ambassador rudolf v. perina - Association for Diplomatic Studies and ...
ambassador rudolf v. perina - Association for Diplomatic Studies and ...
ambassador rudolf v. perina - Association for Diplomatic Studies and ...
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Deputy Secretary, Richard Armitage, was among those who did recognize this <strong>and</strong> dared<br />
to say it but there were not many like him. Particularly irritating was when some people<br />
in the Administration tried to find easy answers by blaming anti-Americanism on the<br />
alleged failures of the Foreign Service <strong>and</strong> career diplomats. The argument was that the<br />
culture of the Foreign Service did not value public diplomacy, <strong>and</strong> that <strong>ambassador</strong>s<br />
spent too little time on it. At one time, there was a big exercise to find ways of motivating<br />
our diplomats to give more public speeches <strong>and</strong> interviews. Now there is an element of<br />
truth in public diplomacy not traditionally being a big factor in career advancement in the<br />
Foreign Service, <strong>and</strong> also in saying that most U.S. embassies should probably do more in<br />
this area. But to think that getting more speeches out of <strong>ambassador</strong>s was the answer to<br />
anti-Americanism in the world was naïve <strong>and</strong> allowed people to downplay the role of<br />
policy as a problem.<br />
Q: What was the feeling in the Department on the effectiveness of Colin Powell?<br />
PERINA: I am perhaps not objective here because I had already worked with Colin<br />
Powell on the National Security Council in 1987-89, <strong>and</strong> I really admired him. I think he<br />
was very popular in the State Department as an excellent manager of people. He did a lot<br />
<strong>for</strong> the institution, <strong>and</strong> people sensed that <strong>and</strong> appreciated it. It was in stark contrast to the<br />
feelings in this regard toward his predecessor <strong>and</strong> successor. But in terms of policy, I<br />
think it was recognized, <strong>and</strong> he would recognize himself, that he was not as influential as<br />
he or others would have hoped. He was generally outflanked on policy issues by<br />
Rumsfeld <strong>and</strong> Cheney, <strong>and</strong> Condi Rice as NSC advisor was not of much help to him. I<br />
sensed that he was never fully com<strong>for</strong>table in the job of Secretary of State, <strong>and</strong> he was<br />
never accepted into the real inner team in the White House. The real tragedy, of course,<br />
was his UN speech prior to the Iraq invasion which in retrospect truly damaged his<br />
reputation. I think his years in the State Department were very difficult ones <strong>for</strong> him.<br />
Q: How was the transition from Powell to Rice perceived?<br />
PERINA: It was a difficult transition, <strong>and</strong> not a particularly friendly one. You can see it<br />
beginning with the way Colin Powell was dismissed. He resigned, of course, <strong>and</strong> he did<br />
not want to stay on. But the announcement came almost like a dismissal. It was basically<br />
a White House press release. No public statement by the President, no Rose Garden<br />
farewell. It was quite extraordinary <strong>for</strong> a departing Secretary of State to get so little<br />
recognition. It reflected the fact that Colin Powell had fallen out of favor in the White<br />
House. Some of the political appointees on the Policy Planning Staff told me how Colin<br />
was viewed as basically unsupportive of the President’s policies <strong>and</strong> how he was<br />
suspected of leaking in<strong>for</strong>mation to the press that distanced him from these policies. He<br />
was even criticized by some of not doing enough to counter anti-Americanism abroad<br />
because he did not travel enough to defend U.S. policies overseas. Of course, it was not<br />
just Colin Powell but the entire State Department, <strong>and</strong> particularly the Foreign Service,<br />
which was seen as unsupportive of White House policies. This has been the complaint of<br />
many administrations but I think the distrust was especially bad at this time. So when<br />
Condi Rice was announced as Powell’s successor, the suspicion immediately surfaced<br />
that she was coming to clean up the State Department <strong>and</strong> get it under control. Her arrival<br />
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