The Foreign Service Journal, June 2019

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | JUNE 2019 13 O n a crisp London day in the autumn of 1780 a thickset, firm-jawed South Carolinian stood unhappily beside the Thames River, look- ing upward at the stones of the ancient fortress known as the Tower of London. The day was October 6, and the name was Henry Laurens of Charleston. A month earlier the English had encountered upon the high seas the brigantine Mercury, en route from Philadelphia to Europe, and had seized and sailed away with Laurens, the newly commissioned Minister to the Netherlands in the fledgling foreign service of the Conti- nental Congress. It was a commission he had accepted reluctantly, for he was 56 and had spent many years in the public life, during which he had served the revolution- ary government of South Carolina, and the Continental Congress as president. Laurens, ailing and resentful over his consignment as a prisoner to the Tower, gazed with melancholy eyes upon the Thames, a puny stream, as he might well have reflected, compared to the wide sweeps of the Ashley and Cooper back home. His guards stepped forward and the silent procession moved inside. They led him over a footing of slick stones to cramped prison quarters and left him, coughing and adjusting his cape against the Tower chill. The South Carolinian was one of a hand- ful of notables dispatched abroad in the diplomatic service of the nascent American government. Among them were Benjamin Franklin in Paris, John Jay in Madrid, and John Adams at The Hague. It was an eminent little group whose resourcefulness would be commemorated in history books of the future. Whatever achievements and errors of judgment might be attributed to each in his turn, all were then engaged, with honor and sacrifice, in helping to lay the cornerstone of their coun- try’s foreign service. It was Laurens alone, however, who was to have the rueful distinction of residence in the Tower of London. —Retired FSO Ralph Hilton, excerpted from his article by the same title in the June 1969 Foreign Service Journal 50 Years Ago Henry of the Tower statement: “The White House’s outra- geous decision to recall Amb. Yovanovitch is a political hit job and the latest in this administration’s campaign against career State Department personnel. It’s clear that this decision was politically motivated, as allies of President Trump had joined foreign actors in lobbying for the ambas- sador’s dismissal. “In what is an increasingly disturbing trend,” the congressmen continued, “we have seen foreign officials attack our own U.S. ambassadors and Foreign Service offi- cers for performing their jobs and advanc- ing U.S. interests.” They described the ambassador as “a dedicated public servant and diplomat of the highest caliber.” When asked whether the ambassador was being recalled early, a State Depart- ment spokesperson said Yovanovitch was “concluding her three-year diplomatic assignment in Kyiv in 2019 as planned.” The spokesperson did not comment on Engel and Hoyer’s statement. Among her many assignments over a distinguished 33-year Foreign Service career, Amb. Yovanovitch previously served as ambassador to Armenia, ambassador to the Kyrgyz Republic and deputy chief of mission in Kyiv. She is the recipient of the Presidential Distinguished Service Award and the Secretary’s Diplomacy in Human Rights Award. While ambassador to Armenia, she was profiled in AFSA’s bestselling book, Inside a U.S. Embassy (FS Books, 2011). and less of these jokers as ambassadors,” Trump Jr. wrote, referring to the U.S. ambassador to Germany, who has been an outspoken political supporter of the president. The wave of criticisms raised alarm bells for former U.S. ambassadors to Ukraine, who worried Lutsenko and other Ukrainian officials were exploiting political fissures in the United States to retaliate against Yovanovitch. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) and Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.), chair- man of the House Foreign Affairs Commit- tee, expressed strong concerns of their own in an April 12 letter to Sec. Pompeo. When they received no response, Engel and Hoyer went public in a May 7 joint