THE BEIRUT BOMBING

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01070R000100670003-9
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 21, 2007
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: April 21, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2007/05/21: CIA-RDP88-01070R000100670003-9
RADIO TV REPORTS, INC.
4701 WILLARD AVENUE, CHEVY CHASE, MARYLAND 20815 656-4068
PROGRAM Morning Edition STATION WAMU-FM
NPR Network
DATE April 21, 1983 8:10 A.M.
Washington, D.C.
SUBJECT The Beirut Bombing
BOB EDWARDS: President Reagan has appointed a high-
level delegation to go to Beirut to honor those killed in
Monday's bombing of the U.S. Embassy. The President also has
ordered that all flags on U.S. Government buildings be flown at
half-staff.
NPR's Ted Clark reports on what an incident like the
Beirut bombing means in practical terms for American Foreign
Service officers.
TED CLARK: As rescue workers continue to search for
victims in the rubble of the embassy, as U.S. officials in Beirut
try to resume embassy operations in makeshift quarters, their
colleagues in the State Department also have to cope with a deep
sense of loss.
ANDREW STEIGMANN: There's an incredible sense of shock
that goes through the whole building when you have the kind of
event that occurred in Beirut earlier this week. People go
around. You see them in small groups in the halls, talking,
asking questions, asking about the particular individuals, trying
to find out exactly what's been going on and whether the safety
of particular people is known.
CLARK: Andrew Steigmann is Deputy Assistant Secretary
of State for Personnel.
STEIGMANN: I think everyone in the Foreign Service
senses that these are shared risks. It's the kind of thing that
could happen anywhere, anytime. And we're all going overseas to
posts that are potential targets.
Material supplied by Radio TV Reports, Inc. may be used for file and reference purposes only. It may not be reproduced, sold or publicly demonstrated or exhibited.
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CLARK: Ambassador Steigmann says terrorist incidents
like the one in Beirut tend to increase the determination of most
Foreign Service officers to carry on with their work.
STEIGMANN: That's a fairly widely held perception in
the country. After the Iranian hostage episode, for example, we
had a tremendous upsurge in the number of people applying to take
the Foreign Service exam, reversing a five-year decline, because,
I think, there was a rededication to the idea of service.
CLARK: Foreign Service officers leave their families
behind in the States more frequently these days than they used
to. But fear of possible terrorist attacks is not the main
reason, according to Ambassador Steigmann.
STEIGMANN: The biggest single factor that has discour-
ages families from traveling abroad is the trend to two-income
families. Many spouses simply don't want to go abroad where they
don't have employment opportunities. And that, interestingly
enough, is much more significant today than the terrorist threat.
The terrorist threat really applies and scares people off only a
handful of posts, whereas the spousal problem is worldwide.
CLARK: When a Foreign Service officer is killed in the
line of duty, the State Department tries to offer some help to
dependents through an Office of Family Liaison. It has provided
jobs for surviving spouses in the past, but recently enacted
legislation has made that more difficult.
Overseas, the American staff of an embassy is something
like an extended family, and offers moral as well as physical
help for dependents when a tragedy occurs. In many ways, this is
the strongest support the Foreign Service provides.
But Americans make up only a portion of the staff in any
U.S. Embassy. A great deal of the work is done by local employ-
ees, known as Foreign Service nationals.
STEIGMAN: In the visa section, for example, almost all
of the visa work short of the final decision and signing is done
by Foreign Service nationals. In the administrative section, the
drivers, the payroll clerks, the typists are going to be nation-
als of the country. We hire them rather than sending Americans
abroad because it's -- one thing, it's much more economical. And
these people generally stay with the embassy throughout their
careers, and they provide the backbone of embassy operations
year-in and year-out. And we've had extremely loyal service from
Foreign Service national employees all around the world, even in
situations where it has been difficult and dangerous for them to
work for the United States.
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CLARK: It's feared that up to one-third of the local
employees of the American Embassy in Beirut may have been killed
by the explosion.
Approved For Release 2007/05/21: CIA-RDP88-0107OR000100670003-9