Payola on Embassy Row

AMBASSADOR, n. A political partisan whose campaign contributions are large enough to offset any disadvantage of training, language or ability in consideration for a top diplomatic post.

That definition might well be considered for the next edition of Webster's. The New York Times last week published a list of ambassadors appointed by President Nixon, along with the amounts that they contributed to his last two elections. The price for even the least prestigious post seems to run to five figures. Thus, in ascending order, V. John Krehbiel, Ambassador to Finland, paid out $19,000 to the G.O.P. in the past four years; Anthony D. Marshall, the ambassador to sunny Trinidad and Tobago, $75,505; John P. Humes, Ambassador to Austria, $159,500.

Last year alone, Walter H. Annenberg, Ambassador to the Court of St. James's, contributed $254,000; Mrs. George Farkas, wife of the founder of Alexander's department store, and ambassador-designate to Luxembourg, anted up $300,000 ($200,000 of it after Nixon was safely re-elected). Even in Washington, however, money is not everything. Insurance Magnate W. Clement Stone, for instance, kicked in $1,000,000 last year--along with several hints that he would like the London post--but he is still biding his time in Chicago.

Of course, awarding ambassadorships to the highest bidder is not new. Yet both the practice and the prices seem to be on the rise. In his first term Nixon gave 15 embassies to generous noncareer diplomats--more than twice as many as John F. Kennedy, and one-third more than Lyndon B. Johnson. Certainly it is high time to take the embassies out of the pork barrel.

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