A former U.N. official makes the case for John Bolton.
BY CATHERINE BERTINI
Sunday, May 15, 2005 12:01 a.m. EDT
Opponents of John Bolton have been quite successful in portraying him as an ogre, not fit to be ambassador to the U.N. I strongly disagree. I've known him for 30 years, and I know that he expresses his views in a forthright manner so that everyone knows where he stands. But John listens with as much intensity as he speaks. He hears others' views, and will change his own if a counterargument proves convincing. I have seen him do this many times, and have been on both the "winning" and "losing" sides of discussions with him. It is difficult to participate in one of these discussions without developing a healthy respect for the logic of his conclusions--whether one agrees with him or not.
During the administration of George H.W. Bush, John was assistant secretary of state for international organizations. I was assistant secretary of agriculture. It was clear to me that John had a strong commitment to supporting U.S. leadership within the U.N., and of the importance of the U.N. to the U.S. He made significant efforts to improve the workings of the U.N., plunging into matters where he thought the U.S. could enhance U.N. operations, but was wise enough to try to fix only what was practicable. But the instinct was to fix: Shouldn't we have a U.N. ambassador like that?
John also promoted the appointment of more senior Americans within the U.N. I was a beneficiary. When Agriculture Secretary Clayton Yeutter proposed to Secretary of State Jim Baker that the U.S. should nominate one of its citizens to head the U.N. World Food Program, it was up to John to achieve this goal. No U.S. citizen had run the WFP before, so the conventional wisdom was that it wasn't worth the effort. But John challenged candidates from other countries for the appointment--and we were successful.
When I began my first term at WFP, John went out of his way to ensure that we received additional U.S. funding. Later, as I began a major effort to improve WFP efficiency, he continued to support our reform efforts after he left government. Some years later, a Clinton State Department official told me, "If you want to see real U.N. reform, look at WFP." The changes we accomplished started with support from John Bolton. Wouldn't we want to have a U.N. ambassador with a record of reform?
The U.N. faces a challenging year of reforms, with a Heads of State Summit to deliberate them. I want my ambassador to understand organically how the U.N. works and to know about its strengths and weaknesses, its governance structure and bureaucracy. I want my ambassador to be a forceful player, alive to U.S. interests, in the international dialogue which will lead to the steps necessary to strengthen the U.N. I believe John Bolton is that person.
Ms. Bertini was U.N. undersecretary-general for management (2003-05) and executive director of the World Food Program from 1992 through 2002.
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