The Foreign Service Journal, September 2021

12 SEPTEMBER 2021 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL In his predeparture call on Eisen- hower, Bohlen donned his AFSA hat and shifted from the USSR to the future of U.S. diplomacy. He spoke frankly to his old golfing friend, who had insisted on his rapid move to Moscow. He focused on “pervasive fear” and its consequences. As a historic symbol of courage, honesty and integrity, he was throwing down a gaunt- let. We would be wise to pick it up. Richard T. Arndt FSO, retired Washington, D.C. Great Power Competition Thanks for the excellent articles on great power competition in the June FSJ . Emily Goldman’s essay on cyber diplomacy was particularly hard-hitting, clarifying the issues for those of us who are not cyber experts. It really is time for the United States to go on the offensive. Michael A.G. Michaud FSO, retired Lawrence, Kansas USAGM: Offering a Significant Clarification Because no debate on the current state of “pub- lic diplomacy” can be taken seriously without a clear understanding about how we got where we are, permit me to offer a clarification to a piece titled “U.S. Agency for Global Media” in the July-August Foreign Service Journal (p. 72). The final sentence reads: “The VOA Foreign Service dates back to when the broadcaster was under the U.S. Infor- mation Agency, which was dissolved in 1999 and its broadcasting functions were moved to the newly created BBG.” This is misleading. It may appear minor, but the implications are significant. The Broadcasting Board of Governors was established under the United States International Broadcasting Act of 1993.This act expanded and renamed the former Board for International Broadcasting, the independent agency providing oversight of Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty, by removing the Voice of America and several regional broadcasters fromdirect U.S. Information Agency authority and placing them together under the newBBG. The new arrangement placed the new broadcasting agency nominally under USIA; but in practice, with its own power- ful constituency on the Hill, the BBG was de facto independent. Though packaged as a compromise, the legislation was in fact the culmination of an extended effort with strong, bipartisan congressional support to separate VOA from the direct control of its longtime parent, USIA. The Foreign Affairs Reform and Restructuring Act of 1998 was a very different thing. It provided the statutory basis for the aboli- tion of USIA and merged its ele- ments, along with the BBG, into the State Department. The USIA at that time had already effec- tively lost control of VOA, which had been under the BBG since the United States International Broad- casting Act of 1993 went into effect. Unfortunately, there has been a ten- dency to conflate VOA’s current problems with the abolition of USIA. This view is wrong. As noted above, the two organiza- tions effectively split in 1993, with VOA (unlike USIA) generally pleased with its new status. Accordingly, VOA was not a significant issue in the breakup of USIA later in the decade. The choice of language in your short piece is yet another example of the failure to understand this not-very-distant and admittedly convoluted history. I write as a former employee at both BIB and USIA, who was involved in the lead-up to the 1993 legislation. Gregory L. Garland FSO, retired Arlington, Virginia Seeking Photos of Embassy Saigon FSOs I am seeking photos of the FSOs who helped me evacuate the staff of the Chase Manhattan Bank during the fall of Saigon to credit them in my forthcoming book, Blue Saigon , to be published by Simon & Schuster next spring. I was appointed as the manager of the Chase Manhattan Bank’s Saigon branch in April 1975 and tasked with evacuating my employees and their families. I’m par- ticularly interested in photos of Shepard Lowman and Kenneth Moorefield. With- out their clandestine program to evacuate Vietnamese civilians, my mission would have failed disastrously. Others I dealt with extensively were Conrad LaGueux, Lucien Kinsolving (with the ICCS), James Ashida, A. Denny Eller- man, Wolfgang Lehmann and Ambassa- dor GrahamMartin. Also, USAID officers Melvyn Chatman and Robert Lanigan. I’d also like photos of Homer Smith and Max Lamont. There was a deputy mission war- den named George White (no relation) who helped me, too. A photo of the inside or outside of the DAO gym where the Evacuation Control Center was located would be icing. I would greatly appreciate hearing from anyone with access to any of these photos, ideally with attached scans of any of these photos. n Ralph White ralphwhite@yahoo.com New York, New York