On May 1, 1960, an America U-2 spy plane was shot down in Soviet airspace, causing great embarrassment to the…
The Last Emperor – The Fall of Haile Selassie
None could be more considered more central to the modern history of Africa’s longest independent nation, Ethiopia, than Emperor Haile Selassie. Regent…
A Battle of Wills in Berlin, 1959
Throughout the Cold War, Berlin was one of the main battlegrounds for the psychological warfare between the United States and the…
The 1991 Madrid Peace Conference
The Madrid Peace Conference, held from October 30 to November 1, 1991, marked the first time that Israeli leaders negotiated…
An Opportunity Lost — The 1991 Iraqi Uprising
In the days following the decimation of the Iraqi Army during Operation Desert Storm, groups of Iraqi minorities, specifically the…
Drug-Sniffing Mongooses and Other Tales of the Sri Lankan Civil War
In July 1983, tensions increased between Tamil minority separatists and the Sinhalese majority in Sri Lanka, erupting into civil war.…
So Many Soldiers, So Little Protection — The Pillaging of Iraqi Culture, 2003
As the cradle of civilization, Iraq has thousands of years of history and artifacts that provide a glimpse into the…
Ambassador to a Small World
Back to Memoirs and Occasional Papers Ambassador to a Small World is a highly personal portrait of Chad from the…
Congo in Crisis: The Rise and Fall of Katangan Secession
When the Republic of the Congo (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) became independent from Belgium in June 1960,…
Demystifying the Interagency Process: The Ambassador’s Role
“He’ll sit here, and he’ll say, ‘Do this! Do that!’ And nothing will happen. Poor Ike — it won’t be a…