On Your Behalf

In mid-March, 2 US Journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee, were captured in North Korea after crossing the border from China. The reasons for their venture into North Korea are dubious, and Kim Jong-il made sure to paint these two as spies. As such, they were both sentenced to 12 years in a hard labor camp, which is to say a death sentence.

While many official attempts were no doubt made to secure the release of these 2, such attempts were to no avail as Kim had decided to play his usual game of cat and mouse with the US. However, yesterday, August 4th, Ex-President Bill Clinton decided to do a little negotiating of his own. After a few hours of conversation and dinner with the aging dictator, Bill was given those 2 young ladies as a consolation prize. Bill then swiftly collected his entourage and sped off to the US to bring Euna and Laura home.

Two girls rescued by the dashing and smooth-talking Clinton from the grasp of the evil dictator! It truly is great that Euna and Laura are safe! However, such meddling by Clinton, is not great, in fact it greatly injures the standing of the US.

During the 1790s, the US found itself in a tight spot with France, which had devolved from a monarchy into a vicious oligarchy. The Quasi-War ensued during this period when many Americans actually shared sympathies with the French Republicans. Some of these Americans even tried negotiating with France in order to secure a truce. President John Adams quickly saw the danger in this and he put a stop to it with the passing of the Logan Act. This act, named after a Dr. Logan who tried negotiating with the French, prohibited private citizens from entering into diplomatic relations with any foreign entity.

§ 953 states:
"Any citizen of the United States, wherever he may be, who, without authority of the United States, directly or indirectly commences or carries on any correspondence or intercourse with any foreign government or any officer or agent thereof, with intent to influence the measures or conduct of any foreign government or of any officer or agent thereof, in relation to any disputes or controversies with the United States, or to defeat the measures of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.
This section shall not abridge the right of a citizen to apply himself, or his agent, to any foreign government, or the agents thereof, for redress of any injury which he may have sustained from such government or any of its agents or subjects. "

This act is in complete concordance with the Constitution, which gives negotiating powers solely to the President. Justice Sutherland, in the 1936 case of US v. Curtiss-Wright Export Corp, wrote: "[T]he President alone has the power to speak or listen as a representative of the nation. He makes treaties with the advice and consent of the Senate; but he alone negotiates. Into the field of negotiation the Senate cannot intrude, and Congress itself is powerless to invade it."

A nation-state must have regularity in its diplomacy. It is neither prudent, nor safe to allow private citizens to engage in international diplmoacy. By Bill Clinton travelling to North Korea, he granted legitimacy to that regime. And while he may simply have been enjoying a private visit and had no intentions of negotiating on behalf of the US, the fact that he is an ex-President makes such an act inherent in his presence. Everything which he says is on behalf of the US government whether he intends on making that so or not. Now, the integrity and strength of the real US administration is jeopardized as rogue nations all over the world realize that private citizens will grant them the legitimacy and PR boosts that they need. They don't have to negotiate with those stuffy, over-bearing and needy state depatment officials, instead they can just chat with ex-presidents and get the attention they want.

The Founding Fathers understood the inherent problems of private diplomacy and warned against it...this needs to be stopped.