be a principal source for recruiting Staff officers. Administrative personnel of other agencies, Federal, State, and local, as well as the armed services, are often able to move directly into Foreign Service Staff officer positions with only a minimum of specialized training and at grades appropriate to their experience. Appointments from these sources will be based primarily on a careful evaluation of candidates' experience, demonstrated performance, and suitability for overseas service. 3. Promotion of Foreign Service clerical staff.-Foreign Service clerical personnel who demonstrate ability to undertake broader responsibilities will continue to receive consideration for assignments to specialized training and promotions to Foreign Service Staff officer level. Training Newly appointed Foreign Service Staff officers will be assigned to the basic officers course for junior Foreign Service officers or other appropriate orientation training. Foreign Service Staff officers will receive initial training for a particular specialty at the Foreign Service Institute or other appropriate training facility. Foreign Service Staff officers will receive intensive language training related to their assignment. Career management, assignments, and tours of duty Career management officers have been designated within the Office of Personnel for each broad field of specialization in which Foreign Service Staff officers will be serving. These career management officers will be responsible for advising on training and assignments of all officers within a specialty. Each Staff officer should look to his career management officer for advice on how to improve his career potential. Assignments of Foreign Service Staff officers will be handled in the same manner as for Foreign Service officers and Foreign Service Reserve officers. Since a Staff officer may be serving in one specialty for most of his career, his need for service in more than one geographic area need be given less consideration in terms of career development. On the other hand, any preference for service in different geographic areas will be given full consideration, and the needs of the Service may often dictate service in more than one area, particularly in connection with the staffing of hardship posts. Tours of duty for Foreign Service Staff officers will be governed by the general policies in effect for Foreign Service officers. There will, however, be greater flexibility exercised with Staff officers since one of the main purposes of this body of officers is to provide stability and continuity to the work of the Service. Foreign Service Staff officers will be assigned from time to time to Washington, normally for service in their field of specialization. Promotion Foreign Service Staff officers will be considered for promotion by separate selection boards constituted for specialists in the administrative and consular fields. Foreign Service and Foreign Service Reserve officers who are specialists in these fields will also be considered by these boards. Promotions will be recommended on the basis of merit, with each officer competing against all other officers of the same grade within his specialty. The number of officers promoted each year will be related to the number of position vacancies in the next higher class. The Department intends to seek authority for a selection-out system for Foreign Service Staff officers similar to that now in force for Foreign Service officers. Under this system, however, there will be no limitation on time in grade for Staff officers. An officer may serve in a grade until mandatory retirement age if he continues to perform satisfactorily. Diplomatic and consular status Appropriate diplomatic and consular titles and commissions will be given to Foreign Service Staff officers according to the requirements of the positions in which they serve. In general the same criteria will apply to Staff officers as to Foreign Service officers and the guiding principle will be equality of treatment for privileges and immunities. In most cases the appropriate diplomatic titles for Foreign Service Staff officers will be attaché and assistant attaché. All Foreign Service Staff officers will be issued diplomatic passports. 52-721 0-6528 Lateral entry into the Foreign Service Officer Corps The maximum salary for Foreign Service Staff officers, class 1, is currently $17,000. Many Foreign Service Staff officers will demonstrate a degree of ability and competence which clearly indicates their capacity for positions of broader responsibility. Staff officers can apply for lateral entry into the Foreign Service Officer Corps under section 517 of the Foreign Service Act. If a staff officer is successful in passing the lateral entry examination, he should expect that his next assignment would normally be outside his previous specialty, although it would probably be in a related field. Lateral entry into the Foreign Service Staff Officer Corps Foreign Service officers and Foreign Service Reserve officers who are specialists in the fields to be staffed principally by Foreign Service Staff officers and who have maintained high standards of performance are encouraged to apply for lateral entry into the Foreign Service Staff Officer Corps. ANNEX 2 PROMOTION AND SELECTION OUT OF GENERAL OFFICERS General officers This group includes FSO's and FSR's identified with a career management field in political (including labor), general economic, commercial, and general administration. Program direction is not regarded as a separate career field for promotion purposes. Promotion stages 1. Probationary officer stage.-FSO's recruited at classes 7 and 8 through the basic entrance examination will continue to be promoted and separated during probation by quarterly selection panels. 2. Promotion after probation through class 5.-Officers who successfully complete their probationary period will be promoted based on recommendations of annual selection boards, one for each class. All officers in a given class will be compared regardless of assignment and promotions to the next higher class will be based on total manpower requirements on a servicewide basis. This system will apply to promotions of nonprobationary officers from class 7 to 6 and all officers from class 6 to 5. 3. Promotion up to class 2.-(a) Promotion from class 5 to 4, class 4 to 3, and class 3 to 2 will be based on recommendations of annual selection boards, one for each class. The files of all officers in each class will be separated according to career fields. Promotable officers will be selected in rank order of merit within each career field. (b) Each board will draw a cutoff line above which officers are recommended for promotion. The boards will have no knowledge of the number of officers to be promoted. This determination will be made by the Department based on manpower requirements in each specialty. (c) Reserve officers and Foreign Service officers in the same functional fields will compete with one another for promotion. (d) Program direction "slots" will be used in determining the quantum of promotions to the next higher class. One means of handling the situation is to allocate these anticipated vacancies among the four broad functional fields in some equitable proportion. Another approach is to have the boards' rank order list the best qualified promotable officers for program direction in each of the four functional fields. Some officers will probably be reached on both of two lists-program direction and their functional specialty-but others only on one, and others not at all. 4. Promotion to class 1.-Officers in class 2 (FSO's and FSR's) will be compared for promotion across career fields. At this level, executive competence will be given special weight. Vacancies will be computed on a servicewide basis with no reference to functional manpower requirements. 5. Selection out.-(a) Selection out (including probationary separation will be concentrated primarily in classes 8, 7, and 6. An especially hard look will be taken at all officers before they are promoted to class 5. This represents a turn ing point in their careers and unless they have potential as general officers to move up the line it is in their interests and the Service's that they be selected out while they can still embark on a new career. (b) Another especially hard look will be taken at officers under consideration for promotion to class 2. Those promoted to class 2 should have either program direction capabilities or potential to reach class 1 in their functional field. (c) Selection out based on time-in-grade will be deemphasized generally and especially at the higher grades. Primary reliance will be placed on selection out due to substandard performance. ANNEX 3 PROMOTION SYSTEM FOR SPECIALIZED AND TECHNICAL SKILLS Promotion of all officers whose jobs fit into particularly specialized groups will be based on competition within the specialty. The Selection Board system will be as follows: Consular services board.-(Officers in passport, visa protection, and special consular services work.) Administrative specialty boards.-Separate boards will be appointed to review the performance evaluations of all personnel engaged in the administrative specialties. Panels will be established for each grade of the Foreign Service Staff Officers Corps. Foreign Service officer personnel engaged in administrative specialties will be included for consideration by the panel to which their salaries equate. The boards will rank in order of excellence and make recommendations for promotion according to the following specialties: (1) General Services; (2) Budget and fiscal and disbursing officers; (3) Personnel officers; (4) Security officers; and (5) Communication officers. Technical boards.-That is, nurses, security technicians, etc. Technical economic board. That is, telecommunications, petroleum, science, etc. The above boards will meet annually and evaluate for promotion purposes, all Foreign Service, Foreign Service Reserve, and Foreign Service Staff officers in the indicated specialties. The actual number of promotions will be determined administratively on the basis of anticipated vacancies by grade and on the positive recommendations of promotion panels on a merit basis. THE ASSIGNMENT PROCESS The essential feature of the assignment process is the synthesis of the officer's career development needs with the immediate requirements of the Service. Both factors will be considered at the time placement is made. Responsibility for career development concerns will rest with the Career Management Officer. It will be his function to examine the requirements of the positions established in his area of specialization and to select the officer best qualified available to fill each upcoming vacancy. This latter decision will be made, primarily based on two factors: (a) The officer's experience, background, training, and general suitability for the specific assignment; and (b) the suitability of the assignment in terms of a long-range career program previously developed for the officer. Simultaneously, the placement officer responsible for the personnel program of a specific geographical area will be seeking candidates to fill upcoming vacancies. From the confrontation between this placement officer and the career management officer, it is expected that assignments in the interests of both the Service and the individual will be consummated. Any conflicts between the career management officer and the regional assignment representative will be resolved by the chairman of the placement panel. ADMINISTRATION OF NATIONAL SECURITY WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 11, 1963 U.S. SENATE, SUBCOMMITTEE ON NATIONAL SECURITY STAFFING AND OPERATIONS, Washington, D.C. The subcommittee met at 10 a.m., pursuant to notice, in room 3112, New Senate Office Building, Senator Henry M. Jackson (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding. Present: Senators Jackson, Muskie, Pell, Ribicoff, and Javits. Staff members present: Dorothy Fosdick, staff director; Robert W. Tufts, chief consultant; Richard S. Page, research assistant; Judith J. Spahr, chief clerk; and Laurel A. Engberg, minority consultant. OPENING STATEMENT OF THE CHAIRMAN Senator JACKSON. The subcommittee will come to order. In connection with our inquiry on the administration of national security in this country and overseas, we have invited a number of ambassadors to prepare memorandums covering points which they believe we might well consider in the course of our study. The subcommittee is fortunate to have available for inclusion in its record at this time two forthright and thoughtful statements submitted by the Honorable George F. Kennan, recently retired U.S. Ambassador to Yugoslavia, and the Honorable Lincoln Gordon, U.S. Ambassador to Brazil. We are also pleased to be able to publish for the first time the important comments on the training and experience of foreign policy officers made by the Honorable Dean Acheson, former Secretary of State, in a letter to Senator J. William Fulbright, printed here with their permission. We are grateful for these valuable additions to our testimony. INTRODUCTORY NOTE BY SENATOR HENRY M. JACKSON Ambassador Kennan has a distinguished record of over 25 years in the Department of State and the Foreign Service. During critical years after World War II he was Director of the Department's policy planning staff, and then Ambassador to the Soviet Union, retiring from the Foreign Service in 1953. In 1961 Ambassador Kennan again answered the call of public duty, and served for 22 years as Ambassador to Yugoslavia, returning just this fall to his permanent professorship in the School of Historical Studies, the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, N.J. For many years Ambassador Kennan has been a source of thoughtful and critical comment on deficiencies in the national policymaking process. |