Washington's man in Wellington mends fences

By FRAN O'SULLIVAN

The US presidential elections are rolling around again and Ambassador Charles Swindells is in full swing.

Swindells, a personal representative of President George W. Bush, has to be non-partisan.

Unlike during the 2000 elections, when he was a prominent Bush fundraiser, Swindells will watch this election from the sidelines.

But "it's going to be a good campaign".

Expect Swindells to increase his public profile in a series of town hall meetings throughout New Zealand as the November election draws near.

"You look at the legislative track record of the Administration. And the President's is awesome. Awesome," Swindells enthuses. "His education bill. His economic stimulus bill. The prescription drug reforms. I think if you looked and read over his first State of the Union address he has accomplished more than anybody would have thought.

"It's just there ... and I'm not being political."

It is a time when Bush - "a war President" as he billed himself in a tough NBC interview this week - is coming under serious political pressure that even his $US150 million ($215 million) campaign war chest may not be able to deflect.

But, says Swindells, "No question, Americans know that we are at war".

He is not embarrassed that many New Zealanders, and growing numbers of Americans, question the legitimacy of the Iraq invasion. Bush has announced an inquiry into the US intelligence claims that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.

But Swindells argues it was just a matter of time. "There is no question that what happened in Iraq needed to happen."

Without Saddam's removal the dialogue with North Korea would not have opened. Nor would Libya have undertaken unilateral nuclear disarmament.


Ensuring New Zealanders share this understanding is a major priority.

"It's a very exciting time. There is movement on some issues that no one ever thought possible."

Last year, Swindells stumped up and down New Zealand promoting the US cause on Iraq. His audiences displayed a lot of emotion and concern - and "there was certainly disagreement".

"But I think in every one of those meetings they came back with a better understanding of why we were doing what we were doing."

A classic silver fox, Swindells is always calm and almost overwhelmingly positive ("fabulous", "wonderful", "tremendous" are just some of the superlatives that sprinkle his speech like confetti). And engagingly energetic.

The ambassador cut short a trip to Stewart Island for this interview and willingly posed outside in a blustery Wellington day under a swirling Stars and Stripes flag while workmen fortified the embassy's entrance against possible terrorists.

Since last year's Jakarta bombing, the US has beefed up security at all regional embassies. Armed Marines are back to guard the show.

Swindells says that even when he was just a citizen it was obvious that terrorism was evolving. He has received extensive US State Department "sun-up to sun-down" briefings.

"You couldn't predict an event of the magnitude of September 11 ... But at the same time you are given a lot of cold reality of what the job is all about."

Swindells grew up in Oregon, where his grandfather and father were prominent lawyers. He never had a passion for law and went into business. It was a time when US pension funds were evolving rapidly and needed professional management.

"Myself and two other business partners saw a tremendous opportunity to form an independent firm and give the banks competition," recalls Swindells. "We hit the wave of a whole new industry."

He was 26 years old, with US$700 million under management.

When he sold his firm to Charles Schwab's United States Trust in 1993, Swindells stayed on.

"They wanted me to represent them. I was like an ambassador for US Trust."

Both his parents were prominent Portland fund-raisers. When his mother, Helen, died last year, the Oregonian quoted his sister Patricia as saying, "When she believed in a project she would take it from beginning to end. She would be the best one to have on your bandwagon."

Swindells has also been an inveterate fundraiser for a raft of Portland non-profit organisations.

He joined the Bush campaign two years before the 2000 elections.

"I had an opportunity to sit down with him and run over in much detail his accomplishments in his terms as Governor [of Texas] ... It was impressive.

"He made you feel like it was going to be an important meeting of substance. He's very real, very personable. He has a tremendous sense of humour."

Swindells swelled Bush's campaign coffers and when he got the call from the President to become ambassador, "I saw that it would be a wonderful challenge".

Swindells - praised as a consensus-builder at his Senate confirmation hearings - wants to strengthen relations between his country and New Zealand.


"The first day I met the Prime Minister I knew we were going to get along well and work well together. She wants to strengthen and build the relationship between the two countries, as I do."

Helen Clark's Washington trip in early 2002 came after she committed Special Air Service troops to fight in Afghanistan. It was a high point for Swindells - the first New Zealand Prime Minister to get a White House reception in many years.

He is diplomatic about Clark's subsequent gaffe when she said the Iraq invasion would not have occurred if Al Gore had been president.

"You're going to have spots where people are going to interpret things differently. You just have to look at the bigger picture and concentrate.

"I can't say it hasn't been interesting times."

New Zealand's differences with the US primarily lie in defence policy - particularly the anti-nuclear stance, which has been a thorn in the relationship for nearly two decades.

Last October, Swindells attempted to set the record straight in a speech at Victoria University. His comment that the US would not " just get over" the anti-nuclear stance was seen as interference in New Zealand's domestic affairs.

The speech had been worked on at the highest levels, from the White House to the State Department, and embassy staffers extensively rehearsed him to cope with expected student disruption - but he walked off after noise levels drowned him out.

He would still like to explore the anti-nuclear policy. But he is not going to lose sleep over it.

"Where there can be movement, fine. If it's not time yet, then just make sure you're building where you know you can make a difference in a short period of time."

Swindells says people sometimes choose to skim over the areas where New Zealand and the US do work together, such as in the Antarctic.

"This has incredible ramifications for the economies of the South Pacific countries. And New Zealand is taking the leadership role - as we are. And that story doesn't really get told."

A keen marathon runner, Swindells has yet to run a marathon here. But he is enthusiastic about New Zealand's "great outdoor adventures" and has bungy-jumped in Queenstown as well as tandem parachuting.

If Bush is returned, expect Swindells to deepen his drive for New Zealand and the US to become allies again. "That goes back to the fundamentals of my October speech when I say we want the relationship to be all it can be."