Despite getting extremely close to agreeing to negotiations to avert hostilities, the U.S. and Japan failed to make peace and…
Dissidents, Spies, and Attack Cartoons — Life at the U.S. Interests Section in Havana
Diplomatic relations between the United States and Cuba were frozen in time for more than 50 years. After the U.S. formally severed…
After D-Day — Life in Paris After Liberation
The Allied invasion of France under the Supreme Command of General Dwight Eisenhower began on D-Day, June 6th ,1944. As…
Being Gay in the Foreign Service
Public perception of gay rights, including the right to marry and to serve in the military, has undergone a sea…
Back in the USSR — Life as a Student in Moscow in the 1960s
Grim. Tedious. Unrelentingly cold and dreary. Add in KGB surveillance and the fear that they truly were out to get…
A Real Life “Thunderball”: The Day the U.S. Lost Hydrogen Bombs in Spain
The March 2009 edition of Time magazine called it one of the world’s “worst nuclear disasters.” On January 17, 1966, a B-52…
Women in the Foreign Service – You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby!
It is remarkable to think that there have been three female Secretaries of State in the last 15 years. However,…
Arias, Cabalettas, and Foreign Affairs
Back to Memoirs and Occasional Papers Arias, Cabalettas, and Foreign Affairs: A Public Diplomat’s Quasi-Musical Memoir A lifelong lover of…
Arias, Cabalettas, and Foreign Affairs
Arias, Cabalettas, and Foreign Affairs: A Public Diplomat’s Quasi-Musical Memoir A lifelong lover of opera and classical music, Hans N.…
Foreign at Home and Away
Back to Diplomats and Diplomacy Foreign at Home and Away: Foreign-Born Wives in the U.S. Foreign Service “Margaret Bender has…