During the 1950’s hundreds of government employees, entertainers, educators, and union activists were accused of being communists by Senator Joseph…
Reviving the Foreign Service, Part II
This article first appeared in the May 2013 edition of the Foreign Service Journal. In it, Susan R. Johnson, the…
Moscow Gets Torched — The Boycott of the 1980 Summer Games
The Olympic Games, despite their lofty ideals, have since their inception in ancient Greece intertwined the best of athletic competition…
“The First Terrorist Attack in the U.S.” – The Letelier-Moffitt Assassinations
After Augusto Pinochet led a coup d’état in Chile on September 11, 1973, taking power from the democratically elected President…
The Ever-changing Nature of the American Foreign Service
The Foreign Service has undergone major reforms and tinkering over the past century, so much so that people often joked…
The Final Days of Paraguaya’s Alfredo Stroessner
On February 3rd, 1989 tanks rolled into Paraguay’s capital Asuncion, led by General Andres Rodriguez. Briefly bullets and bombs rattled…
Ariel Sharon Launches an Attack — Against the U.S. Ambassador
Ariel Sharon, who died January 2014 after eight years in a coma, was not known for his calm and easygoing…
“Our government has evidenced moral bankruptcy”: The Blood Telegram and the 1971 Bengali Genocide
Pakistan after independence was a strange creation: the capital, Islamabad, and most of the power were located in the west…
Evacuating Somalia
Codename: Operation Eastern Exit. In January 1991, violence due to the Somali Civil War had escalated so much that Ambassador…
Stranded in the Cold War Siberian Winter
The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) marked a turning point in relations between the U.S. and the USSR. Signed in December 1987 by President Ronald…