BY THOMAS BOYATT

FSO Lars Hydle in 1980.
Courtesy of the Family of Lars Hydle

This year both the Foreign Service of the United States and the American Foreign Service Association (AFSA) celebrate their centennials. I would argue that the decade between the introduction of unions into the federal service (1969-1973) and passage of the Foreign Service Act of 1980 was the most critically important period in the 100-year histories of both organizations.

My colleague, my opponent, and my friend Lars Hydle was one of the most important and effective leaders of that decade described by Ambassador Eric Rubin, former president of AFSA, as AFSA’s “Heroic Age.”

Lars and I met under combat conditions in 1970. He was the president of the Junior Foreign Service Officers Club (JFSOC), and I was vice president of AFSA. We represented our organizations in the negotiations to establish the terms and conditions for unions in the Foreign Service that were to be incorporated in a presidential executive order. The other negotiating parties were the under secretary of State for management (or his representative) and the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), the union for 200,000 federal Civil Service employees.

In the ensuing debates before an administrative law judge, Lars and I both strongly supported an employee-management system in which there would be a single, worldwide bargaining unit for all Foreign Service personnel wherever located, and that negotiations would deal with personnel policies and procedures that governed all FS members in the system. The resulting Executive Order 11636 contained both provisions. Of the two million federal employees today, only those in the Foreign Service negotiate personnel policies and procedures on an agencywide basis. This remains the case today: The elements of EO 11636 became chapter 10 of the Foreign Service Act of 1980.

Lars and I (and AFSA and JFSOC) disagreed in those initial negotiations on two critical issues: Should AFSA be both a union and a professional organization (the AFSA position), or just a union (the JFSOC position)? And, should the ultimate authority of the employee-management system be the Secretary of State (the AFSA position) or the Secretary of Labor (the JFSOC position)? The AFSA position on that latter question was incorporated into EO 11636. But the professional association/union disagreement became the defining issue of the 1971 AFSA Board elections.

Again, Lars and I were on opposite sides. I was a member of the Participation slate and Lars was one of several JFSOCers on the opposing Members’ Interests slate. The election campaign was vigorously fought but without personal malice. In the event, the Participation slate clearly prevailed, winning all seats on the AFSA Board. Over the decades, AFSA has maintained its dual character as both a union and a professional organization, an approach that has been dramatically successful.

It was a situation that called for calm, determined, and knowledgeable leadership. Lars Hydle possessed these qualities in abundance and took the lead in meeting the challenges.

Later, in the 1975 AFSA elections, Lars became the vice president under uniquely difficult circumstances. In the change to the direct election of AFSA Officers and Board approved in 1972, the drafters of the new bylaws did not provide for a runoff election in case there was no candidate with a majority. In the 1975 elections, John Hemenway, a brilliant, but bitter and erratic officer, who had been selected out for poor performance, was elected AFSA president with a plurality of 35 percent, a score-settling agenda, and no support on the AFSA Board.

Almost immediately on assuming office, Hemenway began issuing statements and spending funds without Board approval. The AFSA Board reacted strongly, and a tense stand-off developed. It was a dangerous moment for AFSA, which had not yet fully established the employee-management system and its role in that system. It was a situation that called for calm, determined, and knowledgeable leadership.

Lars Hydle possessed these qualities in abundance and took the lead in meeting the challenges. Within a year, AFSA had established recall procedures and held a worldwide recall vote of all members that Hemenway lost overwhelmingly. Lars served out the remainder of Hemenway’s term and then, in the 1977 AFSA elections, won the presidency in his own right and with his own slate. His presidency (1977-1979) reestablished AFSA’s momentum in shaping the new employee-management system and provided opportunities for contributions in the early stages of the evolution of the Foreign Service Act of 1980.

After 10 tumultuous years of major contributions to the formation of the modern AFSA, Lars resumed State Department–directed assignments. Prior to 1970, he had served with distinction in Vietnam. After 1980, he continued his distinguished service in challenging posts in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East until his retirement in 1993. In retirement, he became an active member of the Former AFSA Presidents caucus, and I had the joy of collaborating with him again for years until his untimely death in November 2023 (see the obituary in the May 2024 FSJ).

While working on this appreciation of Lars’ history and achievements, I found my mind often turning to his personal qualities that so endeared him to our AFSA generation. The soft voice, the impish smile, the good counsel, the tenacity, and the clear thinking will be sorely missed in the extended Foreign Service family.

Rest in peace, my brother. You made a huge and enduring difference.

From 1970 through 2019, Ambassador Thomas Boyatt served on various AFSA Governing Boards as president, vice president, secretary, treasurer (multiple times), retiree vice president, and retiree representative. An FSO from 1959 until 1985, he served as ambassador to Colombia and Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso) and chargé d’affaires in Chile, in addition to postings in Nicosia, Luxembourg, and Antofagasta (Chile). In Washington, D.C., he served as chief of staff for the assistant secretary for Near Eastern affairs and as director of the Office of Cypriot Affairs.