Few Americans have met personally with the leadership of both Mao Zedong’s China and Chiang Kai-shek’s Taiwan. Sheila Platt, and…
Removing Corpses from the U.S. Embassy: Behind the Scenes of Operation Restore Hope in Somalia
After the fall of Somalia’s dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991, a civil war broke out between warlords. In the…
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…
A “Very Japanese” Arrangement to Dismantle a Soviet MIG-25
On September 6, 1976 a MIG-25 (foxbat), the most advanced Soviet fighter jet at the time, landed at Hokadote Airport…
John D. Negroponte: A Diplomatic Life of Controversy and Consequence
John D. Negroponte joined the Foreign Service in 1960 and went on to serve as ambassador to Honduras, Mexico, the Philippines…
The Diplomacy of Tragedy: Burmese Airways Crash Kills 14 Americans in 1987
In the early morning hours of October 11, 1987, a Burmese turboprop plane transporting 49 passengers, including 36 foreign nationals…
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…
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…
Mission Unspeakable: When North Koreans Tried to Kill the President of South Korea
On October 9, 1983, while South Korean President Chun Doo-Hwan was on a visit to Rangoon, Burma to lay a…