The Vietnam War remains one of the most contentious foreign policy issues in American history. U.S. military involvement was initially…
Bill Burns, A Consummate Diplomat
William Joseph Burns, known as Bill to his colleagues, stepped down as Deputy Secretary of State in October 2014 after…
The Achille Lauro Hijacking — “These sons of bitches must be prosecuted”
On October 7, 1985, four men, including mastermind Muhammad Zaidan, aka Mohammed Abul al-Abbas, from the Palestine Liberation Front (PLF)…
Egos and Architecture — The Joys of Embassy Building in the 1980s
The design of U.S. embassies has swung through varying phases over the past several decades. Some embassies, such as the…
Breaking Chains: The Continual Fight Against Human Trafficking
In October 2000, 135 years after the Thirteenth Amendment officially abolished slavery within the United States, Congress declared that “as…
The Berlin Wall Is Built — August 13, 1961
On August 13, 1961, Berlin woke up to a shock: the East German Army had begun construction on the infamous…
Broken Bones, Broken Dreams, Broken Homeland: The First Intifada, 1987
On December 9, 1987, the deaths of four Palestinian refugees plunged the nation of Israel into four years of strikes,…
The Paris Peace Conference — 1946
At the Paris Peace Conference, which lasted from July to October 1946, negotiators from the United States, Soviet Union, United…
An Iraq War Dissent
In 2001 Ann Wright served as the first political officer in the newly reopened U.S. Embassy in Kabul. Two years…
Jean Bédel Bokassa: The Man who Would be Emperor
Jean Bédel Bokassa ruled as President-for-life and later as Emperor of the Central African Republic from 1966 to 1979. In…