The New York Times
Pompeo, who led Trump’s State Department mission, leaves with a dubious legacy
WASHINGTON – Rejected by many foreign allies, ridiculed by opponents, detested by a significant number of his own diplomats and trying to preserve his political future, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo last week offered an insight into his legacy as commander of the devastated Trump administration – deepen foreign policy, citing a seminal moment in his personal history. In 1983, when Pompeo was a cadet at the US Military Academy in West Point, an Iranian militia bombed the Marine Corps barracks in Beirut, killing 241 American soldiers. According to himself – “My life would not be the same after that,” Pompeo said on Tuesday in his last public speech in office – it was powerful indoctrination for a young soldier in training to protect the United States from mortal enemies. Thirty-five years later, after becoming the 70th Secretary of State in 2018, Pompeo adopted the same military mentality to face the world. Foreign policies were described as “mission sets”, and his wife, Susan, was a “force multiplier” in disarming dignitaries and families of State Department officials. Subscribe to The New York Times newsletter The Morning Pompeo rejected the power of persuasion, rather than trying to arm European leaders, insulting rulers in China and Iran and working to keep dictators off balance, including negotiations with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, but not President Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela. But in rejecting the traditional role of predictable diplomacy and mirroring President Donald Trump’s own style, Pompeo’s strategy backfired, according to foreign policy analysts and a large State Department group. Upon leaving office, Pompeo, 57, was labeled by several officials and analysts with the dubious distinction of worst secretary of state in American history. This will come back to haunt him as he considers running for president in 2024 or looking for another elected office, as he is believed to be doing. “The glass is much more empty than full,” said Richard Fontaine, president of the Center for New American Security and a former diplomat who advised Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign as a Republican candidate in 2008. Fontaine noted that Iran is now closer to building a nuclear bomb and that North Korea has more nuclear weapons than at the beginning of the Trump administration. Relations with key European leaders, the United Nations and other diplomatic and economic alliances are in a worse position. The United States is less in a position to promote democracy and human rights in the world than it was four years ago, according to many career diplomats. And Pompeo’s role in enabling the president’s shadow foreign policy in Ukraine – undermining years of U.S. support to prevent Russian military aggression – raised concerns among lawmakers during the impeachment hearings in the House in late 2019 about whether his loyalty to Trump surpassed US security interests. Pompeo is not the first military man to become the country’s chief diplomat: Colin Powell retired as a four-star general in the Army before becoming Secretary of State to President George W. Bush in 2001. Powell’s term was set for always for his citation of defective intelligence to urged the 2003 invasion of Iraq – what he called “painful” and a “blemish” on his record – but he is widely seen more as a statesman than as Pompeo. For political purposes, Pompeo can hope to be remembered as a key player in the Trump administration – a designation that is much more tarnished abroad than among radical Republicans who care little about foreign policy in elections. Following the takeover of the Capitol by Trump supporters this month, however, an increasing number of Republican officials have sought to distance themselves from the departing president. Notably, Pompeo did not, although people close to him said he was horrified by the attack. Instead, he continued a flurry of daily Twitter posts, which began on January 1, to announce what he called his foreign policy successes, echoing Trump’s campaign slogans. Pompeo was at the forefront of the Trump administration’s crackdown on China, Iran and Venezuela, using a mix of economic sanctions and provocative political changes to reshape the global strategy against each other. This was especially the case in China, as Pompeo emerged as the government’s most vehement critic of Beijing. He took every opportunity to highlight human rights abuses by Uighur Muslims and other ethnic minorities in China and, as a farewell shot, he is now considering whether to declare them acts of genocide. He also led the global condemnation of Beijing’s expansionist ambitions and oppression in Hong Kong, Taiwan and the South China Sea. Other nations, however, refused to follow the US withdrawal from the World Health Organization, which took funding from the UN agency during the coronavirus pandemic, which Pompeo insisted on calling the “Wuhan virus”, again echoing Trump. In dealing with Venezuela, Pompeo commanded about 60 countries against Maduro after disputed elections and attacked the government in Caracas with sanctions. But Maduro remained in power. In Europe, Pompeo is credited with helping to strengthen NATO as a bulwark against Russia, including through increased military spending. Alexander R. Vershbow, a former NATO deputy secretary general who was also a former US ambassador to Russia and South Korea and an assistant secretary of defense, said that Pompeo helped protect NATO from “contempt for Trump for allies and scare tactics “. Pompeo also deployed diplomacy to warm up relations between Israel and the states of the Middle East and North Africa as part of the Abraham Accords, the main achievement of the government’s foreign policy. But these peace pacts were largely mediated by Jared Kushner, the senior adviser to the president and son-in-law. Pompeo has steadfastly supported Israel by defying internationally recognized norms, such as moving the United States embassy in Israel to Jerusalem and declaring Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights and the legitimacy of West Bank settlements. As an evangelical Christian – a group that constitutes a key conservative political constituent – Pompeo sometimes framed actions against Iran in religious terms linked to Israel and Bible prophecy. Abraham’s deals were part of a pressure campaign to isolate Iran with sanctions and military threats that began after Trump withdrew from a historic 2015 nuclear deal with Tehran in May 2018, just weeks after Pompeo moved to the State Department after serving as director of the CIA. Over the next two years, he repeatedly vexed the efforts of other world powers to keep the 2015 nuclear deal intact. Pompeo was visibly energized by dueling Iranian officials on Twitter: “You know you’re on the side of the angels when that happens,” he tweeted on Tuesday, months after Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran’s foreign minister, called him “Hatred Secretary.” Pompeo was among Trump’s advisers who pushed for military attacks against Iran, which the president resisted in June 2019, but allowed in January 2020 to kill a top Iranian general who was in Iraq. Still , Pompeo moved in November, among a group of senior officials – including Vice President Mike Pence; Christopher C. Miller, acting defense secretary; and General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff – who countered the President’s request for strike options against Iran with a warning that it could easily turn into a broader conflict in the final weeks of Trump’s presidency. Pompeo described himself as a disciple of “realism, moderation and respect” – an approach advocated by his former financier, Charles Koch, a conservative billionaire whose donor network has made more campaign contributions to Pompeo than to any other candidate for Congress in the country in four House elections 2010-16. As secretary of state, Pompeo was hardly kept secret about his political future – first looking at a campaign for the Kansas Senate, his adopted home state, and then fueling expectations that he could run for governor in 2022 or president in 2024. His turbulent tenure at The State Department has been characterized by a series of investigations, some of which continue, including whether he violated ethical laws by engaging in political activities while at work. However, Koch’s continued financial support is far from guaranteed. With a focus on soft power diplomacy instead of war, the Charles Koch Institute – its political base – is investing $ 7 million in new donations to two left-wing think tanks, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the International Crisis Group, which will have an influence on the Biden administration. Pompeo’s support for NATO expansion, attacking Iran and keeping US troops in conflict zones has not been overlooked, said Will Ruger, the foundation’s vice president for policy and research. “I don’t believe the secretary is a realist and a card moderator,” said Ruger, whom Trump appointed in September to be his ambassador to Afghanistan. In a farewell message, Pompeo made it clear that the military was under his supervision. “Leading @CIA and @StateDept, I have constantly focused on protecting our great military and all Americans,” he tweeted on Thursday. “At the very least, our enemies knew: attack our soldiers and you will pay.” This article was originally published in The New York Times. © 2021 The New York Times Company