A Businessman at the State Dept.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/18/opinion/tillerson-state-department.html

Version 0 of 1.

To the Editor:

Re “Diplomacy? Tillerson Says His Top Priority for the State Dept. Is Efficiency” (news article, Sept. 15):

My father was a Foreign Service officer, and as his son, I had a United States diplomatic passport until I was 18.

Looking back at all the countries we lived in, usually hardship posts like Ethiopia for three years, I can remember my father as someone pragmatic and efficient. It was necessary. But I believe that my father would have emphasized speaking with his local counterparts rather than arranging and sorting the contents of his desk drawers.

OLIVIER FORKELVERSAILLES, FRANCE