In 1989, French counterintelligence agents watched Felix Bloch as he dined in Paris with known Soviet spy “Pierre Bart.” Bloch…
An Espionage Caper in Ghana; Helping Americans Escape Rwanda — Scenes From a Diplomatic Life
Arlene Render’s career took her from a segregated neighborhood in Cleveland, Ohio, to three ambassadorships and a lifetime of diplomatic…
War of the Waves: Combating Espionage in Embassy Moscow
U.S. relations with Moscow through the decades have been problematic at best while the embassy itself has been the subject…
Come Spy with Me: Cold War Espionage Against China
Intelligence services spend a great deal of time trying to recruit new assets, spies who have access to sensitive information…
State Department Response to the Holocaust—Jewish Refugees and Attempts to Enter the United States during WWII
In 1938, in the shadow of the Great Depression came rumblings from Europe of a great war and with it…
Diplomacy as an Instrument of Statecraft: A Practicum
Diplomacy as an Instrument of Statecraft: A Practicum Remarks to the Washington International Diplomatic Academy Ambassador Chas W.…
First Assignment—Thailand During the Vietnam War
Harlan Lee first became a foreign service officer in 1968 during the Vietnam War, and he was immediately dispatched to…
The State Department Under the Red Scare: McCarthy’s Campaign
The inauspicious rise of Joseph McCarthy began in 1950, when the Wisconsin senator was asked to give a speech at…
Building Trust and Supporting Human Rights in Apartheid South Africa
In 1988, a formidable coalition of Democrats and moderate Republicans passed the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act (CAA) over President Reagan’s veto.…
“Encouraging” Soviet Workmen in 1984—Vodka, Cigarettes, and Snow Plowing in Soviet Russia
The currency of Soviet Russia was the ruble—or was it? When General Services Officer Robert Weisberg was posted to the…