A De Facto Diplomat for Washington

The wall in the lobby of the U.S. mission here is an honor roll, proudly listing every ambassador and each one’s home state, including Adlai Stevenson of Illinois, George Bush of Texas and Bill Richardson of New Mexico. It will probably never bear the name of Peter Burleigh of California.

But this West Hollywood native is the de facto U.S. ambassador to the U.N.

With President Clinton’s nomination of Richard Holbrooke stalled for nine months by allegations of ethical improprieties, Burleigh has become “the voice of America at the U.N.,” in the words of British U.N. Ambassador Jeremy Greenstock. “We all take our hats off to him.”

Everyone agrees that Washington would be better off with a permanent ambassador.

“Whenever you look at him, you see the words ‘acting’ around his neck,” said another ambassador on the U.N. Security Council. “You don’t know if he has the ear of the president, of [Secretary of State Madeleine] Albright, of [National Security Advisor Samuel R. “Sandy”] Berger.”

For his part, Burleigh says that, while he has no problems with access to top Clinton administration officials, he can’t wait to hand over the demanding job, which he has been doing in addition to his work as deputy ambassador.

“We need a permanent representative up here . . . a nationally known political figure,” he said. “I think Dick Holbrooke would certainly be that.”

Last week, Clinton announced that Burleigh, 57, is his pick for the next U.S. ambassador to the Philippines.

Most of those in the know declined to say whom they would prefer as the U.N. envoy: Burleigh, a modest, consensus-building career diplomat, or Holbrooke, the architect of the 1995 Bosnian peace accords and a man known for his aggressive, no-holds-barred style.

Holbrooke’s confirmation proceedings are back on track but could still take months. A second ethics investigation was quickly wrapped up by the State Department last month, and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, led by Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.), has received all requested copies of documents on Holbrooke from the Justice and State departments.

“Sen. Helms has not made a decision to block Holbrooke’s nomination,” spokesman Marc Thiessen said. “But we would be remiss in our responsibility if we did not thoroughly review all the materials.”

In the interim, Burleigh, known around Washington as “that nice man in the bow tie,” is in charge of U.S. affairs here.

Burleigh, a graduate of Hollywood High School and New York’s Colgate University, said a Peace Corps stint in Nepal from 1963 to ’65 “was really the determining course in my life.”

In his 32 years with the Foreign Service, he has been ambassador to the Maldives and Sri Lanka. He spent 13 years in Washington, specializing in Iraq, the Middle East and counter-terrorism. That expertise has served him well. In November, as the U.S. prepared to bomb Iraq, he was the Security Council president, putting him doubly in the hot seat.

“His stewardship during that extremely difficult time is an excellent example of the effectiveness of his style,” said Shashi Tharoor, a top advisor to Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

When China demanded an emergency Security Council meeting after the NATO bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Yugoslavia last month, Burleigh was preparing for bed. Instead, he donned his suit and bow tie and headed for the U.N., where he explained repeatedly that if NATO had bombed the embassy, it was a dreadful mistake, but the fault lay with Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic.

Some complained that Burleigh, perhaps because of his acting status, prolonged the drafting of a council statement about the bombing by repeatedly going to Washington officials for approvals. But others say that every U.S. ambassador to the U.N. has been kept on a tight leash.

“We’ve all noticed the tendency to micromanage from Washington,” Greenstock said. “That’s not a Burleigh feature--that’s a U.S. feature. He’s put up with it extremely well.”