Well Done, Mr. Christopher

As President Clinton’s first term ends, Warren Christopher heads home to Los Angeles, adding a final few thousand miles to the record three-quarters of a million he logged in his four years as secretary of State. Christopher can return to his law practice and, undoubtedly, to further community service comfortable in the knowledge that his tenure was a time of impressive accomplishment for American diplomacy.

Not the least of Christopher’s achievements was prodding a president who entered office with little experience or interest in foreign affairs into realizing that managing U.S. relations with the world is half of his job. It took a long time to get Clinton to focus on international issues, and during that period U.S. global leadership was often perceived as indecisive and drifting. But Clinton learned and in the process forged good ties with many of the world’s key leaders. Give major credit to Christopher for helping guide the president in that essential effort.

During Christopher’s term the United States pushed ahead with visible success in its sponsoring of the Middle East peace process, led in bringing peace and greater security to Bosnia and continued to support democracy, economic change and stability in Russia.

There were of course disappointments and setbacks. Uncertainty continues to shadow relations with China, Syria still shuns serious peace talks with Israel and congressional assaults on the foreign relations budget have weakened U.S. diplomatic effectiveness. A new secretary now must confront these hard issues.

For Warren Christopher, it’s the total record that counts. In a recent interview with The Times he cited Dean Acheson’s summing up of his term as President Harry Truman’s secretary of State: “We left things better than we found them.” On balance, the same can be said of America’s relations with the world at the beginning of 1997.