Modern Age - Fall 2014 - 43

WHAT U.S. FOREIGN SERVICE OFFICERS SHOULD KNOW

the case of refugee admissions, changing his
country's sociopolitical identity.
Facing that choice, Talleyrand chose to
represent the party of the day, and of the day
after, and of the day after that. Given the
nature of France, one may judge his choice
wise. The nature of the United States is dif-
ferent. The choice is weightier.

F

oreign service officers, and all who
deal with foreigners on behalf of their
government, are the American people's fidu-
ciary representatives, neither more nor less.
To the foreigners with whom he deals on
America's behalf, the lowest-ranking FSO is
"the Americans" no less than is the secretary
of state. As such, every officer's words and
deeds, acts of omission as well as of commis-
sion, every appearance and every attitude,
every favor done or received, every honor
and every slight given or endured, is wholly
by, of, and for the American people and not
at all for the officer. Acting as America's
fiduciary representative requires intellectual
focus as well as personal character.
America is the officer's client. Fiduciary
representatives must know the client and
sympathize with the client. That is why the
foreign service oral exam used to test above
all the applicants' knowledge of America,
its history, its institutions, its culture, its
current issues, and even its sports teams.
To keep the officer's sentiments tied to
America, the Service still grants each offi-
cer one month's "home leave" in addition
to vacation. But neither any exam nor any
administrative arrangement can ensure what
is most essential to fiduciary representation,
namely exclusive focus on, and sympathetic
understanding of, the client.
For all but Americans, the First Com-
mandment of diplomacy, "Thou shalt seek
the interest of no country but your own,"
is superfluous. Few are tempted to outright

treason. But since the early twentieth cen-
tury, U.S. foreign policy has so confused
America's interests with those of mankind
at large, and so minimized America's excep-
tional nature, as thereby to tempt American
diplomats to consider themselves representa-
tives of more than their country. Some, by
grasping at that chimera, lose their grip on
the only responsibility that is truly theirs and
end up representing nothing of substance.
Personifying one's country requires fight-
ing the temptation to "go native"; that is, to
so involve one's self with the host country's
ways and priorities, to value so highly "good
relations" as to neglect the essence of fidu-
ciary representation. Good relations are the
means of representation, not the end thereof.
But even some who have held fast to the
diplomat's First Commandment-George F.
Kennan most prominently-often show not
just lack of sympathy but outright hostility
to their fellow Americans' way of life. Ken-
nan's diary evinces an attitude toward the
rest of America akin to the Pharisee's prayer
in the Temple: "Lord I thank thee that I am
not like other Americans." He wished that
Americans might "have their toys taken
from them, be spanked, educated, made to
grow up." That would take "strong central
power (far stronger than the present consti-
tution would allow)." Meanwhile, Kennan
expressed revulsion at the sight of well-fed,
"shapeless, droopy" Americans, getting out
of their cars "tired from not walking," "a
skin disease on the earth." He told his diary:
"I hate democracy; I hate the press . . . I
hate the 'peepul'; I have become clearly
un-American."
It is difficult for someone who considers
himself on a higher plane of human existence
to represent lower beings. Inevitably, such
an attitude leads to undue sympathy for the
nation's enemies. That certainly was the case
with Kennan, who saw Hitler's Germany in
43
Modern Age - Fall 2014

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Modern Age - Fall 2014
