Tillerson Says Goodbye to ‘a Very Mean-Spirited Town’

WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Rex Tillerson bade farewell to the State Department on Thursday in a brief and barbed speech that called for an era of respect and kindness after he was dismissed by presidential tweet.

“This can be a very mean-spirited town,” Tillerson said, a remark that generated a rare burst of applause from employees in a department that had never embraced his distant and disorganized leadership.

“But you don’t have to choose to participate in that,” he continued as the clapping crescendoed in the formal, flag-draped entrance of the State Department’s headquarters. “Each of us gets to choose the person we want to be, and the way we want to be treated, and the way we want to treat others.”

President Donald Trump fired Tillerson last week and announced in a post on Twitter that the nation’s top diplomat would be replaced by Mike Pompeo, director of the CIA. Tillerson had just returned from a weeklong trip to Africa, where he contracted an intestinal illness, and was surprised by the decision, said his spokesman, Steve Goldstein.

The first Tillerson knew of his firing was when an aide showed him the president’s tweet, Goldstein said.

Later that day, Goldstein and several other aides who were close to Tillerson also were fired by the White House. Officials said John F. Kelly, the chief of staff, had tried to warn Tillerson in a phone call days earlier by saying, cryptically, “you may get a tweet.” White House officials also added that Tillerson had been on the toilet at the time of the call.

Tillerson will likely be remembered as among the least successful secretaries of state in recent history, having alienated much of the White House staff and most of his own department with an imperious style, skeletal leadership team and missteps on the international stage.

Just as problematic were his frequent disagreements with Trump over key policy decisions, such as whether to remain in the Paris climate accord, how to broker the dispute between Saudi Arabia and Qatar and whether and when to engage in discussions with North Korea.

One of Tillerson’s most difficult moments came over the summer, when NBC News revealed that he had called the president a “moron” in a meeting with senior officials. Although he held a news conference that day to heap praise on Trump, Tillerson never denied making the remark, a refusal that rankled the president.

In his speech Thursday, Tillerson hinted at a possible reason for his nondenial.

“Never lose sight of your most valuable asset, the most valuable asset you possess: your personal integrity,” Tillerson said. He added: “Only you can relinquish it or allow it to be compromised. Once you’ve done so, it is very very hard to regain it. So guard it as the most precious thing you possess.”

Tillerson had frequently dismissed reports that his department was experiencing an exodus of top diplomatic talent — even though the State Department’s personnel office issued data demonstrating that hundreds of officials were fleeing.

The most puzzling part of Tillerson’s time at the State Department was the organizational chaos that defined his tenure.

As a former chief executive of Exxon Mobil, Tillerson’s management chops were supposed to be his chief calling card. But he failed to get even half of his leadership team in place, a first in U.S. history.

Those who did get top jobs were not allowed to make even small decisions without Tillerson’s approval, leading to paralysis. In just one example, the State Department has yet to spend any of the $120 million that Congress allocated to counter Russia’s election meddling.

He presided over a reorganization effort that spent millions of dollars on outside consultants and involved thousands of hours of staff consultations. At the end, however, the suggested changes were almost exactly the same as those given to him by managers on his first day in office. In his final weeks in office, Tillerson stopped mentioning the reorganization that he had once identified as his top priority.

Since his firing, Tillerson has focused on ensuring a smooth transition, ordering a slew of memorandums by staff and waiting for a personal meeting with Pompeo.

Despite his unpopularity with diplomats, Tillerson was credited by many observers with being a voice of moderation in an administration that has presided over deteriorating relations in almost every corner of the world.

“His support for the Paris climate accord and the Iran nuclear deal, and his conception of having talks about talks with North Korea, I thought all of those were correct,” said R. Nicholas Burns, a former career foreign service officer who was once Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s right-hand man. “But he was a disastrous manager, and morale at the department plummeted.”

“So it’s a complicated epitaph,” Burns said.