Kofi Annan to John Bolton: You were a lousy diplomat!
Former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan was never a fan of John Bolton, the controversial U.S. ambassador to the U.N. who once suggested the organization would be no worse off if you blew up the top 10 floors of its headquarters. But he kept his feelings to himself … until now. In an interview with the ...
Former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan was never a fan of John Bolton, the controversial U.S. ambassador to the U.N. who once suggested the organization would be no worse off if you blew up the top 10 floors of its headquarters. But he kept his feelings to himself … until now.
In an interview with the Financial Times‘ Alec Russell, Annan said that Bolton was a lousy negotiator. "It was remarkable that for someone who has spent that much time at the State Department, as smart as he was, he wasn’t a very effective diplomat, or even a negotiator," Annan told the interviewer.
Annan recalled one moment when he confronted the combative U.S. envoy for bullying people. Annan said he was at a luncheon with Bolton and other U.N. Security Council when Bolton sought to kill off a discussion of some disagreeable matter. "’Uncle Sam is not going to like this,’" Annan recalled Bolton saying, according to the FT interview. "So I said, ‘Look, stop going around trying to intimidate people. Let them speak their mind … and you can put your views across, but don’t try to intimidate them with Washington and Uncle Sam.’ And of course, the Council members were all relieved to hear it."
The antipathy toward Bolton appeared more personal than ideological. Annan recalled George W. Bush and his wife Laura as "wonderful human beings" and said he held no grudge against another hard-liner in the Bush administration, including Donald Rumsfeld. "He made mistakes … some serious mistakes, but we all make mistakes. That doesn’t make him worthless as a human being."
The remarks are hardly surprising, given Bolton’s frequent criticism of Annan’s stewardship of the United Nations. In his memoir, Surrender Is Not an Option, Bolton mocked Annan’s staff for having "floated the notion that he was a "secular pope.’"
"Being a Lutheran, I didn’t even believe in religious popes, and I was absolutely determined there weren’t going to be any more ‘secular popes’ on the 38th floor," Bolton wrote. The U.N. secretary-general’s office is located on the U.N.’s 38th floor, though the office is vacant until the renovation of the U.N. headquarters is completed. Bolton did not respond to phone and email requests for comment on Annan’s remarks.
Follow me on Twitter @columlynch
Colum Lynch was a staff writer at Foreign Policy between 2010 and 2022. Twitter: @columlynch
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