The Foreign Service Journal, September 2016

50 SEPTEMBER 2016 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL In the field of education, our intrepid desk officer, Jillian Bon- nardeaux, dusted off a Peace Corps agreement that many people had tried to complete during the past decade or so. Working with Vietnam’s embassy in Washington, Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs leadership and our embassy team, she corralled lawyers and kept the negotiations moving. Simultaneously, we worked to support the launch of Fulbright University Vietnam, the country’s first private, nonprofit, independent university, based in Ho Chi Minh City. While an independent team con- ducted negotiations with Vietnamese authorities, our consulate general team, led by Public Affairs Officer Alex Titolo, provided critical support. Bringing It Home By the beginning of 2016, we had developed 12 complete strategies for our joint endeavors, and our mission action officers backed up by teams owned each one fully. Deputy Chief of Mission Susan Sutton, Consul General Rena Bitter and I helped coordinate efforts, but each joint endeavor team implemented its strategy with minimal guidance from above. We received generous support from colleagues and leaders at State and the White House, and that support grew over time, bolstered by a series of high-level visits preceding the “Big Visit.” From January onward, former Vietnam Desk Officer Scott Kofmehl helped orchestrate our efforts from his new perch at the National Security Council. With NSC Asia in the lead, the White House took our ambitious agenda for the visit and made it more ambitious, pursuing strategies to address the toughest remaining war legacy issues: dioxin clean-up and fully remov- ing a ban on arms sales that had been imposed in the mid-1960s. Joe, Adam, Jillian, Alex, Scott and many others saw their hard work bear fruit when Pres. Obama made his historic visit to Vietnam in May 2016, accompanied by the Secretary of State, U.S. trade representative, national security advisor, three members of Congress and a thou- sand others. Our teams brought an astonishing 20 joint endeavors over the finish line—from all five areas of engagement identified a year earlier—during the action-packed visit. Many agreements were concluded at the 11th hour; in fact, three cited in the two presidents’ joint statement as completed were actually signed the day after the official meetings. Pres. Obama spoke to Vietnam’s citizens in an address whose impact will be felt for many years. He engaged young people and entrepreneurs in ways that inspired and empowered the Vietnamese. Because we had laid the groundwork, our team—in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and Washington—provided substan- tive accomplishments to strengthen the president’s words and interactions during his three-day visit. Mid-level officers designed and implemented strategies that involved an accurate diagnosis of the challenge, including a realistic assessment of the obstacles to success; clear policy goals that helped keep both governments moving in the same direction; and a set of coherent actions linked to a timeline. They conducted “SWOT” (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analyses on each strategy. Teachers and practitioners of strategy recommend this approach, and our officers and their teams showed that it works. These officers also learned to be opportunistic, to seize moments to engage higher-ups to advance their strategies. They did not wait for instructions, but rather owned their ideas and took the initiative to turn them into concrete accomplish- ments that were fueled by, and in turn enhanced, a visit from the president of the United States. Amb. Hume predicted—and we have shown it to be true—that officers who taste what it’s like to design and implement a strategy are changed by the experience. They will never again settle for less than taking their ideas over the finish line. n President Obama speaks at a town hall meeting of the Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative in Hanoi. COURTESYOFU.S.EMBASSYHANOI