Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969–1976, Volume XXXVIII, Part 2, Organization and Management of Foreign Policy; Public Diplomacy, 1973–1976

146. Briefing Memorandum From the Director General of the Foreign Service (Laise) to Secretary of State Kissinger ¹

Washington, July 8, 1975.

Institutionalization Within State: Follow-up to your June 27 Speech

Your speech to the Junior FSO Class² has attracted widespread interest within and outside the Service and has given a needed lift to our reform efforts. While, as you would expect, a speech about organizational change at State did not draw the public attention your policy statements usually do, press coverage was adequate and essentially accurate. Some connection was drawn to the Murphy Commission report,³ which was seen as eclipsed by your announcement. Media coverage focused upon establishment of the Priorities Policy Group as a means of institutionalizing management of the Department’s resources and centralization of management authority. In the Department both bureau heads and other personnel see the announced program as a significant step forward.

To increase understanding of your program, we have briefed the Assistant Secretaries and other officials, and are publishing in the July Department Newsletter the speech text as well as explanatory material on the Priorities Policy Group and on assignments. The text has also been distributed by the Bureau of Public Affairs throughout the Department, to posts abroad, and to the Congress. I will meet later this month with the Board of the Foreign Service to brief them and to deal with their concern that we preserve or enhance our capacity to meet their specialized interests.

Within M/DG, we are rapidly moving ahead with initial steps to give effect to the speech. As you know, our essential strategy for 1975–76 is outlined in the annexes to my memorandum of May 17 (The Professional Service of the Department of State), which you approved.⁴ However, the calendar makes the following actions more urgent than others:

1. We are using the budget process for the review of the 1976 and 77 budget estimates to re-target our own resources on the program objectives now before us.

2. Our credibility in the Service will hinge very largely in the first instance on making a strengthened central assignments system a reality. The procedure for this is being drafted.

3. Revision of the 1975 FSO examination to eliminate entry by cone while meeting skill requirements is underway and the recruitment literature is being altered accordingly.

Next in order of priority ranks the importance of coping with our need for, and the Washington foreign affairs community’s interest in, functional specialization. (The community’s expectations will be quickened by the Murphy Commission Report’s call for greater emphasis on functional specialization.) To attack this need, we are:

1. Meeting shortly with our British counterparts to learn what we can from their experience in restructuring their service and in strengthening specialized skills, while at the same time preserving the primacy of policy leadership and synthesis.

2. Designing plans for a professional development program spearheaded by a Board of Professional Development. In this we are working with the Inspector General to analyze and define our problems and requirements. We are also turning to Peter Krogh, Dean of Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service; Ed Gullion of Fletcher and Robert Osgood of Johns Hopkins’ SA among others to get an essential outside perspective.

3. Identifying both our needs and the methods we must institute to recruit the expert, specialized officers we need outside the FSO corps.

Since the 1975 FSO promotion process is quite far along, we will be working toward changes in the evaluation system for next year. For now, the most important objective is to obtain the best officers for service on this year’s FSO Selection Boards. We will be back to you for support in getting Assistant Secretaries and Ambassadors to make such officers available.

1. Source: National Archives, RG 59, General Administrative Correspondence Files of the Deputy Under Secretary for Management, 1968–75: Lot 78 D 295, M Chron, July 1975 (2). No classification marking. Drafted by Arthur Wortzel (DG/PC) on July 8. Printed from a copy that Laise did not initial. Sent through Eagleburger whose initials are stamped. A typed notation indicates that Eagleburger hand-carried the memorandum to Sisco for delivery to Kissinger on July 10.
2. See footnote 7, Document 144.
3. See Document 147.
4. Document 143. The annexes to Laise’s report are not printed.