WASHINGTON — As Democrats and Republicans angrily traded accusations over last week’s impeachment hearings, the millions of Americans tuning in to the proceedings also saw the contrasting demeanor of three unflappable diplomats charged with carrying out the country’s foreign policy.
The witnesses were Foreign Service officers who held their middle ground as Democrats profusely praised their service and willingness to testify and Republicans expressed their regret the trio has been pulled into the fray then probed them for any hint of political bias against the administration.
Even President Donald Trump weighed in via Twitter to discredit the record of Friday’s lone witness.
“I don’t think I have such powers,” former Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch said, showing a slight smile, when asked to respond to Trump’s tweet that said everywhere she served over 33 years in some of the world’s most challenging posts “turned bad.”
Three more career diplomats will find themselves before the committee this week in what one retired ambassador said is a difficult but proud moment for U.S. Foreign Service officers, most of whom toil in distant and often dangerous places around the world, inconspicuous to the American public.
“They represented the very best of us,” Barbara Bodine, now director of the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy at Georgetown University, said of Yovanovitch and Wednesday’s witnesses, William Taylor, acting ambassador to Ukraine, and George Kent, a deputy assistant secretary of state.
“It’s one thing to be gracious and dignified when it’s easy. But being gracious and dignified when you’re under attack by your own president, that is something that we can only hope that we would be,” Bodine said.
“They were exactly what they should have been: professional, nonpartisan, and of course, truthful,” a senior U.S. diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said to Foreign Policy following Taylor’s and Kent’s testimonies. “They held their tongues better than I could have at certain points.”
But while the diplomats steered clear of the politically charged topic of impeachment, they warned that the administration’s handling of foreign affairs in Ukraine and publicly vilifying American diplomats poses a security risk to that region of the world and to the United States.
“I think the world is going to suspend final judgment on what kind of country we are, what we really mean in terms of our values and our principles until this process plays out,” Bodine said.
‘No roadmap’
America’s diplomats have found themselves in the crosshairs of high-profile political battles before. Most notably was in the 1950s during Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s crusade to root out perceived communists within government. Some 80 Foreign Service officers lost their jobs at that time, Bodine said.
One of McCarthy’s targets was the late Ambassador George Kennan, one of the most respected diplomats of the 20th century who famously testified on national television in 1966 against American troops in Vietnam. The New York Times noted that Kennan’s daughter sat behind Yovanovitch during Friday’s hearing as a show of support.
But the House impeachment inquiry against Trump ventures into uncharted territory when it comes to foreign policy. Congress has held such hearings only three times, and the issues centered around domestic or personal issues.
“This is so unprecedented — not just an impeachment, but one that is focused on foreign policy,” Bodine said. “So there’s no roadmap that anybody has.”
The inquiry was sparked by a whistleblower complaint about a July 25 phone conversation between Trump and newly elected Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in which Trump asked “a favor” that would allegedly help him politically. The allegation is that In exchange for military aid and a visit to the White House, Trump wanted Ukraine to investigate that country’s involvement in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and into political rival Joe Biden, a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate whose son held a lucrative board position on a Ukrainian energy company when Biden was vice president.
While Democrats are calling the actions quid pro quo and last week introduced the term “bribery,” Republicans have pointed out that the $400 million in aid has been released without the investigations. They also noted testimony that Ukraine is rife with corruption and the president wanted assurances that would be addressed before committing aid to that country.
In testimony and questioning, Taylor, Kent and Yovanovitch dutifully responded to questions as Democrats and Republicans, respectively, tried to bolster or debunk conduct by Trump and others that could be used to impeach or exonerate the president.
But while the trio deftly avoided the divisive topic of impeachment, they stressed the strategic importance of Ukraine in American foreign policy to halt Russian expansion.
“There are two Ukraine stories here today,” Taylor testified. “The first one ... is a rancorous story about whistleblowers, Mr. (Rudy) Giuliani, side channels, quid pro quos, corruption, and interference in elections. In this story Ukraine is merely an object.
“But there is another Ukraine story — a positive, bipartisan one. In this story, Ukraine is the subject. This one is about young people in a young nation, struggling to break free of its past, hopeful that their new government will finally usher in a new Ukraine proud of its independence from Russia, eager to join Western institutions and enjoy a more secure and prosperous life.”
Diplomatic life
Yovanovitch’s experience of enduring a public smear campaign that led to her abrupt ouster in May as ambassador to Ukraine has reportedly fueled discontent within the Foreign Service ranks, particularly when Secretary of State Mike Pompeo did not come to her defense.
Trump had told Zelenskiy in their phone conversation that Yovanovitch, who had a reputation for being tough on corruption in Ukraine, was “bad news” and that she was gong to “go through some things.” She said she was “devastated” to learn what the president had said about her to another head of state.
The White House added to the angst when a spokesman called the Foreign Service officers who complied with subpoenas issued by the House Intelligence Committee “radical un-elected bureaucrats waging war on the Constitution.”
“It sure would have been nice for him to say something supporting the troops. The silence is deafening,” a career diplomat said of Pompeo, according to Reuters.
Yovanovitch said on Friday that she was told the department didn’t issue a statement of support for fear it could be undermined by a “tweet contradicting that” from the president.
She told lawmakers that all ambassadors serve at the pleasure of the president. But she did not let the State Department off the hook, saying its refusal to denounce “dangerously wrong” attacks against her degrades the institution “at a competitive and complex time.”
“After these events what foreign official, corrupt or not, could be blamed for wondering whether the ambassador represents the president’s views?” she testified. “And what U.S. ambassador could be blamed for harboring the fear that they cannot count on our government to support them as they implement stated U.S. policy and defend U.S. interests.”
She also gave a brief primer on the life of a career diplomat.
“There is a perception that diplomats lead a comfortable life throwing dinner parties in fancy homes. Let me tell you about some of my reality. It has not always been easy,” she said. “I have moved 13 times and served in seven different countries, five of them hardship posts.”
She served in Somalia during that country’s civil war, survived gunfire aimed at the U.S. Embassy in Uzbekistan and while making her way to the embassy in Moscow during an attempted coup in 1993.
“We went to the embassy because the ambassador asked us to come. We went, because it was our duty,” she said.
Yovanovitch and other officials who are testifying did get a voice of support from Kent, who told lawmakers that personal attacks happen to diplomats who have pursued “principled U.S. interests” to root out corruption in Ukraine.
“Such attacks came from Russians, their proxies, and corrupt Ukrainians,” Kent said. “This tells me that our efforts were hitting their mark.”