The Vietnam War remains one of the most contentious foreign policy issues in American history. U.S. military involvement was initially…
Chile’s 1988 Plebiscite and the End of Pinochet’s Dictatorship
The 1970s and 1980s were a long, dark time for Chile. The September 11, 1973 coup against Socialist president Salvador…
Schmoozing for Diplomats
To the uninitiated (or to those who simply watch too many B-movies), an ambassador’s life seems to be nothing but…
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 Collapse of Order in the Middle East
Will Rogers once observed that “when you get into trouble 5,000 miles from home, you’ve got to have been looking…
Argentina’s Dirty War and the Transition to Democracy
It was one of the darkest periods in Latin American history. From 1976-1983, a brutal military junta ruled Argentina in…
Clifton Wharton — Diplomat and Pioneer
Clifton Reginald Wharton, Sr. was the first African-American Foreign Service Officer to rise to the rank of ambassador without a…
Yeltsin Under Siege — The October 1993 Constitutional Crisis
For Russians, it was yet another dramatic confrontation which played out in the streets of Moscow, one which marked the…
The Middle East Cauldron
Edward “Skip” Gnehm served as Ambassador to Kuwait shortly after the U.S. invasion of Iraq, from 1991 to 1994, and…
Dealing with a Reunified Germany
With the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989, the long-awaited reunification between East and West Germany began. A…