Copyright by Gregory Krauss 2007 - The University of Texas at Austin

Conclusion
Apart from his initial stint in Colombia, during the first 20 years of his career,
Lister served in the European theater, on the front lines of the Cold War against the
Soviet Union. As a political officer, his job was to promote democratic ideology,
discredit Communist regimes and dogma, and report on political developments in the
countries he was covering. His experiences in Russia and Poland left him as a
committed Cold Warrior but also someone who cared deeply about the plight of
people living in Communist societies.
In Italy, Lister actively engaged in trying to persuade the Socialists to become
more receptive to the U.S. and to become firm adherents to the idea of democracy.
His efforts were a factor in the emergence of a center-left government in Italy.
Regardless of whether a center-left government turned out to be in U.S. interests,
Lister’s Italian experience demonstrates the possibilities for a mid-level bureaucrat to
alter U.S. foreign policy at the execution stage. By virtue of being in Rome, rather
than in Washington, Lister was in a position to give U.S. policy towards Italian
Socialists his own interpretation. His key technique was dialogue. Beginning a
conversation with Italian Socialists was enough to send them a different signal, even
though they knew he was only a functionary.
In some senses, the debate that occurred inside the White House when
Kennedy took office was occurring after a small policy shift had already taken place.
By 1958, Lister had already decided that it would be valuable to become more
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