The Foreign Service Journal, June 2020

42 JUNE 2020 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL States among nations” as the “essential factors for success” in the Service, officials recognized that beautiful and charming Foreign Service wives could greatly enhance individual careers and American diplo- matic representation abroad. Foreign Service wives man- aged, without pay, the domestic duties and social obligations needed for the operation of American missions abroad. They also helped establish a power- ful American presence over- seas. Their visibility increased American prestige and reflected the very best of the “American way of life” to other cultures. The conduct of diplomacy, especially in the pre–World War II era, depended on developing and maintaining relationships with local officials and others in the diplomatic corps. Meeting and greeting. These political relationships, however, were also personal and social, an arena in which wives played significant roles. One wife recalled that her “entire life” in the Foreign Service in the 1930s “was to be devoted to being the best possible hostess.” A knowledgeable observer of the U.S. Foreign Service explained that “personal acquaintance with influential people in governmental and political life is often helpful in advancing the business of the legation.” It was at the many social occasions that marked diplomatic life where representatives of the host country, other members of the diplomatic corps, and local dignitaries and visitors mixed, mingled and gossiped. Edith O’Shaughnessy, the wife of an American diplomat in Vienna in 1910 and 1911, remembered how she “cultivated” influential friendships. Foreign Service officers relied on their wives to read and inter- pret both conversations and behavior in these settings, and then relay information back to them. Lucy Briggs explained that “a man who was perhaps not especially gifted was greatly helped by a wife who was friendly and who was interested in what was going on and who was helpful both in personal and professional ways.” Social events provided numerous opportunities to curry favor, collect information and send subtle messages within the diplomatic corps. Hosting them served as a primary opportunity to exhibit American culture and prosperity abroad. Who a wife invited, and did not invite, to her residence for tea might or might not be a reflection of government policies, but those invitation lists were always highly scrutinized. Officials at the State Department in Washington, D.C., expected wives to reach out to local women in the host country, and to work with them in local charities and volunteer groups. Knowing the locals. Because those activities often took wives into different neigh- borhoods, beyond the borders of the official diplomatic corps’ offices and enclaves, they often knew the local environment, and the locals themselves, better than their husbands who were stuck in the embassy or legation all day. As Elizabeth Cabot remembered, when she was in Rio de Janeiro, “I had to go to market. I had to move around [her emphasis]. … It made you link up with people.” Naomi Matthews explained that when she and her husband were in Australia in the 1930s, she “was with the Australians much of the time … that’s what you want to do. That’s what you are there for.” Obeying rules now bygone. Wives also understood, as did their diplomat husbands, that the State Department was keeping a close eye on them, and that their conduct and behavior were included in the formal promotion assessments that became a regular part of the Foreign Service after 1924. As Lucy Briggs remembered, “In those days, when a man’s record was written up, his wife was always commented on. And if she added to his social position in a pleasant way, or if she was helpful in other ways, that was always put down. Or if she was something of a handicap that was put down, too.” After 1924 the members of the new Foreign Service Person- Secretary of State Cordell Hull’s wife, Frances, gave testimony to the vital role of Foreign Service spouses in the conduct of U.S. diplomacy in the April 1934 issue of The Foreign Service Journal . THEFOREIGNSERVICEJOURNAL