Penelope (Penne) Laingen is the wife of Bruce Laingen, who had served in Germany, Iran, Pakistan, and Afghanistan before being…
The Missiles of October
October 14, 1962, witnessed the start of one of the most potentially devastating moments in history, when the United States…
Lessons Learned from a Former Hostage
In Captive in the Congo, Mike Hoyt describes his ordeal as one of 300 hostages taken by armed rebels. They…
Those Little Bastards at the State Department
Ah, the power of bureaucrats! It doesn’t seem to matter if you’re talking about the upper echelons of the State…
Captive in the Congo
Michael Hoyt was Commercial Officer in Leopoldville from 1962 until 1965 and was serving as interim Principal Officer in Stanleyville…
Operation Dragon Rouge
William E. Schaufele, Jr. was the Congo Desk Officer at State from 1964 to 1965, when 330 people, including the…
The Cairo Fire of 1952
The Cairo Fire, also known as Black Saturday, was a series of riots that took place on January 26, 1952,…
Dancing with the Stars…And Stripes in the Congo
Michael Rives joined the Foreign Service in 1950 and served as Deputy Chief of Mission in Brazzaville from 1963 to…
A Hostage in Communist China, 1948-49
As Mao Zedong’s People’s Liberation Army swept through China during the Civil War against the Nationalists in 1948 and 1949, it took…
An Itch for Politics: Breaking up a Protest in Unconventional Fashion
Politics can be a tough, even nasty business. James Jones describes an incident before he joined the Foreign Service when…