For those trapped in Eastern Europe in the 20th century, the horrors of World War II were supplanted by the…
Escape from the Congo
During the Congo Crisis (1960-1966), which began after the colony was granted independence from Belgium, the province of Katanga declared…
A Short History of Demarching Orders
A demarche is the term of art for formal instructions sent from a Ministry of Foreign Affairs (or the State…
A Completely Lawless Place – Beirut and the Assassination of Ambassador Meloy and Robert Waring
The Lebanese Civil War was a 15-year conflict that took the lives of more than 130,000 people. Throughout the early…
The Art of Protocol
Understanding the rules of protocol is essential to conducting diplomacy, as any diplomat would attest. Everything from knowing how to…
The Tiananmen Square Massacre — June 4, 1989
The 1989 massacre at Tiananmen Square was one of the most heart-wrenching displays of state suppression of peaceful assembly in…
Tom Clancy Bombs Korea
Remember when renegade South Korean soldiers set off a bomb in Seoul during a festival and make it look like it was done by…
The Year of Living Dangerously – Indonesia and the Downed CIA Pilot, May 1958
In April and May of 1958, Indonesia went through a period of rebellion, as discontent on the peripheral islands, like…
Apocalypse Not, Part II
On April 29, 1975, Francis Terry McNamara, then Consul General, finally received orders to evacuate the Consulate General in Can…
Apocalypse Not – The Evacuation from Can Tho, Vietnam — April 1975
The shaky peace that had held in Vietnam since the signing of the Paris Peace Accords in 1973 began to…