Window Seat on the World Read online

  The death resonated especially with John Kerry, since it occurred the day he was sworn in as secretary of State. Three days later, after beginning his first day in the office with his speech in the Truman Building’s main lobby, Kerry traveled across the Potomac River to the headquarters of the Diplomatic Security Service.

  Agents there replayed surveillance video of the attacker’s approach and the ensuing explosion.

  The bomber looked like an average person dressed in a hat who had come to the embassy for help—until he was rebuffed.

  The video stream of the encounter instantly turned into a random smattering of pixels.

  “Americans who serve overseas are blessed to never serve alone,” Kerry said on March 1, 2013, while addressing Akarsu’s family and US staff members in Turkey.27

  The secretary had stopped by to dedicate a fountain on the embassy grounds in memory of the slain guard.

  “Local employees around the world commit themselves to building strong and lasting relationships between their home countries and the United States, and they often serve for decades with loyalty and with devotion,” Kerry said. “You are the sturdy backbone that holds together the kind of mission that we are engaged in, and we are enormously grateful to you for that.”28

  Whenever the secretary addressed the staff at an embassy, he usually asked the local staffers to raise their hands. Then he asked for a round of applause from their American guests.

  He was equally proud of everyone at an embassy, and he often gave them all a promotion of sorts during what was called a meet-and-greet.

  “Every single one of you, whether you’re doing an interview in a consulate and you get tired doing it because you got too many people to process every day—you’re the face of America,” he said at Embassy Moscow in May 2013. “In many cases, you may be the only government official people ever meet. You’ll be the impression, and you’ll be the ambassador of our country.”29

  The next largest group of employees within the State Department is what most people would classically think of as diplomats: the 13,000-member Foreign Service.

  These are college-educated men and women who fill out a detailed application and then submit to grueling written tests and oral interviews for a spot in an “A-100” class for beginner diplomats.

  In the past, the saying was that the typical Foreign Service officer was “male, pale, and Yale.” That recalled the early days of the State Department, when the staff was either in the Diplomatic Service, providing support to ambassadors, or the Consular Service, helping promote US trade abroad.

  The complexion of the ranks began to change early in the twentieth century, when Lucile Atcherson passed an exam with the third-highest score in her group. On December 5, 1922, she was appointed as a secretary in the Diplomatic Service.

  Today, women account for about 40 percent of the Foreign Service. Nonetheless, they hold only about one-third of what are deemed Chief of Mission posts, the rank of either ambassador or consul general.30

  The Foreign Service also continues to struggle with diversity, with African Americans comprising 9 percent of its specialists, Hispanics 7 percent, and Asians just over 6 percent.31

  Congress and the Department have developed programs to recruit minorities in exchange for guaranteeing them slots in the Foreign Service, and Secretary Kerry repeatedly emphasized the need to diversify the ranks.

  He was especially proud that for much of his term, one of the Department’s two deputy secretaries was a woman (Heather Higginbottom), as were four of the six undersecretaries (Wendy Sherman, Cathy Novelli, Sarah Sewell, and Rose Gottemoeller). The same was true for five of the six regional assistant secretaries (Linda Thomas-Greenfield, Victoria Nuland, Anne Patterson, Nisha Biswal, and Roberta Jacobson).

  “In order to represent the United States to the world, the Department of State must have a workforce that reflects the rich composition of its citizenry,” the secretary said in a statement issued during his tenure. “The skills, knowledge, perspectives, ideas, and experiences of all of its employees contribute to the vitality and success of the global mission.”32

  While concerns about diversity within the Foreign Service linger, Kerry came to office after a series of minorities and women served as secretary of State—akin to the titular FSO.

  On January 23, 1997, Madeleine Albright became “Madame Secretary,” after President Bill Clinton appointed her to be the first woman to hold the job.

  She was succeeded in January 2001 by former Army General Colin Powell, whom President George W. Bush named as the first African American secretary. Secretary Powell himself was succeeded in January 2005 by Condoleezza Rice, an African American woman who’d previously served as President Bush’s national security adviser.

  Secretary Rice, in turn, was succeeded in January 2009 by Hillary Clinton, a former first lady and US senator from New York who accepted the post after losing the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination to Barack Obama.

  All that prompted Kerry to jokingly ask during his Harry Truman arrival ceremony: “Can a man actually run the State Department?”33

  He added, to laughter, “As the saying goes, I have big heels to fill.”34

  The final segment of the State Department staff is the Civil Service. At 11,000 strong, its men and women are the permanent bureaucracy keeping the agency running, regardless of who—or which political party—is in charge.

  They are part of the 2 million-person civilian workforce within the federal government that makes it the largest single employer in the country.

  They’re largely hired through a competitive process, and oftentimes they handle the backroom functions necessary to keep any enterprise operating, from payroll and accounting to human resources.

  The nature of the State Department bureaucracy underscores the challenge confronting any secretary when he or she assumes office.

  When a new president is sworn in on Inauguration Day, they walk into an empty White House and get to fill the East and West wings with political loyalists. In cabinet agencies such as the State Department, there’s a large workforce that’s already there and will stay well beyond its new leadership.

  In Kerry’s case, he was the first member of the Obama administration’s second-term State Department leadership team to be sworn in. He was administered the oath of office on February 1, 2013, during a private ceremony in the ornate Senate Foreign Relations Committee Room in the US Capitol.

  Two days later, on February 3, 2013, seven staffers—Chief of Staff David Wade, Deputy Chief of Staff Bill Danvers, Scheduler Julie Wirkkala, Speechwriter Stephen Krupin, Senior Aides Matt Summers and Jason Meininger, and I, the deputy assistant secretary for strategic communications—took the same oath as their boss.

  The following morning, this Kerry team began working atop a Department organization ten thousand times larger than it.

  Turning that massive enterprise the way a new secretary wanted was akin to making the proverbial course correction aboard an aircraft carrier.

  _________

  ANYONE TALKING ABOUT THE State Department is loath to forget the US Agency for International Development.

  While it’s an independent agency, it coordinates closely with State, receives its overall foreign policy guidance from the secretary, and is led by an administrator with the rank equivalent of a deputy secretary of state.

  Since the George W. Bush administration, the administrator has served concurrently as the director of foreign assistance, ensuring US foreign aid is used effectively to meet the country’s foreign policy goals.35

  Another class of employees mistakenly considered distinct from the rest of the State Department is the Diplomatic Security Service (DS). It’s the leading US law enforcement organization abroad and is responsible for protecting the country’s diplomats and diplomatic missions. It also protects foreign dignitaries visiting the United States.

  Each September, virtually its entire 2,000-agent workforce is brought to New York City to provide body
guard service to foreign ministers and other dignitaries attending the United Nations General Assembly week.

  The US Secret Service is responsible for protecting the heads of state; DS has pretty much everyone else.

  Agents on protective duty, such as those who guard the secretary around the clock both home and abroad, are often confused for and labeled “Secret Service” because of the radio earpieces and sunglasses both types of agents wear.

  Many DS agents, though, will tell you their jobs are more professionally satisfying.

  First, they’re not just State Department employees but members of the Foreign Service. They qualify for the same language, educational, and other professional development received by other Foreign Service members.

  They also say their work is far more diverse than that of Secret Service agents.

  While both do investigations—financial fraud for the Secret Service, visa fraud for DS—the relative smallness of the Diplomatic Security Service means its people do more, and far earlier in their careers. There are, quite simply, fewer staffers to go around.

  Some agents work on physical security. DS, in fact, is credited with developing things like the drop-down driveway barriers and protective sidewalk bollards now ringing government and military installations worldwide.

  Other agents counteract eavesdropping, while still others rotate through the SWAT-style Mobile Security Detachment teams. They’re deployed to high-threat areas to protect dignitaries or help evacuate diplomats.

  And after a short training period, even the most junior DS agents organize individual stops on the secretary’s travel itinerary. They’re responsible for negotiating with host nations, and they serve as the point of contact between the US government and local law enforcement agencies.

  In Secretary Kerry’s case, agents in Amsterdam once had to jump on a train to Paris, arrange a motorcade, and secure an entire hotel after he decided during a flight home from Saudi Arabia that he needed to divert to France.

  Agents who skied or rode bikes also found themselves tapped for special duty protecting their sports-loving boss as he relaxed on nights, weekends, or on vacations.

  DS is a law enforcement Swiss Army knife.

  So how does a former reporter become an official photographer? And for the secretary of State, no less?

  Necessity.

  As deputy assistant secretary for strategic communications, I had to approve all images of Secretary Kerry. I quickly found the photographs submitted to my office varied too widely in quality—best when coming from a major embassy, less so if a post was too small to have someone handy with a camera.

  We couldn’t live with the inconsistency because these pictures were intended to be the backbone of the Department’s website and social media feeds.

  I’ve had a lifelong interest in photography, starting by taking photos of a Little League team that I developed in a friend’s darkroom. When my younger son wrestled in high school, I took pictures of him and his teammates during hundreds of matches.

  I also took personal pictures with a pocket-sized Canon ELPH during the five presidential campaigns I covered; and I shot behind-the-scenes photos with my cellphone at both The Boston Globe and the early days at the State Department.

  One of those photos went viral within The Building: that February 2013 shot of John Kerry using his own cellphone to take a picture of Brandenburg Gate, the scene of his infamous childhood bike ride.

  I decided to ask the State Department Public Affairs Office if there was any extra equipment lying around. It turns out there was: a professional Nikon D3 camera that was dirty and in need of a lot of TLC.

  I cleaned it up and later sent it to Nikon for a factory refurbishment. Ultimately, I prevailed on the State Department to upgrade to a pair of top-of-the-line Nikon D4s cameras. I paired them with the Holy Trinity of lenses: a 14–24mm wide angle, a 24–70mm zoom, and a 70–200mm zoom.

  From there, I taught myself how to operate the cameras and a flash I also got, and to edit my photos with Adobe Lightroom. Using my reporter’s training, I sent them back to the State Department from a MacBook Pro using a Wi-Fi card. The good folks at the Office of Digital Engagement were on call 24/7 to post them real-time.

  The work ended up dovetailing with my regular Department duties. At home and wearing my strategic communications hat, I’d help plan our trips and our overall media engagement. On the road, I was able to focus on this different job.

  In the end, I took well over 100,000 pictures. I also accompanied Kerry everywhere he went, from the office of Pope Francis to center ice for a puck drop at Madison Square Garden, from the Kremlin and No. 10 Downing Street to a helicopter flying over Antarctica.

  I also snapped him in his barren office before his farewell remarks.

  My goal was to leave him—and history—with the best and most complete photo archive of any secretary of State.

  Secretary Kerry studies Leonardo’s Last Supper in Milan, Italy, on October 17, 2015.

  (Top) A return to Brandenburg Gate. (Bottom) Perfect frame at UN Mission, New York City.

  (Top) A good luck sign at Andrews Air Force Base. (Bottom) Sunset over St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.

  _________

  THE BULK OF THE State Department is organized into regional and specialty offices labeled with acronyms underpinning “State-Speak.”

  “S” is the singular letter meant to designate the secretary of State. Staffers would often refer to him by that title alone, and his helpers as “S Staff.”

  “D” is for the deputy secretary, and like characters in a James Bond movie, other officials had singular labels, such as “P” for the powerful undersecretary for political affairs, or “M” for the all-knowing undersecretary for management.

  No, there wasn’t a “Q.”

  The most prominent acronyms apply to various diplomatic regions—the geographical divisions for how the bulk of the State Department is organized.

  “EUR” stands for European and Eurasian Affairs and is the grande dame of them all. It covers a sweeping area of old Europe, from our first ally of France through Russia and down to the Asian steppingstone of Turkey.

  “EAP” stands for East Asian and Pacific Affairs. It deals with China, Japan, and Korea, and includes the region extending through the South Pacific to Australia and New Zealand.

  “NEA” is for Near Eastern Affairs and covers Egypt, home to the largest Arab population in the world, as well as Israel, Jordan, and Persian Gulf states such as Saudi Arabia.

  “AF” is short for African Affairs, covering the continent of Africa and the chaotic governance of many of its countries.

  “SCA” stands for South and Central Asian Affairs. It covers, most prominently, India and the surrounding area.

  “WHA” is Western Hemisphere Affairs. It covers the territory north to south from Canada through Central America and South America.

  The geographical divisions are not pure, since many secretaries of State have created special envoy positions for unique situations.

  For example, Nisha Biswal, the SCA assistant secretary for Secretary Kerry, did not deal with matters in Afghanistan and Pakistan—two huge countries in her stomping grounds of South Central Asia. Instead, those two were handled by “SRAP,” the special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan. That was because of unique issues related to post-9/11 antiterrorist efforts.

  NEA also didn’t have oversight of the Middle East peace process. Instead, it fell to “SEIPN,” the special envoy for Israeli–Palestinian negotiations. That was because of the complexity of negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians, as well as the time and attention required for talks between the two parties.

  In the sort of caste system pervading State, EUR is considered the primo assignment for both young and old Department staffers.

  Foreign Service officers feel lucky if they can spend their first tours issuing visas in the Consular Affairs office at Embassy London or Paris. Senior officers often use their b
idding clout to win coveted spots in Old World capitals as they finish their careers.

  AF and WHA, meanwhile, often beg for attention. It’s a product of their perceived lack of impact on global affairs or, in the case of WHA, familiarity bred by proximity to such major trading partners as Canada and Mexico.

  EAP received a boost in attention under the Obama administration, thanks to the administration’s so-called Pivot to Asia.

  The diplomatic and economic shift acknowledged the continued importance of Europe in world affairs, but it also recognized China had the world’s No. 2 economy; and Asian countries like Vietnam, the Philippines, and Indonesia were emerging as economic powerhouses of their own.

  They also were allies in need of help against Chinese encroachment.

  Foreign Service officers bid for their assignments, with the likelihood of them getting their pick increasing with each year of service and through the network they build during that time.

  First-tour officers often end up in less desirable posts, a dues-paying exercise. Better posts come with more time in the Service. The typical tour in either spot lasts three years, after which the officers rotate to a new post. Sometimes it’s in their same region, but oftentimes it’s not—a structural way of preventing an officer from becoming too comfortable with their host country or a particular region in the world.

  That often means they spend time between assignments back in the United States, learning a new language as a full-time student at the Foreign Service Institute. That’s the continuing education campus for diplomats, military officers, and other government officials in Arlington, Virginia.

  Someone learning Mandarin could be there for as many as eighteen months before being sent to an onward assignment in China.

  After either six years abroad or back in the United States, FSOs are expected to come home or head overseas. Most try to serve overseas assignments while their children are young or after they’ve left home for college. A six-year stint in the United States is often saved for the high school years, when parents want to keep adolescents in just one school or near their grandparents.