Understanding the Foreign Service Officer Nerd Behavior by Larry C Johnson

A group of lions is called a "pride." A group of crows is called a "murder." A group of geese is called a "gaggle." So what do you call a group of Ambassadors? A pomposity (that term was coined by Colonel Lang when the two of us were working on an exercise on Iran and there were three Ambassadors huddled in a corner scheming--brilliant).

There are two types of Ambassadors--political appointees and Foreign Service Officers who have made their way to the top of the Foreign Service mountain. The two fellows testifying at the opening of the House Impeachment inquiry--Kent and Taylor--are Foreign Service Officers. They are a strange lot. There are some exceptions who are normal people, such as Ambassador Morris (Buzz) Busby and Ambassador Anthony Quainton. I worked for Buzz and dealt with Ambassador Quainton on a variety of policy issues. 

I conducted training for U.S. military Special Ops forces for several years in the aftermath of 9-11. My task was to teach them how to understand the culture of the Foreign Service Officers and offer tips on how to interact. In the aftermath of the 2001 terrorist attacks, U.S. SpecOps personnel were deployed to U.S. Embassies around the world and were having some trouble interacting with the so-called diplomats.

To become a Foreign Service Officer you must take a written and an oral exam. If you pass these exams then you win the golden ticket granting you entrance into the FSO club. FSOs have convinced themselves that only the smartest, the brightest, the most able can pass this exam. If you have not taken the exam and passed it then you are by definition not a very smart person.

 

Many FSOs looked down their nose at these knuckle dragging gorillas masquerading as Special Operations forces at U.S. They assumed they were barely literate. Imagine their shock when the FSOs discovered that a member of the elite U.S. Army CT unit or a member of the SEALS could actually speak a foreign language, had read some real literature and held an advanced college degree. Not making this up.

The Foreign Service contains many officers who take arrogance and prickishness to new heights. You make a fatal error if you believe that because they tend to be soft spoken and non-confrontational that they are not dangerous and devious. Au contraire. Many that rise in the Foreign Service have a knack for sticking a knife in the back of a perceived rival. 

Let me give you a personal example. A female Ambassador who was a Deputy in the Office of the Coordinator for Counter Terrorism had a blow up when I helped a Navy SEAL Commander, who was detailed to State, revamp a memo she had already approved because an important overseas asset deployed for responding to a international terrorist incident had been inadvertently left out of the memo. When my SEAL buddy went in to brief her on the change she started screaming at him, broke her lamp and threw a bottle of hand lotion at him. If she had been a man my friend would have physically retaliated. Instead, my SEAL buddy walked out of the office and recounted the incident to a Civil Service employee in the office. That employee happened to be the neighbor of Ambassador A. Peter Burleigh, who was in charge of S/CT during that time. 

When Ambassador Burleigh learned of her outburst he called her to his office and read her the riot act. What did she do? She assumed I was the one (I was not) who had ratted on her to Ambassador Burleigh. She set out to destroy me. My boss at the time was a retired Marine Corps Colonel, Dominick "Dick" Gannon. What a  gentleman. I counted him as a mentor and a second father. Hard as woodpecker lips and a man who lived by a code of honor. 

Dick prepared my fitness report and submitted it to his supervisor, the crazy female FSO. She demanded he change it to trash me and he refused. So she waited. Dick went overseas on a diplomatic mission and the female Ambassador snuck upstairs to the 7th floor (i.e., the Secretary of State's suite). She filed a complaint against Dick accusing him of failing to do the evaluation in a timely manner. Fortunately, the admin person she talked to, Joanne Graves, looked it over, saw that Dick had signed and informed the female FSO that the person who had failed to act in a timely manner was her. She was furious but beaten.

Just another day in the life of a Pomposity. From what I have seen of tomorrow's witness, Marie Yovanovitch, an FSO, is the same kind of person I encountered in the Office of Counter Terrorism. Arrogant and aggrieved and convinced that she is so much smarter than the troglodytes who will be asking her questions.

I am not saying that all FSOs are like this. But a large number are. You will be seeing another one of these critters in Friday's testimony.

Comments

[akaPatience]

What "consequences" were in Trump's tweet? She lost her job in May, before the POTUS' phone call in question with Pres. Zelensky even took place. Plus, she was a witness to nothing germane.

The new Ukraine president wanted a new ambassador. She was a holdover, with suspected loyalties to his predecessor.

[akaPatience]

A group of FSO = "Pomposity", or how about "Snakes On A Plane"?

[turcopolier]

akaPatience

She did not "lose her job." She was removed as ambassadr to Ukraine. She is still a Career Ambassador in the Fireign Service currently assigned to Georgetown University.

[Paul Merrell]

There's a mistake in that Solomon article. He speaks of a "Geneva Convention," but it's actually the "Vienna Convention."

[Upstate NY'er]

It comes down to who is worse for the country?
The pseudo-socialist, America-hating media-Democrat party OR the stupid and feckless (and I mean really stupid) Republicans?

[Fred]

Just what does a career ambassador make? Seems like a highly paid SES position, not counting the housing and perks of foreign assignment.

[Factotum]

confused says: "What the impeachmentery (sic) right now is about is to find out if Trump has comitted (sic) high crimes and misdemeanors."

Translation: there has to be a pony in there, somewhere. aka a fishing expedition because we don't like the 2016 election outcome. Hardly the dignity one expects within our Halls of Congress.

But agree, one expects a little more dignity from the Executive Branch too. Wish those who acted to over turn the 2016 election on day one of Trump's Inauguration could provide a do over and dedicate their efforts instead to winning the hearts and minds of voters in 2020.

Or dedicate their efforts to at least try to understand why Trump won from the perspective of his voters as well as those who got on board after his election. Who are we and why do we support this person as our duly elected POTUS.

What might had been, had not the deep state been such poor losers. Here is the ironic kicker, as a life long Democrat (non-union democrat), i became a conservative after Bush was re=elected and I embarked on my own personal enquiry into who were those people and how could they re-elect this perfectly awful person again.

I listened and I learned and eventually agreed with them. Amazing. I suggest anti-Trumpers do the same thing because he will be re-elected in 2020 and it is pity to waste four more years in rabid opposition after yet again, the people have spoken.

[Factotum]

My own recollection is no one can surpass the evil machinations of Lyndon B. Johnson. Trump has a long way to go to even get close to that level of naked political cynicism.

Be glad Trump is a little rough around the edges in both public and private. You know what you are getting; not the burnished patina other political operatives were able to cast as their public image.

Personally, I don't need a faux veneer to be called the "dignity of the office". I find Trump's blunt truthfulness far more refreshing and welcome. Stock market seems to agree - they don't like instability and they registered their thoughts about the current "impeachment" inquiry clown show - Democrat virtue-signaling fig leaf hearings. The market - the real heart, soul and engine of the grand American experiment - is registering a collective yawn.

[Factotum]

When did America ever give anything away to foreign nations for free and not expect something in return. And if we did, why should we?

Bad enough most of our "foreign aid" comes back to us directly to support military-industrial employee unions who get that "foreign aid" back into their own Democrat pockets with mandated arms purchases.

Trump has not made himself a pawn of the Democrat defense industry unions ...yet. So his expectation in return for foreign aid will be more to his own interests, than the Democrat defense industry unions interests - no wonder these special interests who drive the Democrat party are howling right now. They don't care about CROWDSTRIKE. They just care about getting more defense industry contracts so this money flows back into their pockets.

[Factotum]

Dunham investigation just started. It is the Horowitz investigation that is dragging out well past its due date - but it does seem now "imminent.

The Dunham investigation which has recently and rapidly moved to become a criminal investigation deserves the time it needs, because far more is at stake and it now covers several continents. Horowitz happened in our own back yard and under Obama's imperious nose.

Long ago, Stone admitted he was going to be charged and probably going to jail. Where is the surprise element in what just happened? Who knows what he was up to on any given level. Or what martyr games he is now acting out in this new chapter of his odd life.

[turcopolier]

factotum

Durham, not Dunham. How old are you?

[turcopolier]

factotum

Finland. We gave them a lot of foreign aid and to our surprise they paid it back. What is it you think we expected to get from SVN? Nuoc Mam and French owned rubber plantations?

[turcopolier]

Factotum

I agree. I still hate LBJ and would piss on his grave and that of Mcnamara if given the chance.

[turcopolier]

Fred

It is a pretty good living especially when you include the childrens' schooling in Europe and the differential pay for "hardship" posts.

[Factotum]

The Russians have been renting the Crimean port of Sebastopol for how long as their warm water military port. They even fly the Russian flag over the Russian navy headquarters in that formerly Russian empire city and home to the Russian royal family 's summer home.

Not so sure there is a bright line between Russia (Mother Russia) and Ukraine that does not still profoundly complicate facts and political loyalties even today. Also makes it more understandable Russia' relentless quest for a western facing warm water port. They have such vast, but badly-sited, real estate to call their "country".

One can only assume "global warming" that could potentially unlock their huge untapped Siberian resources would be a gift from heaven for the Russians. As Robt McNamera advised in Fog of War - empathize with your enemy. Which by no means puts America second. Just a little more sober.

[Factotum]

Old enough to know what polio was, getting our first family, TV and remember vividly when JFK was shot. And when "modern" was modern; and not mid-century classic.

[confusedponderer]

akaPatience,
re: She was a holdover, with suspected loyalties to his predecessor.

The obvious problem generously ignored by you here is the 'suspected loyalties' part.

Is there any proof that she is an Obama ... very well hidden easter egg? Pompeo and torture site Haspel served under Obama, you noticed? Also suspected illoyal ... Obama moles?

There should be proof, not just allegations of 'suspicion'.

By that low standard you yourself could easily end up as a suspected Putinist because you ... drink russian vodka. Proof I don't have - and I don't need it because you're suspicious, because I say so.

Without proof you have nothing but smearing and/or reputation destruction - and even that only if the person even cares about these 'facts' and 'reality' ... things.

As Giuliani on a worse day put it on tv, loudly: "No, it isn’t truth! Truth isn’t truth"

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/shortcuts/2018/aug/20/truth-rudy-giuliani-legal-adviser-trump

Yes, and tonight you'll get a glass of milk, some cookies and have a wonderful night and more as sweet dreams.

[Factotum]

Old enough to also not take offense when someone says "okay boomer" since i know they are not talking about me, and probably don't even know there are people still alive who were born before the boomers. Not a real fan of what the boomers did to our country either. Part of the last generation to be raised by Depression-scarred parents who instilled such deep and practical values in their offspring.

[turcopolier]

factotum
I, too, am a pre-boomer.

[anon]

Lol.snakes on a plane.

[vig]

easy to fold up and put in a sport coat pocket to have at the ready

that seems to fit Kent, if I may, slightly tongue in cheek. One of my best friends is a "bow-tier", never seen him with tie. But also very, very rarely with bow tie. Maybe that's the categorical problem?

[Fergus Boon]

I spent thirty years in State. I met only one officer who merited my full respect as a human being and a leader. The rest were either molded by the demands of State or were so devoid of the basic virtues one assumes human beings possess to resemble the minions of the ninth ring of hell.
Ambition reigned supreme. I blame this on the get promoted or get kicked out theory that reigned. Hence everyone was not a comrade but a rival to be guarded against or in some cases stabbed in the back. There were many two faced officers in State whom I wouldn't trust with a white hot stove. Its odd, you will find many military personnel with life long friendships, not so with State. The postings do not create enduring bonds but State tends to prevent this outside of a special sort of rabi system. This creates a perverse system where the worst elements of State clones itself. Efficiency and effectiveness isn't encouraged, as this only serves to demonstrate both the unprofessionalism of state and its lack of managerial skills. Political reporting is laughable, as evidenced by what is read in morning briefing at the command centers in Washington. State's reporting ranks somewhere after Lil Abner. Its economic analysis ranks somewhat less than what is on your corn flakes box. The sole role appears to be the handing out of visas, mainly to gain access to important political actors. Our embassies are too large, useless, and serve too often as places for US agencies to send off high ranking members for an early retirement if a pleasant location, and to an early punishment if an unpleasant location.

Our staff really isn't specialized. Few are fluent in languages or culture. Difficult cultures or assignments should pay more. Why pay more for an assignment to Berlin or Rome when the need is as great or greater in Madras or Rangoon? The answer is the high and mightys will not tolerate someone serving at a more difficult post earning more despite the stiffer requirements and demands than one might encounter at a post that has been established for fifty or more years with a formally trained staff that is fully supported by a local government. Contrast this if you will with the difficulties in operating in a place like Venezuela, Salisbury, or Johanesburg.

[confusedponderer]

Factotum,
in an impeachment Trump doesn't get criminal prosecution rights because an impeachment is not a criminal case.

And senate and congress are not a court and they cannot send Trump to jail.

They can however kick him out when he is found to have comitted high crimes and misdemeanors. Then Trump loses his beloved immunities but it still is a political investigation, where different rules apply than in a criminal court.

And telling an inconvenient witness that speaking 'will have consequences' is not 'confronting his accuser' but is a rather open threat.

It may, if Pizzagate is an indication, cause some pro-Trump nutcase to attack, hurt or murder her, with a chance to hear some more 'bad people on both sides' blather from Trump.

That written, if Tump has comitted high crimes and misdemeanors he may then later, after being 'un-presidentialed' and 'de-immunised' be trialled for that in a criminal court and perhaps sent to jail if found guilty.

For the perpetually witch-hunted all that may be vile, horrible or irrelevant.

If, however, the high crimes and misdemeanors are proven and found to have been crimes then it would be justified and necessary to end Trump's presidency.

Why? Criminals shouldn't be in Wall Street, Congress, Senate or the Whitehouse. Even a president, orange or not, is obliged to obey laws - be it on tax paying, campaign fiancing, re-election or foreign policy.

[Karen Rosenheimer]

Interestingly, I tried to share this article on Facebook & they removed it. I shared the American Thinker article "The silly sanctification of Marie Yovanovitch" which referenced/linked Larry's article above so I also tried to post it & FB removed it. No notice or reason given by FB. It just mysteriously disappeared from my Timeline.

[turcopolier]

fergus Boon

Were you an FSO? A goood many of the faults you mention are also found in the military but on the whole I confess to have been appalled by the great majority of FSOs that I knew and know. The exceptions were usually former military people.