The Foreign Service Journal, December 2005

D E C E M B E R 2 0 0 5 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 5 In my initial meeting with Sec- retary Rice on Oct. 27, I asked her to help AFSA de- fend the Foreign Service. I told her that in addition to “bread-and-butter” issues like Overseas Comparability Pay that we’d just dis- cussed, AFSA members care deeply about the Foreign Service as a profes- sion with a vital role to play in defending our national security and advancing U.S. interests. I noted that the Foreign Ser- vice continues to come under fire un- fairly from certain quarters, including accusations of disloyalty, unwillingness to serve in difficult places and handle tough tasks, favoring foreign over Amer- ican interests, and even compromising our nation’s interests in pursuit of “lucrative post-FS employment” (sic). I pointed to Jim Hoagland’s Aug. 25 Washington Post column as an example of the slurs and distortions to which the FS is regularly subjected. Hoagland urged Sec. Rice to quell “the hotbed of rebellion” at a State Department dom- inated by FS “battle-hardened policy warriors,” whose “Olympian view of current events discounts an administra- tion’s ideology and political needs” and whose “clientitis” leads them to favor foreign nations or “potential future employers.” She’d better watch her back, Hoagland concluded, because “the fire can come from any direction.” I told the Secretary that, while AFSA puts out its own statements to respond to these “cheap shots,” a first- person statement or op-ed piece answering particularly egregious and inaccurate criticism and reaffirming her confidence in the loyalty, courage, and professionalism of FS employees would go a long way toward refuting our detractors. Everyone remembers how then-Deputy Secretary Richard Armitage’s “Newt’s off his meds again” quip made a mockery of the former House Speaker’s attack. The Secretary responded that she does not believe it effective to react to every slight. She regularly praises the Foreign Service in her speeches, she said. I noted that AFSA members had listened to such remarks with satisfac- tion. Unfortunately, though, this type of support has been articulated almost exclusively to in-house audiences at town hall meetings and swearings-in. I’ve always been appalled by attacks like Hoagland’s and the seemingly will- ful ignorance behind them. We in the Foreign Service take an oath “to uphold and defend the Constitution.” Ever conscious that we need to work for whichever party controls the White House, the vast majority of FS person- nel are studiously apolitical and would not dream of going beyond the rules of the game. We offer advice based on unparalleled experience and expertise, rarely dissent, even within the system (i.e., before the policy is set), imple- ment the policies our political masters choose, analyze the results, and try to get them fine-tuned. Both parties in Congress recognized the need for a professional diplomatic corps loyal to the nation, and not to political parties or individuals, when it passed overwhelmingly the 1924 Rogers Act that ended the spoils system and created the modern Foreign Service. As President Gerald Ford said on its 50th anniversary, “Foreign rela- tions are too important to be left to a corps of ‘yes men.’ You must report without fear or favor what you actually see abroad, not what we in Washington want to hear.” The Foreign Service Act of 1980 consolidated this professional- ism, again with broad bipartisan sup- port. Detractors like Hoagland make me wonder what they want. Is it results or just the immediate political splash and glitz of the initial rollout? Are they committed to success, or just the spin? Do they want pros who see the forest through the trees, or hacks who let short-term exigencies obscure long- term interests? Whatever motivates such attacks, I trust Secretary Rice will not allow slurs against the Foreign Service to become the perceived foil for her success. An occasional public defense of her troops would be highly appreciated. n P RESIDENT ’ S V IEWS The Foreign Service as a Political Foil B Y J. A NTHONY H OLMES J. Anthony Holmes is the president of the American Foreign Service Association. Foreign relations are too important to be left to a corps of ‘yes men.’ – Gerald Ford, 1974