For many Latin American states, expropriation has been a hammer in the toolbox of land or labor reform. For the…
Presidents, Russians, and Diplomatic Wives: Anecdotes from a Voice of America Newsman
Journalist Euguene F. Karst knew the importance of words. He personally witnessed how communication could highlight the opinions of little…
Hurricane Mitch Devastated Nicaragua, But Helped Improve Relations With the U.S.
Slow-moving, coast-hugging Hurricane Mitch devastated Nicaragua in October 1998. The United States organized a massive disaster response, and President Clinton…
Latino American Ambassadors
Latino Americans have some of the lowest rates of participation in the federal workforce making it incredibly difficult for them…
The State Department’s Air Wing and Counternarcotics Programs in South America
In the early 1990s, at the height of the “War on Drugs,” David Lyon took a break from consular work…
USAID’s Work with an Unsung Hero of the Fight Against Apartheid in South Africa: Dullah Omar
USAID worked intensively with the new South African government after the fall of apartheid in 1994. William Stacy Rhodes was…
New President, Bad Plan: the Bay of Pigs Fiasco
After Fidel Castro ousted Cuban strongman Fulgencio Batista, expropriated American economic assets and developed links with the Soviet Union, President Eisenhower authorized the…
Peloponnesian Pilgrimage: An Idyll with the King and Queen of Greece
It was the wife of the U.S. Ambassador to Greece, John Peurifoy (seen right), who gave him the sobriquet “Pistol…
Trouble in Chiapas: The Zapatista Revolt
Economic development in Mexico has been uneven for generations, as some blamed the implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)…
The Immigration Game — Visas and the Mexican Border
Illegal immigration remains a hotly contested issue within the United States, as evidenced by the subject’s repeated appearance in American…