“The Government of the United States of America acknowledges the Chinese position that there is but one China and Taiwan is part of China.” With this Second Joint Communiqué of the U.S. and China, issued on January 1, 1979, the Carter Administration no longer recognized Taiwan as a sovereign state, but rather preserved the “cultural,… Read More "The U.S. De-recognizes Taiwan in Favor of Communist China — January 1, 1979"
Castro’s Cuba – The Early Days
On January 1, 1959, after a sustained armed revolt led by Fidel Castro and others took control over most of the country, Fulgencio Batista fled Havana, marking the end of one era and the beginning of another. With the departure of the despised dictator, there was initially hope that life in Cuba would improve. William… Read More "Castro’s Cuba – The Early Days"
New Year’s Eve with the Roosevelts
For most of us, New Year’s Eve means watching the ball drop in Times Square on TV. For a lucky few, it may mean a fun party. For Abraham Sirkin, December 31st, 1941 was spent at the White House, ringing in the New Year with President and Mrs. Roosevelt. Invited to the White House by the… Read More "New Year’s Eve with the Roosevelts"
Ringing in Y2K — on Fiji
The Year 2000 Problem, more commonly referred to as Y2K, was a worldwide scare stemming from the belief that when clocks ticked over from 1999 to 2000, chaos would reign as computers and everything they controlled, including stop lights, electrical grids, and even nuclear missiles, would malfunction because the code, which was often written decades… Read More "Ringing in Y2K — on Fiji"
In Ambassador We Don’t Trust: Working Under the Leadership of the Infamous Turner Shelton
As movies like “The Devil Wore Prada” attest, bad bosses can make everyone’s life miserable (and can be quite entertaining for those who don’t have to work for them). When he served in Managua, Nicaragua, James Cheek had a front-row seat to Ambassador Turner Shelton, whom he describes as “the worst of the worst.” Shelton was… Read More "In Ambassador We Don’t Trust: Working Under the Leadership of the Infamous Turner Shelton"
The Lockerbie Bombing and Its Aftermath
On December 21, 1988, Pan American flight 103 flying from London Heathrow to JFK Airport in New York exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing a total of 270, including 11 people on the ground. Following a three-year investigation, murder warrants were issued in November 1991 for two Libyans. Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi eventually handed them over for trial in 1999… Read More "The Lockerbie Bombing and Its Aftermath"
The Dramatic Hostage Crisis and Daring Rescue at the Japanese Embassy in Peru
It sounds like something out of a novel: a group of rebels, helped by an American, seize an embassy in a South American country and hold dozens of people hostage for more than four months. Indeed, the Japanese Embassy hostage crisis inspired the 2001 best-selling novel Bel Canto by Ann Patchett, winner of the PEN/Faulkner… Read More "The Dramatic Hostage Crisis and Daring Rescue at the Japanese Embassy in Peru"
John S. Service – The Man Who “Lost China,” Part II
John Service, the son of missionaries who grew up in China, was one of the Department’s “China hands,” an expert on the region who also served as a key member of the “Dixie Mission,” which met with Mao and other Communist Chinese in Yenan in 1944. He and a few others correctly predicted that Chiang Kai-Shek,… Read More "John S. Service – The Man Who “Lost China,” Part II"
The Civil War in China, Part II –The Dixie Mission and Losing China
After attempting to convince Washington that a civil war in China was imminent and that the Communists would be the likely victors, John S. Service and a group of other U.S. diplomats traveled to Yenan in July 1944 to meet with the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party. Nicknamed the Dixie Mission, the U.S. Army Observation… Read More "The Civil War in China, Part II –The Dixie Mission and Losing China"
The Civil War in China, Part I – The Bureaucratic Fight in Washington
Oftentimes the greatest foreign policy struggles are not with the host government but rather with the government bureaucracy back home. Such was the case with China in the 1940’s in a fight that would define geopolitics for a generation and would ultimately ruin the careers of those diplomats who were on the losing side. After… Read More "The Civil War in China, Part I – The Bureaucratic Fight in Washington"