Beginning in the middle of the 1980s, relations between General Manuel Noriega, Panama’s de facto leader, and the United States…
Philip Habib — Cursed is the Peacemaker
Philip Habib (February 25, 1920 – May 25, 1992) was a career diplomat known for his work in Vietnam, South Korea and the Middle East.…
Fifty Years in USAID
Back to Memoirs and Occasional Papers Fifty Years in USAID: Stories from the Front Line Published in November 2012 by…
Recalling the Attack on the U.S. Compound in Benghazi – from June 1967
The circumstances seem all too familiar — political turmoil leads to angry mobs storming the U.S. compound in Benghazi. Except…
The Iran Hostage Crisis — Part I
November 4, 1979 – Radical Iranian students take over the U.S. embassy in Tehran and hold 52 Americans hostage. The…
Tie a Yellow Ribbon — The Iran Hostage Crisis as Seen from the Home Front
Penelope (Penne) Laingen is the wife of Bruce Laingen, who had served in Germany, Iran, Pakistan, and Afghanistan before being…
“I’m still a dip kid”
Kathleen Turner was one of the iconic actresses of the 1980’s, starring in such movies as Romancing the Stone, Jewel…
The Missiles of October
October 14, 1962, witnessed the start of one of the most potentially devastating moments in history, when the United States…
Lessons Learned from a Former Hostage
In Captive in the Congo, Mike Hoyt describes his ordeal as one of 300 hostages taken by armed rebels. They…
Those Little Bastards at the State Department
Ah, the power of bureaucrats! It doesn’t seem to matter if you’re talking about the upper echelons of the State…