The Foreign Service Journal, December 2019

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | DECEMBER 2019 47 An attorney, Tex was AFSA’s in-house counsel in the early to mid-1970s. He was one of four drafters of the 1976 legisla- tion that led to the Foreign Service grievance system, which was eventually adopted in the Foreign Service Act of 1980. He remained active in AFSA throughout his distinguished 36-year Foreign Service career, serving two terms as AFSA president from 1993 to 1997. During his tenure as president, he battled against RIFs (reductions-in-force) in USAID, government shutdowns and the appointment of unqualified political ambas- sadors. He also fought against major management abuses such as naming Diplomatic Security protective detail agents “managers” to avoid payment of millions of dollars of overtime, and gaining significant benefit increases for service overseas. He helped secure improvements to conditions of service and pushed for ending eth- nic, gender and racial discrimination within the State Department. Following his retirement from the Foreign Service in 1999, Harris received the Distinguished Honor Award (the State Department’s highest award) for his achievements in report- ing on and opposing the massive human rights abuses of the Argentine military dictatorship's “Dirty Wars” of the late 1970s. Posted in Argentina during that time, he had been identified for selection-out after leaving Buenos Aires for that same work. His courageous role during that period has been profiled on TV and in publications and has been cited by AFSA and others as a prime example of what professional diplomacy can accomplish in the face of internal opposition. In 1984 AFSA recognized Tex Harris with the William R. Rivkin Award for Constructive Dissent by a Mid-Level Officer for the “courage, strength of character, and dedication to the Foreign Service” he demonstrated during his tour in Buenos Aires. The award noted that Harris displayed not only physical courage, but “bureaucratic courage to stand up for what was right despite unnecessary obstacles placed in his way.” He was honored again, in 2013, for his work in Argentina, when the United Nations Association of the National Capital “Tex” Harris at the AFSA Awards Ceremony at the State Department Oct. 16. AFSA/JOAQUINSOSA