“We were young, we were foolish, we were arrogant, but we were right.” —Daniel Ellsberg The recent issue of NSA…
“There Will be Blood:” The British Recapture the Falklands
The Falklands War began as a tragically misguided game of smoke and mirrors, designed to inflame Argentinian patriotism and redirect…
The Strange Case of Ngo Dinh Can
It sounds like a scene out of a movie: a corrupt dictator attempts to flee the country with the help…
Top Ten Things You Learn From a Hostage Situation
Sometimes it just ain’t easy working for the State Department. If you go through the lengthy history of the Foreign Service…
The Dramatic Hostage Crisis and Daring Rescue at the Japanese Embassy in Peru
It sounds like something out of a novel: a group of rebels, helped by an American, seize an embassy in…
Pearl Harbor, A Postscript
One of the great dilemmas in foreign policy is when and whether to negotiate with one’s enemies. Will a dialogue…
A Day That Will Live in Infamy
December 7, 1941 will forever be one of the most memorable dates in American history. The attack on Pearl Harbor, a preemptive…
444 Days: Memoirs of an Iran Hostage
More than thirty years later, the Iran Hostage crisis still ranks as one of the most traumatic diplomatic events in…
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…
The Hungarian Revolution of 1956
The early 1950s witnessed a thaw in the Communist monolith. Stalin’s death in 1953 led to Khrushchev’s “secret speech” in…