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Our former mayor savors his new post in Poland

by Joe Sullivan

A chill wind gusts down the runway at Lask Air Base in central Poland where the Polish Air Force is hosting a Texas Air National Guard unit for joint exercises. But U.S. Ambassador Victor Ashe appears unflappable as he climbs into the cockpit of an F-16 fighter plane for a demonstration flight. Some onlookers predict that Ashe will have turned as green as his flight suit by the time the F-16 completes its maneuvers that include a vertical roll at supersonic speed.

When the plane lands half an hour later, though, Ashe emerges grinning, giving a thumbs up gesture. “When do we do this again? I’ve found a new career,” he proclaims to an assemblage.

Indeed, promoting military relations between the United States and its nascent NATO ally is just one of the many facets of the new career on which Knoxville’s former mayor has embarked since he assumed his ambassadorial post this past July. Ashe’s letter of appointment from President George W. Bush states that “as my personal representative and the U.S. Chief of Mission, you will have responsibility for the direction, coordination and supervision of all U.S. Government executive-branch employees in the Republic of Poland.” In addition to overseeing the U.S. embassy staff of more than 500 in Warsaw, Ashe is also reaching out to establish personal relations with Polish government officials and with politicians of all stripes and to serve as a goodwill ambassador to the 38 million Polish people.

Looking out for the interests of the many U.S. companies doing business or seeking to do business in Poland is also an important part of his role. Conversely, he’s a focal point for receiving Polish grievances with U.S. policies.

In many respects, it’s not all that different from being mayor, he says. “The training I received as mayor was good preparation for this job: networking, balancing competing groups in Poland, representing my government and its policies.”

In an attempt to get a better feel for what our former mayor’s new life as an ambassador is all about, I spent the better part of three days observing and, to some extent, conversing with him at the U.S. embassy, at functions every evening at the ambassador’s residence, at several meetings with Polish officials away from the embassy as well as on the 90-mile trip to the Lask Air Base. My observations started with a walk down central Warsaw’s Royal Way to the U.S. embassy that adjoins it.

The Embassy

The Germans reduced Warsaw to ruins during World War II, mainly in retaliation for an uprising that was quashed in September 1944. But even under the Soviet-dominated Communist regime that followed the war until its collapse in 1989, the city of 1.7 million people was painstakingly rebuilt to replicate its historic look. From its quaint Old Town, to the grandeur of its Royal Palace and what’s now called the Presidential Palace, Warsaw is a city with many distinguished landmarks.

Unfortunately, the U.S. embassy isn’t one of them. Its mostly glass, six-story exterior is a 1960s cookie-cutter office building. Even the much-smaller Bulgarian embassy next door is more architecturally pleasing. Security is so tight that this visitor isn’t even permitted to take his tape recorder into the embassy—a recorder on which he’s dependent to accurately capture conversations because he’s a slowpoke note-taker.

Upon reaching the ambassador’s reception area, though, a cordial welcome by Ashe’s administrative assistant, Lenisse Carpenter, is reminiscent of many a visit to the former mayor’s office on the sixth floor of the City County Building. As another reminder of Knoxville, framed on the wall is the front page of the Jan. 6, 1999, News Sentinel with a big picture of Phillip Fulmer holding up his No. 1 finger to herald UT’s football national championship.

As Ashe comes out to greet me, I’m struck by the fact that this is not the pear-shaped Victor of his latter years as mayor. He claims to have lost 36 pounds since leaving office last December and credits a modified version of the Atkins diet for his leaner look.

Ashe is meeting with a consular aide about one aspect of what’s probably the biggest single source of strain between the two nations presently: namely U.S. restrictiveness in issuing visas to visitors from Poland and associated hassle factors for visa applicants.

Citizens of more than 20 countries, including all 13 original members of the European Union, are exempt from having to get short-stay visas to enter the United States. Now that Poland has joined the EU (as of May 1) and all the more so because Poland has backed the war in Iraq with 2,400 troops and 12 lost lives, there’s a strong feeling in this country that Poles should be exempt as well. But according to Ashe, Congress would have to change the criteria for granting exemptions in order for Poland to qualify.

“That’s an issue that’s above my pay grade,” he allows. Other embassy officials explain that the percentage of visa applicants who are turned down far exceeds the low threshold set by U.S. law that would qualify a country for exemption. The main reason for rejection is that many applicants are adjudged, during an interview, to be unlikely to return to Poland at the end of the short stay allowable for visitors. (Visas for students and for business travel turn on a different axis.) “You’ve got a lot of 19- or 20-year-olds from the little villages with very high unemployment who say they’re going to the United States to visit relatives, but the consular interview concludes that they are really going to seek a job,” says the official.

Applicants from all over this Texas-sized nation must come to the embassy in Warsaw to seek a visa, or else to a consulate in Poland’s second largest city, Krakow. Ashe hopes to reduce the hassle associated with visa interviews. One on which he zeroes in is the requirement that applicants surrender their cell phones to security guards while waiting to be interviewed. “We’ve got people waiting in line for two hours for a two-minute interview, and they ought to at least be able to make phone calls,” he says.

The consular official with whom he’s meeting insists that State Department regulations prohibit visitors from bringing cell phones into U.S. embassies and goes on to point out that many cell phones contain cameras, which are also contraband. But Ashe is undeterred. “We’ve got to make this place more user-friendly. And what I want to know is whether I can act on my own authority or whether this is something that has to go to [Secretary of State] Colin Powell,” he instructs the consular official.

Another meeting follows from which this reporter is excluded because it may involve discussion of classified matters. It’s the regular weekly meeting of what’s known as the country team, consisting of the heads of the embassy’s numerous sections. These include political affairs, economic affairs, public affairs and (by far the largest) consular contingents from the State Department. Then there are units from the Agriculture Department, the Commerce Department and the Department of Defense (two of them, in fact, each headed by an Army colonel with distinctly different missions). And what about the CIA? “I can confirm that there’s a CIA presence in the embassy, but I can’t tell you anything about it,” Ashe says with circumspection.

He describes the country team meetings as “a lot like the cabinet meetings I used to have as a mayor where various departments are represented, and they report what’s going on in their shops, and we discuss everything from VIPs who are coming to the embassy to security issues.” It’s clear, however, that he doesn’t have nearly as much authority over these embassy officials, who are assigned to their posts by Washington, as he did over mayoral department heads of his own choosing.

Ashe also has his own lines to Washington but not at the highest level. Indeed, his most frequent contacts at the State Department are about three layers down in its hierarchy with Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Eastern European Affairs Heather Conley. “I talk with her regularly and with Dan Fried at the National Security Council, who is very good to work with because he’s a former ambassador to Poland.”

Attempts to draw the ambassador out on the nature of those conversations, or even illustrative topics, are largely unavailing. “My current position doesn’t give me the freedom to say things that I would be able to as a mayor,” he says. “There’s a whole range of issues that you have to deal with, and it’s never dull.”

At the end of the day, Ashe is driven to his residence about five miles from the embassy. At first blush, his blue BMW looks like just another luxury sedan. But when you start to open the door, you realize it’s not. The door feels as heavy as a bank vault’s, and Ashe explains that it’s an armored car with bulletproof windows. That’s standard ambassadorial issue, he says. Unlike other countries where security risks are higher, he’s not accompanied by an armed guard. Nor does his driver appear to carry a weapon.

The Residence

In stark contrast with the eyesore embassy, the ambassador’s residence is of charming red brick construction, nestled on a hillside with a view of a large swath of the city from its canopied back terrace.

The marble-floored front entrance hall serves notice that the residence was built for receiving guests with pomp. Ashe reckons he’s done as much entertaining in his three months as ambassador as in all his years as mayor, but both he and his wife, Joan, seem to be thriving on it. “If you’re not prepared to entertain, you shouldn’t have accepted this job,” he says.

The long table in the dining room is set this evening for a dinner party of 20, and the room is large enough to accommodate even more dinner guests. A reception two evenings hence for the entire corps of ambassadors to Poland demonstrates that the living room and adjoining library are amply sized for this gathering of 150 or more.

As with Ashe’s office, there are many reminders of Knoxville at his home. Paintings by Knoxville artists Jim Gray, Richard Jolley, Ron Williams and Betsy Worden (most on loan) adorn the walls, and there are pictures of Neyland Stadium, Ayres Hall and McClung Tower on the UT campus. The porcelain bulldog that used to be a fixture in the mayor’s office (perhaps to reinforce a nickname that he savors) now has a prominent place in the library.

Keeping house and making arrangements is not a burden because the residence has a full-time staff of six (not counting the guards who are posted at the gated entrance to the driveway round the clock). This retinue starts with a house manager and includes a butler, two cooks and two maids—upstairs and downstairs, naturally.

Nearly every week brings a visiting U.S. dignitary to Warsaw for whom a special occasion is in order. This week it’s Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy who has come to confer with Polish counterparts. The guest list for the candle-lit dinner includes several Polish jurists interspersed with embassy officials.

The following week, Attorney General John Ashcroft is due in town for a conference on counter terrorism. He will stay at the ambassador’s residence along with two FBI agents who accompany him everywhere he travels. “I’ll also be accompanying him. It’s the role of ambassador to accompany high-level American officials while they’re here,” Ashe says, but the only function planned for Ashcroft’s visit at the residence is a small luncheon.

The only evening of the week I’m in Warsaw when a larger function isn’t scheduled, the Ashes treat me and my wife to an early dinner before Victor has to scurry off to a later one honoring Kennedy. Seated around a much-smaller family dining table, Ashe recalls the sequence of events leading up to his appointment. “Shortly after he took office in 2001, President Bush told me I ought to be an ambassador. I said that would be very appealing, but I’m committing to completing my term as mayor.” Then, shortly after he left office last December, Ashe got a call from the White House asking if he’d still be interested and where he would like to serve. “I said yes and that Europe would be my preference. But I had no idea it would be Poland until my appointment was announced in May.”

Ashe would like to hold his new post, which he so clearly savors, for three or four years. But his chances of doing so probably depend on the outcome of next month’s U.S. presidential election. Although Ashe knew John Kerry almost as well as he knew his fellow Republican George Bush when all three were students together at Yale in the 1960s, conventional wisdom has it that a Kerry victory would likely result in the appointment of a Democrat to succeed Ashe next year.

“I continue to serve here at the pleasure of the president,” Ashe says tersely.

Unlike Victor, who is confined to his chauffeured armored car, Joan is free to drive about the city on her own in the 1991 Honda Civic she purchased shortly after their arrival. “Warsaw is a wonderful city, and there’s so much to see and do here,” she enthuses. Although house manager Marta Klos presides over the residence, Joan gets involved to some extent in menu selection and does some grocery shopping. (The Ashes pay for their own meals at home except when they are entertaining.)

All the entertaining produced a need for augmenting her wardrobe. “I got a call from a woman at the embassy today who asked me if I wanted to go shopping with her on Thursday. She said there’s a big store 40 minutes from somewhere that has lots of evening clothes. So that’s where we’ll be going,” she relates.

Joan has become particularly friendly with the wife of the British ambassador, and they do things together. There’s a bimonthly meeting of a group of ambassadors’ wives that she regularly attends, and three days a week she takes Polish lessons.

Then there are the demands of being mother to the couple’s two children, 14-year-old J. Victor and 11-year-old Martha. They are chauffeured to the American school with 800 students (K-12) that both attend. But mom is still the driver to many of their other activities as well as family outings.

Showing the Flag

Ambassador Ashe by no means spends his days cooped up in the embassy. Since his arrival here, he reckons he’s called upon “at least 15 to 20” Polish government officials, starting with President Alexander Kwasniewski and Prime Minister Marek Belka. Other ports of call have included the foreign minister and the ministers of defense, finance, agriculture and interior. He has also sought out meetings with the leaders of Poland’s motley array of political parties, both those that are part of the teetering government coalition and those that are seeking to oust it or otherwise gain strength in next year’s parliamentary elections.

“My agenda first of all is to introduce myself, because my predecessor had been here for four years. Then it’s a matter of explaining American policies, discussing Poland’s role in NATO, furthering investment opportunities between two countries, encouraging cultural exchanges and dealing with a host of other issues,” Ashe explains. “My primary contacts are with the present government, but I also want to get to know the people who are likely to be in the forefront if there’s a change in the government and the leaders of parties that may be junior partners in a government but can bring it up or down.”

Inveterate traveler that he’s always been, Ashe’s outreach efforts extend beyond this capital city to all sections of the country. He has already visited the Baltic seaport of Gdansk in the north, Krakow in the south and Chelm in eastern Poland. By year’s end, he’s committed to paying his respects to all 16 of Poland’s provinces.

“He’s on the move so much, it’s really hard to keep up with all of his comings and goings,” says the embassy’s press attachÉ, Jim Bond.

Whenever he goes, Ashe meets with local officials and other luminaries. In Gdansk, it’s Lech Walesa, who galvanized Polish opposition to Soviet domination and communist rule in the 1980s, but who proved erratic when he served as president in the early 1990s. In Krakow, it’s Cardinal Franciszek Macharski, Poland’s preeminent Catholic cleric. The visit to Chelm is almost like a homecoming, because it was one of Knoxville’s several “sister cities” throughout the world that Ashe cultivated when he was mayor. In both 1997 and 2000, he led delegations of Knoxvillians to Chelm for week-long stays, and those visits were reciprocated.

My first port of call with Ashe is to the Presidential Palace for a meeting with Kwasniewski. The purpose of the meeting is for the Polish president to extend official greetings to Justice Kennedy, and Ashe’s presence seems purely ceremonial. Seated around an ornate table in a cavernous meeting hall, the portly Kwasniewski makes his opening remarks in Polish via a translator. “I assure you it is a great honor to have you in Poland,” he begins. And he goes on for about 15 minutes tracing Poland’s path of democratic reforms since 1989 and growing cooperation with the United States that now centers on Iraq. “I hope that the actions we are taking together in Iraq will end up being successful, but we cannot expect Iraq to meet all of the world’s democratic standards in a short period of time,” he concludes on a cautionary note.

As Kennedy responds in English with praise of Poland’s constitution and rule of law, it quickly becomes apparent that no translator is needed because Kwasniewski speaks fluent English. “I speak Polish in my formal remarks because it is my duty to promote the Polish language,” he explains as he begins to engage the U.S. Supreme Court Justice in English conversation. Only after the formal meeting ends and people rise does he turn his attention to Ashe to rail against U.S. visa policy.

“It’s an insult not only to the people of Poland but to the 10 million people of Polish heritage in the U.S.,” he asserts. “Among all our NATO allies, we only face this situation in the United States, and it’s terrible, it’s absolutely nuts.”

Ashe seems a little flustered by the outburst and can only respond that “we have our attorney general coming next week, and I’ll be taking it up with him.” Meanwhile, back in the United States, John Kerry has pledged to do away with Polish visa requirements if he’s elected.

Once back in the safety of the ambassador’s armored car, it’s on to a meeting with the leaders of one of Poland’s opposition parties in the building that houses Poland’s Parliament. The Law and Order party, as it’s known in English, is one of two center-right parties that appear poised to make major gains in next year’s election and could form or be the nucleus of a new governing coalition.

With nine parties represented in the parliament and several others within striking distance of the five percent of the total vote needed for representation, no one party comes close to a majority. For the past four years, however, the largest block of seats and the biggest role in the government has been held by the SLD party, whose leaders are mostly former communists. Indeed, both Kwasniewski and the prime minister for most of the past four years, Leszek Miller, were ministers in the communist regime that was toppled in 1989.

Despite their leftist label, the SLD’s leaders have been prime movers in integrating Poland into the fabric of the rest of Europe through membership in NATO and the European Union and by fostering a privatized, multinational economy. But much more because of scandals than policies, the party’s public approval ratings have plummeted to single digits, and it seems to be splintering.

Ashe begins the meeting with the Law and Order party leaders by saying (through a translator), “While I’m new to Poland, I’m working very hard to meet many different people, not only in Warsaw but throughout the country, for the betterment of Polish-American relations.” And he seeks to identify with them by noting that “for 15 years, I was a legislator myself, and unfortunately I was always in the minority [as a Republican in the Tennessee Legislature].

“As elections draw nearer,” he tells them, “I know that issues will become politicized. It’s not my purpose to try to influence how you vote on a particular matter but rather to provide you with as much factual information as I can.”

It soon becomes apparent, though, that most of the information that Law and Order legislators are interested in getting isn’t from Ashe but from two representatives from Lockheed Martin Corp. who’ve joined the meeting.

The Ambassador from Lockheed Martin?

By far the largest military procurement contract in Polish history was the purchase last year of 48 F-16’s for $3.5 billion. The U.S. fighter plane won out over the French-made Mirage in the selection of a successor to Poland’s aging fleet of Russian MIG-29’s.

But there was a huge string attached. Under Polish law, Lockheed Martin is somehow responsible for coming up with a like amount of what are known as “offsets.” In general terms, these offsets are measured in terms of new investment or stepped-up employment and production by U.S. firms in Poland and by identifiably new U.S. purchases of Polish-manufactured products or contracts with Polish companies for provision of whatever. But there seems to be a great deal of confusion about exactly what qualifies and how offset values are measured.

While deliveries of the F-16’s won’t start until 2006, provisions for the offsets were supposed to be made this year. But there’s been a lot of slippage, and Polish opposition parties are hammering the government for failing to hold Lockheed Martin to accounts or adequately support its efforts.

Philip Georgarious is Lockheed Martin’s director of Polish offset programs, and he has the unenviable task of trying to explain their status to the Law and Order party legislators. “Since the F-16 was selected, Lockheed has initiated 27 projects with a potential value of more than $10 billion. We’d hoped to be further along at this point, but by the end of the year we anticipate completing $900 million in offsets, and at the end of the day, I think Poland will realize considerably more than 100 percent of the contract value,” he says.

For nearly an hour, Georgarious holds forth, amid a lot of questions, with a project-by-project recitation of what’s been accomplished and the difficulties encountered.

One of the legislators observes that “the government entered into these negotiations without understanding their complexity.” To which Georgarious replies, “None of us did.” To a visiting journalist it remains unfathomable how Lockheed Martin could be expected to deliver on such a mammoth undertaking involving commitments on the part of numerous other companies and both the Polish and U.S. governments.

Ashe, who wasn’t noted for his attention span for complex economic issues when he was mayor, tries to remain attentive. But at times he fidgets or doodles on a pad. When one legislator finally directs a question his way, Ashe responds, “I’m not in a position to negotiate how offsets should work. I’d be violating American law if I got involved in it.”

But it seems clear that the ambassador and other embassy officials are working closely with Lockheed Martin in trying to keep the F-16 deal from becoming a cause celebre.

The next morning, other Lockheed Martin operatives are on hand at Lask Air Base as Ashe embarks on his F-16 flight. His press attachÉ, Jim Bond, is frank to characterize it as, “A publicity stunt designed to shift the focus back to what a great plane the F-16 is and away from the offsets.” But no Polish media are on hand to film or report on the flight. Word on the ground is that the commander of the Polish Air Force refused to allow a Polish television crew access to the base because that particular TV outlet had been sensationalizing offset shortfalls. This visiting journalist was in no position to confirm the rumor.

Histrionics involving Lockheed Martin are just one of many ways in which the ambassador is working to further U.S.-Polish relationships. In talks before groups such as the American Chamber of Commerce in Warsaw, Ashe stresses his accessibility and desire to be helpful in any way he can. And his helping hand extends to economic development groups back home. At his behest, embassy officials have helped arrange appointments for envoys on behalf of both the Knoxville Area Chamber Partnership and the Blount Partnership who have made recent marketing trips to the Polish capital.

“I’m still very interested in the well-being and progress of Knoxville and East Tennessee,” he says.

October 14, 2004 • Vol. 14, No. 42 © 2004 Metro Pulse