While working at the U.S. embassy in Seychelles in 1985, David Buss fell in love with a Peace Corps volunteer,…
Fighting LGBT Discrimination, and Fighting to Stay in the Foreign Service
Up until the late 1990s, Foreign Service careers were denied to openly gay men under the pretense of security concerns.…
“I am a Plant:” An Apparent Iraqi Spy Among U.S. Diplomats
Would you be willing to hire a potential foreign intelligence agent if it meant direct access to an antagonistic, elusive…
“Not Treated as Beyond the Pale:” Cold War Nuclear Options to Respond to a Soviet Bloc Invasion
The mid-nineteen seventies are often considered a time of détente (the easing of tensions) between the United States and the…
Stirrings of Islamic Militancy in Nigeria: An Ambassador’s Recollections
When Thomas Pickering was Ambassador to Nigeria in 1980-83, he witnessed the stirrings of Islamic militancy and other transformations of…
Spies and Prostitutes: Memories of a Visa Officer in Post-WWII Greece
In post-World War II Greece, U.S. consular officers met all kinds of people—from suspected spies to prostitutes. Don Gelber was…
Guatemala in the 1960s: Vigilantes or Government Operatives?
Young political officer William Newlin arrived in Guatemala in early 1966 amidst worsening political and social chaos. As the civil…
Duty and Danger: An American Diplomat’s Service in Iraq on the Eve of 1991 Gulf War
American diplomat Stephen Thibeault watched as an airplane departed Iraq in 1990, carrying Rev. Jesse Jackson and American hostages liberated…
Duty and Danger: A Diplomatic Spouse Targeted for Assassination in Algeria
When they learned they were marked for assassination, Parvaneh Limbert and her husband John — the political section chief at…
Frank Carlucci and the Last Days of Patrice Lumumba in the Congo
Long before he was President Reagan’s Secretary of Defense, Frank Carlucci was a young State Department political officer in Kinshasa,…