The Foreign Service Journal, July-August 2007

ing my 44 years in the Foreign Service. FSJ: Did some of your female col- leagues feel differently? JC: Yes, some had problems on that score. But I think that’s an indi- vidual point of view. And, of course, it depends a lot on your immediate supervisor. FSJ: What was your next overseas assignment? JC: I spent five years in Luxem- bourg, from 1962 to 1967. It was a small embassy, and I was the adminis- trative officer, consular officer, and jack-of-all-trades. Luxembourgers are lovely people, so it was a very good and interesting tour. Despite being a small post, we had our share of major meetings and visi- tors: one was a visit by Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, and the other was a NATO ministerial meeting. Because our motor pool consisted of two cars, it was necessary to arrange for additional transportation. Therefore, we called upon the commanding officers of the two nearby U.S. Air Force bases, in Bitburg and Spangdalem, Germany. They were most helpful in sending a sergeant with enough men and cars to run a motor pool. FSJ: Then did you come back to Washington? JC: I was transferred to D.C. to develop a management course for the Foreign Service Institute. I worked with an outside consultant to design the content and line up speakers. Both the under secretary for manage- ment at the time and his predecessor recognized that administrative work was a side of the Service that had been neglected. After all, we were a big business handling millions of dollars. In addition to the FSI administrative course, we also established an MBA program at Columbia University. Then my former boss, Findley Burns, who had become a deputy assistant secretary of State for manage- ment in the Latin American Bureau, asked me to work in his office. I began by taking an informal inspection tour of the region, visiting six countries in a row: the Dominican Republic, Vene- zuela, Colombia, El Salvador, Hon- duras and Guatemala. FSJ: All your overseas assignments were in Europe. Was that a deliberate choice? JC: No, I guess you could say it was fate. I was tapped for just about all my Foreign Service assignments by peo- ple I’d already worked for, and I got to see most of the world during my career. I am very happy about where I served. FSJ: What were some of the issues you handled as ambassador to Malta from 1979 to 1981? JC: Oddly enough, Valletta was the one post in Europe that I had never visited before being chosen as ambas- sador. It was a small embassy, but I liked that. I’ve always advised junior officers, “If you can get a small post, do it. You get to do everything there, whereas at larger embassies, you can end up in a small niche.” In a small country like Luxembourg, for in- stance, you get to know a number of the citizens. As for issues, we had a very inter- esting prime minister with whom to deal, Dom Mintoff. He was quite upset with the United States because he always wanted the president or the Secretary of State to pay a visit, and that hadn’t happened. At one time, he had been close to Libyan President Mu’ammar al-Qadhafi, but that rela- tionship started to cool during my time there. After Mintoff took office, he no longer allowed the Sixth Fleet to stop in Malta. Still, even though Mintoff’s govern- ment basically ignored us and our British counterparts, there was no real crisis during my time there. The Maltese are lovely people, so I had an interesting and good two years there. FSJ: Tell me about your time as director general of the Foreign Ser- vice. What were the key personnel- 52 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / J U LY- A U G U S T 2 0 0 7