There was plenty of scepticism when Rex Tillerson, the United Secretary of State who is honouring New Zealand with an early visit next week, was first nominated for the job.
He had never held public office - having been national president of the Boy Scouts of America doesn't count.
Being an oil baron was a strange credential for a diplomat when climate change diplomacy had triumphed with the Paris Accord.
But he wasn't just any oil baron. Tillerson worked so closely with Russia on a deal to explore the Arctic Ocean for oil, that President Vladimir Putin awarded him the Order of Friendship in 2013, although the deal was frozen when sanctions were applied to Russia for annexing Crimea.
The scepticism over the appointment moved to suspicion as apparently close ties between Russia and Donald Trump's advisers have become more evident.
But whatever Trump's motives behind the appointment, what has become evident even in the nascent days of the Trump Administration - it is only 133 days old - is that Tillerson is a relative voice of reason in the current tumult of Washington.
His confirmation hearings revealed a person who was not itching to do the job but as someone who had answered a call that one does not turn down. He appeared to have some integrity and avoided making a fool of himself or his boss.
He was never a Trump acolyte. He backed and funded one of Trump's moderate rivals, Jeb Bush, in the Republican primaries.
And as head of ExxonMobil, he recognised climate change and the company supported the Paris Accord. Tillerson and Trump's daughter Ivanka have been widely reported as among those who privately counselled him not to withdraw the US from the accord.
The mild success they had was in getting Trump to say he would try to renegotiate the deal so it was better for the United States but the tone Trump took in his announcement suggests there is no optimism that that will occur.
The biggest favour Tillerson could do for New Zealand in his visit next week is to join some of the dots and explain US foreign policy.
Perhaps he could explain how the "America First" doctrine of President Trump sits alongside his claim to be a global leader.
On climate change global leadership will be taken up by China, Britain and Europe.
On trade, that role has been taken by China and Japan.
United States' leadership is not wanted for the sake of it but only for what it delivers for mutual benefit.
The decision by the US to withdraw from the Paris Accord and the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement is not likely to feature large on the agenda of talks next week with Prime Minister Bill English and Foreign Minister Gerry Brownlee - who has previously met Tillerson when he was Energy Minister.
For a visit so rare, the Government is not going to waste time relitigating decisions by the US that were promised by Trump in the election campaign, no matter how idiotic they are.
In the past 20 years, there have been only four visits by a US Secretary of State: Madeline Albright in 1998, Condoleezza Rice in 2008, Hillary Clinton in 2010 to mark the normalisation in the Wellington Declaration, and John Kerry last year at the end of an Antarctic visit.
The normalisation of relations between New Zealand and US, after the anti-nuclear rift, was driven from within the State Department by former Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell then Danny Russel, political appointees under a Democratic Administration.
Normalisation was enhanced by strong relationships between John Key and Barack Obama and between former Foreign Minister Murray McCully and John Kerry and Hillary Clinton.
There was never a guarantee that a new Administration would embrace the new approach as whole-heartedly.
It has not been clear how much of US foreign policy and military decisions would be based on the preferences and whims of the new erratic president, and whether the US maintaining its position of leadership and influence in the world would be as important to him.
Tillerson's decision to visit and so early in his tenure suggests it remains so and that the Trump Administration still sees New Zealand as a friend in a region in which US influence is waning and flashpoints are increasing.
Tillerson's day-long visit on Tuesday will come after a longer one to Australia for the annual Ausmin talks involving the US Secretary of Defense, General James Mattis, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Joseph Dunford and the commander of the Pacific fleet, Admiral Harry Harris.
North Korea's nuclear programme and China's activities in the South China Seas are likely to feature large in their talks as formal allies.
They will also discuss a new surge being planned for Afghanistan and what will happen to the coalition in Iraq and Syria.
Tillerson is said to have some reservations about a new surge in Afghanistan.
But what has also become apparent to close observers of the Trump government is that the military have much more influence in the White House than they did under Barack Obama.
Trump relies heavily on advice from General Mattis, General Dunford, his national security adviser, Lt General HR McMaster, and Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly, also a retired General.
In the traditional rivalry between the State Department and the Pentagon, there is no contest at present. Partly that is because so many jobs at the State Department remain unfilled by Tillerson including a permanent Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs.
Tillerson was given the job because in his life's work at Exxon, Trump said he was an excellent dealmaker and had a "deep understanding of geopolitics."
There has not yet been time enough to test that.