In the first two years of his administration, U. S. President Bill Clinton has particularly come under attack in the area of foreign policy. Criticism from both the Democratic Party and the Republicans ended up centering on the figure of Secretary of State Warren Christopher. One way or the other he has been blamed for all that seemed wrong with Clinton's foreign policy: its weakness, its inconstancy, its lack of credibility. The respected Los Angeles lawyer who had recently gained so much credibility thanks to the report bearing his name and which led to the removal of L.A.P.D. Chief Daryl Gates was seen, with his tentative speaking style and congenital reserve, as a symbol of the tentativeness of U.S. leadership in the world. And there were some serious rumors, going around Washington in the summer of 1994, that Christopher would not have lasted in his position until the end of the year (Robbins, 1994, p. Al). But after having been on a kind of probation for much of 1994, the Secretary of State has finally received an official endorsement from the White House. On January 12, 1995 new presidential press secretary Michael McCurry announced that after reviewing the foreign policy successes of the previous two years "'the President indicated to Secretary Christopher he had a lot of confidence in him and wanted him to stay on the job indefinitely.'" (Williams, 1995, p. A10). And, soon after, Christopher found himself being courted by an originally doubtful, if not openly critical, Congress and was frequently called to testify in front of the newly constituted Senate Foreign Relations Committee (Sciolino, 1995, p. A8).
A better knowledge about Warren Christopher's personal and professional background helps to understand more clearly not only the kinds of problems he had to face in his recent transition from Los Angeles to Washington, surely not the first one in his long career as a high profile public servant, but also how he man...