Louise Keeley waited and worried in neighboring countries when her husband, American diplomat Robert V. “Bob” Keeley, faced the encircling…
Frank Carlucci and the Last Days of Patrice Lumumba in the Congo
Long before he was President Reagan’s Secretary of Defense, Frank Carlucci was a young State Department political officer in Kinshasa,…
Washington Demands and Disaster Assistance: USAID and the 2010 Haiti Earthquake
Lewis Lucke was called out of retirement in 2010 to coordinate USAID’s response to the disastrous 7.0 magnitude Haitian earthquake,…
Spain’s New King and the Politics of a Fourth of July Party
Francisco Franco’s death in 1975 opened the path for newly-throned King Juan Carlos to become Spain’s head of state. His…
Lessons Learned: USAID’s Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance and the 1985 Mexico City Earthquake
USAID’s Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) is perhaps the world’s premier international disaster assistance agency. It was not always…
Frank Carlucci: Helping Block the Communists in Portugal
After decades of right-wing dictatorship, Portugal faced a threat of a takeover by communists in the mid-1970s. Ambassador Frank Carlucci,…
A Diplomat Recalls Escape From a Kidnapping in Uruguay
Kidnappings, particularly those of high-ranking political officials, were not uncommon in 1970s Uruguay given the prominence of an urban guerilla…
Sheila Platt: A Diplomatic Life Bridging Both Sides of China’s Divide
Few Americans have met personally with the leadership of both Mao Zedong’s China and Chiang Kai-shek’s Taiwan. Sheila Platt, and…
Helping Rebuild Rwanda After the 1994 Genocide
Rebuilding Rwanda after the genocide was no easy task. USAID tasked George Lewis to head up that agency’s efforts to…
Tracking the Politics of Burma (Myanmar) After the Flawed 1990 Elections
While democratic elections were held in Burma (Myanmar) by the military-led government in 1990, the elected parliament was never allowed…