by Ronan Farrow
My agent, Lynn Nesbit, fought hard to keep War on Peace alive. She is the best ally a writer could have. She’s represented fifty years of literary luminaries, she’s the toughest negotiator I know, and she manages regular Kettlebell workouts. We should all be Lynn Nesbit.
I also owe thanks to the team at W. W. Norton, which published Dean Acheson’s Present at the Creation in 1969, making this, in a sense, a very dark sequel. John Glusman was a patient and compassionate editor. Drake McFeely believed in the project when others were fickle and abandoned it and me. Many of their colleagues also worked hard: Louise Brockett, Rachel Salzman, Brendan Curry, Steven Pace, Meredith McGinnis, Steve Attardo, Julia Druskin, Nancy Palmquist, and Helen Thomaides among them. Books, like diplomacy, are an institution buffeted by changing times. Research-heavy ones take commitment from good and serious people like these.
Several foreign policy experts I respect, including Ian Bremmer, Richard Haass, and Samantha Vinograd, looked at manuscripts and gave notes they didn’t have time to give. They informed these pages greatly. David Remnick, David Rohde, and my other editors at The New Yorker gave invaluable advice and politely tolerated the time I had to take off to finish the thing.
Lastly, nothing I do would be possible without my family and the friends I have left after this book made me unpleasant and unavailable for half a decade. My mother was there for every excited call accompanying a breakthrough, and every despairing one as things nearly fell apart. Jon Lovett, who usually charges for this sort of thing, gave countless notes. Jennifer Harris, I am sorry I missed your wedding to go interview a warlord. I really did rehearse that song.
NOTES
Page numbers listed correspond to the print edition of this book. You can use your device’s search function to locate particular terms in the text
PROLOGUE: MAHOGANY ROW MASSACRE
ix [A]ppoint an ambassador: The Laws of Manu. Translated by George Bühler. Amazon Digital Services LLC, 2012, loc. 1818. Kindle.
x “We’d build a moat if we could”: Conversation with a Foreign Service officer who requested anonymity due to the critique of embassy security implicit in the remark, 20 February 2012.
x His trip that January: Goldschmidt, Pierre. “A Realistic Approach Toward a Middle East Free of WMD.” Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 7 July 2016, carnegieendowment.org/2016/07/07/realistic-approach-toward-middle-east-free-of-wmd-pub-64039.
x “a fairly quixotic quest”: Author interview with Thomas Countryman, 22 June 2017.
x “It was an important meeting”: Author interview with Thomas Countryman, 22 June 2017.
xi “I’m trying”: Author interview with Thomas Countryman, 22 June 2017.
xii “one of those faceless bureaucrats”: “The Case of Thomas Countryman.” Seattle.Politics Google Group, 26 February 2017, https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/seattle.politics/hVTxKDgCdbU.
xii “King of the party”: “Former Assistant Secretary of State Rocks Bodacious Mullet on MSNBC.” Washington Free Beacon, 1 February 2017, freebeacon.com/national-security/former-assistant-secretary-of-state-rocks-bodacious-mullet-on-msnbc/.
xii “This is not happy news”: Author interview with Thomas Countryman, 22 June 2017.
xii “I didn’t have any idea”: Author interview with Thomas Countryman, 22 June 2017.
xiii “What about the Rome meeting?”: Author interview with Thomas Countryman, 22 June 2017.
xiv “It’s not fair”: Author interview with Thomas Countryman, 22 June 2017.
xiv “Nobody can do that better than me”: Gharib, Malaka. “From AIDS To Zika: Trump On Global Health And Humanitarian Aid.” NPR, 9 November 2016, https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2016/11/09/501425084/from-aids-to-zika-trump-on-global-health-and-humanitarian-aid and Clarke, Hilary et al. “Alarm bells ring for charities as Trump pledges to slash foreign aid budget.” CNN, 1 March 2017, www.cnn.com/2017/02/28/politics/trump-budget-foreign-aid/index.html.
xv “none of those things were true”: Author interview with Thomas Countryman, 22 June 2017.
xv “deep distrust for professional public servants:” Author interview with Thomas Countryman, 22 June 2017.
xv “in the arms-control bureau”: Author interview with Thomas Countryman, 22 June 2017.
xv “dump everyone they could dump”: Author interview with Thomas Countryman, 22 June 2017.
xvi “To this day”: Author interview with Thomas Countryman, 22 June 2017.
xvi “That was just petty”: Author interview with Thomas Countryman, 22 June 2017.
xvii “Hold on the line”: Author interview with Thomas Countryman, 22 June 2017.
xvii the Ferraris of State Department personnel: Author interview with Erin Clancy in Los Angeles, 1 June 2017.
xvii “have you heard this rumor?”: Author interview with Erin Clancy in Los Angeles, 1 June 2017.
xviii “We just found out”: Author interview with Erin Clancy in Los Angeles, 1 June 2017.
xviii “No reason”: Author interview with Erin Clancy in Los Angeles, 1 June 2017.
xviii “We’re all being fired”: Author interview with Erin Clancy in Los Angeles, 1 June 2017.
xix “We are truly seen as outsiders”: Author interview with Erin Clancy in Los Angeles, 1 June 2017.
xx “I’m not familiar with that one”: Author interview with Rex Tillerson, 4 January 2018.
xxi “Unprecedented”: Gramer, Robbie, De Luce, Dan, and Lynch, Colum. “How the Trump Administration Broke the State Department.” Foreign Policy, 31 July 2017, foreignpolicy.com/2017/07/31/how-the-trump-administration-broke-the-state-department; Chalfant, Morgan. “Trump’s War on the State Department.” The Hill, 14 July 2017, thehill.com/homenews/administration/341923-trumps-war-on-the-state-department and see, e.g., Dreyfuss, Bob. “How Rex Tillerson Turned the State Department into a Ghost Ship.” Rolling Stone, 13 July 2017, www.rollingstone.com/politics/features/rex-tillerson-turned-the-state-department-into-a-ghost-ship-w492142.
xxi “ ‘diplomacy works best when it comes in a mailed fist’ ”: Author interview with James Baker, 22 January 2018.
xxii the nosedive accelerated: Konyndyk, Jeremy. “Clinton and Helms Nearly Ruined State. Tillerson Wants to Finish the Job.” Politico, 4 May 2017, www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/05/04/tillerson-trump-state-department-budget-cut-215101.
xxii Over the course of the 1990s: “A Foreign Affairs Budget for the Future: Fixing the Crisis in Diplomatic Readiness.” Stimson Center, October 2008, https://www.stimson.org/sites/default/files/file-attachments/A_Foreign_Affairs_Budget_for_the_Future_11_08pdf_1.pdf.
xxii Here’s what happened: “A Foreign Affairs Budget for the Future: Fixing the Crisis in Diplomatic Readiness.” Stimson Center, October 2008, https://www.stimson.org/sites/default/files/file-attachments/A_Foreign_Affairs_Budget_for_the_Future_11_08pdf_1.pdf.
xxii fewer embassies and consulates: Lippman, Thomas. “U.S. Diplomacy’s Presence Shrinking.” Washington Post, 3 June 1996, https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1996/06/03/us-diplomacys-presence-shrinking/4d1d817e-a748-457d-9b22-1971bb1cb934/?utm_term=.d3faf19815ad.
xxii jerry-rig a satellite dish: Lippman, Thomas. “U.S. Diplomacy’s Presence Shrinking.” Washington Post, 3 June 1996, https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1996/06/03/us-diplomacys-presence-shrinking/4d1d817e-a748-457d-9b22-1971bb1cb934/?utm_term=.d3faf19815ad.
xxiii had been wiped out: “The Last Time @StateDept Had a 27% Budget Cut, Congress Killed A.C.D.A. and U.S.I.A.” Diplopundit, 31 March 2017, https://diplopundit.net/2017/03/31/the-last-time-statedept-had-a-27-budget-cut-congress-killed-acda-and-usia/.
xxiii “sake of the present”: Friedman, Thomas. “Foreign Affairs; the End of Something.” New York Times, 26 July 1995, www.nytimes.com/1995/07/26/opinion/foreign-affairs-the-end-of-something.html.
xxiii undertrained and under-resourced: “A Foreign Affairs Budget for the Future: Fixing the Crisis in Diplomatic Readiness.” Stimson Center, October 2008, https://www.st
imson.org/sites/default/files/file-attachments/A_Foreign_Affairs_Budget_for_the_Future_11_08pdf_1.pdf.
xxiii “like never before”: Author interview with Colin Powell in Washington, DC, 29 August 2017.
xxiii “Soft” categories: For example, Economic Support Funds (ESF) tripled from $2.3 billion in Fiscal Year 2001 to $6.1 billion in FY 2017, with $3.7 billion of $3.8-billion increase coming from OCO. Similarly, OCO accounted for nearly all of the increase in International Disaster Assistance, which rose from $299 million to $2 billion. Same goes for the increase in Migration and Refugee Assistance budget ($698 million to $2.8 billion). At the same time, Inter-American Foundation, African Development Foundation, and other “soft” budget categories flatlined. “Congressional Budget Justification Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs: Fiscal Year 2017,” United States State Department and “Congressional Budget Justification, Foreign Operations, Fiscal Year 2002,” United States State Department.
xxiv “ceded a lot of authority”: Author interview with Madeleine Albright, 15 December 2017.
xxiv “The VP had very, very strong views”: Author interview with Colin Powell in Washington, DC, 29 August 2017.
xxiv “The temptations of propinquity”: Author interview with Henry Kissinger, 4 December 2017.
xxv “we didn’t take over the country to run a country”: Author interview with Colin Powell in Washington, DC, 29 August 2017.
xxv deadly insurgency: Konyndyk, Jeremy. “Clinton and Helms Nearly Ruined State. Tillerson Wants to Finish the Job.” Politico, 4 May 2017, www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/05/04/tillerson-trump-state-department-budget-cut-215101.
xxv Taxpayer dollars: Lake, Eli. “SIGIR Audit Finds Some U.S. CERP Funds Went to Insurgents in Iraq.” Daily Beast, 29 April 2012, www.thedailybeast.com/sigir-audit-finds-some-us-cerp-funds-went-to-insurgents-in-iraq.
xxv The State Department’s legal adviser: Boumediene v. Bush, 553 US 723 (2008).
xxvi proved toxic: Konyndyk, Jeremy. “Clinton and Helms Nearly Ruined State. Tillerson Wants to Finish the Job.” Politico, 4 May 2017, www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/05/04/tillerson-trump-state-department-budget-cut-215101.
xxvi “Events in Iraq”: “Text: Obama’s Cairo Speech.” New York Times, 4 June 2009, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/04/us/politics/04obama.text.html.
xxvi Lute as Jones’s deputy: “Donald Trump Would Have the Most Generals in the White House Since WWII.” ABC News, 8 December 2016, http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/donald-trump-generals-white-house-world-war-ii/story?id=44063445.
xxvii Obama administration sold more arms than any other: Weisgerber, Marcus. “Obama’s Final Arms-Export Tally More than Doubles Bush’s.” Defense One, 8 November 2016, www.defenseone.com/business/2016/11/obamas-final-arms-export-tally-more-doubles-bushs/133014 and Farid, Farid. “Obama’s Administration Sold More Weapons Than Any Other Since World War II.” Vice News, 3 January 2017, https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/qkjmvb/obamas-administration-sold-more-weapons-than-any-other-since-world-war-ii.
xxvii “more right than wrong”: Author interview with Hillary Clinton, 20 November 2017.
xxvii “pure mil-think”: “SUBJECT: AT THE CROSSROADS.” Memo from Richard Holbrooke to Hillary Clinton, 10 September 2010. See detailed discussion infra.
xxvii “back-channel” communication: DeYoung, Karen. “How the Obama White House Runs Foreign Policy.” Washington Post, 4 August 2015, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/how-the-obama-white-house-runs-foreign-policy/2015/08/04/2befb960-2fd7-11e5-8353-1215475949f4_story.html?utm_term=.ffae45cd1509 and DeYoung, Karen. “Obama’s NSC Will Get New Power.” Washington Post, 8 February 2009, www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/07/AR2009020702076.html.
xxviii the New York Times offered: Buckley, Cara. “A Monster of a Slip.” New York Times, 16 March 2008, www.nytimes.com/2008/03/16/fashion/16samantha.html.
xxviii “ivory-toned”: Roig-Franzia, Manuel. “Samantha Power: learning to play the diplomat’s game.” Washington Post, 4 April 2014, https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/samantha-power-learning-to-play-the-diplomats-game/2014/04/03/1ea34bae-99ac-11e3-b88d-f36c07223d88_story.html.
xxviii “sky-blue backdrop”: Sullivan, Robert. “Samantha Power Takes on the Job of a Lifetime as Ambassador to the U.N.” Vogue, 14 October 2013, www.vogue.com/article/samantha-power-americas-ambassador-to-the-un.
xxviii “Enough With Samantha Power’s Flowing Red Hair”: Carmon, Irin. “Enough With Samantha Power’s Flowing Red Hair.” Jezebel, 30 March 2011, www.jezebel.com/5787135/have-you-heard-about-samantha-powers-flowing-red-hair.
xxviii “The bottleneck is too great”: Author interview with Samantha Power, 10 July 2017.
xxviii exerted even tighter control over policy: Author interview with anonymous senior official.
xxviii “That is ever the charge from the agencies”: Author interview with Susan Rice, 19 January 2018.
xxix “learned helplessness”: Author interview with Susan Rice, 19 January 2018.
xxix “felt that they couldn’t move”: Author interview with Samantha Power, 10 July 2017.
xxx “trying to kill it”: Author interview with Susan Rice, 19 January 2018.
xxx working above their level of experience: Davidson, Joe. “Gaps Persist in Midlevel Foreign Service Positions.” Washington Post, 16 July 2012, https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/federal-eye/post/gaps-persist-in-midlevel-foreign-service-positions/2012/07/16/gJQAHEdwoW_blog.html?tid=a_inl&utm_term=.7eccb98aee1d.
xxx a decline from even the 1990s: “Five Year Workforce and Leadership Succession Plan FY2016 to FY2020.” Department of State, Bureau of Human Resources, September 2016, https://www.state.gov/documents/organization/262725.pdf.
xxx just a quarter did: “American Diplomacy at Risk.” American Academy of Diplomacy, reprinted by the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training, April 2015, http://adst.org/american-diplomacy-at-risk.
xxx “you have to conduct a global diplomacy”: Author interview with George P. Shultz, 19 January 2018.
xxx “80 percent chance of a discussion”: Author interview with Henry Kissinger, 4 December 2017.
xxxi “There isn’t really time for the bureaucratic processes”: Author interview with Condoleezza Rice, 3 August 2017.
xxxi “tilt more to the Pentagon”: Author interview with Condoleezza Rice, 3 August 2017.
xxxii “new institutions have arisen”: Author interview with Henry Kissinger, 4 December 2017.
xxxii “Diplomacy . . . is under the gun”: Author interview with Hillary Clinton, 20 November 2017.
PART I: THE LAST DIPLOMATS
1: AMERICAN MYTHS
4 Pact of Paris: “Diplomatic Gains in the Early 19th Century.” State Department, Office of the Historian, https://history.state.gov/departmenthistory/short-history/conc1 and “A Return to Isolationism.” State Department, Office of the Historian, https://history.state.gov/departmenthistory/short-history/return.
4 “fear of cholera”: “A Foreign Policy of Inaction.” State Department, Office of the Historian, https://history.state.gov/departmenthistory/short-history/inaction.
4 tripled its workforce: “Embarrassment Brings Change.” State Department, Office of the Historian, https://history.state.gov/departmenthistory/short-history/embarrasment.
5 that came to define the Cold War: Rojansky, Matthew. “George Kennan is Still the Russia Expert America Needs.” Foreign Policy, 22 December 2016, foreignpolicy.com/2016/12/22/why-george-kennan-is-still-americas-most-relevant-russia-expert-trump-putin-ussr/.
5 “the supposed best and the brightest got plenty of our friends killed in Vietnam”: Author interview with John Kerry, 21 November 2017.
6 “It’s one great American myth”: Author interview with Henry Kissinger, 4 December 2017.
2: LADY TALIBAN
8 even had an acronym: “Pakistan: Extrajudicial Executions by Army in Swat.” Human Rights Watch, 16 July 2011, https://www.
hrw.org/news/2010/07/16/pakistan-extrajudicial-executions-army-swat.
9 had bankrolled Pakistan: “Factbox: U.S. has allocated $20 billion for Pakistan.” Reuters, 21 April 2011, http://www.reuters.com/article/us-pakistan-usa-aid-factbox-idUSTRE73K7F420110421.
12 sleepy lumber town: Mathieu, Stephanie. “Home Grown: Native Travels Globe as Diplomat.” Daily News (WA), 16 November 2007, http://tdn.com/business/local/home-grown-native-travels-globe-as-diplomat/article_c1384a98-0a14-51d0-9fde-5b03d87ab082.html.
13 She prided herself on it: Author interview with Robin Raphel, 30 June 2016.
13 Raphel . . . started dating: Griffin, Tom. “Rarified Air: UW Rhodes Scholars Since 1960.” University of Washington, March 2004, https://www.washington.edu/alumni/columns/march04/rhodes04.html.
13 politician named Bill Clinton: Stanley, Alessandra. “Most Likely to Succeed.” New York Times, 22 November 1992, http://www.nytimes.com/1992/11/22/magazine/most-likely-to-succeed.html?pagewanted=all.
13 Clinton considered various strategies: “The 1992 Campaign; A Letter by Clinton on His Draft Deferment: ‘A War I Opposed and Despised.’ ” New York Times, 13 February 1992, http://www.nytimes.com/1992/02/13/us/1992-campaign-letter-clinton-his-draft-deferment-war-opposed-despised.html.
13 “passionate about being dispassionate”: Author interview with Robin Raphel, 30 June 2016.
3: DICK
15 revolving door behind you: Halberstam, David. War in a Time of Peace: Bush, Clinton, and the Generals. New York: Scribner, 2001, p. 186.
16 “He’s not entirely housebroken”: Halberstam, David. War in a Time of Peace: Bush, Clinton, and the Generals. New York: Scribner, 2001, p. 17.
16 “mountain climbing”: Holbrooke, Richard. To End a War. New York: Random House, 2011, loc. 179. Kindle.
16 visited Holbrooke’s class: Gordon, Meryl. “Ambassador A-List.” New York, http://nymag.com/nymetro/news/people/features/1748/index3.html.