MOUNT MADONNA SCHOOL
Interview with Ben Chang
Special Assistant
to Secretary of State Madeleine Albright
May 18th, 2000
Ben Chang: My name is Ben Chang, I am a fourth
tour Foreign Service Officer. I've been with the Service
for about five and a half years. I currently serve
as one of the two special assistants to Secretary
Albright in the front office here.
My
last job, which just ended Friday, was across the hallway,
as a line officer, which is slang in the Department
for someone who does advance work for the Secretary.
I'll continue to wear that hat on occasion when necessary.
For example, Tuesday I leave for two weeks to Moscow
to advance her presentation in the US-Russia summit.
I can talk a little bit more about what that involves,
if you're interested. I went to college in Washington,
at Georgetown University. I'm actually from the area.
I went to high school in Northern Virginia. I can
tell you a little bit about the tours I've served in
overseas if you're interested, but I think most important
are questions that you may be armed with. I know that
you've had quite a distinguished group of speakers and
presenters preceding me, so I don't know if I can really
shed any more light on what the Foreign Service and
our State Department is all about except through my
own personal experience. I think the best thing is to
turn this over to you in a moment. One of the
first caveats I was given when I joined the Foreign
Service was that half of diplomacy; fully half of diplomacy
is really saying nothing at all, especially when you're
speaking. So I will endeavor to keep my remarks short.
I know that I am simply the warm-up, as I understand
it, to Alyse Nelson; but I am happy to be here. I am
a professed cheerleader for the Foreign Service, and
I have some booster remarks about joining the ranks
to add to some of your previous speakers.
Alyse Nelson: It would be interesting to know
about the tours or cycles you've been through.
Ben Chang: I joined
in January of '95, about eight months after I graduated
from college, and I started out in El Salvador, in San
Salvador. I had two years there; one year as a consular
officer, which is in my book, sort of a boot camp that
all new officers go through, no matter what area of
specialization they end up with. I did political
work there. It was a medium-sized embassy. As many of
you know I'm sure, it's a country that has quite a history
with the United States, both good and bad. It was a
fascinating place to spend my first tour. Small enough
where I could have a good chunk of responsibility, large
enough where there was really a fun to be a part of
the community. I helped start the embassy soccer team,
and embassy soccer league, where we played the Salvadoran
employees of the embassy and other folks outside of
the embassy, and just had a really good time of it all. I
then went up to New York, where I spent two years at
the United Nations. Going from El Salvador to New York
was like realizing, "I'm not in Kansas anymore." New
York city, was a place I had only visited; a huge city,
and of course, in many respects the heart of world diplomacy,
with the UN having its main headquarters there. I
thoroughly enjoyed it. It is a cosmopolitan city. The
UN is an environment within which you are negotiating
with at least fourteen other countries as part of the
Security Council and many more when you're in the General
Assembly. For a year I was Ambassador Richardson's staff
assistant, which basically entailed carrying his bag
of papers and his cell phone for him. It was two days
at the White House, two days in New York, and meetings
in Boston and Beijing, and so on. Then I did a
year or more of political work in the Security Council.
Through that work, I got a chance to meet with, and
interact with the Secretary's and the President's advance
folks, and that's how I became interested in the job
here in Washington. I came down to do advance work for
the Secretary for a year, which I can hardly believe
has gone by, going to fifteen countries or so, on her
behalf. Anyway, so that is it in a nutshell. And at
this point I really will turn it over to any questions
or areas that are of interest to you.
Dante Branciforte: What motivated you to become
involved in a life of public service, and why did
you decide on the Foreign Service?
Ben Chang: Because no one else would take me (laughter).
Actually, it's a good and timely question because on
Tuesday I'm going to Russia. When I was in high school,
I traveled to what was then the Soviet Union, at least
five times in a series of student to student exchanges.
This was back in the days of Glasnost, at the time Gorbachev
had just come into power Russia, Samantha Smith had
just made her big trip there as just a private citizen
to Russia. These were very exciting times. I was part
of a movement of what we called citizen diplomacy, students,
teachers, musicians, artists were all going over to
the Soviet Union in a sense helping to move along the
stall in our relations. It was those experiences
that inspired me to learn more about the world around
me, and how the United States interacted on that larger
scheme. I'd never been out of the country before that,
having grown up in Washington, DC and in suburban Washington,
and I was just fascinated. I had a chance to travel
with students from across the country, so it also inspired
me to really realize what it meant to represent your
country overseas. We met with young pioneer groups,
essentially the boy scouts and girl scouts of the Soviet
Union, and realized what an exciting experience it was
to show what the United States was in person, as opposed
to through Rambo movies or McDonalds or what have you.
I also had a chance to travel to Central America in
1987, and in a week's time we traveled through El Salvador,
Nicaragua, Guatemala, and Costa Rica. The mid-eighties
were not only a very exciting time in US-Soviet relations,
but as one knows, in Central America, we had quite an
interesting time as well. And we met with folks like
Daniel Ortega, Duarte, folks that were sort of the key
points for us in many ways policy wise. We were a bunch
of students, and it was fascinating to go as students
interacting with folks in completely non-political faces.
What that did was inspire me to study Spanish as opposed
to Latin. Latin isn't exactly a modern language of diplomacy
these days. Spanish was a little more widely accepted
around the world. Then when I had a chance, I joined
the Foreign Service. So my top two choices were El Salvador
and Moscow. I ended up going to El Salvador, and in
a sense went full circle. My going back to Russia on
Tuesday will be the first time in about nine or ten
years. Personally it will be an interesting moment just
to see what it's like now, and to go as a real diplomat,
instead of as a student. I hope that answers your question.
Katie Fayram: Is there such thing as an average
day around here, and if so, what is it like?
Ben Chang: I
suppose there is. This is the Secretary's schedule for
today, and unfortunately, I think it's kind of average.
Her day started at 7:15 and ends at 9:00 o'clock. So
my day started at 6:00 and hopefully ends with this
interview. It's a good note to end on. If you know
Secretary Albright, you know she's a very dynamic secretary,
and in this office, she has a very active schedule,
with all the meetings in the Department, outreach in
Washington, and of course a very busy travel schedule.
My answer to your question would have been different
last week. This week, the average day is as a special
assistant. I came in at six o'clock in the morning.
The purpose of that is to make sure that I get all her
papers ready, before she arrives. So I've got an hour
to get together her morning briefings, and review what
happened in the last twelve to sixteen hours around
the world. We give her information about Sierra
Leone, about Eritrea, about China, for example. We also
give her her morning intelligence summaries and such,
memos, and materials prepared for her according to her
various meetings throughout the day. Then it's just
a matter of making sure that we keep track of all of
that. Her schedule may change and we have to get new
information. She is busy making phone calls, and receiving
more information from the Department throughout the
day. There are also various memoranda, information
memoranda, action memoranda, asking her to decide to
transmit a report to Congress, or decide to appoint
an ambassador. There's a steady stream of information
that's coming up to our office that is fed through the
bureaucracy. We're the final folks who package it, stick
it in a folder, and put it on her desk. After she
marks some action, or request for further information
or what have you, it comes back out to us, we're responsible
for 'outboxing it,' literally processing it and sending
it back to the department as a whole, so that they can
respond. And in that sense we're sort of a clearing-house
that just chugs on through the day. That of course will
change when I go on the road. I'll be leading a small
team in Moscow, to join up with the White House advance
and the embassy where we will in the course of a week
and a half, walk through every step of her visit. From
the point she gets off the airplane, to the point she
gets back on, to meetings, motorcades, where she has
her dinner, where she has her briefings, and so on.
We'll set up at the hotel. We'll take over an average
a whole floor for her; usually two for the president
and the staff. We'll convert some of the rooms into
offices, take out the beds, put in desks, computers,
phones, the whole bit. And so, while I don't physically
do all that myself, I'll be overseeing that, and knowing
that I have know her schedule like the back of my hand.
So when she arrives, I'm the person who gets out of
the car that's ahead of her. And I don't lead her by
the hand, but folks may cue off me just so they know
which way to go: left instead of right, upstairs instead
of down, where's the living room, where's the bathroom,
etc.
Mr. Rohan: What was it like being a diplomat
in a foreign country at such a young age?
Ben Chang:
It was fun. It was a lot of fun. I like that question.
I like it because I hope that I'm still kind of young.
The more I talk to groups like this the older I feel. Let
me back up for a second to when I went in training.
About four or five times a year the Foreign Service
would bring in a new class. It's like going back to
school again. You're essentially learning about the
State Department, about working in this DC environment
and in the bureaucracy, and then learning the specific
skills to serve overseas. It's a lot like school.
The average age was twenty-eight or twenty-nine. There
were a couple of us who were straight out of school,
there were also a couple of folks who had finished a
full career, a retired NYPD detective, or a real estate
agent, a PHD professor at Harvard. We were all together
starting at the same point. So at first, I'm wondering
what am I doing here. I have a bachelors degree. I speak
one language instead of four, two if you count English
(laughter). I didn't have experience beyond a little
stint in a telecommunications company; not a lot of
private sector experience, or other government experience.
Then I realized that that's not necessarily a bad thing.
First of all, I was there because I qualified. More
importantly, there is a great diversity in our Foreign
Service. This really comes to the fore in New York,
where you're with your counterparts from other countries,
in the Security Council, and they have their junior
diplomats in back of them, taking notes with you. But
when you go into negotiations you realize the United
States Foreign Services is diverse in not just in terms
of minorities and women, but also in age and background
and experience, and to me that's a strength. You know
that in the Japanese or French or British foreign ministries,
those people have a graduate degree. The Japanese will
have people in training for two years instead of the
eight months that I did. But each person brings in their
own strengths. I think there's a certain dynamism to
the US Foreign Service and a flexibility that is rare
to find. In El Salvador, the humorous side of my
experience is two-fold. So I'm answering a question
that you didn't exactly ask. Being a young Asian American,
I would be at the visa line. If you can imagine sort
of Plexiglas window, you're at a desk, and there is
a line of ten, twenty, or even a hundred people applying
for visas to come to the United States. These interviews
are fairly straightforward and fairly quick, but you
try to put a human touch to them and so in Spanish you'd
ask them why do you want to go to the United States,
have you been there before, do you have any family there. Then
you may say, "I'm sorry, you don't qualify for a visa,"
stamp their passport, hand it back. Every once in a
while, one of the applicants would turn and say, "Well
bueno joven," which is Spanish for young man. "Do you
think I could maybe speak with the consular officer
now to really see if I could get a visa," or "well,
you know, "do you think I could speak with the American
consular officer. Or, "Oh well, do you think I could
get a visa for Japan instead?" Then I would say, "You'd
go to the Japanese embassy for that." There were
little things like that, which we'd kind of chuckle
at. And of course, other people in line would also chuckle,
because they realized that I was the consular officer.
The empowering thing was that, along with other colleagues,
I was entrusted to adjudicate US immigration law. So
that's what it was like. But it was a lot of fun, because
it's a great way to see the world, and at this age,
to have the opportunity to go out, and then become a
part of this broader community. I could hop in my jeep,
go to Guatemala, or just getting to a part of El Salvador
and the culture that I didn't expect was one of the
advantages. Being young at heart helped with that.
Student: What do you think about the
balance in funding in the recently proposed Plan
Colombia?
Ben Chang:
I don't know a lot about Plan Colombia. Though a lot
has crossed my desk about it.
Mr. Malliard: We got a briefing on it before
we left home. A woman who's working with the indigenous
people, the U'wa people, who are fighting to preserve
their land from the oil incursions by Occidental Petroleum.
She's very up on the issues of Colombia. She's actually
an environmentalist that works different places in
the world, to try to preserve areas. She definitely
was coming at it from the standpoint concern over
the balance between armaments and humanitarian aid,
which Congressman Sensenbrenner told us about yesterday.
Ben Chang: I don't know
a lot about Plan Colombia. I do think that the concern
that people have expressed is a concern that we should
all share, the balance between combating drug trafficking
and it's various effects on society, both ours and theirs
is important. And the balance of humanitarian needs. The
Pastrana government has made certain choices as to how
to balance all these concerns. One of our bottom lines,
and this is really speaking personally at this point,
is to ensure that together we can do what is necessary
to combat drug trafficking and production in Colombia,
while doing so in a democratic framework.
Columbia, for the US is a key country as a developing
democracy. The issues at hand involve a lot more than
just drugs and I think that aside from Plan Colombia,
specifically the overall purpose of the administration
is to acknowledge that importance and try to balance
those concerns.
You
have an insurgency; you have a far right as well, that
has to be addressed, and the indigenous issues too.
So to the extent that Plan Colombia is part of that
plan, part of that approach, it's an important one in
the administrations. As to the funding, that's something
that the Secretaries deal with up on the hill (in Congress).
We had that whole battery of hearings from January-February,
and I know that it's something that's still being discussed. What
I'll do now is sort of classic beltway. I'll take the
chance to use this as a springboard to talk about an
issue that you didn't bring up, and that is the funding
of our foreign programs in general. I think that it
needs to be stated at every opportunity we have. One
of our great concerns, mine as a regular citizen as
well as a State Department officer, is the funding of
our foreign aid programs, and our foreign policy programs.
Suffice it to say that the amount of money, and the
amount of energy that goes into seeing how we can pare
down the foreign policy budget is alarming. The
UN Ambassador and others will be on the Hill trying
to fight the good fight on this one. The can do so to
the extent that people will go back and talk to each
other about it, educate themselves, and their representatives.
I think is important, to see the imbalance of the funding
and the ground that we cover as foreign policy institutions. At
this point I would want to include not just the State
Department, but folks like A.I.D, the Peace Corps, little
things like the VOA, there are so many programs that
are out there that are really critical to us not only
as Americans traveling overseas, but also to the rest
of the world's impression of us. I think it's important. This
was driven home for me most in New York. My portfolio
in the Security Council was Sub-Saharan Africa. Fully
sixty five percent of the Security Council's agenda
in the past couple years has been African issues. When
your country or your issue is before the Security Council
chances are it's not a rosy picture. The Security Council
is charged with addressing issues of international security,
usually when it's going to hell. Ethiopia, Eritrea,
Sierra Leone, Angola, the Congo these are all countries
that are at war basically. When we would debate the
merits of sending observers, peace keepers, and looking
at various funding programs in foreign aid through the
UN, through individual countries, inevitably we would
often sound a note of precaution. I think for all the
right reasons. We have learned a lot of lessons
in the past several years. One of the more tragic was
Somalia. Haiti is another example we visited there,
and I also covered Haiti when I was at the UN. Our approach
in the Security Council is to ensure that all planning
of sending people into these countries is based on having
a clear, active strategy, rules of engagement, etc. At
the same time, we often come across as being penny pinchers.
And no one is hiding this fact, we have congressional
considerations when we we're talking about funding these
programs. The United States funds twenty percent of
the overall UN budget; twenty-five of its peacekeeping
budget. That's a huge amount. Now as one of the
world's richest countries, that would seem to make sense.
At the same time, when you look at the way the world
has changed since those scales of assessment were set,
there can be a more equitable balance. All of
that is simply to say that I would be at meetings, I
would be in the cafeteria, I would be in the elevator
at the UN, I would go out for drinks with colleagues
afterwards, inevitably, even if it was just sort of
jokingly, people would rib us about "Yeah, but you guys
don't pay your bills. You can say all this but, put
your money where your mouth is." Recently, we are
now coming more up to speed. At the same time, what
was indicative for our counterparts, as much as we would
protest, as much as we would try to explain the division
of powers within our governmental system, Congress,
Executive branch. As much as we would say all of that,
the bottom line for a lot of our colleagues would be
"but it's America that is not paying it's bills." Because
at the end of the day, who is Congress? Elected representatives
of the American people. What is the Executive branch?
It is the same thing. The response was, "If they've
got issues and problems, let them fight it out. You're
still not paying your bills." And so it started to wear
on us, but it also impressed me as a young diplomat,
just how palpable this was to the rest of the world
at least to those in New York. That the United States
was sending mixed signals about its engagement in the
world.
We talk about being an indispensable nation. We talk
about being engaged around the world. I think it's
critical that we really show that. That doesn't mean
throwing money at things. We don't want to do that.
At the same time, we don't want to show an erosion
of interest in pioneering around the world. So in
a roundabout way there's an answer to you question.
Jacobs-Smith: Who at the State Department
do you admire most, and why?
Ben Chang: A couple, I have two answers to
that. One, of course, and the right answer is, Secretary
Albright, especially since this is on the record. I
might go home so tired and downtrodden and hungry, and
not really remembering what my bed looks like and so
on. I just remember that my schedule is half to maybe
two thirds at most of what hers is. The Secretary and
the foreign policy team as a whole is incredibly driven.
Undersecretary Pickering is another person as
a career officer, and he's sort of one of us, that is
committed, that are driven, and that have these huge
reserves. And I'm supposedly so young and full of energy.
And I look at them and I wonder "how do they do this?"
I've been on the road with these people. We did
this one trip, where I was on a team of two that did
twenty-four hour mobile office setup on her (The Secretary's)
plane and in these hotels. We did this trip to south
Asia to join up with the president. We started out in
Italy. We went to Italy, New Delhi, Geneva, Bombay,
Muscat, Geneva. And if you know your geography, that's
a lot of crossing back and forth. It was a ten-day trip,
five nights we spent on the plane. Where we took off
at night, spent the night on the plane, arrive the next
morning went into meetings. The Secretary did that.
Maybe I had a hotel bed for a few hours. At least I
didn't have to sit there with foreign counterparts and
negotiate. This is stunning. I mean it's incredible
to be able to do that. That's not to say that she didn't
go home and take a nap or something. The other
folks that I admire the most are the so-called, "faceless
bureaucrats" that make this place run. In particular
there's an echelon here called XS. These are deputy
executive secretaries. These are career officers that
have been in for maybe fifteen years or so, who are
senior, maybe about to become ambassadors, that work
tirelessly, making these trips happen. When you see
a motorcade rip through a city, maybe I've determined
how many cars are there, but the folks that those are
carrying the folks that are making sure the papers that
she gets say the right thing at the right time, are
these folks, and they a very a sort of the cream of
the crop, they are the dedicated officers that will
continue through administrations. Those are the ones
that I think make this place run.
Laura Johnson: As relatively young person
with experience in foreign relations, do you think
that the youth of America have enough awareness and
respect for other cultures?
Ben Chang: I think so. I don't want to present myself as
someone who's terribly in touch with the youth America.
But I think so. For good or bad through a series of
outlets that exist. And I sort of take this from a reverse
perspective. When I'm overseas, and I look at the
pervasiveness of American culture, which a lot of people
decry as American cultural imperialism--I look at its
immense appeal and ability to win people in a very friendly
way. Some people view this as a little more insidious
than I do, and maybe I'm just casting myself as very
naïve, but I think that American youth has the ability
to tap in to so much around the world. I think the Internet,
and it sounds like a cliche, because everyone is saying
it, has really has opened us up. It's a powerful tool
in enhancing our ability to reach out to other cultures. I
would like to see your question focused a bit more,
I'd love for it to become more of a campaign issue.
The Internet's a campaign issue; education's a campaign
issue. I think your question should be a campaign issue.
How much, how prepared are America's youth to interface
with the rest of the world? If you look at popular
culture, we have a great ability to appropriate things
and cast them in our own light. Whether it's Latino
pop and Ricky Martin or Mark Anthony, or the rave scene
taking world beat, and Afro-Caribbean rhythm and turning
it into house music. We've got this great ability to
assimilate and absorb and I'd like to see that more
elevated.
Alicia Weston-Miles: How has your experience
in the State Department, and living your own life
abroad changed the way you see our culture?
Ben Chang:
That's a fun question. Hand in hand with what I just
said, when I do these advances, when I go overseas,
I'm usually there for just a a brief time, a week or
two. Tashkent, Uzbekistan, Lisbon, Portugal, Nairobi,
Kenya, wherever it might be, Cedar Rapids, Iowa. I go
all sorts of exotic places. What I like to do is I like
to get rid of the suit and tie quickly, and put on a
pair of jeans and go to the market place, go the club
or whatever, and sort of just absorb a little bit. To
say that I really know about any of these places, beyond
being a tourist is a little disingenuous. But I try
to get in to the culture a little. And I see what I
just described as the pervasiveness of American culture. But
I also look back and see really two things, one on the
official side, the amount of sheer stuff we've mobilized
for these visits, is impressive and overwhelming. For
example when the president travels, so do literally
hundreds of people. He arrives in two planes. I mean,
he's in one obviously. (LOUD LAUGHTER) I think, wow,
it's really a great thing to be an American. But it's
got another edge to it, in that when you're in another
country, like New Guinea, and the secretary arrives
and you're whipping through by droves in this motorcade,
you see the contrast there and it's just stunning. I
don't mean to make it sound like it's rich versus poor
or what have you, but we have a presence around the
world, and people stop to see what's going on. I've
coordinated speeches the Secretary has given at the
universities, whether it's the University of World Economy
and Diplomacy in Tashkent, or in the University of California
at Berkeley. To see the response that she gets, the
keen interest people have in her, whether it's because
she's a woman, or she's the Secretary of State, or because
she's Jewish, or because she's an immigrant, or whatever
it is. And to be a part of that machine is really awe-inspiring.
So that's one thing I would look at. The second
thing is I still do look at the United States, and I
do feel a certain pride. We can be an incredible force
for change. We clearly have interests, which is sort
of a catch word, now that you've been around the beltway
for a while, you've probably heard it. We have interests
around the world, and we are one of the few countries
that can truly say that. We're one of the few
countries that has an office for every region around
the world, and an officer dedicated to that region.
And I'm proud to be part of a country that has that
reach. Again, that can have a double edge to it, people
say "You meddle in the rest of the world's affairs."
I don't look at it that way, I look at it as having
an interest in the rest of the world. And being a resource,
and being a force, ideally, for good. Ideally for the
interests of our people, and our peoples' interaction
with those around the world. I'm very awed by that at
times.
Jenny Johnston: Do you find it hard to balance
the demands of your career and finding time for your
social life?
Ben Chang: Extremely, and a strange
thing happens, where your career becomes your social
outlet. And it's not necessarily a bad thing, let this
be a word of caution to you. You all are by the looks
and sounds of it an ambitious and bright bunch, and
a few of you may be inspired after your weeks here to
join the government, or the Foreign Service. It
sounds trite and silly for some reason, for me at twenty-eight
to be saying this, but you need to balance everything
in life. And one of my great lessons over five years
has been how to do that. Both in the office, but also
in, as you put it, social life. This past year has been
a blur, I have the urge to be honest with you, even
though we just met, I've been on the road for fully
half that year, and one of the funny things is that
I'm back now in my college town, and I have friends
and family here. So we might get together one night
and over drinks, someone will say "Let's go to the football
game on Saturday," and I'll say "no, I'm not going to
be here, I'll be in Paris." "So maybe when you come
back," "okay when I come back." And I come back and
find out I have to go back out on the road. Or maybe
I'll up someone I want to get together with, for dinner,
or for that brunch, and they can't do it. Things happen,
right? "Well how about next week?" "Well, I won't be
around next week." So I've found that I've deferred
seeing people a month at a time. And at the end of the
day while meeting is a lot of fun, because I get to
talk about all these exotic places I've been, at the
same time I really have to work harder to keep that
connection. I mean you have to not forget that friends
are still out there waiting to hear from you. Because
what'll happen is believe it or not life goes on when
you're not around, and so people will continue to plan
their parties, and continue to plan their reunions and
their football games. And unless you tell them you're
back in town, they'll assume you're not. You find yourself
marking what were once momentous occasions in life like
birthdays and such in odd places, like Uzbekistan. But
it can also be a lot of fun, and it's been good for
a year. I at least have the comfort as odd as it is
that I am part of a team that is also dealing with those
competing concerns. But my goal after this job is to
live on that beachfront for a couple years in a place
that has a nice beach and very little strategic interest.
Alyse Nelson: He'd be bored after a couple
hours (laughter).
Jahmin Lerum: What have been some of the major
challenges in your career, and how have you dealt
with them?
Ben Chang: One of the main challenges is trying to remember
where I put my keys (laughter). So when I return from
one of these trips it's in one of my suitcases, and
it's late at night at Andrews air force base. Aside
from that, juggling, the fine art of juggling things.
Whether it's staff work, which has been about half of
my career, or juggling someone else's schedule, which
was one of the oddest things for me to absorb. When
I was Richardson's staff aide, my life was sort of beside
the point. I had to know what his schedule was every
step of the way, and know it better than he did. Because
he would turn and say "what do I do next, where do I
go, who am I supposed to call? And where's my wife,
and where's my clean suit," and all these things, and
I'd have to know that. And that was, juggling schedules
and juggling personal concerns, and juggling issues
at the UN and here. I think it fits my personality more
than being a specific desk officer. I like dealing with
a broad array of issues at the same time because, while
you don't scratch too deeply, you have a wide breadth
of things you're dealing with. It involves keeping
on top of the latest state of play in Sierra Leone,
and Ethiopia and Eritrea at the same time. And you feel
like you're almost battling, to use the war analogy,
two different fronts at the same time. That can also
be terribly exciting, and that's what I've enjoyed;
I had to learn, almost like training a reflex or instinct
how to do that. And that's been tough, just basic organizational
skills. It's like taking 19 credits in college or something,
you know? It's like that game in the amusement park.
Laura Johnson: Whack-a-mole?
Ben Chang: Yes.
Derrick Diaz: As a young person in the state
department, do you think your talent and hard work
are the main springboard to getting your new responsibility
or do you think that the hierarchy is based more on
seniority.
Ben Chang:
No, I think the system in place can reward talent and
hard work no matter what the rank. I base a lot of my
success on dumb luck, or being willing to take work
that most people would cringe at, but I'm to naïve not
to. No, part of what you have to do is you have to realize
how to sell your strengths. I don't mean to be obsequious
and I don't mean to be sort of a blatant self promoter,
but you need to know what your strengths are, and once
you realize that, you need to know how to best display
them. And that's not a bad thing. When you apply
for college, and you apply for jobs, and when you apply
for internships, you just do that. But you have to learn
for yourself first what your strengths are. And that
can be one of the toughest things. Hopefully there are
college counselors and career counselors to help with
that. It's always good to keep that short list in your
mind. And always present it up front. And that has gotten
me the jobs that I did. That's particularly key.
Jesse Bazarnick: How much pressure do you
feel to perform in your job perfectly?
Ben Chang: Immense. Immense!
In all honesty part of it might be the age. When I was
in El Salvador and I covered the electoral reform process,
Salvador had just come out of a civil war, there were
peace accords. They were going through legislative peace
accord mandated reforms in the judicial system and the
electoral system. I covered the second round of
legislative elections since the war ended. I had to
learn the whole electoral code of El Salvador, which
is in Spanish. And it's not my first language. But you
know, I was interested in it. I had just come from school
so studying wasn't too foreign to me. And it turned
out to be a lot of fun. One of the things I had to do
was not compare myself to my predecessor, who had been
a JAG. He was a lawyer for EPA, he did the judicial
system reform, and he was a lawyer. And he spoke Spanish
like a native speaker. I had to realize, I had
to learn not to compare myself to him because my bosses
weren't. I was lucky to have very good bosses. And that
was him, and this was me. And I did it, I covered the
elections, and had a good time at it. But to answer
your question, yeah I felt the pressure then, and in
this job, because it's such a high standard. I think
it would be wrong not to feel some of that pressure.
Secretary Albright was a professor at Georgetown and
she was notices everything. So if we don't catch it,
she will. It's amazing what comes up to us, having
been written by very smart, very dedicated people, but
who are also under immense pressures. Missing verbs,
missing periods, sentences that don't have continuation
to the next page, things like that. And also there are
more subtle issues, like has the appropriate office
cleared off on this. So you have to keep on top of that.
And that goes back to the juggling.
Heather Nelson: So how are you doing for time?
Ben Chang: I've
had fun. I've had a sort of second wind here Ben Chang: I could definitely take one or two things, and
I was hoping someone would ask a question that could
allow me to give my answer about movies and motorcades.
It's this anecdote that I tell, but nobody's asked that
question yet.
Mr. Mailliard: I think we'll hit it, but if
we don't, will you cue us?
Ben Chang:
You have two more questions to ask me so that I can
give an answer that involves movies and motorcades.
Karl Holzknecht: What is the most valuable
lesson you've learned in your experience in the foreign
service?
Ben Chang: Actually, though, I think it you've probably
gleaned the answer from what I've been saying before,
The valuable lessons were what are my own strengths,
how to play in the now, how to juggle things, how to
keep organized, and find my keys late at night.
Kyle Felder: Can you tell us about one of
the most memorable moments you've had in your time
here at the State Department?
Ben Chang: Let's see, there's really a lot of stories that
I've got. Some of which you can hear. (thinks) My movies
and motorcades answer will the secondary answer to that
question. Hmm. Memorable experiences. I'll try to just
give you two. One memory was covering the elections
in El Salvador, and assembling in the parking lot of
the embassy monitoring teams, which fanned out across
the country. And going out to polling stations and seeing,
as cliché as it sounds, democracy in action. Seeing
a democracy revive itself was sort of exciting, and
new for me. There are plenty of people who have done
election observing, and are pros at it. The fun part
for me was being a young guy in El Salvador, who dealt
with the NGOS, and student groups, and church groups,
and actually watched the voters. And also, knowing the
folks that were my contacts in the government, who had
dedicated themselves to making this work. And picturing
them on election day, talking to them afterwards, and
they're sort of glowing in the success. Some of
the people I dealt with had been former members of the
guerilla movement who had been integrated into the government.
Quite courageous I think. And just being a part of that
whole scene, it was really exciting, and to see that
at twenty-three or twenty-four was really fun. That's
one. I'll tell you another memorable one was in New
York. Maybe I'll do one per tour. In New York, this
was a really surreal one, because it was a round three
or four of the Iraqi inspection crisis. As you
recall, Sadam Hussein was blocking the inspectors going
and doing their job. The Security Council took this
up. As you know it eventually led to our bombing Iraq
with the British. But well before this, there was a
moment where we were negotiating, my boss, Ambassador
Richardson was negotiating a way to let inspectors back
in. And part of the key was to get the Russians and
the French on board. at midnight or so at the Security
Council, and there's really two Security Councils that
I experienced at the UN. When you walk into the UN,
and it's classic sort of sixties furniture. There's
smokers everywhere. I think is sort of a tool of diplomacy
at the UN. Cause it's universally shared, you know,
everyone wants a light. So everybody's smoking in the
hallways, they're dingy and smoky, and you're sort of
squeezing your way through this tower of babel with
fifteen different languages being spoken quickly. And
folks are doing heavy lifting outside, and the reason
they're doing it there is because you go down the hallway,
and take if you a left, and you go into the big Security
Council chamber. It's really big, and everybody's sitting
there with their nameplates and the gavel, and everybody's
got the little earpieces and all that. Once you get
there everything's done, preparations are done, negotiations
are done, they read their script, they hit the gavel,
they have the vote, and they're done. It's in the
hallway right outside and in the smaller chamber across
the way where all the hard work gets done. And it's
all off the record, and it's all the people doing the
deals and comparing notes, and drafting and what have
you. Anyway, Ambassador Richardson was trying to seal
the deal here. He's a great deal maker. That was what
he made his name for in Congress, that's why he was
made Ambassador. So he got Secretary Albright on the
phone. And the way it works is that if you want
to reach out to anybody, be it the White House or the
secretary or anybody, it was through me. So he's sort
of pacing back and forth, he's talking to the ambassadors.
And I'm just trying to be, like the fly on the wall.
Trying to stay out of the way, doing a bunch of things.
So he turns to me and says "Benny, get the secretary
on the phone." No problem. So, there's the cell phone,
and then there's this little bank of little booths with
phones. And so I go down, and I go to the phone, and
I called the operations center, which is right around
the corner here, and they patch us through to the secretary's
office. So, he comes in, and this is a very small, little
L shaped area. Ambassador Richardson is a big guy. So
he kind of gets in there, and kind of squeezes in, and
he's talking to the secretary. I begin to sort of retreat
back to the side, and he goes "get Lavarov," who's the
Russian ambassador. And this guy is a tall guy, smooth,
polished, and he's a consummate diplomat. This guy could
be foreign minister, but he stayed in New York. He knows
"Madeleine", so he gets in, and gets on the phone. So
you have this really tall guy, and you have Richardson
in there, and there on this phone, and I'm over on the
side. And so he goes "get Verdrien," the French ambassador.
So I get Verdrien, and he just kind of rolls in. So
you have these three big guys stuffed in this little
L shaped area. And the security agent to Richardson
is asking me if I want to keep it private, so he's standing
there, preventing anyone else from coming in. But also
they're crammed in, because they're reaching into this
phone booth. So then Verdrien comes out and gets on
the phone Elysees, or whatever it is in Paris. So I
just stood there thinking, this is really odd. This
is diplomacy. After these phone calls they're finished
and they go into the Security Council. But it's like
these really big important guys, and they're all squeezing
in, and it's really just kind of funny. I thought "yeah,
I'll remember this one." Midnight in the Security Council,
smoke filled rooms, and this is what happens, which
shows the importance of these personal connections.
Alyse Nelson: Did you all catch what Ambassador
Richardson called Ben?
Students: Benny.
Ben Chang:
So that was in New York, let's see, another memorable
experience. One last one. Ho Chi Minh city, in Vietnam,
my first solo advance. The former Saigon, I went there
alone to do my first advance. And the consulate there
is on the site of the old embassy. And, the ambassador,
who came up for her visit, used to be a POW there. And
the consulate general used to serve there as well. After
she left, I took an hour, which isn't a lot of time,
to see some of the museums and such that they have there.
I went to the war museum, which is a modest museum.
It's not like the Smithsonian or the Armitage or the
Louvre. But it's the museum to the victory of the war.
And I went with the defense attaché from Hanoi, who
was the first marine to go back into Vietnam officially
after the end of the war. And he had been to the museum,
but he went back, and he hadn't been there for a while.
And so he's walking and I'm walking around, and I looked
for a while. And the pictures and commentary inside,
and the hardware outside. And they have American military
hardware outside, with the little plaques that gave
like "McDonnell Douglas," and inside there are these
photos of American GI's, with bodies of farmers. You
know, the whole scope of the war in their eyes. And,
you know, I'm not of that generation, but I certainly
studied that generation. And, you know, the sense of
history, and all these thing at once, sort of being
there, It was like seeing this sort of chapter of history,
and our countries' moving beyond it, not like we're
forgetting it, but progressing. And all of that all
at once was pretty remarkable. It was also memorable
to be standing at the westernmost point in Europe I
did this advance in Lisbon. There's this point, the
westernmost point in Europe. Just standing there, getting
this silly photograph, I would never have done this
without this job. And the Aia Sophia in Istanbul, which
is this amazing mosque. Or Tapkapi palace in Israel,
sort of short of the Taj Mahal, it's one of the most
stunning places. We bust our hump getting there, working
hard and everything, but, we get those little gems,
the ability to see these places. And that's terrific. So
'movies and motorcades.' The other memorable thing,
in reverse, is when I plunk down my seven fifty, grab
my thing of popcorn, and go to the movies, and see how
we, the State Department, American diplomats and such,
are portrayed on celluloid. And two fairly memorable
moments had to do with two fairly popular movies. US
Marshals and the Perfect Murder. US Marshals, Tommy
Lee Jones, Wesley Snipes, the premise of the movie,
I won't give away the ending for those of you who haven't
seen it, is a shooting at the UN parking garage. And
when they were filming it, I remember going to the office
late at night, and they were filming US Marshals there.
Finally I went to go see US Marshals in Mexico City
of all places. Funny place to see an American movie.
But there's a scene where Tommy Lee Jones, and his boss,
the director of the ATF, FBI or whatever that is, says,
we're going to get to the bottom of this. So they drop
right at forty-fifth and first. And there it is, forty-fifth
and first, and there it is, the UN building, big seal.
The building looks like a waffle cone from the outside.
They dash up the stairs, and they go inside, and of
course, the camera cuts to a room like this, and the
doors burst open, and you have guys sitting in double
breasted coats, sitting like this, talking like this,
(gestures grandly), and I'm thinking "where is that?
The outside was real, but the inside wasn't real. Maybe
they used one of the conference rooms, but they cleaned
it up. It turns out they had put down new carpets and
replaced the curtains. And you know, this office, full
of these old guys with double breasted suits is not
really how it was. And so my point is if you're going
to use the venue for authenticity, they could have shot
this thing on a set Hollywood. But they chose to go
to New York and film this thing, so then why not choose
to show it all. We have dingy curtains, we have dirty
carpets, the security officer is not in a double breasted
suit, he has his tie pulled down, his sleeves rolled
up, his desk is full of papers, but he's committed,
and he's hardworking, and why can't you show it that
way. So that's my little own soapbox. It was interesting
to see that, it was funny to see that. The second
memorable moment was A Perfect Murder, Gwyneth Paltrow,
Michael Douglas I think, you know, not a terribly sort
an inspiring movie to watch, but fun, because of the
Hollywood star factor. What was her job in that movie?
Derrick Diaz: She was a linguist for one of
the ambassadors or something.
Ben Chang: That was her friend.
Mr. Mailliard: Nice try though.
Ben Chang: That was
good. She was, and see if this sounds familiar, the
staff assistant to the ambassador. Which was my job.
Gwyneth Paltrow was playing my job! It was at this meeting
of the Security Council. gain, I didn't recognize the
room, a big round table, and the Russian ambassador
is spouting off about something, and she leans over
to the ambassador, and says "here Mr. Ambassador, here's
your speech, it's the same one you gave in Geneva."
And they had it down. You had the US table with the
plaque, and the seats behind, and that was my role,
I'd be in one of the seats behind and pass out the papers.
And I thought, wow, they got that part right. I know
what it's like, because I'm in it. You know a little
of what it's like, because you've been talking to someone
like me, and you have been walking around here.
Mr. Mailliard: And that really cuts to the
core of what we're doing, which is trying to really
get the sense of what it going on here. Can we push
you for our traditional closer? Who's got it?
Ben Chang: Sure.
Mira Vissell: Drawing on your experience,
what's the best piece of advice you can offer us?
Ben Chang: Not
wanting of sounding redundant, I will simply repeat
one of the things I said earlier. And I forget how I
even got around to it before. Simply because it ties
in to the stuff I've been talking about, and that is
this. With the help of your peers, and those that provide
guidance in your life, be it a teacher, or a parent,
know what your strengths are, know when to put them
up front. And know how to work from your strengths.
And I don't mean that in a self promoting sort of way.
I think that if you do it with humility and you do it
with a sense of being grounded, it can serve you well,
because in the end you're being true to yourself. And
that's important in whatever career you go into. Hopefully
for some of you, it will be something like the Foreign
Service or the Peace Corps, or working for an NGO, or
working for something that gets you out into the world.
Whether that world is your local community or overseas
is up to you. I think that it's a valuable pursuit,
a worthwhile endeavor. That's it.
Students: Thank you… (Clapping)
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