign Service to communi- ties across the Midwest, 45 other families had already taken part in the program. FS widow Lois Harlan recalls, “We came home after two years in Tehran, picked up the heavy-duty Ford car and the Airstream trailer inHarrison- burg, Va., and from there went by stages to Texas to visit relatives. Then we went up along the Mississippi to Minnesota and east through Illinois (and to our hometown of Freeport), then back to Virginia.” The family grew closer and felt as though they were part of a mission, as well. “It was a glorious time,” she adds. “We spent many nights in state parks. We stopped in small towns, where my husband had in- terviews with the mayor, the local paper and the radio station — if there was one.” Mrs. Harlan has kept mementos of that trip, including a trip report set in limerick form, that her hus- band wrote and dispatched to Kitty Clark Gibbons, then director of the Office of Community Advisory Ser- vices. Some of those verses by Rob- ert Harlan (with intentional mis- spellings) include: The enhancing of close family ties Is but one of the goods that aries From a trip such as ours ‘Mid the birds, bees and flours As well as the gals and the gies. For, our countrymen’s friendly demeanour Made our extreme excitement extreamour All the folks that we met Were the best ever yet, So that U.S. grass looked even greanour. Harlan signed off with: “Through Virginia, Tennessee, Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota,Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland (4,140 trailer miles).” The piece is dated Sept. 30, 1967. Delighted with Harlan’s limericks, the State Dept.’s Kitty Clark Gibbons sent back some of her own, mimicking An article from the Pittsburg Headlight-Sun (Pittsburg, Kan.) dated Aug. 29, 1967, features an article on the Harlan family, calling their visit a “get acquainted mission.” THE LIGHTER SIDE OF FOREIGN SERVICE HISTORY A Unique Program Allowed FS Families on Home Leave to Spread the Word — by Trailer BY FRANCESCA KELLY A F S A N E W S J U N E 2 0 1 0 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 55 Continued on page 56 Lois Harlan (left) and daughter Heidi with the Airstream in south- ern Virginia, August 1967. PITTSBURGH HEADLIGHT-SUN FILE PHOTO HARLAN FAMILY PHOTO