The Foreign Service Journal, June 2012

first priority, so I’ve looked for ways to let individual talent shine. (As Presi- dent Ronald Reagan used to say: “We mustn’t be afraid that someone on our staff is smarter than we are!”) The essence of leadership, in my view, is the ability to motivate and in- spire others to accomplish a common task. One must be passionate about the issue at hand but level-headed in its presentation. With this in mind, I have sought throughout my several ca- reers to build internal consensus on policy and mandate and to develop ex- ternal constituencies to support (and finance) the policy. As a congenital optimist, I believe that the hard work of diplomacy never ends, and that diplomacy is the indis- pensable public service. FSJ: Which of your Foreign Service assignments stand out most in your memory, and why? WLS: If I had to cite a single high- light, it would be serving as U.S. am- bassador to South Africa when Nelson Mandela was released from prison. Soon after joining the Foreign Service in 1963, I headed off to South Africa — just a few months before Mr. Man- dela was sentenced at Rivonia and im- prisoned on Robben Island. I had no idea then, of course, that 26 years later I would return as ambassador, just five months before he was released. I arrived a few weeks beforeMr. De Klerk was elected president in Sep- tember 1989, and was the first ambas- sador to present credentials to him. In June 1990 I accompanied Mandela to see President George H.W. Bush at theWhite House, having also arranged for Pres. Bush to be the first head of state to speak with him by phone the day he was released from prison. Three months after Mr. Mandela’s visit, I returned to Washington with Pres. De Klerk to see Pres. Bush. (The White House had made clear that he would get to come only after Mandela had done so.) Describing that pivotal period to me later, Mandela told me he’d had the sense of being “in physi- cal contact with history.” FSJ: Who were some of the people you especially admired or were in- spired by during your Foreign Service career? WLS: First of all, President John F. Kennedy was my inspiration for leav- ing my early career as a teacher and joining the Foreign Service. One of my early role models was Assistant Secretary for African Affairs G. Men- nen Williams, who insisted on person- ally briefing each FSO assigned to South Africa, even a junior officer such as myself, to explain the Kennedy ad- ministration’s new South Africa policy: viz., multiracial representational func- tions, no further U.S. naval visits to Si- mons Town and other restrictions. Another early influence was El- woodWilliams (no relation to G. Men- nen Williams), known as “Mr. Ger- many,” who had seen Adolf Hitler while a student in Germany and knew all the chancellors right up to Willy Brandt. Foreign Service Director General George S. Vest was the best boss I ever had and remains an inspi- ration and role model. Chester Crock- er, as AF assistant secretary, introduced me to a new and challenging level of mental discipline and intellectual rigor; his successor, Herman J. Cohen, was also most supportive. Ambassadors Edward J. Perkins, Princeton Lyman and Walter Cutler (whose desk officer I was), former AF Assistant Secretary Susan Rice, and current AF Assistant Secretary John- nie Carson are colleagues and friends whom I admire. Others whom I ad- mire but with whom I have not served include Ambassadors Thomas Picker- ing and Ryan Crocker, former Under Secretary Strobe Talbott and former National Security Adviser Tony Lake, with whom I worked particularly closely on Haiti. FSJ: Growing up in North Car- olina, did you meet any diplomats? How about during your undergraduate studies at Catawba College? WLS: No, my first exposure to an American diplomat was during my postgraduate studies at Tuebingen University, when I attended a speech that the U.S. ambassador was giving. I left displeased because he did not speak German in addressing a German audience. My first actual conversation with a Foreign Service officer came a year or so later while returning to the States on a ship; when it docked in Ponta Del- gada in the Azores, I met the U.S. con- sul who boarded. Impressed with his work, I asked him for information about the Foreign Service exam, which I took and passed. FSJ: Looking back, do you feel that “President John F. Kennedy was my inspiration for leaving my early career as a teacher to join the Foreign Service.” — Ambassador William Lacy Swing 18 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / J U N E 2 0 1 2 Amb. Swing with Nelson Mandela.