THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | SEPTEMBER 2023 11 less than no money, Jess made the trip from Wisconsin to D.C. for Julian and Jay’s service. She sat in the far back of National Cathedral as the person giving the eulogy talked about Julian’s selfless public service, referencing my sister’s case as a prime example of his stellar qualities as an officer and as a human being. After grad school, I signed up for the Foreign Service exam, taking my husband along with me to also take the written exam. He’s now an office director in the Bureau of Counterterrorism, and I am on the European affairs desk. Jess is alive and well in Wisconsin, and we remain in contact with the surviving Bartleys, Sue and Edith. Sarah Lundquist Nuutinen FSO Washington, D.C. Putin Confidant Busts Invasion Rationale I want to thank the Journal for bringing to readers’ attention the advertisement placed in The New York Times on May 16 by the Eisenhower Media Network and signed by several retired diplomats, including Ambassador (ret.) Jack Matlock, Matthew Hoh, Larry Wilkerson, and Ann Wright (July-August 2023 FSJ, page 17: “Former Diplomats Sign NYT Ad”). The gist of their open letter was that the U.S. should start negotiating with Russia now to bring peace to Ukraine because, after all, we are at fault for provoking Russia by expanding NATO to its borders. I can see why the open letter was placed as an advertisement. It is so flawed intellectually, and so slavishly copies Russian disinformation arguments on the Ukraine war, that it would never have been printed as an editorial in any respectable newspaper. The central argument is wrong on the facts, as many of the principals, including former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, former Secretary of State James Baker, and others have pointed out. There was never any commitment not to expand NATO to the east, and such expansion came about because Central and Eastern European countries were clamoring to join, in the expectation that Russia might one day turn revanchist, which, under President Vladimir Putin, it did. Beyond this, however, and perhaps most embarrassingly for the Eisenhower Media Network and its supporters, the arguments in favor of accepting Kremlin propaganda explanations for why Russia was forced to attack Ukraine have been blasted apart by onetime Putin confidant and Kremlin insider Yevgeny Prigozhin. As Prigozhin noted in a lengthy video on Telegram on June 23: “The Armed Forces of Ukraine were not going to attack Russia with the NATO bloc.” In other words, NATO expansion was just a propaganda excuse to invade. Prigozhin said that the real reason for the invasion was that Kremlin insiders wished to promote their political prospects (decency forbids me from repeating his exact words), and Kremlin-linked oligarchs wanted to plunder Ukraine’s resources after its military capture and the appointment of a puppet regime in Kyiv. Naturally, Prigozhin studiously avoided the obvious point that Putin simply wanted to erase Ukraine from existence, as he has implied repeatedly in his own speeches. The signatories of the Eisenhower Media Network open letter have a lot of explaining to do. James F. Schumaker FSO, retired San Clemente, California Potty Mouths and Gratuitous Sex Commentaries about The Diplomat abound, including by our current ambassador in London quoted in The New York Times and Ambassador Barbara Stephenson’s review in the July-August FSJ. I’ve been surprised that no one has mentioned the potty mouths of the ambassador and her husband. In my 28 years at the U.S. Information Agency and State, at embassies and consulates in South Asia and Latin America, I have not once attended an official meeting or even an informal conversation among colleagues who curse like that. Cursing for emphasis may have its place, but recreational cursing in official situations represented in the series does not resemble my experience in the Foreign Service and misleads viewers who are unfamiliar with the work we do in the field. Even the British foreign secretary’s character notes the Americans’ language, letting loose his own stream of invective— to prove his bona fides, no doubt. And while I’m kvetching, the gratuitous sex does nothing to advance either character or plot, other than confirming that our middle-aged hotties can still get it on! Rex Moser FSO, retired Pacific Palisades, California A gathering after Sarah Nuutinen’s FS swearing-in ceremony in 2010. From left: Edith Bartley; Sue Bartley; Sarah Nuutinen; her sister Jessica; her father, David Lundquist; her mother, Mary; and her little sister, Lisa McDevitt. COURTESY OF SARAH LUNDQUIST NUUTINEN
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