US embassy cable - 05PARIS3379

C O N F I D E N T I A L PARIS 003379 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/17/2015 
TAGS: PREL, MARR, PINR, CH, FR, NATO 
SUBJECT: FRANCE APOLOGIZES FOR MIX-UP BARRING U.S. MILITARY 
EXCHANGE OFFICER FROM CHINA STUDY PROGRAM 
 
REF: IIR 6 832 0445 05 
 
Classified By: CDA ALEJANDRO WOLFF, REASON 1.4 B AND D 
 
1. (C) A wrong call by a low-level French official was 
quickly reversed when we brought it to the attention of the 
MOD and MFA.  At issue was the participation of Col. Ernest 
Herold, Chief of the Embassy's Office of Defense Cooperation, 
in the annual study trip sponsored by the Direction Generale 
d'Armements (DGA).  This year's trip takes the 50-plus 
members of a DGA course to China, May 17-28.  Col. Herold had 
earlier been told by course administrators that his 
participation in the visit would not be welcome.  When the 
Embassy, after consulting with EUCOM, brought this to the 
attention of senior officials at the MOD and MFA, immediate 
action was taken to turn around what was described by an 
advisor to FM Barnier as a "stupid decision."  All the 
high-level officials we spoke with registered their 
consternation over the episode, apologized, and assured us 
that the "bureaucratic screw-up" did not in any way result 
from political considerations.  (Indeed, we understand the 
Germans and Italians experienced a similar series of events 
before they were included in the trip.) 
 
2. (C) The source of the mix-up remains unclear.  Col. 
Herold, who is enrolled in a course for advanced armament 
studies at the "Cours des Hautes Etudes d'Armement - CHEAR," 
France's equivalent of the Industrial College of the Armed 
Forces in Washington, had originally been informed informally 
by the French school that the French Embassy in Beijing was 
uncomfortable with a U.S. student participating in the class 
trip (reftel).  However, in response to our queries, the 
Defense Minister's Diplomatic Advisor Bertrand Besancenot, 
the MFA's Secretary-General (no.2) Jean-Pierre Lafon, and the 
FM's Counselor for North America Nicholas de Riviere, noted 
they had been unaware of the decision, but thought it 
unjustifiable and took immediate action to reverse it. 
Within little over two hours of our bringing the problem to 
their attention, these senior French officials had turned the 
decision around.  A DGA official accompanied Col. Herold to 
the Chinese Embassy on May 17 to expedite visa issuance. 
 
WOLFF