Former U.S. ambassador, in Vinings visit, recalls wins in Luxembourg

Aug. 12—VININGS — What does it mean to represent the United States' interests abroad? What about in a tiny European country as populous as, and only three times the geographic size of, Cobb County?

Randy Evans gave members of the Cobb County Republican Women's Club a taste of an ambassador's life this week, when he recounted his stint representing the United States in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.

Nominated to the post by then-President Donald Trump, Evans served in that role from 2018 to 2021.

Already a well-known figure in Georgia political circles, Evans had, in the 1990s, served as general counsel for Newt Gingrich, the Republican speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. He later served in similar roles for Gingrich's successor as House speaker, Dennis Hastert, and Georgia governors Sonny Perdue and Nathan Deal.

Although congressional Democrats opposed his nomination to the ambassadorship, Evans was approved by the Senate along party lines in May 2018.

Tuesday night at The Atrium at Vinings, Evans told the crowd of about 30 Republicans that being an ambassador was more than schmoozing and going to parties.

That said, there was a lot of evening wear.

"Before I went there, I had one rental tuxedo that I had failed to turn in," Evans said, to laughs. "In Luxembourg, with the constitutional monarchy, I had eight tuxedos. You have a morning tuxedo, you have an afternoon tuxedo, you have a tuxedo with tails."

Evans' detailed his accomplishments from his tenure in Luxembourg, which included negotiating agreements with the country concerning collaboration between their space programs and the experience of U.S. troops stationed at a base there.

But his proudest, he said, was his successful push to get Luxembourg to make reparations to the country's Jewish families that had been destroyed or stolen from during Nazi occupation.

"I get to Luxembourg, I meet with all the various religious communities and I meet with the Jewish community and I find out Luxembourg is the only country who has not made restoration to the Holocaust survivors," he said. "In fact, the train station used to ship Jews from Luxembourg to their death in Auschwitz was still an operating train station. .... So I set out every single day to pound the government over this issue."

As Evans tells it, he told his press secretary before a meeting with the prime minister to have media waiting outside and, during that meeting, made the prime minister an offer he couldn't refuse.

"I say to them, we're going to go outside and there's going to be a bunch of media. There is one of two things I can say," he recalled. "One thing I can say is, I'm so proud of this prime minister for establishing a working group to solve this issue. Or I can walk out and talk about how despicable it is that a country as rich as Luxembourg will not own up to its responsibilities for what happened in the past. ... Guess which one he picked?"

The country took several steps to make amends. Among them were the closure of the train station Evans had mentioned, with a memorial installed in its place; paying out $1 million euros to each of the 53 remaining Holocaust survivors in the country; and returning dormant bank accounts — those not in use for 60 years — to their owners or heirs.

Scott Johnson, a former chair of the Cobb GOP, introduced Evans before his presentation Tuesday. Johnson said Evans was the consummate party man who, despite his large profile, never "forgot about the grassroots." When he couldn't make meetings of the county party, he'd offer to send someone in his stead.

"That's pretty special," Johnson said. "Some people, you know, get their heads in the clouds and kind of lose their personal touch."

Despite the occasionally fraught relationship U.S. ambassadors had with their host countries during the Trump administration — the "America First" mantra didn't exactly endear the country to longtime allies — Evans said he had been lucky to have been posted in a country with a great relationship with the United States given Americans' role in the Battle of the Bulge during World War II.

"The first two weeks I was there, I just rode the country, I wanted to meet Luxembourg," he said. "There were more American flags out than Luxembourg flags."