MOMENTS
Peace Corps to Ambassador: Darryl Johnson in Thailand
Many young people enter the Peace Corps with the idea, if not the outright goal, that they might eventually become a diplomat. In 1963, Darryl Norman Johnson was just 24 years old when he sent off his application to the Peace Corps almost on a whim. He had also taken ... Read More
MOMENTS
Restoring Trust and Preserving the U.S.-Japan Alliance: The 1995 Okinawa Rape Incident
It’s hard to imagine U.S. foreign policy in East Asia without its closest partner and ally in the region: Japan. Yet relations between the two allies have not always been close nor has their shared history been without its crises. While it may seem that the alliance... Read More
MOMENTS
Administering the First Dosage of Penicillin in Brazil: Contributions of a Foreign Service Spouse
Few get the chance to leave their mark as a record holder. Beatrice Bishop Berle certainly did just that. In the mid-1940s, Beatrice Bishop Berle administered the first dose of penicillin in Brazil’s history. Her husband, Adolf Berle, Jr., was the U.S. Ambassador to... Read More
MOMENTS
From Vice-Consul to Ambassador: The Story of William Swing’s Return to South Africa
When William Lacy Swing left Port Elizabeth, South Africa in 1966, he vowed to never return until the end of Apartheid. Twenty-three years later, Swing did just that, returning to South Africa as the United States ambassador. Thanks to the relationships he had formed ... Read More
MOMENTS
Life as a Diplomatic Courier: Connecting China to the World
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to jet off across the world continent-to-continent at a moment’s notice? Before the days of instant electronic communications, the role of a diplomatic courier would be to deliver classified information back and forth as ... Read More