“You know I have my ups and downs, but I have a pact with God. The pact is that no…
Qaddafi – The Man and His Rise to Power
On September 1st, 1969 Muammar Qaddafi along with a group of officers part of the Free Officers Movement staged a…
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…

Crossing Qaddafi’s Line of Death – April 15, 1986
The late 1980s saw an alarming decline in U.S.-Libyan relations. A plane hijacking and airport attacks in Rome and Vienna…
Four Days in September — The Kidnapping of the U.S. Ambassador to Brazil
It sounds like something out of Hollywood. Indeed, it was made into a Brazilian movie in 1997 with Alan Arkin…
Senator Chuck Hagel on Foreign Policy Challenges
Senator Chuck Hagel, who has been nominated by President Obama to be the next Secretary of Defense, was awarded ADST’s…
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…
Quiet Diplomacy
Back to Memoirs and Occasional Papers Quiet Diplomacy: From Cairo to Tokyo in the Twilight of Imperialism “The chapter on…
Nine Lives
Back to Memoirs and Occasional Papers Nine Lives: A Foreign Service Odyssey Since September 11, 2001, U.S. public diplomacy has…