U.S. Department of State Fiscal Year 2019 Agency Financial Report

The Department’s 230th Anniversary O n July 29, 2019, Secretary Pompeo led a day-long program of events celebrating the 230th Anniversary of the Department of State. Highlights of the day included a video featuring interviews with former Secretaries George Shultz, Madeleine Albright, Condoleezza Rice, and Colin Powell as well as a live conversation between Henry Kissinger, recognized by Secretary Pompeo as the “dean of America’s Secretaries of State,” and his official biographer, Dr. Niall Ferguson. Deputy Secretary John Sullivan, Counselor T. Ulrich Brechbühl, Under Secretary for Political Affairs Ambassador David Hale, Under Secretary for Economic Affairs Keith Krach, and Under Secretary for Management Brian Bulatao all played prominent roles in the festivities. The Anniversary celebration reinforced themes raised several months earlier during the introduction of the Department’s Ethos . Secretary Pompeo used the occasion to remark on the heritage and mission of the Department. “We at the State Department follow in the footsteps of our forefathers. We use diplomacy to defend that very set of unalienable rights – not just for Americans, but for people all across the world.” The Harry S Truman lobby featured panels created by each of the Department’s bureaus illustrating the historical and ongoing contributions of State’s various components. To underscore the special mission of the Department, Secretary Pompeo took a look back at extraordinary efforts by several seemingly ordinary State Department figures. X X “In 1814, a man named Stephen Pleasonton was a clerk at the State Department. When the British invaded Washington, he was there. At that time, the State Department was the keeper of all of the nation’s documents, so Mr. Pleasanton took it upon himself to smuggle the Declaration, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and all of our nation’s treaties to safety outside of the city of Washington, D.C. X X Think too of men who have not been recorded so much in history, a man named George Waller. He was our charge d’affaires in Luxembourg at the outbreak of World War II. And when the Germans invaded Luxembourg, Mr. Waller refused to evacuate. Many Jews were still seeking visas to the United States, and he wanted to help them. The problem was, his post was not a visa-issuing consulate. You know, the bureaucracy was in his way. So Mr. Waller drove five hours to Antwerp in the dark of night to retrieve visa forms and a stamping machine. It sounds old school, but he made it back to Luxembourg and proceeded to issue life-saving visas to hundreds of Jews. X X We all know this as we sit here today: Our family members are the hidden heroes of diplomacy. Take family member Kitty Herrick. She was the wife of our Ambassador to France at the outbreak of World War I. She helped launch the American Ambulance Hospital in Paris. Parisians called her “The American Angel.” “I wanted to tell those three stories today for a reason. These folks show what the State Department – and the mission of American diplomacy – is truly all about. These diplomatic heroes laid a foundation for each of us – not just by protecting freedom through their good works, but by being a true example of service.” Former Secretary of State Dr. Henry Kissinger participates in a discussion with his biographer, Dr. Niall Ferguson, at the Department’s 230th anniversary celebration in Washington, D.C., July 29, 2019. Department of State 2019 A gency F inancial R eport U nited S tates D epartment of S tate | 33