The Foreign Service Journal, November 2010

taries on Service were written during the VietnamWar. In The Best and the Brightest (1969), the classic critique of the Kennedy administration’s role in escalating the Vietnam conflict, David Halberstam cited the firing of Service and other China experts as a fateful event in U.S.-Asia policy. Once the State Department had been purged of its Asia experts, U.S. diplo- mats had limited expertise in the poli- tics or culture of that part of the world. Their ignorance contributed to the flaws in, and the ultimate failure of, U.S. policy during the Vietnam War. Service’s story thus carries impor- tance beyond U.S.-China relations. It was part of a larger erosion in the ranks of the best and brightest in the diplomatic corps that affected foreign policy around the world. When the American Foreign Service Association honored him at a 1973 luncheon, he chose to speak not on the topic of U.S.-China relations or even the Cold War more broadly, but rather on po- litical reporting, a fundamental skill that applies to Foreign Service per- sonnel in every region and era. In 2010, the U.S. foreign policy es- tablishment once again finds itself de- fending its relevance. A growing focus on counterinsurgency has come at the expense of reporting and analy- sis; indeed, leading opponents of the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan have underscored a lack of real American expertise on the ground. It seems reasonable to speculate that if Foreign Service members and other area experts had enjoyed a greater voice in policy before such conflicts escalated, alternatives to full- scale military intervention and war could have been pursued. With that in mind, everyone who recognizes the value of learning about the political realities of the places we deem strate- gically important, in order to seriously pursue windows of diplomatic possi- bility, should know the name and story of John Service. His life and legacy are part of the ongoing narrative of how America gets information about, and understands, the world in which it acts. ■ N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 0 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 59 John Service became the first China specialist, and one of the first of dozens of Foreign Service officers, to be fired as a result of McCarthyism. WWW.FSJOURNAL.ORG When contacting an advertiser, kindly mention the Foreign Service Journal. Click on the Marketplace tab on the marquee AFSA Legacy www.afsa.org/CFCFAD.cfm AFSPA afspa.org/FSBP AKA Hotel residences stay-aka.com Clements International clements.com Cort Furniture cort1.com Fox Hill foxhillseniorcondominium.com Georgetown Suites georgetownsuites.com Hirshorn Company, The hirshorn.com Kendal Kendal.org Lockheed Martin Corporation lockheedmartin.com Potomac Books potomacbooksinc.com SDFCU sdfcu.org Senior Living Foundation SLFoundation.org WJD wjdpm.com CHANGE OF ADDRESS Moving? Take AFSA With You! Change your address online at: www.afsa.org/comment.cfm Or Send change of address to: AFSA Membership Department 2101 E Street NW Washington, DC 20037