American Foreign Service Officer Todd Greentree served in El Salvador from 1981-82, a time when violence from local “death squads”…
The collapse of Zaire at the end of the First Congo War 1997
In the aftermath of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, ethnic Hutu refugees — including génocidaires — who had crossed into East Zaire to escape persecution from the new Tutsi government carried out attacks against ethnic Tutsis from both Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) and Rwandan refugees. The Zairian government was unable to control the ethnic Hutu marauders, and indeed lent them some support as allies against the new, Tutsi-led Rwandan government. In response, the Tutsis in Zaire joined a revolutionary coalition headed by Laurent-Désiré Kabila. Kabila’s aim was to overthrow Zaire’s one-party authoritarian government run by Mobutu Sese Seko since 1965. With Kabila’s forces on the march, Zaire was soon engulfed in conflict. These hostilities, which took place from 1996-1997, are known as the “First Congo War” and lead to the creation of Zaire’s successor state The Democratic Republic of Congo. The United States, who had supported Mobutu until the end of the Cold War, recognized how potentially dangerous the situation was as Kabila gained control of most of the country and advanced rapidly towards the capital city of Kinshasa. In 1997, the United States sent a small group of diplomats to broker negotiations and attempt to come to a peaceful agreement between Mobutu and Kabila.
Diplomacy in Cold Blood: Fatal Encounters Around the World
An American citizen abroad accused of murder: this is a particular nightmare for consular officers. These cases can become public…
Basketball: the Fifth Basket of the Helsinki Final Act
The Helsinki Final Act, an agreement signed by 35 nations at the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE)…
When Archaeology Meets Diplomacy: The Dig at Herculaneum
When Vesuvius erupted on August 24, 79 AD, it famously engulfed the Roman town of Pompeii and, less famously, the…
Resolving the Czechoslovak Gold Dispute
As the Third Reich annexed the Sudetenland and Poland and the German war machine pushed through the Eastern Front towards…
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Finale of the Persian Monarchy and Prelude to the Iranian Revolution
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran, departed Tehran on January 16, 1979 to seek medical treatment and to escape…
Should I Stay or Should I Go? Evacuating Liberia, 1990
Being caught up in violent political upheaval and forced to evacuate is among the risks of diplomatic service, as at…
From Russia with Love and Back Again: Rostropovich’s Exile and Return
Mstislav Rostropovich, considered one of the greatest cellists of the twentieth century, was born in the Soviet Socialist Republic of Azerbaijan…
Hong Kong Returns to China, Part I
In September 1982, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher went to Beijing to begin a dialogue on the issue of Hong…