For diplomats, uneasy implications in events in Ukraine

The United States has two primary interests in Ukraine. First, that it is able to bring an end to the conflict in the eastern region of the country being fueled by Russia and to be able to help the Ukraine reclaim Crimea, which was captured by Russia in August 2014.

Second, to end the rampant corruption by members of the government and put the country on a path where its citizens' interests are protected by the rule of law. We want the Ukraine to advance down the democratic path, and its newly elected and inexperienced president has pledged to take on corruption, which will be a daunting task.

Former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch made the second of these goals her particular crusade, using her position to push the government of Ukraine to remove those who stood in the way of reform.

However, despite a claim to the contrary, it now seems apparent that Yovanovitch was recalled several months early and in the now infamous memorandum of conversation between President Trump and Ukrainian president Zelensky, President Trump called Yovanovitch "bad news".

Who is Marie Yovanovitch? Her parents were Russian émigrés and she came to America as a child. She did Russian Studies at Princeton and joined the American diplomatic service in 1986. She rose quickly, doing a Master's at the National Defense University along the way. Over the past nine years she has served as the U.S. Ambassador to Kyrgyzstan, Armenia, and, since 2016, the Ukraine under both Republican and Democratic administrations.

An Ambassador is the representative of the president of the United States. You serve "at the pleasure of the president" and he can recall an Ambassador at any time. About one-third of U.S. Ambassadors at any one time are political appointees and the remainder career Foreign Service Officers, like Yovanovitch.

The early recall of an Ambassador is rare when not in the transition period between administrations of different parties. When President Trump assumed the presidency, Yovanovitch - who was already serving in the Ukraine - would have submitted her resignation like every other Ambassador giving the new president a chance to make a change. President Trump did not choose to make the change at that time, though his transition was characterized by its chaotic nature and unfilled positions.

While politically appointed Ambassadors have obvious political leanings, career officers are forbidden under the Hatch Act to involve themselves in any political activity. In thinking about my own career as a Foreign Service Officer, I never knew the political leanings of the officers that I served with. We understood that we would serve both Republican and Democratic administrations and that whatever our personal beliefs, they were best kept to ourselves.

In the case of Ambassador Yovanovitch, who has drawn exceptionally strong praise from her colleagues as a true professional, there are several things to note. First, it is appalling that the president would denigrate his own Ambassador to a foreign leader.

Second, a U.S. Ambassador is in charge of all nonmilitary activities carried out in the host country by the United States. The activities of President Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, who pursued a second diplomatic track in the Ukraine, are extremely problematic. We do not know if Ambassador Yovanovitch filed a protest using the State Department's dissent channel, but that is one question for House investigators.

The events in the Ukraine do not seem to be about Republican and Democrat. The two parties agree on our goals there. These events seem to be solely about President Trump and his unpredictable obsessions. Career diplomats will always be buffeted by political winds but will try to keep the ship of state on course. Hurricane Donald, however, will test the mettle of even the most seasoned diplomat.

Keith Peterson, of Lake Barrington, served 29 years as a press and cultural officer for the United States Information Agency and Department of State. He was chief editorial writer of the Daily Herald 1984-86.