Posted on 04/28/2022 4:42:29 AM PDT by Kaslin
But fortunately, it didn’t quite work out for me -- and thank God for that, for had I become a State Department Foreign Service Officer (FSO), I almost literally could have gained the whole world, but in the process probably would have sacrificed my immortal soul. And as the gospels and then later Thomas More (in the marvelous A Man for All Seasons) told us -- that’s a bad bargain.
Here is the story of my near-successful application to join the FSO. I tell it here because it reveals a lot about how the State Department functions and how powerful it is.
Becoming an FSO is the dream of many college-educated Americans. It’s one of the greatest jobs one can aspire to. In the first place, it enables one to see the whole world, and at taxpayer expense. Who doesn’t want a literally all-expenses-paid trip to anywhere in the world?
Secondly, FS officers wield real power. And if one rises through the ranks, one might eventually become a master diplomat rivalling Talleyrand or Nesselrode. One can become an ambassador. Or better yet, maybe even another Anthony Blinken or John Kerry or Madeline Albright. A real mover and shaker.
“Many are called but few are chosen.” In this case, many present themselves for service, but few make it through the various levels of testing and examination.
The first level of testing was a written examination. Only about 15% of the applicants make it through that level -- and I was one of them. I’m a bright boy; what can I say? And furthermore, I was a bit older at the time than the average applicant; probably my greater knowledge and maturity helped me.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
The state department FSO Cadre effectively gets to pick itself, and by doing so, they pick the people most like themselves. The State department therefore has a reputation of being three things: pale, male, and as this article indicates: Yale. Even if someone less than desirable makes the cut somehow, there are channels that recruits can be assigned to at the whims of the FSO leaders that further self selects the people on the fast track to make it up the ranks. Again, it helps to get into that fast track if you are pale, male, and Yale.
One way of making the foreign service corps look more like America is to make it operate more like the military academies used to, with merit and political nominations from the legislature filling spots. Another would be making foreign service like civil service where the entry is strictly regulated.
Better still, just make it like jury duty. Random citizens are called on in a lottery to serve for a year or two. I’d guarantee America’s actual interests would be much better served and the ambassadors would actually think of the US as “their country” rather than some third world hellhole to which they’re assigned to bribe officials.
There were a larger number of candidate, some two dozen or so, and they were only picking 5 or 6. Not all candidates were Yalebirds, but they were all very much like the interviewers. We understood this because there was plenty of time to visit with each other as well as review the resumes of the interviewers, which was in a binder available for all of us to examine when we weren't in interviews.
Every interviewer had at least two of these three things in common-- (a)graduation from one of the elite northeastern universities within a 100 mile radius of a line between Yale and Foggy Bottom, (b)a stint in the Peace Corps and (c)a stint with two or more major news organizations such as Reuters or CNN. Many had all three.
Even back then, they were stressing diversity. They loved the 3 Ds . . . diversity, democracy and diplomacy (as in the surrender monkey version of the word). I didn't try to dominate the discussions as the author described here, but in 20-20 hindsight I am guessing the question that disqualified me was when I pointed out that one of America's most reliable allies in Asia (Japan) wasn't particularly diverse and the other (Singapore) wasn't particularly democratic.
Long story short, as you probably guessed, the people they selected were the ones with resumes most like theirs.
As a retired FSO who went through the process and served 28 years in the State Department, I found the article and your comments absurd and divorced from reality. Moreover, the Biden Administration is in the process of destroying the Foreign Service as a meritocracy. The entry examination will lose its importance as a screening mechanism. Race, gender, sexual preference, etc. will be factors to give us a Foreign Service that “looks more like America.” Diversity and equality are the watchwords.
FYI: I didn’t go to Yale nor did any of the other 50 members of my entry class in 1972. And 40% were women.
Henry Kissinger wanted to get rid of a third of them. I read it in Marvin Kalb’s book.
The article, itself, was absurd. Someone who wasn’t an FSO is writing about what it’s like.
There are conservatives in the Foreign Service. I know a few.
“Yale” doesn’t get you much nowadays: being “black” does. If you’re “of color,” you get the job. You get admitted. You get the fancy colleges, prep schools, you get the promotions, you get the top Executive jobs.
Moreover, there is an element of sacrifice: it really can suck to have to move every few years. Tough on kids, tough on spouses’ careers, and actually often quite tough on pocketbooks.
As he was on so many other things, Kissinger is wrong about this as well.
My BIL just recently retired from the foreign service. Number two man in his agency and acting director for awhile. He’s male and pale but not from yale. He was a naval officer for 10 years before going into the FS. And a staunch conservative. But he admits its mostly libtards.
So the butthead in Bangkok-the one who stamped my passport and told me to go and pay the fee. He was just a glorified clerk. Was he State Department?
If he was in the US embassy yeh he was in the state dept. Foreign service means you go stay in foreign countries for 3 years at a time. Multiple agencies fall under the Dept of State.
Someone recently(last 20 years) wrote a book on how the State Department has been against the US interests for decades. A known pundit. Who could it be?
Maybe if it’s James Nolet he’s also got a piece about how Yale sucks.
Not that Yale doesn’t suck, (it sucks less than Harvard,)
but he didn’t get into Yale, either.
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