“We Didn’t Start the Fire” was a huge commercial success when it was released in 1989. It was Billy Joel’s…
Delivering the Mail and Avoiding Martial Law in South Korea, 1987
Chun Doo-hwan, president of South Korea from 1980 to 1988, seized power in 1979 and crushed many democratization movements during…
Sic Semper Tyrannis – The Assassination of El Jefe, May 30, 1961
Rafael Trujillo, El Jefe, ruled the Dominican Republic as dictator from 1930 until his assassination in 1961. Trujillo gained prominence…
Japanese Terrorists in Israel
On May 30, 1972, Israeli security at Lod Airport (now Ben Gurion International Airport) was caught by surprise when three…
Apocalypse Not, Part II
On April 29, 1975, Francis Terry McNamara, then Consul General, finally received orders to evacuate the Consulate General in Can…
The Bombing of U.S. Embassy Beirut — April 18, 1983
The suicide bombing of the U.S. embassy in Beirut, Lebanon on April 18, 1983 was the deadliest attack on a…
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…
Captive in the Congo
Michael Hoyt was Commercial Officer in Leopoldville from 1962 until 1965 and was serving as interim Principal Officer in Stanleyville…
China Confidential
Back to Diplomats and Diplomacy China Confidential: American Diplomats and Sino-American Relations, 1945–1996 “An insider’s view of how American policy…