Another Diplomat Speaks Out Against Bolton
by TChris
Another former colleague of John Bolton has advanced the opinion that Bolton's lack of diplomatic skills makes him an inappropriate choice to serve as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
[Frederick] Vreeland, who worked with Bolton in the early 1990s under the first President Bush, said Bolton "dealt with visitors to his office as if they were servants with whom he could be dismissive, curt and negative."
"He spoke of the U.N. as being the enemy," Vreeland added in the e-mail sent Friday to Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware. The e-mail was first reported by Time magazine. "It is totally erroneous to speak of Bolton as a diplomat."
According to Vreeland, if the Bush administration's policy is "not to reform the U.N but to destroy it" -- and that very well may be the Bush administration's unstated policy -- "Bolton is our man."
Bolton may have appeared isolated within the State Department in the first term, but his policy objectives were often in the mainstream of the rest of the administration, especially Cheney's office and the Defense Department. That has made it difficult for opponents of his nomination to attack his policy views, and has helped keep the public focus on how he dealt with subordinates.
"The problem he faces is not that he's a tough guy and is down on the U.N.," said Geoffrey Kemp, a former Reagan administration official now at the Nixon Center. "Most of the Bush administration feels the same way."
| < School Paying Cash to Snitches | Mistaken Arrest in Memphis > |
