`Elitist' AFSA has death-grip on presidential foreign policy

0 Comments | Insight on the News, Oct 1, 2002 | by Gordon Sumner, Jr.

As a longtime reader of INSIGHT, and in most instances in agreement with Martin Edwin Andersen's articles, I was amazed to read his Aug. 12 article titled "Can U.S. Afford Citizen Diplomats?" The article should have been titled "Can U.S. Not Afford Citizen Diplomats?" Could it be that so savvy a reporter as Mr. Andersen has been taken in by the American Foreign Service Association (AFSA) and the American Academy of Diplomats?

Let me begin with the constitutional basis of our foreign policy. The president of the United States has the responsibility and authority for the conduct of our foreign policy. Unfortunately for our republic, there has developed an elitist culture in government that believes the president is incompetent to discharge this constitutional mandate.

As a result, this group has formed a union, the AFSA, to solve that problem for the American people. It has been supported in this effort by certain members of Congress and by the media. The AFSA, Congress and the media have designed a cabal that is leftist at best and communist at worst. This problem has only increased with the growing power of the United States, particularly after World War II.

While the American people have been kept in the dark, thanks to the media and Congress, the White House has been very aware of the problem. The AFSA is the only union in the world that negotiates directly with the president of the United States. It has negotiated the following terms: first, the president only may appoint one-third of the ambassadors to carry out his foreign policy; and, second, his appointees, if they make it through the congressional-confirmation process, only may serve two years. In effect, the AFSA has a death-grip on the president's foreign policy.

Your article brings up those glaring examples of the Clinton administration, but neglects to mention that under President Reagan (who understood the problem better than most), ambassadors were appointed to change the foreign policy of his predecessor. These were appointed regardless of contributions to the Republican Party and because they were committed to the policy he wanted implemented, regardless of what the State Department leftists wanted.

Let me give you some particulars. As the "jefe" of the Committee of Santa Fe, my group had laid out the changes that were necessary to meet the various threats to U.S. national security in Latin America. None of us was wealthy, but we were all knowledgeable and concerned about the trends of President Carter and the State Department. President Reagan brought in a team to ensure that the leftist bureaucracy did not abort his foreign policy. This included, amongst others: Roger Fontaine in the National Security Council; Lew Tambs as ambassador for Colombia; David Jordan as ambassador for Peru; Jean Kirkpatrick as ambassador for the United Nations; Dick Walters as ambassador at large; and yours truly as Special Assistant to the Secretary and Assistant Secretary with the rank of ambassador. I held my position for some eight years, so I was able to observe first hand the AFSA in action.

On one occasion, I attended a meeting in the State Department with about 30 foreign officers. The subject of the meeting was: How to abort the president's policy in Latin America. As Dick Walters expressed the problem: "Over in the Pentagon, they don't stab you in the back--they stab you in the chest."

As you can see from the above (which is just the tip of the iceberg), I believe Mr. Andersen has done a disservice to all of those who wonder what the problem is with our foreign policy. The problem is the AFSA and their supporters in Congress and the media. The president doesn't have a prayer in implementing his policies. The secretary of state and the political appointees at State only are partially in charge of a bureaucracy that "knows better" what our foreign policy should be and can use the media and Congress to see to it that their point of view prevails.

Lt. Gen. Gordon Sumner Jr
U.S. Army (retired)
via the Internet