bout de papier, Vol. 10, No. 1 (1993) — Winter 1993 // Hiver 1993, pp. 40–41
“I’ll be with you in a minute, Mr. Ambas-
sador”: The Education of a Canadian
Diplomat in Washington by Allan Gotlieb,
University of Toronto Press, 1991, 161 pp.,
$12.95.
Reviewed by Peter Dobell
Anyone interested in the dynamics of decision-making in the United States will find this book extremely enlightening. Readers with a background in diplomacy will experience an additional reward: they will discover that a posting to Washington is a unique experience, different in its challenges from serving in any other mission. Even those who have served in Washington in the past will be fascinated to learn how much the political geography has shifted.
The book is appropriately subtitled “The Education of a Canadian Diplomat” Gotlieb frequently illuminates his analysis of the fascinating intricacies of the USA political system — the decentralization of power within Congress on the one hand and the limitations on Presidential power on the other — through experiences and anecdotes that contributed to his own education.
Gotlieb dramatizes the novelty of the diplomacy which he and his staff in Washington practised — lobbying within the Administration and the Congress to promote Canadian interests — by quoting from Arnold Heeney’s memoirs. Heeney served twice as Ambassador in Washington and was enormously effective. Yet in writing about his two terms there, he mentions only one visit to Congress. The fact that this was to Lyndon Johnson, then the Majority House Leader, and that Johnson was able to give a commitment to stop an action of the Congress — something no majority leader today could undertake to do — is used by Gotlieb to emphasize how much power in that institution has been dispersed.
I was disappointed that Gotlieb had not attempted to trace the evolution of the Embassy’s relations with Congress. Mr. Pearson once advocated USA participation in NATO directly to a Member of Congress and was subsequently requested firmly by the Secretary of State to leave Congress to the Administration. Although very little has been written on this theme, the experiences of a number of subsequent ambassadors could have been quite easily collected and would have provided an interesting background.
My presumption is that such an inquiry would confirm that Gotlieb affected something of a revolution in the audacity with which he approached Congress. a dramatic change in approach for Canada, it was a road some other countries had already travelled. The British Embassy, for example, had many years earlier recognized the importance of Congress. When I first launched a program in the early 1970s to bring Congressmen to Canada, virtually every Member of Congress whom I met in those years referred to Mr. Drover (whose first name I cannot recollect) who was a Counsellor in the British Embassy. I remember asking Marcel Cadieux, then Ambassador in Washington, who Drover was; Marcel described him as a minor official. I eventually arranged to spend an evening with Drover and discovered that he had been on the British Embassy staff for twenty years, building links with Congressmen and trading — at a time when invitations to Congressmen to travel abroad were limited — on his ability to invite them to attend meetings at Ditchley House at British Government expense. This was a time when Congressmen were still largely ignored by foreign governments, so that a determined middle-rank officer could gain access to their offices. Now the working environment of Congress has changed so dramatically that even an Ambassador with a problem of direct concern to a Congressman may be kept waiting —as the title of the book suggests.
Although the British may have started early, they were quickly out-distanced by others who were more purposeful. Israel, exploiting the organized strength of the Jewish community in the United States, has long occupied a unique position in terms of its capacity to influence Congress. For those countries whose culture and language render easy communication with Congressmen difficult, the solution has been to turn to paid lobbyists. Japan for many years has done this discreetly and effectively, in circumstances complicated by the rancour in official dialogue between the two countries.
The extent of this practice of using paid intermediaries, not all of whom have exercised the same discretion, was revealed when the Koreagate scandal surfaced over a decade ago. By this time, Members of Congress were being inundated with offers of costly travel and lavish entertainment, all intended to garner favours of the country making the offer to protect itself. Congress responded by establishing procedures for vetting foreign invitations, in the form of the “Ethics Committees” of the House of Representatives and of the Senate.
During the past decade, the reach of Congress on matters such as trade, energy and environment policies has been extended so far that a neighbouring country such as Canada must pay close attention to the legislature. Gotlieb perceived how important Congress had become and proceeded to change the way the Canadian Embassy operated. He recognized that the entire Embassy had to reach out to Congress if they wanted to gain the attention of Members. In the past, the Embassy cultivated Congress by offering Members hospitality; but as Congress became busier, these opportunities declined. I recollect hearing of a luncheon offered by Ambassador Marcel Cadieux for Ron Basford, then Canadian Minister of the Environment, for Members of Congress. Eight had accepted to meet the Minister. Yet when the time came to sit down, none had come to the residence because votes had intervened. The guests were to be distinguished only by the fact that the more polite had phoned at the last moment to say they could not come.
Now that the new Embassy has been erected less then five minutes from Capitol Hill, this is scarcely a problem. Thanks to the initial foresight of Jake Warren, while he was Ambassador, and the determination of Gotlieb that the project be completed, the former incumbent, Derek Burney, and his colleagues have a facility ideally placed for entertaining Congressmen. It facilitates both the social and physical dimensions of lobbying Congress, an actuality that has become so important for Canada.
Having acknowledged Allan Gotlieb’s role in transforming the focus of Canadian diplomacy in Washington, it is interesting to look at a report entitled Canada-United States Relations: the Institutional Framework for the Relationship issued by the Canadian Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs in 1975. The Chair of that Committee for many years, Senator George van Roggan, is known best for his advocacy of free trade with the United States. This earlier report, which has not received the attention it deserves, shows that in another respect van Roggan was also ahead of his time. Specifically the Committee urged
“the government to recognize that it is of crucial importance to Canada’s relationship with the United States that the Embassy take a more positive approach to Congress. Contact with Congress has been neglected too long…. Congress should become an area of concentration for Canadian efforts and… the government should provide the Embassy as soon as possible with the instructions and the means for an expanded Congressional relations programme.”
The Senate Committee likewise advocated other approaches that Gotlieb subsequently pioneered. These included the conscious support and involvement of provincial authorities during visits to Washington and resort to arbitration and other dispute-settling instruments rather than depending exclusively on traditional diplomacy.
Gotlieb’s book is timely. As the United States’ largest trading partner, it is no surprise that Canada is being hit by a number of defensive actions launched by USA commercial and industrial interests that have been hurt by the recession. While our primary line of defence must be the dispute-settling mechanisms developed as part of the Free Trade Agreement, some problems can be headed off through maintaining close relations with key Members of Congressional committees. This means that the Embassy must be constantly on the watch for actions by Congress that could adversely affect Canadian interests. This is a never-ending task that requires good intelligence and easy access on Capitol Hill, which the Embassy now has thanks to Gotlieb.
“I’ll be with you in a minute, Mr. Ambassador” is based on four public lectures given by Allan Gotlieb at the University of Toronto. To provide a transition from lecture to lecture, there is some repetition that is unnecessary in a short book that can be read in one sitting. This apart, it is easy and enjoyable to read, and it makes a substantial contribution to our understanding of the American political system.
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Originally published in bout de papier, Vol. 10, No. 1 (1993) — Winter 1993 // Hiver 1993, pp. 40–41. Read the rest of this issue →
