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Jonestown, Guyana was the scene of one of the most harrowing tragedies in American history. On November 18, 1978, at the direction of charismatic cult leader Jim Jones, 909 members of the People’s Temple died, all but two from apparent cyanide poisoning, in a “revolutionary suicide.” They included over 200 murdered children. The poisonings in […]
Back to Memoirs and Occasional Papers Fifty Years in USAID: Stories from the Front Line Published in November 2012 by Arlington Hall Press, an imprint of the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training, this collection contains 115 brief essays by past and present USAID staff and administrators, organized by decades. To celebrate USAID’s 50th anniversary, […]
In these excerpts, Bruce Laingen, then Charge d’Affaires of U.S. Embassy Tehran and one of the “super Satans” kept hostage at the Iranian Foreign Ministry, discusses his concerns about a possible “apology” by the U.S. government to the regime, the confusion engendered by changes in the Iranian government, the Argo episode (and how the Ministry knew of […]
Penelope (Penne) Laingen is the wife of Bruce Laingen, who had served in Germany, Iran, Pakistan, and Afghanistan before being named ambassador to Malta in 1977. He was sent back to Iran to serve as Charge d’Affaires, and had been there for only a few months when the U.S. Embassy was overrun by student protesters. […]
Kathleen Turner was one of the iconic actresses of the 1980’s, starring in such movies as Romancing the Stone, Jewel of the Nile, Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (where she was the voice of Jessica Rabbit), Prizzi’s Honor, Peggy Sue Got Married, War of the Roses, and the movie that started it all, Body Heat. After […]
George Ball was the Under Secretary of State for Economic and Agricultural Affairs in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations. He supported the 1963 overthrow of South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem and served as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations in 1968, where he passionately criticized the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia. However, he is most known for his […]
Diplomacy and foreign policy attract some of the smartest, most dedicated, and most interesting figures in every generation. In this feature, ADST focuses on the fascinating people who have served the United States as diplomats. John D. Negroponte: A Diplomatic Life of Controversy and Consequence joined the Foreign Service in 1960 and went on to […]
Back to Memoirs and Occasional Papers Your Diplomats at Work: A Comedy in Seven Acts Your Diplomats at Work is Frank Huffman’s account of his sometimes comical, sometimes frustrating, but always enlightening adventures as a diplomat in London, Burma, Morocco, Paris, Washington, Cambodia, New Zealand, and Chad. As a former professor of Linguistics and Asian […]
Back to Diplomats and Diplomacy The Architecture of Diplomacy: Building America’s Embassies “What do we, as a nation, mean to say to the world? Jane C. Loeffler shrewdly looks for answers in a crucial yet neglected place: the architecture of America’s embassies. From the petty jealousies on Capitol Hill to the fine points of modernist […]
Back to Memoirs and Occasional Papers Danger Zones: A Diplomat’s Fight for America’s Interests “Ambassador Dean comes across in this memoir exactly as he is––a dedicated and talented man deeply proud of his record in the practice of American diplomacy.” BRUCE LAINGEN, U.S. ambassador (ret.) and former president, American Academy of Diplomacy Danger Zones is […]
