Harlan Lee first became a foreign service officer in 1968 during the Vietnam War, and he was immediately dispatched to…
Life as a Vietnam War POW
In 1966, well into the Vietnam War and three years into Lyndon B. Johnson’s presidency, Charles Graham Boyd took his…
Counterinsurgency and the Vietnam War
The United States Intelligence Community was, infamously, heavily involved in the Cold War. The tensions between the United States and…
Development and Defoliation During the Vietnam War: A USAID Officer’s Tale
How do you reconcile the goals of the U.S. military, USAID development workers and State Department diplomats in the midst…
Long Before He Headed the CIA, James Woolsey Challenged Paul Nitze Over the Vietnam War
For a young lieutenant to challenge the number two man in the Department of Defense over Vietnam policy in 1969…
Agent Orange and the Vietnam War
In 1961, United States forces in Vietnam began to use chemical herbicides and defoliants on South Vietnamese crops, bushes, and…
Vietnam and Beyond: A Diplomat’s Cold War Education
Robert Hopkins Miller’s forty-year Foreign Service career, from 1951 to 1991, spanned virtually the entire Cold War. Miller worked on…
An Embassy at War: Labor Management in South Vietnam
The roles of embassies and their staff vary greatly by countries and regions, though few can claim themselves to be…
The Foreign Service at War (Part 1): A Diplomat on the Frontline in Vietnam
For U.S. Foreign Service Officers during the Vietnam War, an assignment to South Vietnam was unlike any other. For some,…
Evacuating American Citizens as Civil War Engulfs Freetown
Evacuating American Citizens as Civil War Engulfs Freetown Mary Annette “Ann” Wright was born in Oklahoma, grew up in Arkansas, and served…