Christie Neumann

From: Brian Flanagan [flanagab@gvsu.edu]
Sent: Thursday, July 14, 2005 10:22 AM
To: marty.allen@nara.gov
Subject: Gerald Ford's Leadership

Hi Marty. I just wanted to alert you to an essay on President Ford's leadership Gleaves
published today:

http://www.gvsu.edu/hauenstein/?id=15353C6D-9E67-E30E-34C15BEA13A4BCE0&CFID=8374388
&CFToken=68600531

I told Bob he is welcome to use it on the website, or anywhere else.

Brian

Brian Flanagan

Assistant Director
Hauenstein Center for Presidential Studies Grand Valley State University
401 Fulton Street West
Grand Rapids, MI 49504

Phone: 616.331.2770
On the Web: www.allpresidents.org

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# Ask Gleaves
about the
U.S. Presidency

Thursday, July 14, 2005

## Gerald Ford's Leadership

**Question:** In recent years, it seems that President Gerald R. Ford's reputation has been on the rise. Do you believe that he is increasingly recognized as a strong leader?

**From:** Ryan C. of Grand Rapids, MI

**Gleaves answers:** You asked this question several weeks ago, and I thank you for your patience because I wanted to wait until today -- President Ford's birthday -- to post my response. Today our 38th president celebrates his 92nd birthday.

Gerald R. Ford became president on August 9, 1974. Because of the Watergate scandal and President Nixon's resignation, the nation had been brought to the edge of its most serious constitutional crisis in more than a century. In a presidency that lasted 895 days, Ford shepherded America from crisis to stability. He helped restore confidence in the presidency and also navigated the nation through rough economic seas; the mid 1970s saw one of the worst recessions since the Great Depression, and the president's policies helped put the economy on a steadier course.[1]

These accomplishments are not Republican propaganda -- praise for President Ford comes from both sides of the aisle. As Senator Edward Kennedy explained in 2001, when Ford was given the JFK Foundation's Profile in Courage Award: "At a time of national turmoil, America was fortunate that it was Gerald Ford who took the helm of the storm-tossed ship of state. Unlike many of us at the time, President Ford recognized that the nation had to move forward, and could not do so if there was a continuing effort to prosecute former President Nixon. So President Ford made a courageous decision, one that historians now say cost him his office, and he pardoned Richard Nixon.

"I was one of those who spoke out against his action then. But time has a way of clarifying past events, and now we see that President Ford was right. His courage and dedication to our country made it possible for us to begin the process of healing and put the tragedy of Watergate behind us."[2]

Secretary of State Henry Kissinger made the case for the president whom he served in even stronger terms: "I think he saved the country. In fact, he saved it in such a matter of fact way that he isn't given any credit for it."[3]

Moreover, one of the best chronicles of the Ford administration, by journalist James Cannon, observed, "I remember him as a leader, first and foremost. He was the right man for this country, at the right time, in the most extraordinary crisis in our constitutional system since the Civil War."[4]

Gerald R. Ford has dedicated his life to public service, first as a 13-term congressman, then as America's unelected vice president, then as America's first unelected president, and finally as a civic leader. Holding public office from 1949 till 1977, he cut his political teeth on crisis after crisis, when Americans were grappling with the Cold War, McCarthy, the spread of nuclear weapons, Korea, the Cuban Missile Crisis, Vietnam, race riots, assassinations, campus unrest, the cultural revolution of the 1960s, environmental crises, energy crises, high inflation, deep recessions, Watergate, and the resignation of a shamed president. It was not an Era of Good Feelings, and in two branches of

http://www.gvsu.edu/cms/skeleton/Includes/dsp_print_friendly.cfm?id=15353C6D-9E67-E30E-34C15BE... 7/14/2005

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government -- as House minority leader (1965-1973) and as president (1974-1977) -- Ford's leadership was sorely tested. Yet the man from Grand Rapids never shrank from the challenges. His integrity and hard work earned the respect of his colleagues in Washington and the citizens he represented in Michigan's Fifth Congressional District. How did he reach the heights? What were the marks of his leadership?

## TEN MARKS OF LEADERSHIP

**1. Trust.** Ford's integrity, his unbending adherence to the truth, is legendary, and this was his strength every step of the way, from the U.S. House to the White House. It was a Democrat, the late Martha Griffiths, who perhaps best captured the probity of her colleague in Congress: "In all the years I sat in the House, I never knew Mr. Ford to make a dishonest statement nor a statement part-true and part-false. He never attempted to shade a statement, and I never heard him utter an unkind word."[5]

In the 1970s, Ford's honesty was the prescription a sick nation needed. His former chief of staff, Dick Cheney, says that "simply by the sheer force of his character," Ford was able to "restore trust and confidence in the presidency and the White House. That was his single biggest contribution."[6]

The honesty and openness were not only appreciated at home; they proved to serve the national interest abroad. Kissinger has long maintained that one of the president's greatest achievements was to forge trusting relationships with foreign leaders who counted on him to speak candidly and to keep his word. These relationships endured years after Ford left office, enabling him to serve his country as an elder statesman. Kissinger says, "He established what I believe was the closest relationship of any American president, in any period, with European leaders, and he did this by his special qualities -- openness, intelligence, directness. And what is even more remarkable is that they have remained friends of his even after he left government.... Abroad his reputation was enormous."[7]

Ford has ever been the Eagle Scout -- literally and metaphorically. Reflecting back on his childhood, he praises his mother and stepfather for their steadfast love and consistently high standards of conduct. "Work hard, tell the truth, and come to dinner on time" -- that was the Ford family motto.

This utmost respect for the truth was also an attribute people appreciated in Mrs. Betty Ford, who as first lady developed a reputation for exceptional candor. It was to President Ford's credit that he did not interfere with his wife's openness with the American people when it came to her battle with breast cancer, alcoholism, and pain killers.

**2. Self-control.** As a child, Ford had a "raging temper." To help him overcome the nasty trait he'd inherited from his biological father, his mother Dorothy used to make him recite Rudyard Kipling's poem, "If," which begins,

> If you can keep your head when all about you
> Are losing theirs and blaming it on you....

Later in life he credited the poem with helping him learn to control his anger.

The self-control expressed itself in other ways. In Washington, as he assumed more responsibility and leadership, colleagues noted that pipe-puffing Jerry Ford always stayed cool. One of the journalists who covered him, Tom DeFrank, said the president had "grace under pressure." This quality was not always appreciated by outsiders. As *Roll Call* editor Morton Kondracke notes, "The press... underestimated his inner strength and resolve." And yet, the boy who had learned to calm himself down became the man who could calm the nation down.

His self-control was no doubt honed by going through some fairly harrowing experiences, which has a way of putting life in perspective. Ford is the only president to have survived *two* assassination attempts (both in September 1975).

Some three decades earlier, he had several brushes with death while serving as a lieutenant commander on the U.S.S. *Monterey*, which went through most of the major battles in the Pacific and had been threatened by Japanese torpedoes, bombers, and kamikaze pilots.

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Actually, it was not the Japanese but a fierce storm that brought him closest to death. During a typhoon that killed several sailors, Ford was thrown off the flight deck. Miraculously, he was saved from drowning by landing on the catwalk, the only thing between him and the dark immensity of the Pacific.[8]

**3. Physical presence.** Leaders can learn to use their physical presence -- that combination of stature, strength, and stride -- to political advantage. George Washington did, and so did Gerald Ford. As a young man, he had an opportunity to model and even make the cover of *Cosmopolitan* magazine. Naturally endowed with a strong, well-proportioned body, he stood 6 feet tall and weighed 195 pounds when he entered the Oval Office.[9]

All along the road to the White House, it was what he did with nature's gifts that made the difference. At the University of Michigan, he became a star football player, determined to become a skilled center on offense and an impact linebacker on defense. In the process he became a leader. The captain of his team during his senior year, Ford was named the Wolverines' most valuable player. So impressive was his performance week-in and week-out that the Green Bay Packers and Detroit Lions tried to sign him on. He turned them down, went on to Yale Law School, and paid the bills by coaching football and boxing. Gerald Ford may have been the best athlete ever to reach the White House.

Even in the pressure-cooker of the presidency, he maintained his strength by dedicating a portion of each day to exercise. His daily regimen consisted of fifty pushups and twenty miles on the stationary bicycle -- not bad for a man in his sixties.[10]

**4. Vision.** No president can lead without vision, and Ford's vision of the nation focused on our constitutional form of government and on his faith in a faith-filled people. His formative years had been spent in Grand Rapids during the Great Depression (when he saw how people could overcome grinding poverty) and in the Pacific Theater during World War II (when he was part of an alliance of free nations that overpowered a militaristic empire).

Prior to the Second World War, much of the Midwest was isolationist. By the time Commander Ford came back from World War II, he had abandoned isolationism. Determined to go into public office and champion a more active U.S. role on the world stage, he challenged an isolationist in the GOP primary and beat him roundly.

But it was Ford's confidence in American citizens, and his devotion to our constitutional heritage, that helped him assume the burdens of the Oval Office in the wake of Nixon's downfall. He immediately set about restoring confidence in the presidency and healing the wounds of the nation. In his acceptance speech of August 9, 1974 -- Lincolnesque in tone and one of the great speeches in U.S. presidential history -- Ford said:

> *My fellow Americans, our long national nightmare is over. Our Constitution works; our great Republic is a government of laws and not of men. Here the people rule. But there is a higher Power, by whatever name we honor Him, who ordains not only righteousness but love, not only justice but mercy.*

> *As we bind up the internal wounds of Watergate, more painful and more poisonous than those of foreign wars, let us restore the golden rule to our political process, and let brotherly love purge our hearts of suspicion and of hate....*

> *With all the strength and all of the good sense I have gained from life, with all the confidence my family, my friends, and my dedicated staff impart to me, and with the good will of countless Americans I have encountered in recent visits to forty states, I now solemnly reaffirm my promise I made to you last December 6; to uphold the Constitution, to do what is right as God gives me to see the right, and to do the very best I can for America. God helping me, I will not let you down.[11]*

**5. Hard work.** Ford was a hard worker all his life, a virtue already apparent when Ford played football at South High School in Grand Rapids. Coach Clifford Gettings said of him, "Jerry was one of the hardest-working kids who ever played for me, and totally dependable in every game." For the total effort he was rewarded with leadership positions; in his senior year, he was elected captain of the

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South High team that won the state championship, and was named all-state center and captain of the all-state team.[12]

It was hard work that made his 24-year string of election landslides look easy; until 1976 he never lost an election. After returning from the war and deciding to run for Congress, Ford thrashed the Republican incumbent, Bartel Jonkman, in the primary. Jonkman's big mistake was to underestimate the young veteran and lawyer; he just didn't think that Ford was a serious candidate. Ford relentlessly worked the district, beat the odds, and beat his Democratic opponent in the general election. He was never again seriously threatened for his seat in Congress.[13]

**6. Ability to compromise.** One of the lessons Ford learned from Coach Gettings was, "You play to win. You give it everything you've got, but you always play within the rules."[14] In public office, Ford always played within the rules when in negotiation. It has been said that he had opponents, but not enemies. A pragmatist, he was willing to work in good faith with those with whom he differed to get things done. In WGVU's award-winning documentary *Time and Chances*, Mike Grass writes that "Ford practiced the political art of intelligent compromise with low-key Midwestern habits of fairness, civility, and truth-telling." The dean of White House journalists, Helen Thomas, notes: "What Ford gave was balance and good sense to decisions, and that was his great contribution."[15]

**7. First-rate advisors.** Of course, no president makes decisions in total isolation. He must rely on his staff for advice. One of Ford's greatest strengths as a leader, according to Henry Kissinger, was his self confidence and sense of security around others. The advisors whom he hired included a number of extremely bright, capable people who are still on the scene: one of his key economic advisors was Alan Greenspan; his chief of staff was Dick Cheney; his second secretary of defense was Donald Rumsfeld; his second secretary of Housing and Urban Development was Carla Hills. The list of outstanding staff goes on and on.

**8. Connection to Everyman.** "Down to earth," "unpretentious," "approachable," "likeable" "an ordinary guy" -- these are the words one often hears to describe Gerald Ford. In all his years in Congress, he never surrounded himself with all the media handlers who shape so many of today's politicians. Jerry Ford was no man's tool -- what you saw was what you got.

People naturally liked him. From an early age he learned to get along with people from very different backgrounds. In 1931 he was voted Grand Rapids' most popular high school senior. The prize was a trip to the nation's capital with thirty other young people from the Midwest. It was on this trip that Ford first saw the Capitol and White House. He was 17 years old.[16]

Throughout his adult life, Ford remained connected to the people of his community, always retaining the common touch. This helps explain why he was elected to Congress to represent the people of West Michigan 13 times. When he celebrated his 90th birthday in Grand Rapids in 2003, some 14,000 people turned out to pay him tribute. In the old Fifth Congressional District, Ford's still their man.

**9. Courage.** On September 8, 1974, barely one month in office, President Ford shocked the nation when he pardoned President Nixon; critics -- and they were legion -- saw it as the greatest plea bargain in history. In fact, after it appeared that Nixon would be impeached by the House of Representatives, his chief of staff, Alexander Haig, met privately with Ford and tried to suggest that he should pardon Nixon in exchange for Nixon's resignation; Haig even handed Ford the suggested draft of the pardon. The vice president adamantly refused: there would be no "deal."

After becoming president, Ford pondered and prayed and came to the conclusion that pardoning the disgraced president was the right thing to do, even if it jeopardized his chances of winning the 1976 presidential election. As Ford later reflected on it,

> I agonized over the idea of a pardon.... But I wasn't motivated primarily by sympathy for [Nixon's] plight or by concern over the state of his health. It was the state of the country's health at home and around the world that worried me.[17]

Consistent with his goal of binding up the nation's wounds, Ford made other controversial decisions. One of them was to grant clemency to Vietnam War draft dodgers and deserters, much to the chagrin of veterans, conservatives, and hawks within his own party.

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Against the advice of that same group, Ford also signed the Helsinki Accords, which, in the view of some historians, eroded the power of the Soviet Union, not by military might, but by the force of democracy, human rights, and free markets. Colin Powell called U.S. participation in Helsinki "a bold, brave, visionary act," "one of President Ford's greatest moments."[18]

His political courage was also evident in the number of bills he vetoed. Some of Ford's critics charge that he was capricious with the veto pen; he vetoed 66 bills in all, the fourth-highest annual average of all the presidents. But in the wake of Watergate and Nixon's resignation, Democrats enjoyed a better than 2-to-1 advantage in both the House and the Senate, and the veto was the only way Ford believed he could force Congressional Democrats to craft fiscally responsible policies.[19]

Politically, Ford almost survived the unpopularity of some of his decisions. Even his opponent in 1976, Jimmy Carter, concedes: "President Ford healed this nation to a great degree, and had he not had to assume some of the inherited responsibilities left over from the Nixon administration, I think he would have been invulnerable to any challenge from me or within the Republican party."[20]

**10. Luck.** Presidential historian Robert Dallek speaks of the luck a number of our chief executives have enjoyed.[21] There were numerous crossroads that Ford encountered when Providence seem to smile on him. He was born with intelligence and good looks. After a rough start, he landed in a good family. He attracted the attention of the University of Michigan. His life was spared during a typhoon in the Pacific.

In a sense, Gerald R. Ford was the luckiest man ever to reach the Oval Office. Through an improbable chain of events that may never recur, he became vice president, then president of the greatest constitutional democracy on earth, without aspiring to the office and without going through a national election. It all happened in just eight months. Without guile, without overarching ambition, he advanced on the checkerboard of national politics by virtue of the removal of the two big pieces (Agnew and Nixon) ahead of him.

Maybe luck really turns on the ability to inspire others to help you. I recall the story of how Jerry Ford was able to attend the University of Michigan in the depths of the Great Depression, when neither he nor his family had the money to pay the $50 tuition. Jim Cannon recounts:

> *Times were so hard that there seemed to be no way Jerry Ford Jr. could get to college. The meager child support from grandfather King stopped when the old Omaha entrepreneur died a few months after losing most of his fortune in the 1929 stock market crash....*

> *Without Ford's knowledge, the principal of South High, Arthur Krause, decided to help Ford, who was not only a promising athlete but a National Honor Society student. Krause wrote Harry Kipke, coach of the Michigan football team, and invited him to Grand Rapids to talk to Ford.*

> *Kipke did come to Grand Rapids, met Ford and his family, and took him to Ann Arbor. In that era there were no football scholarships to Michigan, but Kipke helped Ford find a job at the University hospital waiting on tables to earn his meals....*

> *A job waiting on tables was a start, but Ford had no money for tuition. Principal Krause called him in one day and said, "Jerry, tuition at Michigan is fifty dollars a semester, one hundred a year. I know your dad doesn't have that. But, you know, we have a bookstore at South High, and I think we ought to start a scholarship with the profits. I think we'll make the first award the first award to Jerry Ford."*

> *With that gift, and enough money saved from summer jobs to pay the rent, Ford could go to college.*

Ford would call the opportunity to go to U of M "the luckiest break I ever had."[22]

## THE ONE BIG THING

In the perspective of history, maybe it is We the People who are the lucky ones since, at a critical

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time, Gerald Ford served as the nation's president. Yanek Mieczkowski, grappling with the 1970s context of the Ford administration, observes:

> *Ford ameliorated the decade's problems. Keeping a steady hand on the tiller, he led a country confronting perhaps its greatest challenges of the postwar era. Domestically, he restored economic stability; overseas, he projected power confidently; on a personal level, his White House radiated a civility and openness, replacing earlier attitudes.... The decade's challenges were daunting, and Ford struggled to bring them under control. In the end, he left a lighter burden for the country to bear.* [23]

Richard Reeves puts Ford's achievement this way: "We judge presidents by the one or two big things that they do. Nobody remembers that Lincoln balanced the budget, and nobody cares. In the end, President Ford did the one thing he had to do, which was hold the country together."[24]

"Gerald Ford," says Mort Kondracke, "represented the best in American politics... and [a style] that I'm afraid we are never going to see again."[25]

[1] For an excellent study of the turbulent context of the Ford presidency, see Yanek Mieczkowski, *Gerald Ford and the Challenges of the 1970s* (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2005).

[2] For the transcript of Kennedy's remarks, see http://www.jfklibrary.org/pica_2001_emk_remarks.html.

[3] Kissinger interviewed in *Time and Chance: Gerald Ford's Appointment with History*, the PBS documentary written by Michael Grass and produced by WGVU, Grand Valley State University, Grand Rapids, MI, 2004.

[4] Cannon interviewed in WGVU's *Time and Chance*.

[5] Martha W. Griffiths, quoted by William D. DeGregorio, *The Complete Book of U.S. Presidents*, 2004 ed. (New York: Barnes & Noble, 2004), p. 614.

[6] Cheney interviewed in WGVU's *Time and Chance*.

[7] Kissinger interviewed in WGVU's *Time and Chance*.

[8] James David Barber, *The Presidential Character: Predicting Performance in the White House*, 4th ed. (Upper Saddle River, NY: Prentice Hall, 1992), p. 392; John Robert Greene, *The Presidency of Gerald R. Ford* (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1995), p. 2.

[9] James Cannon, *Time and Chance: Gerald Ford's Appointment with History* (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1998), p. xi.

[10] Cannon, *Time and Chance*, caption in photo insert before p. 273.

[11] Ford quoted in Cannon, *Time and Chance*, pp. 348-49.

[12] Cannon, *Time and Chance*, p. 15.

[13] For the election numbers, see DeGregorio, *U.S. Presidents*, 2004 ed., p. 608.

[14] Cannon, *Time and Chance*, p. 15.

[15] Thomas interviewed in WGVU's *Time and Chance*.

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[16] Cannon, *Time and Chance*, p. 13.

[17] Gerald R. Ford, *A Time to Heal* (New York: Harper & Row, 1979), p. 160.

[18] Powell interviewed on WGVU's *A Time to Heal*.

[19] Mieczkowski, *Ford*, p. 87.

[20] Carter interviewed on WGVU's *A Time to Heal*.

[21] Robert Dallek, *To Lead a Nation: The Presidency in the Twentieth Century* (New York: Barnes & Noble, 2004).

[22] Cannon, *Time and Chance*, pp. 15-16.

[23] Mieczkowski, *Ford*, pp. 358-59.

[24] Richard Reeves, interviewed on "Gerald Ford: Healing the Presidency," A&E Biography, 1997.

[25] Kondracke interviewed in WGVU's *Time and Chance*.

HENRY A. KISSINGER

April 29, 2005

Dear Ted:

Recently, I met with Bill Sinrich, CEO of TWI, regarding the television rights to the 2010 and 2014 World Cups. I then wrote to FIFA President Joseph Blatter about TWI's proposal and thought you might like to see that letter, along with the response I received from Blatter's office.

Hoping to see you soon,

Enclosure

Mr. Theodore J. Forstmann
Forstmann Little & Co.
767 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10153

TWENTY-SIXTH FLOOR · 350 PARK AVENUE · NEW YORK, NEW YORK 10022 · (212) 759-7919
FACSIMILE (212) 759-0042

HENRY A. KISSINGER

March 28, 2005

Dear Josef:

It has been too long since we have been in contact and, before we know it, another World Cup is going to take place, which I hope I will be able to attend.

I am writing you today about the television rights for the 2010 and 2014 World Cups. I do so because Teddy Forstmann, a friend of mine of long standing and the chairman of the investment firm, Forstmann Little & Co., has recently bought IMG, and because his subsidiary, TWI, recently responded to an invitation to tender by FIFA for the broadcast rights within Europe. TWI has made a proposal for all rights, in all territories, in the European footprint but has also indicated a willingness to work with FIFA in any other capacity that FIFA might desire, on a mutually agreeable basis. TWI recently announced a collaboration with FIFA on TWI's "Futbol Mundial" weekly television magazine show.

I am in no position to judge the merit of the proposal. You and your colleagues will make that decision by established procedures. But insofar as it is relevant, I can tell you what I know about the Forstmann group.

The Forstmann Little group, headed up by the well-known businessman, Teddy Forstmann, acquired IMG in November of 2004 from the estate of its late founder, Mark McCormack. IMG is the world's largest sports marketing company, and its television division, TWI, is the world's largest independent producer and seller of sports television programming. IMG represents many of the world's leading sports governing bodies, including the All England Lawn Tennis Club, the Royal and Ancient Golf Club, which controls The Open Championship, and is the guardian of the sport outside of the United States. IMG also works closely with federations such as the International Rugby Board for its Rugby World Cup.

FOUNDATION FOR ART AND PRESERVATION IN EMBASSIES

CHAIRMAN
Jo Carole Lauder

PRESIDENT
Ann L. Gund

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February 11, 2005

The Honorable
Henry A. Kissinger
and Mrs. Kissinger
Kissinger Associates
350 Park Avenue, 26th Floor
New York, NY 10022

FEB 18 2005

Dear Nancy and Henry:

Christie's and the Foundation for Art and Preservation in Embassies invite you to an evening to thank the architects and artists for their important contributions to our U.S. embassies throughout the world. The event will take place on Monday, April 4 at Christie's, 20 Rockefeller Plaza, at 7:00 pm, and we would be delighted if you would join us as our guest.

The dinner at Christie's will highlight FAPE's artist/architect collaborations at our new embassies in Athens, Beijing, Berlin, New York and Ottawa. The architects for these buildings are Michael McKinnell (Kallmann McKinnell & Wood); Craig Hartman (Skidmore, Owings & Merrill); John Ruble (Moore Ruble Yudell); Charles Gwathmey (Gwathmey Siegel & Associates); and David Childs (Skidmore, Owings & Merrill). Louise Bourgeois, Chuck Close, Jasper Johns, Alex Katz, Ellsworth Kelly, Sol LeWitt, Maya Lin, Elizabeth Murray, Martin Puryear, Robert Rauschenberg, James Rosenquist, Ed Ruscha, Joel Shapiro, Michael Singer, Frank Stella and Elyn Zimmerman are among the distinguished group of American artists who have contributed to FAPE.

We would appreciate it if you would complete the attached reply form and return it by fax, 202-349-3727, or in the enclosed envelope. With your positive response, a formal invitation will be sent later this month.

Art opens doors of understanding and friendship throughout the world. Please join us for this special evening of art and diplomacy with America's preeminent architects and artists.

With best wishes,

Jo Carole Lauder
Chairman

1725 I Street, NW, Suite 300, Washington, DC 20006 Tel (202) 349-3724 Fax (202) 349-3727

FAPE

ELLSWORTH KELLY
WALL SCULPTURE, 2003, 18' 18" x 11' 8"

In 1986, the Foundation for Art and Preservation in Embassies established a unique public/private partnership with the State Department dedicated to enhancing our diplomatic facilities abroad. FAPE has donated over 1,000 works of art since our inception, and preservation work has been completed in more than seventy countries. Our goal is to create a meaningful and appropriate permanent collection of art for every U.S. embassy.

During the next several years, a large number of U.S. embassies will be constructed, and the State Department has asked FAPE to commission site-specific works by American artists for many of them. FAPE's first site-specific installation was a large-scale bronze sculpture by Joel Shapiro, installed in 1999 at the U.S. Embassy in Ottawa. Subsequent commissions have included two sundials by Maya Lin for the Consulate in Istanbul, a Sol LeWitt work at the Embassy in Tunis, and a sculpture by Elyn Zimmerman at the Embassy in Dar es Salaam.

Two of FAPE's most exciting projects are for the embassies in Beijing and Berlin. Skidmore, Owings & Merrill has designed several buildings for the Beijing compund, and Ellsworth Kelly has created a work for the consular building. Louise Bourgeois has donated two bronze sculptures from the 1940s and FAPE is currently working with Martin Puryear who has also agreed to contribute a work for the project. For Berlin, which was designed by Moore Ruble Yudell, Sol LeWitt has created a wall mural which will be seen along the grand procession from Alexander Platz to the Brandenburg Gate.

SOL LEWITT
WALL MURAL, 2004, 15' X 30'

Jody Williams

From: Laura Wilkinson
Sent: Wednesday, March 02, 2005 12:59 PM
To: DL_Everyone
Subject: Tillie Fowler

All,

I am very sorry to report that former Rep. (and CSIS Distinguished Congressional Fellow) Tillie Fowler passed away today.

Former U.S. Rep. Tillie Fowler Dies at 62

52 minutes ago

By RON WORD, Associated Press Writer

MAR - 2 2005

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - Former U.S. Rep. Tillie Fowler, who became prominent on defense issues during her four terms in Congress, died Wednesday, two days after suffering a brain hemorrhage. She was 62.

Fowler, who was known as the "Steel Magnolia" for her quiet tenacity in Congress, died at St. Vincent's Medical Center, said Tom Alexander, a family spokesman.

Fowler was elected to the House of Representatives in 1992, campaigning on an "eight is enough" term-limits pledge. She declined to seek re-election in 2000 though at the time she was vice chairwoman of the House Republican Conference, placing her fifth in the GOP hierarchy.

After leaving Congress in January 2001, she was mentioned as a possible secretary of the Navy in the Bush administration, but instead joined the national law firm of Holland & Knight.

Since 2003, Fowler had been chairwoman of the Defense Policy Board Advisory Committee, which advises Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. She was also the chairwoman of the committee that investigated alleged sexual assaults at the U.S. Air Force Academy.

Fowler, who represented the city of Jacksonville as a lobbyist on military base realignment and closures in 2003 and 2004, had been scheduled to attend a meeting at City Hall Monday morning to discuss the upcoming round of base closings.

3/2/2005

washingtonpost.com: Florida's Rep. Tillie Fowler Dies; Defense-Minded Republican

Page 1 of 3

washingtonpost.com

# Florida's Rep. Tillie Fowler Dies; Defense-Minded Republican

By Adam Bernstein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, March 3, 2005; Page B06

Tillie Fowler, 62, a Republican who represented northeast Florida in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1993 to 2001 and became one of the top-ranking women in her party, died of a brain hemorrhage March 2 at a hospital in Jacksonville.

Rep. Fowler, a champion of increased defense budgets during her years in Congress, had served since her retirement on the Defense Policy Board Advisory Committee, which aids the defense secretary on strategy and policy matters. She was appointed its chairman in summer 2003, succeeding Richard Perle, who stepped down amid allegations of conflicts of interest with his business ventures.

She was called on in recent years to work on panels investigating allegations of sexual misconduct at the U.S. Air Force Academy as well as prisoner abuse in Iraq. The academy panel, which she chaired, excoriated "the highest levels of Air Force leadership" for knowing about but doing little to deter serious sexual misconduct.

The Iraq panel, headed by former Defense secretary James Schlesinger, was critical of military and civilian leadership. Schlesinger, Rep. Fowler and other panel members said in later interviews that it would be a mistake for Donald H. Rumsfeld to resign.

Rep. Fowler was sometimes called the "Steel Magnolia" and was described as a hybrid of a Southern belle and a Marine drill sergeant.

She took these comments as compliments and saw her longtime friend Sen. Elizabeth Dole (R-N.C.) as an inspiration. She considered Dole a model of a working woman: "She doesn't have this hard edge that some women acquired along the way. . . . It's that part of her that makes her less threatening to some of the good ol' boys."

During her House career, Rep. Fowler became vice chairman of the House Republican Conference, the fifth-ranking GOP leader, and served for six years as a deputy majority whip.

She served on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and the House Armed Services Committee, the second a natural choice considering that the area around her district supports several naval installations. She assailed defense spending during the Clinton administration in comparison with budgets for peacekeeping missions abroad.

In the late 1990s, she tried to limit U.S. involvement in the warring Balkan region, saying she "could never look into the eyes of a mother or father or spouse or child of a soldier killed in Bosnia and say that American interests in Bosnia were worth their sacrifice."

She unsuccessfully fought the move by the federal government to shut down the Navy firing and training range in Vieques, Puerto Rico.

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3/4/2005

Page 2 of 3

Her conservative line on defense issues extended to race-based preferences in education, immigration and environmental legislation. But a moderate side to her voting appeared on the abortion issue. She once said, "As the mother of two daughters, it is horrifying to me to think of anyone's daughter having to suffer the consequences of rape or incest without recourse."

Tillie Kidd Fowler was born Dec. 23, 1942, in Milledgeville, Ga. Her father, Culver Kidd, was a Democrat who served in the Georgia legislature for four decades.

He pushed his daughter to pursue a profession, she once told a Jacksonville reporter, because he had seen widowed women during the Depression unable to earn a living. She said her father called her naturally argumentative, and thus it was decided she should go to law school.

After graduating from Emory University and its law school in the mid-1960s, Rep. Fowler spent three years as a legislative assistant to Rep. Robert G. Stephens Jr. (D-Fla.) because no Atlanta firm would hire a female litigator, she said.

She served in the White House as general counsel in the Office of Consumer Affairs from 1970 to 1971.

Afterward, Rep. Fowler moved to Jacksonville, where her husband's family lived, and grew active in volunteer activities and the Junior League. Those connections created an enormous base of supporters and money for her campaigns. She also switched party affiliations because of the Republicans' stated belief in small government.

She was a member of the Jacksonville City Council from 1985 to 1992. In 1989, as the first female council president, she ordered the arrest of three black council members who walked out of a council hearing when they were denied better funding for sewage and drainage projects affecting their constituents.

With several other council members absent, Rep. Fowler called in the police because she needed a quorum to continue work on passing the budget. In the aftermath, she spent significant time repairing the public relations damage and denying that her actions were racially motivated.

"Some people thought that would be the end of my career," she told the Jacksonville Times-Union in 2003. "But I wasn't thinking about my career."

She succeeded retiring Rep. Charles E. Bennett (D) in the House. She pledged to serve no more than four terms, a pledge she briefly reconsidered after a surge of negative television ads began calling her "Slick Tillie," a variation on a slur for President Bill Clinton.

In recent years, she was a Washington-based partner at the Holland & Knight law firm and did lobbying on behalf of Jacksonville during debate over military base realignment and closures.

Survivors include her husband of 37 years, L. Buck Fowler of Jacksonville; two daughters, Tillie A. Fowler of Washington and Elizabeth Fowler of San Francisco; a brother; and two sisters.

© 2005 The Washington Post Company

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3/4/2005

International Herald Tribune

Saturday-Sunday, February 19-20, 2005

Bush in Europe I • By Jean François-Poncet

# The case for negotiating with the mullahs

PARIS

While the skies of trans-Atlantic relations have become almost blue again, there persists a very serious disagreement that Condoleezza Rice, in the course of her well-received visit to Europe, either could not or did not want to resolve: Iran's nuclear program.

There is no doubt that this problem and the disagreements it creates will figure strongly in the talks President George W. Bush is about to hold with Europeans.

The difference is not over the desired result, but over how to achieve it. Neither Europeans nor Americans have any doubt about the military character of the Iranian program, nor about the unacceptable threat it poses not only to Israel, but to security and stability in the entire Middle East. They also agree that Iran's declarations, no matter how solemn, and inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency are not enough to guarantee that the program remain civil. That kind of certainty can come only from the renunciation by Iran of all activities linked to the enrichment of uranium and the separation of plutonium.

To achieve this assurance, France, Britain and Germany, with the support of their European partners, have chosen the path of negotiations. Not, as it is thought in Washington, out of appeasement or weakness, but because they believe that Iran aspires to escape from its economic and political isolation and is prepared to pay a high price to do so. Iran's industry is obsolete, and its economy is incapable of providing jobs for the 800,000 young people who enter the work force every year, forcing the best to leave the country.

Political ostracism has also prevented the regime from playing the role that it believes it is entitled to on the international stage. The fact that Iran agreed to suspend uranium enrichment during the negotiations indicates that it is interested in the European initiative.

But it has become increasingly clear that this interest will translate into an agreement only if the United States becomes involved in the process, directly or indirectly. The economic opening that Iran seeks requires, in effect, at least a partial lifting of the American embargo, which prevents Europe from delivering the equipment, notably the Airbus, and the advanced technologies that Iran wants. It is also obvious that Iran's application for membership in the World Trade Organization has no hope without Washington's

support. What Europe can offer on its own is not on the same level as the concessions it demands of Iran.

Condoleezza Rice wished the Europeans the best of luck, which was a departure from the skepticism shown up until then by the Americans. But best wishes are not enough, and there is nothing to indicate that on Iran, the United States is disposed to go any further. The justifiable antagonism that the ayatollahs inspire with their disregard for human rights, discrimination against women or support of Hezbollah and Hamas pushes the United States toward "regime change" as the political priority. Thus the refusal to negotiate, and the temptation to seek immediate Security Council sanctions, and then to proceed, if necessary, to the de-

struction of Iran's nuclear installations.

Would that weaken the regime? Probably not. More likely, Iranian public opinion, which may be hostile to the religious authorities but remains intensively nationalistic, would rally around the regime and against the West. The Iranian opposition, led by Shirin Ebadi, whose courageous struggle for human rights won her a Nobel Peace Prize, has publicly warned Washington against the politics of force.

What's more, while it is incontestable that the regime in Tehran is unpopular, that does not mean it is fragile. The regime has a totally loyal praetorian guard of 150,000 men in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, and with immense oil resources, it can placate malcontents with lavish handouts — which it does not hesitate to do.

That is why the only way out of this dilemma is for the United States to give the European-led negotiations every chance. If they succeed, they will eliminate the threat posed by the Iranian nuclear program while opening Iran to the world and obliging it to liberalize its economy, which is probably the best way in the medium term to weaken the religious regime.

If they fail, which is entirely possible, the Europeans will willingly rally around sanctions. And if Iran's nuclear sites are eventually destroyed, there will be less of a backlash, inside or outside Iran.

Jean François-Poncet, a member of the French Senate, is a former foreign minister of France.

> The U.S. must give
> European-led nuclear
> talks with Iran every
> chance.

CSIS • Global Strategy Institute

Future Watch

June 2005

## THE FAILED STATE INDUSTRY

Drawing heavily from experience in Iraq and Afghanistan, U.S. policymakers continue to wrestle with the question of how to transform failed and weakened states.

Francis Fukuyama, Professor in International Political Economy at Johns Hopkins University at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), engaged the topic of what he termed "Washington's new failed state industry" at a recent Global Strategy Institute (GSI) Forum. Fukuyama drew from his most recent book, *State Building: Governance and World Order in the 21st Century*. Among the keys to state building identified by Fukuyama are:

* Institutions matter more than market privatization

* Centralized approaches to state building, such as the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq, are unsustainable and ineffectual

* Afghanistan is a success because the international community achieved local buy-in and effectively ceded power to diverse local interests.

### Institutions and Markets

Rejecting the "shock therapy" approach famously taken in Russia by Jeffrey Sachs and others after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Fukuyama offered evidence that the establishment of rule of law through state institutions is more important than taking early steps to privatize the economy. Fukuyama finds agreement on this point not only from Russia's recent history, but also from an unlikely source, the outspoken free market economist Milton Friedman. Friedman has stated that privatization and the free market are meaningless without the rule of law.¹ Further supporting the impact of institutions and rule of law on markets is Michael Klein, Chief Economist at the International Finance Corporation and Vice President of Private Sector Development at the World Bank Group. Klein presented evidence at a GSI Forum earlier this year that poor regulatory governance can drag down countries by as much as 2.2% of annual economic growth.²

By creating a "stateness matrix," Fukuyama compared the ability of states to enforce violence, contracts, etc. (the strength of state functions) with the scope of their function (wide versus narrow, central planning versus laissez-faire). Another way of putting this is that the scope of state functions refers to the

number of functions a state and its institutions might take on, while the strength describes how well the state is managing its functions. In that sense, a country can be both large and weak at the same time. For example, Maoist China had a massive scope of state functions, but little state strength to look after them. As another example, the disintegration of the Soviet Union led to less government control (decreased scope), but also left in place a weak enforcer of the state functions (decreased strength). On the other hand, countries such as Afghanistan, Haiti, and Liberia are weak in both structure and scope. They are neither ambitious nor strong enough to foster solid institutions and wide scope.

Fukuyama's ideal state is situated at the upper left of the stateness matrix, with limited directed mandates for strong institutions. New Zealand, exemplifies this transition, having moved to the upper left of the matrix through a series of reforms in the second half of the 1980s.

However, you cannot force New Zealand reforms on Zimbabwe. The international community must have the patience and tolerance to see states select their own provisional paths, but to encourage along the way strong institutional development complemented with limited state scope.

### Wanted: Strong Institutions With Narrowly Defined Functions

Figure 1: Francis Fukuyama's "Stateness Matrix" showing changes over time.

Global Strategy Institute • Center for Strategic and International Studies
1800 K Street NW • Washington, D.C. 20006 • Tel: (202) 775-3157 • Email: 7revs@csis.org • Web: http://gsi.csis.org

Future Watch

Dr. Francis Fukuyama speaking at a Global Strategy Institute Forum on May 19, 2005. Dr. Fukuyama discussed what he termed "Washington's new failed state industry."

## Making Things Worse

Achieving this new approach to development requires local knowledge and cultural insight, which relies on strong local partnership and buy-in. International financial institutions and other donors—a necessary ingredient in the nation-building phase—often get heavily involved too early, applying complex solutions that disregard local constraints.

Fukuyama pointed to the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq and the High Representative in Bosnia as two recent cases of what he calls "authoritarian state building." There is generally a presumptuous attitude of the international community operating in failed and weak states—perhaps resulting from an attitude of "you got yourself into this, and we'll get you out." Today, nine years after the Dayton Accords, and with huge participation by international organizations, Bosnia Herzegovina is still unable to stand on its own. While the Iraqi liberation was regarded as a success in military terms, the reconstruction efforts, commonly known as Phase IV, have been a disappointment in the eyes of most people. Fukuyama observed that the Coalition Provisional Authority based many of its policies on faulty assumptions and inefficient public diplomacy, relying too heavily on military presence to achieve more nuanced goals.

The current situation is drastically different in Afghanistan,

where the international community was able to achieve an early return of sovereignty through the "light footprint" occupation model. Fukuyama argued, "We need to tolerate the loss of control in the interests of local buy-in." Working alongside local allies and funneling the resources through the Afghan government, the United States achieved its goals more quickly, though with a certain tolerance for less centralized authority.

## State Building Among the State Builders

With the war on terror and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, significant fault lines have developed in American foreign policy related to state building. Many Republicans are now the foremost advocates of democratization and state building—ideas strongly advocated by the Clinton Administration, and refuted by many Republicans during the 1990s. On the other side of the aisle, the Democratic Party has become increasingly averse to the process of state building. This reversal of party ideologies is more tragic than comic, Fukuyama argued, because building states remains an important component of American foreign policy, and that requires support across government.

To this end, Fukuyama called for a major reorganization of Washington soft power institutions like the US Agency for International Development, the Department of State, and the civil affairs units of the military. The United States would need to replace ad-hoc planning with a permanent institutional home for people with experience in prior efforts. The New Office of Stability and Reconstruction at the Department of State is a good starting point, but Fukuyama believes it will quickly be overwhelmed with the needs of the future. In short, the United States and the international community are finding it necessary to strengthen their state-building capabilities and to reconsider their approaches to this temperamental process.

### Endnotes

1. Preface to Economic Freedom of the World Report (James Gwartney et al, 2002: Fraser Institute)

2. Doing Business in 2005: Removing Obstacles to Growth

**In our next issue:**

**China's HIV/AIDS Crisis: A look at the future of HIV/AIDS in Second Wave Countries.**