The Foreign Service Journal, September 2009

a person working for me by the name of Dick Combs. Dick would not be a household name, but I met him when he was deputy chief of mission in Moscow and got him to join on the Armed Services Committee staff after he left the Foreign Service. Dick, probably more than anyone on my staff, was responsible for creating the linkage between concept and legisla- tion, working closely with Sen. Lugar’s staff, that resulted in the Nunn-Lugar program. I would also list Mort Abramowitz, Mike Armacost, Rich Armitage, Bob Gallucci, Jim Kelly, Don McHenry and Ed Perkins. Though Dean Rusk was before my time, I knew and ad- mired him very much, as well. And going even further back, I was a great admirer of the tremendous historic roles that George Marshall and Ralph Bunche played. Finally, I’d cite some people who weren’t professional diplomats but did a superb job representing the United States abroad, such as Mike Mansfield, Howard Baker, Anne Armstrong, Pamela Harriman and James Baker. They weren’t Foreign Service mem- bers, but they were very skillful diplo- matic representatives for our country. FSJ: What changes do you think are needed to ensure that the Foreign Service has the abilities, outlook and organizational structure to effectively discharge its role in the active promo- tion of U.S. interests abroad? SN: I think the Foreign Service does a superb job. These people are out there every day putting their lives on the line. They are exposed to ter- rorist attacks more than our military is, yet they don’t have the defensive mechanisms that the military does. So I salute the Foreign Service mem- bers who serve our country every day around the globe. In terms of support back home, I think we’ve got a duty to step up to the plate with resources for the For- eign Service, which is woefully un- derfunded and understaffed. The best spokesman for doing that, for years now, has been Defense Secre- tary Robert Gates, who is absolutely right. I think that when you realize 44 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / S E P T E M B E R 2 0 0 9 “We’re in a short-term, medium-term and long-term race between cooperation and catastrophe.”