The Foreign Service Journal, September 2003

officers often show a great personal interest in the arts. Speculation About Motives I received about 250 e-mails in response to my resignation from friends, colleagues and unknown per- sons throughout the world. Only a handful were negative, but those did raise, explicitly or implicitly, some reser- vations that I sense some of my col- leagues harbor about the motivations behind my resignation. So I would like to end by responding to the following assumptions about my motives: • You quit because you didn’t have a job (at the State Department). After my Georgetown assignment I was slat- ed to work for the Historian’s Office as an editor of a joint U.S.-Russian publi- cation of historical documents pertain- ing to the détente period. This project was an exciting one for me, as I received my Ph.D. in Russian history and (before joining the Foreign Service) worked as an editor on a U.S.- Soviet documentary volume, The Establishment of Russian-American Relations , 1765-1815. • You quit because you had a job lined up (outside the State Depart- ment). No, I did not have anything in the works at the time, but I recently found part-time work on a project per- taining to my interest in Russia and cultural exchanges that I had heard about before I announced my resigna- tion. • You quit because you were already on your way out of the Service. True, as an FE-OC, I was near the end of my time-in-grade and thus near retirement (assuming that I would not be promoted), but in other circumstances I would have been glad to continue at the department for as long as possible, if only for financial reasons. Still, now that I have entered a new phase of life, I recall the words of Henry Adams: “No man, however strong, can serve 10 years as school- master, priest or senator, and remain fit for anything else. All the dogmatic stations in life have the effect of fixing a certain stiffness of attitude forever.” • You didn’t resign, you retired. I checked on this with my federal retire- ment benefits specialist, and he con- firmed that per my letter of March 10, I had, in fact, resigned — and that I was entitled, much to my relief, to my annuity. In all honesty, when I drafted my letter of resignation, I simply thought I was quitting and at that time did not make fine distinctions between retirement and resignation. Blame my USIA background for this bureaucratic insouciance! • You just wanted to make a splash. There is a strong element of truth in this. My resignation was essentially a political statement, for I thought it was important that the media, both at home and abroad, publicize my deci- sion. In this way, I believed, my fellow Americans and the rest of the world— so critical of the United States for its war plans against Iraq — would become aware that at least one more U.S. diplomat was against a senseless military adventure that elicited the condemnation of many countries. One final comment: I am still con- vinced that our invasion of Iraq was unjustified, despite premature claims that it was a “victory,” but I do hope that the U.S. will make the best of a bad situation. ■ John Brown, a former public diploma- cy Foreign Service officer, served in London, Prague, Krakow, Kiev, Belgrade, Moscow and Washington, D.C., between 1981 and 2003. Currently a non-resident associate at the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy at Georgetown University, he is working (under contract with Praeger Publishers) on a book on pro- paganda and U.S. foreign policy. An earlier version of this article appeared in The Moscow Times. S E P T E M B E R 2 0 0 3 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 17 S P E A K I N G O U T Web access to major advertisers. Go to www.afsa.org Click on Marketplace tab on the marquee Bukkehave www.bukkehave.com Charles Smith Corp. Living www.smithliving.com Clements International www.clements.com Diplomatic Auto Sales www.diplosales.com Executive Club Suites www.execlubdc.com Georgetown Suites www.georgetownsuites.com Intelsat www.intelsat.com Harry Jannette International www.jannetteintl.com Hirshorn Company, The www.hirshorn.com Laughlin Management www.century21laughlin.com Long & Foster www.simunek.com Oakwood www.oakwood.com Remington www.remington-dc.com SDFCU www.sdfcu.org State Plaza www.stateplaza.com WJDManagement www.wjdpm.com For more information about advertisers in the Journal go to: www.afsa.org/marketplace MARKETPLACE