In May 1998, India conducted its first nuclear bomb tests since 1974 at the Indian Army Pokhran Test Range. Known…
Pot Shards
Back to Diplomats and Diplomacy Pot Shards: Fragments of a Life Lived in CIA, the White House, and the Two Koreas…
Dean Rusk — A “Silent Buddha” Amidst Chaos
Dean Rusk served as Secretary of State for eight controversial years, from 1961 through 1969, when public discomfort over his…
Top Ten Things You Learn From a Hostage Situation
Sometimes it just ain’t easy working for the State Department. If you go through the lengthy history of the Foreign Service…
Making the World a Safer Place — Nuclear Arsenals and the Fall of the USSR
Imagine what Europe would be like today if Belarusian strongman Aleksandr Lukashenka were able to threaten his neighbors with nuclear…
The Downing of KAL Flight 007
On August 30, 1983, a Boeing 747, Korean Airlines 007 took off for Seoul from New York’s John F. Kennedy…
When Ambassadors Were Rock Stars
It is difficult in this day and age to imagine any ambassador being on the cover of a major magazine…
Up or Out — The Challenges of the State Department Personnel System
The United States Department of State is not the monolithic entity it may at first appear to be. The lack…
John S. Service – The Man Who “Lost China,” Part I
During the 1950’s hundreds of government employees, entertainers, educators, and union activists were accused of being communists by Senator Joseph…
Moscow Gets Torched — The Boycott of the 1980 Summer Games
The Olympic Games, despite their lofty ideals, have since their inception in ancient Greece intertwined the best of athletic competition…