Best Defense
Thomas E. Ricks' daily take on national security.

Why I despair of improvement at the State Department

Would you like to see the State Department become more effective? Then read this: The Department needs additional foreign service officers. They need them so they can send their people back to school in mid-career on a scale comparable to the advanced educational training provided by the Pentagon for its career people…In short, they need ...

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584451_090624_airborn2.jpg

Would you like to see the State Department become more effective? Then read this:

Would you like to see the State Department become more effective? Then read this:

The Department needs additional foreign service officers. They need them so they can send their people back to school in mid-career on a scale comparable to the advanced educational training provided by the Pentagon for its career people…In short, they need help and an opportunity to prepare for the roles that they must be able to fill.”

That was written in 1978 by retired Lt. Gen. James Gavin, best known as the commander of the 82nd Airborne Division in the latter half of World War II. It is in the concluding paragraphs of his terrific memoir On to Berlin, which I just recently finished reading. It struck me as a particularly candid book, especially in its discussion of Operation Market Garden.

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Thomas E. Ricks covered the U.S. military from 1991 to 2008 for the Wall Street Journal and then the Washington Post. He can be reached at ricksblogcomment@gmail.com. Twitter: @tomricks1

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