Tradecraft > On the Bohlen Rules
David Pearce
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One of the hardest things for any diplomat interacting with reporters can be knowing where to draw the line between being helpful and being indiscreet. As a mid-career FSO, I found it particularly challenging because I had been a journalist myself, both in the U.S. and overseas, and I had a pretty good idea of what could go wrong. With the help of an Una Chapman Cox sabbatical leave fellowship, I worked through my demons by interviewing about 75 prominent journalists and diplomats on their dealings with each other. The result was Wary Partners: Diplomats and the Media, published by Congressional Quarterly in 1995 for Georgetown University’s Institute for the Study of Diplomacy. Richard Boucher, one of those I interviewed for the book, has already provided this blog with much valuable advice on the press. I would add the following excerpt from “Field of Play”, which is Chapter 10 in my book:
Former ambassador to the Soviet Union Charles “Chip” Bohlen, one of the most illustrious U.S. diplomats of the post-World War II period, devised seven rules for dealing with the press. They were shared with me by another distinguished diplomat, Ambassador Paul Nitze of the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University. Nitze recited the seven “Bohlen Rules” from memory:
Always take the press seriously. They can really hurt you or help you. And they are important to the issues you care about. Corollary: Always return phone calls from the press and try to answer their questions frankly.
Never tell the press an untruth. If you do, it can come back to bite you, with serious consequences.
That said, you don’t need to tell the press everything. They may make fun of you or try to get you to make statements you don’t want to make, but they will understand a reply of “no comment”.
Never discuss an “iffy” proposition. Don’t get drawn into answering “if such and such happens, what then?” You don’t need to, and if you do, you’ll rarely get it right. Just say it’s a hypothetical question and you don’t propose to deal with it.
Never deal with a question that is in the process of being decided in the executive branch. If you do, you’ll probably get it wrong; “no comment” is generally a better reply.
Never denigrate a fellow worker in the executive branch. If you do, you may find that he can pee on you with greater skill than you can pee on him.
If you don’t know the answer to a question, don’t be embarrassed to say so.
“I’ve always found the press has been very kind to me,” Nitze said. “I think it is in part because I’ve always tried to follow these seven rules from Chip Bohlen. If I ever got in a jam, I’d just say, ‘Sorry, that’s a violation of rule number three or rule number six.’ And I’ve never found a media person yet who thought those seven rules were unreasonable.”
Former under secretary of state David Newsom offered three addenda to the Bohlen guidelines:
Do not run down your country’s policy. Some Foreign Service officers, especially in countries involved in bitter regional disputes (such as the Middle East), may express their sympathy for the host country position and, to curry local favor, criticize Washington’s policy. A Foreign Service Officer should accept the fact that Washington’s policy is the result of a political process of which they officer may know only a part. Whatever the officer may be saying in classified cables to the department, in meetings with the media that officer should attempt to uphold and explain the policy.
Never forget you are an official. No such thing exists as a publicly expressed personal opinion to be distinguished from one’s “official hat.” The media and foreign officials will seldom make that distinction.
Never tell one reporter what you are not prepared to tell another. Playing favorites can only lead to unpleasant relationships with those who are left out. This was one of [former Middle East envoy] Phil Habib’s cardinal rules, although he rarely told the media anything startling, he was highly respected because they knew he played fair with all.
Finally, bearing in mind that mistakes inevitably will happen, diplomats would do well to review the following summary of advice Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz gave his fellow journalists on prompt and fulsome reporting of their own mistakes:
If there’s bad news, break it yourself. By getting out in front you not only set the initial tone, but ensure your explanations are included in follow-up pieces.
If you admit to a negative, you get credit for a positive. Eating crow removes the taint of coverup and shifts the spotlight from the initial blunder to your efforts to deal with it.
Don’t dribble out the details. The best way to turn a one-day story into a two-week saga is to go the “modified-limited-hangout” route (letting out only some of the facts). Put all embarrassing facts on the table or others will do it for you.
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