The Foreign Service Journal, December 2015

42 DECEMBER 2015 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL THE USEFULNESS OF COOKIE-PUSHING Cecile Shea, AFSA’s 2003 post representative of the year, is the State Department Fellow at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. Her previous postings include Canada, Thailand, Israel, Scotland, Pacific Command and Japan. The views presented in this article are her own and not necessarily those of the State Department or U.S. government. Richard C. Longworth reported from more than 80 countries during his career. After retiring from journalism in 2013, he became a distinguished fellow at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, where he has focused on globalization’s effects on the Midwest and on the role of global cities in the 21st century. Longworth’s books include Global Squeeze (1998) and Caught in the Middle: America’s Heartland in the Age of Globalism (2009). Cecile Shea interviewed Mr. Longworth in Chicago on Aug. 21. Retired Chicago Tribune foreign correspondent Richard C. Longworth discusses his 1977 “Primer for Diplomats,” a concise and still timely survey of the duties of diplomats and the importance of diplomacy. BY CEC I L E SHEA FEATURE F from January 1977 through September 1979, Reverend Andrew Young—a former executive director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, a former member of Congress and a hero of the Civil Rights Movement—served as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Young, who had spent his life speaking bluntly and, as a member of Congress, independently, was ill-suited to the life of a circumspect administration official. He garnered attention overseas and caused heartburn in Washington with blunt, not-always-aligned-with-U.S.-policy statements. He described Zimbabwe’s 1979 election as “neofascist” and referred to the government of South Africa as “illegitimate,” a sentiment no doubt shared by many Americans but not accurate as a matter of U.S. foreign policy. His musings that Cuban troops in Angola could be viewed as a force for stability angered many in the United States. Six months into Young’s tenure as ambassador, and in response to the civil rights icon’s apparent difficulties adapting to his new job, Chicago Tribune foreign correspondent Richard C. Longworth wrote his “Primer for Diplomats.” Appearing in the July 10, 1977, Tribune , Longworth’s remarkably timeless piece was both an explanation of why diplomacy mattered and a concise survey of the duties and responsibilities of an American diplomat. Intrigued both by Longworth’s forceful opinions on what makes a good ambassador and his obvious familiarity with how embassies operate, I sat down this past summer with the two-time Pulitzer finalist to ask what inspired him to write the primer almost 40 years ago. Cecile Shea: A theme of your piece seems to be that even extremely accomplished individuals may not be cut out for diplo- macy. Richard C. Longworth: Not everyone is cut out to be an ambassador, any more than good businessmen make good poli- ticians or good journalists make good managers. Some do, most