Skip to content
  • Categories
  • Recent
  • Tags
  • Popular
  • Users
  • Groups
Skins
  • Light
  • Cerulean
  • Cosmo
  • Flatly
  • Journal
  • Litera
  • Lumen
  • Lux
  • Materia
  • Minty
  • Morph
  • Pulse
  • Sandstone
  • Simplex
  • Sketchy
  • Spacelab
  • United
  • Yeti
  • Zephyr
  • Dark
  • Cyborg
  • Darkly
  • Quartz
  • Slate
  • Solar
  • Superhero
  • Vapor

  • Default (No Skin)
  • No Skin
Collapse

The New Coffee Room

  1. TNCR
  2. General Discussion
  3. The George Schultz Diplomat Test

The George Schultz Diplomat Test

Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved General Discussion
11 Posts 6 Posters 80 Views
  • Oldest to Newest
  • Newest to Oldest
  • Most Votes
Reply
  • Reply as topic
Log in to reply
This topic has been deleted. Only users with topic management privileges can see it.
  • G Offline
    G Offline
    George K
    wrote on 16 Aug 2020, 21:27 last edited by
    #1

    https://adst.org/oral-history/fascinating-figures/george-shultz-country-united-states/

    MILLER: George Shultz, for many of us, was like God. He was a really good guy… He’d have all new ambassadors in to his office, one at a time, as they went out for a five, maybe 10 minute chat.

    And he’d say, “OK, Mr. Ambassador or Madame Ambassador, you’ve passed all the tests. You’ve been confirmed by the Senate and you’ve passed your security investigation. You’ve done all the things to get the position of ambassador, but you have to pass my test. I have one more for you.” And he’d take them over in the Secretary’s office to where there was this massive globe, and he’d say, “I’m going to spin the globe and I want you to put your hand on your country.”

    Shultz would tell this story, and he said, “Every single one of them failed. But I let them go anyway.” Because whenever he spun the globe and he’d say, “I want you to put your hand on your country,” they’d always put their hand on the country that they were going out to. His point was your country is the United States.

    "Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08

    The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.

    1 Reply Last reply
    • G Offline
      G Offline
      George K
      wrote on 16 Aug 2020, 21:27 last edited by
      #2

      (Jon already commented)

      Just think it's a neat story that shouldn't disappear.

      "Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08

      The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.

      1 Reply Last reply
      • H Offline
        H Offline
        Horace
        wrote on 16 Aug 2020, 21:45 last edited by
        #3

        I commented that this sort of idea, a simple reminder that international politics is a game where you should favor your own country, was part of Trump's appeal. Certainly, no democrat would express such an idea as if it were a simple and incontrovertible truth.

        Education is extremely important.

        1 Reply Last reply
        • M Away
          M Away
          Mik
          wrote on 16 Aug 2020, 22:20 last edited by
          #4

          It is nice for our ambassadors to be reminded that they are there for the benefit of the US, not their host country. If both can be accommodated, great, but still.

          "The intelligent man who is proud of his intelligence is like the condemned man who is proud of his large cell." Simone Weil

          1 Reply Last reply
          • A Offline
            A Offline
            Axtremus
            wrote on 16 Aug 2020, 23:58 last edited by Axtremus
            #5

            @George-K said in The George Schultz Diplomat Test:

            Shultz would tell this story, and he said, “Every single one of them failed. ..."

            According to the story, by Mr. Shultz's own admission, these are all people who have "passed all the tests.[...] confirmed by the Senate and you’ve passed your security investigation." -- yet they all "failed" Mr. Shultz's "last test."

            You've got to ask: what has the Foreign Service been teaching and testing these people, what have the Senate been doing to vet these people, such that they all "passed" everything only to fail Mr. Shultz's all important, all illuminating test?

            If the subject of Mr. Shultz's "test" is so important, so illuminating, the Foreign Service should have made it a fundamental part of its training, rather than leave it to Mr. Shultz to point it out after all the training, testing, and Senate confirmation are done.

            May be it already is part of the Foreign Service's training. I am more inclined to think that this story regarding Mr. Shultz's "test" is apocryphal.

            G 1 Reply Last reply 17 Aug 2020, 00:09
            • A Axtremus
              16 Aug 2020, 23:58

              @George-K said in The George Schultz Diplomat Test:

              Shultz would tell this story, and he said, “Every single one of them failed. ..."

              According to the story, by Mr. Shultz's own admission, these are all people who have "passed all the tests.[...] confirmed by the Senate and you’ve passed your security investigation." -- yet they all "failed" Mr. Shultz's "last test."

              You've got to ask: what has the Foreign Service been teaching and testing these people, what have the Senate been doing to vet these people, such that they all "passed" everything only to fail Mr. Shultz's all important, all illuminating test?

              If the subject of Mr. Shultz's "test" is so important, so illuminating, the Foreign Service should have made it a fundamental part of its training, rather than leave it to Mr. Shultz to point it out after all the training, testing, and Senate confirmation are done.

              May be it already is part of the Foreign Service's training. I am more inclined to think that this story regarding Mr. Shultz's "test" is apocryphal.

              G Offline
              G Offline
              George K
              wrote on 17 Aug 2020, 00:09 last edited by
              #6

              @Axtremus said in The George Schultz Diplomat Test:

              @George-K said in The George Schultz Diplomat Test:

              Shultz would tell this story, and he said, “Every single one of them failed. ..."

              According to the story, by Mr. Shultz's own admission, these are all people who have "passed all the tests.[...] confirmed by the Senate and you’ve passed your security investigation." -- yet they all "failed" Mr. Shultz's "last test."

              You've got to ask: what has the Foreign Service been teaching and testing these people, what have the Senate been going to vet these people, such that they all "passed" everything only to fail Mr. Shultz's all important, all illuminating test?

              If the subject of Mr. Shultz's "test" is so important, so illuminating, the Foreign Service should have made it a fundamental part of its training, rather than leave it for Mr. Shultz to point it out after all the training, testing, and Senate confirmation are done.

              May be it already is part of the Foreign Service's training. I am more inclined to think that this story regarding Mr. Shultz's "test" is apocryphal.

              Our Ax post of the day.

              "Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08

              The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.

              1 Reply Last reply
              • H Offline
                H Offline
                Horace
                wrote on 17 Aug 2020, 00:17 last edited by
                #7

                Free of charge, as always.

                Education is extremely important.

                1 Reply Last reply
                • T Offline
                  T Offline
                  taiwan_girl
                  wrote on 17 Aug 2020, 00:26 last edited by
                  #8

                  That is why most foreign ministries always rotate their statesmen. They do not want people to get too attached to a foreign country.

                  1 Reply Last reply
                  • J Offline
                    J Offline
                    Jolly
                    wrote on 17 Aug 2020, 00:43 last edited by Jolly
                    #9

                    Foggy Mind, meet Foggy Bottom...

                    “Cry havoc and let slip the DOGE of war!”

                    Those who cheered as J-6 American prisoners were locked in solitary for 18 months without trial, now suddenly fight tooth and nail for foreign terrorists’ "due process". — Buck Sexton

                    M G 2 Replies Last reply 17 Aug 2020, 00:53
                    • J Jolly
                      17 Aug 2020, 00:43

                      Foggy Mind, meet Foggy Bottom...

                      M Away
                      M Away
                      Mik
                      wrote on 17 Aug 2020, 00:53 last edited by
                      #10

                      @Jolly said in The George Schultz Diplomat Test:

                      Foggy Mind, meet Foggy Bottom...

                      😆

                      "The intelligent man who is proud of his intelligence is like the condemned man who is proud of his large cell." Simone Weil

                      1 Reply Last reply
                      • J Jolly
                        17 Aug 2020, 00:43

                        Foggy Mind, meet Foggy Bottom...

                        G Offline
                        G Offline
                        George K
                        wrote on 17 Aug 2020, 01:03 last edited by
                        #11

                        @Jolly said in The George Schultz Diplomat Test:

                        Foggy Mind, meet Foggy Bottom...

                        Well, that's certainly the post of the day.

                        "Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08

                        The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.

                        1 Reply Last reply
                        Reply
                        • Reply as topic
                        Log in to reply
                        • Oldest to Newest
                        • Newest to Oldest
                        • Most Votes

                        7/11

                        17 Aug 2020, 00:17


                        • Login

                        • Don't have an account? Register

                        • Login or register to search.
                        7 out of 11
                        • First post
                          7/11
                          Last post
                        0
                        • Categories
                        • Recent
                        • Tags
                        • Popular
                        • Users
                        • Groups