The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 ushered in a fraught time in the lives of East and West…
Spain’s New King and the Politics of a Fourth of July Party
Francisco Franco’s death in 1975 opened the path for newly-throned King Juan Carlos to become Spain’s head of state. His…
Helping Rebuild Rwanda After the 1994 Genocide
Rebuilding Rwanda after the genocide was no easy task. USAID tasked George Lewis to head up that agency’s efforts to…
James Baldwin: The Expatriate Who Fought for His Country
James Baldwin is counted among the greatest and most influential of American authors. He died in 1987 at the age…
General’s Coup Attempt Prompts Evacuation from Guinea-Bissau
At the crack of dawn on June 7, 1998, Ambassador Peggy Blackford woke to sounds of gunfire outside and someone…
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…
Russian Interference and the Marshall Plan
Russian Disinformation is Not New, Say Diplomats Who Implemented the Marshall Plan The obstacles the United States faced in implementing…
Harriet Elam-Thomas: A Career Well Served
Harriet Elam-Thomas grew up in Boston, the youngest of five children. She graduated from Simmons College and later earned a…
To be Young, Rich and Ambassador to Paris in the ’50s
C. Douglas Dillon was a politician and diplomat who served as U.S. Ambassador to France in the critical post World…
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…