Diplomats at UN surprised by Danforth’s resignation
By WARREN HOGE
UNITED NATIONS, Dec 2, 2004 (New York Times) — The resignation of John C. Danforth as the United States ambassador to the United Nations came as a surprise to people at the world body who had witnessed Mr. Danforth in robust exchanges in the Security Council chamber and had noted his commitment to drawing attention to Sudan.
In a letter to President Bush dated Nov. 22, Mr. Danforth, 68, said he had decided to return to private life in St. Louis before the beginning of the president’s second term on Jan. 20.
The letter cited his desire to spend more time with his wife, Sally. “Forty-seven years ago,” Mr. Danforth wrote, “I married the girl of my dreams, and, at this point in my life, what is most important to me is to spend more time with her. Because you know Sally, you know my reason for going home.”
Last month, when the United States held the rotating presidency of the Security Council, Mr. Danforth moved the 15-member panel to Nairobi, Kenya, for two days of talks to focus attention on the growing crisis in the Darfur region of western Sudan and political talks in the south of Sudan, in which he had taken part in an earlier brief role as President Bush’s special envoy.
There was speculation that Mr. Danforth, a former Republican senator from Missouri and an Episcopal minister known for blunt statements, had become frustrated with the bureaucratic inaction of the United Nations and the need to clear statements with Washington. An acquaintance said Mr. Danforth’s wife had often told friends, “Jack’s not a yes man.”
But Richard A. Grenell, his spokesman, said Mr. Danforth’s reasons for leaving were entirely personal. “In November,” Mr. Grenell said, “he said to me that there are many people who can be United States ambassador to the U.N., but there is only one person who can be Sally Danforth’s husband.”
The Danforths, who were childhood neighbors, married during Mr. Danforth’s junior year at Princeton. Mrs. Danforth suffered a fall last year, and on some of the social outings she was obliged to attend in New York, she sometimes wore a tennis shoe to cushion a slight limp.
In his letter of resignation, Mr. Danforth said he would be available for special assignments if the president needed him. In a return letter, which was not released, Mr. Bush reportedly promised to do so.
Mr. Danforth brought a refreshing directness to the convoluted conversational style of the United Nations. On Nov. 23 – the day after he had sent his resignation letter – he let his impatience with the United Nations show in an unusually brash denunciation of a move in the General Assembly to cut off a motion that would have criticized human rights violations in Sudan, which the United States has called genocide.
“One wonders about the utility of the General Assembly on days like this,” he said. “One wonders if there can’t be a clear and direct statement on matters of basic principle, why have this building? What is it all about?”
His exasperation was prompted by a South African move that effectively blocked any vote on the measure in the General Assembly’s committee on social, humanitarian and cultural affairs.
Denouncing the decision, he said it meant that “it’s going to be inaction, it’s going to be condoning the status quo, it’s going to be failure to support the African Union, it’s going to be failure to support the peace process, and most importantly, it’s going to be failure to support the people of Sudan who are suffering terribly and have suffered for a very long time.”
“And the message from the General Assembly,” he said, “is very simple and it is, ‘You may be suffering, but we can’t be bothered.’ ”
Mr. Danforth took up the post on July 1, succeeding John D. Negroponte, who is now the American ambassador in Baghdad. He was a member of the Senate for 18 years before deciding to return to St. Louis in 1995.
An imposing 6 feet 3 inches tall with a sonorous baritone that millions became familiar with in June when he officiated at the Washington funeral of former President Ronald Reagan, Mr. Danforth was known in the nation’s capital as Saint Jack – a nickname that paid tribute to his unassailable rectitude while also hinting at occasional annoyance over his bent for moralizing piety.
In a speech last month in St. Louis, according to Reuters, Mr. Danforth said that as a former senator, he was not accustomed to having a policy statement vetted by State Department bureaucrats and transformed into “mush” before he could issue it. “It creates some practical problems,” he said.