LITTLE ROCK — Ambassador Mary Mel French once walked with a state leader from Jordan from the White House’s West Wing entrance to the door of the Oval Office, counting footsteps to measure the exact midpoint somewhere in the Roosevelt Room.
In deciding where President Bill Clinton should greet King Abdullah, the two representatives had forged a compromise.
French, favoring timeliness, wanted the two to meet at Clinton’s ceremonial office. The Jordanian, favoring ceremony, felt that kings should be greeted at the front entrance of a building.
They split the difference, measuring it in footfalls, French told a crowd gathered at the Clinton Presidential Center on Monday.
“If you do it wrong or you don’t do it or don’t listen, it can cause a problem,” she said. “We all know from reading the newspaper and watching the television that some of these things become international incidents.”
French, raised in Weiner, served as President Bill Clinton’s Chief of Protocol from 1997 to 2001, coordinating international White House visits, assisting foreign embassies and welcoming foreign leaders to the Blair House, the guest quarters in Washington.
In an address sponsored by the Clinton Foundation and the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service, French shared stories from her time in the White House and advice from her new book United States Protocol: The Guide to Official Diplomatic Etiquette.
While serving as the chief of protocol, which carries with it the rank of ambassador, French traveled to 76 countries with President Clinton, learning to navigate cultural customs and unexpected events.
Her book is the first compiled on U.S. protocol since “the red book,” an Eisenhower era book that is still a point of reference for cabinet staff, she said.
Protocol is important for relationships spanning from interpersonal to international, from addressing a letter with the proper title to presenting an appropriate gift to a foreign head of state, French said.
“When you’re in their country, whether you’re a private citizen or the president of the United States, you abide by their protocol,” she said.
For international leaders traveling to the United States, this meant adjusting to the president’s tendency toward lateness, known to his staff as “operating on Clinton time,” French said.
For French, it meant stopping in a mud hut in Uganda to listen to a widowed mother tell of rebuilding her family’s life by sleeping in line to accept a free cow from the Little Rock based Heifer Project.
The mother’s oldest daughter, interpreting for her, was eager to show that the family always had cream for their tea, French said.
“It’s important to people,” she said of the carefully cultivated set of norms that dictate social behavior around the world.
A guest at the lecture asked French about the White House “gate crashers.” Socialites Michaele and Tareq Salahi drew headlines in 2009 when they attended a state dinner hosted by President Barack Obama without invitations.
The breach won’t likely be repeated, but it was indicative of a new White House staff learning how to adapt to high expectations, French said.
“Every administration comes in and there is a very steep learning curve,” she said. “You can’t know everything and you can’t ask everyone everything.”
French learned on the job how to adapt to the needs and the unique personalities of the foreign leaders she dealt with. South African President Nelson Mandela was among her favorites.
When Mandela stayed in Blair House, he insisted on taking the stairs, despite the slow gate he developed from arthritis exacerbated by years working in sulfur mines, French said.
The previously imprisoned leader insisted that French walk up and down the stairs with him.
“He said, ‘I’ve been in confined spaces for so long. If I can walk, I’d rather walk up the stairs,’” French said. “So we did.”
Arkansas, Pages 8 on 09/21/2010