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THE BragMT OF CPHTStTLAR AFPAIttS

Suaaary
The office dealing with consular affairs was one of the
moot powerful ia eho Department of State during »11 of the taac
century end for the firat quarter of thla one, but 1C faded
into obscurity during cha Dapreoaion, World War IX, and lea
immediate afteroath, regaining oome of lea former poaltion' in
the last tvo decades,

HiBtorleal Background
Until che Rogers Act of 1924 combines che diplomatic ana
coaaular aervlcea into ctie Foreign Service, there were far more
consular officers a.ad consular poata abroad -than diplomatic,
officers and missions• Tae consular role in trade promotion a ad
protection gave it cp«clal favor ia che bualneaa—oriented
administrations and Congresses in Washington. Tbe Consular
Service was also blessed with a acrona .leader, Wilbur Carr, who
headed the service from 1902 until the 1930s, Ironically, it
appears that Carr'a influence in the Department eventually
contributed to the eclipee of his beloved consular operation
from the lace 1930s through the 1950s, In 1929 Carr was given.
responsibility for the administration of toe Scate Department
along with supervising consular affairs. When he left the
Deparcaeac, ch-e adnlniacracive branch -virtually swallowed
conaulax1 Affalxs, redueinn It to a tninor poaleloa within the
AdMlni.sCrattv« Bureau.
The Depceoalon and che var also diminished consular
activities overseas, After World War II the consular functions
of passports, visas, and citizen protective services were
combinad with refugee and migration affairs, munitions
coutrola, and security under the Office of Controls (CON) in
the Bureau of Administration. The apparent rationale for this
grouping was that the visa, passport, and migration functions
were fomn of control over travel, eapecleilljr during che w«r
years, and munitions control was another, somewhat similar,
measure. Why the security function, was lump ad in with the r*st
la* uaelear, but ch« t»e«d for octcurity investigations of mo«t
paasporc and visa applicants in those days may have been the
governing factor.

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la 1953 the Office of Controls (COtO becatte Che Bureau of

Socurlcy end Consular Affaire (SCA), but was still subordinate
co the Under Secretary for Administration. During Che 19500
the security aide of the Bureau eeeaed to predominate,
especially when Scoct McLeod w*$ tha Administrator (a rank
comparable to Assistant Secretary). Zc *«o A eime of partisan
debate over the loyalty of Foreign Service officers, eapaoially
those associated with China, and Che use of the issuance of
American, passports co control the movements of citizens who
were considered security risks or Just disloyal.

The Divorce of Ron-Consular

The advent of the Kennedy Admialatuacloa in 1961 brought
gone lonjt-neadftd adjustments to Che Buta.au of Security sad
Consular Affairs. In 1962 cbe security f auction v*s
transferred Co the Daputy Under Seer«t«ry for Admin* et rat ion
(0) aad VSB headed by a Deputy Aaalatant Secretary for s«eai>ley
(0/SY), but the word Security was not taken out of tha t£tl« of
Sac'urlty and Consular Affairs for the next 15 yeara. The
office of Munitions Control was alao transferred to the Bureau
of Economic Affaire, leaving only the Office of Refugee and
Migratloa Affairs wlchln SCA along with the traditional
consular offices for viaao, passports and citizens protective
services. Refugee and Migration Affairs were included under
tha aegis of consular affaire because consular officers were
vary ouch Involved In prae easing xafugeee who wore earning co
Che. United States. The first Admlnlntraeor £or SCA under
Kennedy > Abba Schwartz, took great interest In thla aspect of
his responsibilities. On his departure In 1965, thara wan a
drawn-out interregnum before a successor was named and during
this period the Office of Refugee and Migration Affairs CORK)
was put directly under the Secretary with a Special Assistant
Co the Secretary in charge* The function vas later moved to
Cbe Under Secretary's office, and by 1977 to the
uewly-e0tabllabcd Office for Hunan Rights and Humanitarian
Affairs. £.aCer ic became a full-fledged bureau (R.P)»

Pfftee
While SCA had been reduced to ite purely consular functions
by 1966,. ic was not until 1977 that a oajor organizational
weakness that bad lasted for more than JO yoara was finally
resolved. Tha Passport Office bad been jLn the Bureau of
Security and Consular Affairs but not of IE. Slaea before the
Franklin Roosevelt Administration, the Passport Office had been

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rua ty Huch Shlplay, vho waa very povorful £0. the hall« of
Congrea* and even the President had beea aald to remark that he
«roald not t«ngl<* vlch K««. Sfce ^aa followed, from. 1955 «o
1977, by another strong-willed chief, Franco Knight, who had
tha aanie rapport with Congress. During that long period ch«
Administrators of SCA or CON had limited control over the
passport function, vhlch remained staffed completely by civil
servants owing allegiance to the head of their office, while
tbe rest of r.he consular establishment was run by a mix of
Foreign service Officera (FSDS) and civil servants^ There had
been plans Co put VSOs In Che Passport Office during their
tours In the Department, but these attempts Co integrate the
consular service vere effectively frustrated.
In 1977, upon the retirement of Frances Knight, toe
Passport Office finally was brought Into the consular fold and
has been headed since that time by a aeries of FSOa with a mix
of civil servants and FSOa la tbe management ranfca.

freaent Bra
The culmination of the consular office's return from tU«
vlldftrnttAS vaa in 1979 wtxen SCA becane CA, reporclag dlreccly
to tha Secretary «.« do all oehei; major ture*u« . The initiative
for this change in status cane fron CeBgt«o»waa Dante Faaaell
and the House Foreign Affalra Conalttee with strong aapport
froa the House Judiciary Committee. The Passport office was
Integrated into the full scope of consular activities, and the
three office directors vere made Deputy Assistant Secretaries
for Paaaporta, Visas, and Special Consular Services, vith a
Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary serving directly under tha
Assistant Secretary for Consular Af fairs .1
Thl0 rcoufgencc • of the Bureau of Consular Affaire CCA),
which had begun tn tha 1960s, can be aecvlbuCcd to several
factors: the explosion of American travel abroad, Increased
in. imisration aattaro by the public,
attention by the media (Joneatovn. Midnight Expreaa^.
Mexican prison .conditions, etc.), tbTe strong and Itjng, although
iatarmittant, leadership of Barbara Watson in Che 1960s and
1970s, Innovative management techniques vlthin Che Bureau, and
Congressional Initiative in atrengchlng consular operations »
congreas, more than the traditional power structure of the
Department, the geographical bureaus, has been the mala
champion of a strong and effective coBCUlar affaire
organization. ±n« groac propoaderaaee of Congresalonal
corraapoodeace with the bepartmaat is over eotinulair m«ccers,

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eapecially immigration. During the 1960s aad 1970s Congreas

becane avare Chat consular officers were kept from bore sealot
paaifclana trithin PSO ranks, thuu cauaiag cbe bettor Junior
officers to avoid * con.au2.Mfc- BpacialiasClon,. ' Congrvaa wag
critical of tha apparent willingness of th« Department eo
relegate the problems of American citizens and their relatives
abroad to a corps of officers who were treated as inferiors by
their peers in the political and economic function a aad by the
top manage neat of the Department.
In dealing with Congress, the Consular Bureau had an
advan.ea.gc la having 8 Blugle, strong advocate, Barbara Watsaa,
rcpxeaoac it off a ad on for- aootzc 12 years, while otber
eleB*BC0 of the Departnent were led by an ercr «banglag acrlco
of As B IB Cant Secretaries,, Ha. Watson vaa followed by Diego
Aeceacio, who not only had ch« *UTS of belaa the hero of a
hostage situation in Colombia, but vho also relished deallnz
with Congreagional coanltteea. CA, under pressure from tha
Office of Management and Budget, had developed la Che 1970s an
excellent cool for obtaining funds from Congress for consular
operations 4 This tool, the consular package, has been uaed and
polished ever oince. Each consular office abroad reports
annually on a series of work statistics., visas, passports
issued, Americana arrested or helped, money collected, ate. a ad
ssaesae* factors inf luancing woffVloado and the vorlc sovi toomeot
La ordttr to project spaae and perootmel needs. Ct-wca cti»
preaencaclon of chin k*rd data and woll avare of aonutitm»at
pressures for better consular services, Congress, 0KB and the
Department have lately responded in a supportive manner. In
1983 over 3,500 parsons were working on consular affaire In the
United States and abroad, and the budget projection for 1985 is
*58,OZ6,000.

Charlaa S. Kennedy, Jr.

Office of the Historian
March 1984
Wang ?0154R

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