Selecting U.S. Ambassadors

* The two Dec. 8 Op-Ed pieces, one by Tex Harris, president of the American Foreign Service Assn., the other by George Mitrovich, well illustrate the striking contrast between those campaigning for a new era of efficiency and economy in government and those who say we can’t change old ways.

Harris stressed the urgency, especially in today’s budget climate, of competence, integrity and experience in selecting our nation’s top officials. Mitrovich is contemptuous of these concerns, which he blithely dismisses as late in the game hypocrisy.

Harris took pains to point out the new and complex challenges of advancing U.S. interests in a competitive world. Mitrovich stands by cronyism, contemptuous of considerations of “merit.” His crowning argument is simple; the rich “have always gotten ambassadorships.”

There can be no doubt which of these positions the American people support. They have made clear in numerous ways their dissatisfaction, indeed disgust, with the outmoded “spoils system” where people are selected for jobs the “old-fashioned way”; namely, buying them.

And let it be noted clearly; President Clinton has personally led the way, assisted by Vice President Gore, in a “reinventing government” initiative that is designed to make a clean sweep of sinecures and positions for sale. Tex Harris deserves the bipartisan applause he’s getting for helping in this laudable effort.

Instead of addressing these issues, where Mitrovich must know he would find few followers, he seeks to divert attention from indefensible arguments by resuscitating old cliches about a Foreign Service clad in “striped pants and top hats.” If he had confined himself to those ridiculous myths, his comments could have been ignored. But in a defense of desperation he indulged two outrageous, false and malicious allegations, namely of cowardice and clientism. Anyone familiar with the Foreign Service record of courage and integrity will dismiss these allegations for what they are, namely beneath contempt as the basest kind of calumny and defamation.

DONALD R. NOLAND

Ambassador, Retired

Washington