Diplomacy: Broadside By an Ambassador

In his 3 1/2 years as U.S. Ambassador to France, Evan G. Galbraith has achieved something of a reputation for making undiplomatic remarks about his hosts. Last week the former banker and Reaganite turned his scorn on the State Department. After announcing that he would resign in July, Galbraith told the New York Times that career diplomats are overly timid “liberals.” Said he: “There’s something about the foreign service that takes the guts out of people. The tendency is to avoid confronting an issue.” Galbraith’s broadside incensed Secretary of State George Shultz, who declared, “Somebody ought to tie his tongue for him.” The American Foreign Service Association charged that the ambassador “gratuitously insults the very people who have done their best to keep him . . . out of trouble over the past several years.”

Galbraith retorted that his remarks had been quoted out of context and did not reflect his view of foreign service officers. He called them “highly dedicated, competent and often courageous.” The feeling in Washington, however, was that this self-described political ambassador had overstayed his welcome. “They’re supposed to be ambassadors for all of us,” said a State Department official, “not just one wing of the Republican Party.”