Bad Example

The first job facing Joe M. Rodgers, a Tennessee businessman and Republican fund-raiser who has been named U.S. ambassador to France, will be to live down the reputation set by his predecessor in Paris.

Evan Galbraith, the outgoing ambassador, had the sort of qualifications that political appointees to major diplomatic posts should have but usually don’t. He spoke French fluently and, during his banking career, had lived in the country for 10 years.

Unfortunately, however, Galbraith’s talents did not include good judgment.

A farewell interview published two days after his departure from Paris was typical. In the interview, which covered a full page in Le Figaro, a respected French newspaper, Galbraith gave the French some unsolicited--and unwanted--advice on how to run their country.

The outgoing envoy criticized the government of President Francois Mitterrand for having allowed Communist ministers in the cabinet for a time. (Having served Mitterrand’s purposes, they are all gone now.) Galbraith also predicted that the ruling Socialist Party will be defeated in the parliamentary elections next year--and managed to suggest that he would be pleased by such a result.

Not surprisingly, the French Foreign Ministry called in John Maresca, the charge d’affaires at the U.S. Embassy, and delivered a stiff protest over the “unacceptable character” of Galbraith’s remarks. It wasn’t the first such episode; during his four years as ambassador, Galbraith was called in three times to “explain” public statements that the French government found offensive.

The former banker liked to say that political appointees such as himself make better ambassadors from the United States than do career Foreign Service officers, whom he publicly disdained. He saw himself as the personal representative of President Reagan, and believed himself especially well qualified to reflect the President’s views.

Galbraith, however, hardly served the President’s interests by interfering so publicly and outspokenly in the domestic politics of France. And it is hard to believe that Reagan really sits around pining for a Socialist defeat; of all the U.S. allies in Europe, none have been more supportive of American policy toward the Soviet Union than France under Mitterrand.

Rodgers, a Nashville construction-company executive, can do his country, the President and himself a favor by doing things differently.