King Sobhuza II was proclaimed King of Swaziland at the age of four months and would rule for 83 years,…
The Rough Road to Moscow for Malcolm Toon
Malcolm Toon was a fluent Russian speaker and one of the State Department’s top experts on the Soviet Union during…
When One of “The Murrow Boys” Became a Foreign Service Wife
Mary Marvin Breckinridge Patterson was the only female member of the original generation of CBS Radio war correspondents known as…
Richard Solomon, Ping-Pong Diplomat to China
China scholar Richard Solomon, who was an essential component of the “ping-pong diplomacy” that led to the thaw in relations…
A Day of Mixed Messages over Iraq’s Invasion of Kuwait
In 1991, the U.S. led a coalition of over 30 nations to force Iraqi troops out of Kuwait after Saddam…
Warming to the New Administration at the State Department, 1980-1981
Administration transitions, during which power over the federal executive branch is transferred from the sitting president to the president-elect, can…
Unexploded Ordnance, Spam and Moonshine–Life as Ambassador to Micronesia
The Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), sometimes known simply as Micronesia, consists of four states — Yap, Chuuk, Pohnpei and Kosrae –…
First Attempt to Limit North Korea’s Nuclear Program
The first agreement between the United States and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) aimed at limiting North Korea’s…
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…
The U.S. Incursion into Cambodia
When President Richard Nixon took office in 1969, he and National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger vowed to find a way…