“Eyewitness” Accounts
The “Eyewitness” section of the journal provides a window on life and work in the Foreign Service through essays, interviews, and oral histories. The following thematic groupings, selected from across the nearly 30 years of the journal, provide personal insights into different aspects of the Foreign Service experience as related by officers, specialists, and spouses.
Joining the Foreign Service
Over the decades, Americans with widely differing backgrounds have joined the service: veterans, school teachers, Peace Corps alumni, academics, newly minted college graduates, and physicians among others.
Up until the 1970s, only single women could serve and those who did often had to overcome overt sexism. All the authors in the vignettes that follow shared a streak for adventure and a commitment to serving their country.
Tell Me, Miss…
Joining the Foreign Service
Stories of Joining the Foreign Service
Joining: Real Hardship Post
Saigon Medical Care
First Tours
Foreign Service Officers often, but far from always, recall their first foreign assignment with fondness.
The following accounts provide a range of experiences, from enjoying high society in post war Portugal, taking five planes in the 1950s to Cambodia, fending off Soviet recruitment while travelling through 1960s Afghanistan, hosting a future U.S. president to dinner, rebelling against playing the Easter Bunny at the ambassador’s party, to supporting the Gulf War, and contributing to free and fair elections.
Tijuana: First Assignment – the Good, the Bad, the Bizarre
Elections in the Hinterlands
Jeddah and the 1991 Gulf War
Destination Cambodia
Once Upon a Time in the Land of the South Slavs
Kabul: Recollections Thirty-Nine Years Later
Welcome to the Real Foreign Service
Beginning a Diplomatic Career
French With a Few Tears
Consular Experiences
Consular Officers not only assist American citizens overseas but also decide whether or not to issue visas to foreign nationals wishing to travel to the United States. The following vignettes provide insight into a consular officer’s workday over the years, whether it be dealing with mentally ill or deceased Americans as well as live Hollywood legends, unmasking a fake American or – more happily – discovering new citizens and helping out an American in love.
When I was a Vice Consul in Nuevo Laredo
A Moment of Cold War Intrigue set in 1970s Belgium
Curious Consular Encounters set in 1960s Romania
ConOff’s Suspicions are Aroused set in 1990s Pakistan
Doing the Wrong Thing for the Right Reason set in 1960s Algeria
Avenue Gabriel set in 1950s Paris
A US Citizen by Surprise set in Poland and Costa Rica
Ms. Hearst, I presume? set in 1970s Sweden
Purple Captain’s Final Voyage set in 1980s Kenya
Political, Management and Economic Officer Experiences
The following accounts offer a glimpse of the portfolio ranges of these fields or “cones” in the Department’s lingo. The experiences include surviving both the Tiananmen Square massacre and the Nairobi embassy bombing, trying to gain access to a trial of Russian dissidents, dodging KBG recruitment efforts, setting up the first check payment system for staff in Laos, promoting American businesses under dangerous circumstances, and suggesting mongooses for a counter narcotics program.
A Mongoose Walked into a Narcotics Den
Low Profile in the Philippines
Reminiscences of Life Under Communism
When the KGB Tried to Recruit Me
Living with Terrorism in Buenos Aires
Manhattan to Vientiane
Surviving Double Jeopardy
Public Diplomacy Experiences
Public diplomacy officers work with a range of host country citizens for a variety of reasons: to promote the image of the United States and ties between it and other countries, to introduce emerging leaders in their fields to the United States, to strengthen educational connections with American universities, and to increase local support for U.S. foreign policy goals. The following vignettes highlight mostly successful efforts but also one frank failure. The last story highlights the unanticipated domestic public diplomacy challenges faced by one of the first de facto Diplomats in Residence.
Books for the Baltics looks at support for the newly free countries
Restarting Educational Exchanges with China looks at the monumental work it took in the 1970s to support Chinese-U.S. institutional connections.
A Salute to Cultural Diplomacy and Those Who Make It Possible
When Glasnost Opened Soviet Doors examines English teaching opportunities in the USSR at the beginning of the end of the Cold War.
Vice President Nixon and Cold War Public Diplomacy describes the famous 1959 American National Exhibition.
USIA Films that Failed in Africa illustrates the importance of knowing your audience.
Show Me Your Ear! The Berlin Wall focuses on building British youth support for NATO in the turbulent 1970s.
Scenes from a Revolution: Romania shows the payoff of educational exchanges.
Vaccinating Mali highlights a successful health and public relations campaign.
The Philadelphia Orchestra’s 1973 China Tour relates the many challenges of this historic undertaking.
Two Hundred Years of American Painting is a hit in 1970s Germany.
Circus Attache in Moscow describes a public relations triumph.
Auyantepui provides a memorable outing with novelist John Updike in Venezuela.
Richard Holbrooke’s Public Diplomacy reveals a surprising advocate for the American Center in Serbia.
The American Bald Eagle tells the story of a living symbol of the United States in Cold War Berlin.
The Devil’s Diplomat in Mid-West America recounts the challenges of an officer assigned to explain and promote the Foreign Service in 1970s Kansas.
The Cold War – Life in the USSR
The decades of geopolitical tensions between the USSR and the United States have been extensively studied, but what was it like to work for the U.S. government within the borders of our number one rival? The following stories provide firsthand accounts of the installation of the “hot line” between Moscow and Washington, diplomatic harassment, travel restrictions and entrapment attempts, the Soviet shock on seeing an American jogger, an ingenious method to assess public opinion, and the use of the arts to counter negative Soviet opinion of the United States.
Red Tape in Russia
When the KGB Sends its B Team
James and the Moscow Goons
Remembering Van Cliburn
KGB or FSB?
Everything Comes to Russia Late
Circus Attache in Moscow
The Cold War—Beyond the USSR
The rivalry between the United States and the USSR impacted relations with many countries for decades. The following vignettes show how Foreign Service Officers engaged in pushing back against Soviet influence through public diplomacy efforts involving sports, music, movies, books and educational linkages. They also give a glimpse of political and military officers’ separate lines of effort.
A Moment of Cold War Intrigue set in Belgium
Would You Say No to Shirley Temple on Thanksgiving? set in San Francisco
Doing More with Less, or a Stunt? set in Guinea
Applying Diplomacy set in Guinea
Basketball in Mali
Old Times on the Soviet Desk set in Washington, DC
The Junior Wells Chicago Blues Band in Bamako, Mali
Saul Bellow in Poland
Serving in State set in Washington, DC
What a Difference a Decade Makes set in Bulgaria
Frontstadt Berlin
Kabul: Recollections Thirty-Nine Years Later
Vietnam War
Hundreds of Foreign Service employees and family members served in Vietnam and nearby Cambodia and Laos before and during the Vietnam War. Many did without moral qualms though some dissented with U.S. policy. A few fell in love while serving in the region. The following vignettes provide a glimpse of the varied experiences of political, economic, public diplomacy, USAID and medical officers as well as of one family.
The Impolite American Consul
Reflecting on Vietnam: A Young Diplomat Goes to War
Nation Building in Laos
A Riot for Dinner
Plus Ca Change
Manhattan to Vientiane
Saigon Medical Care
The China Relationship
Until President Nixon traveled to the People’s Republic of China in 1972, U.S. engagement with the future super power was very limited. The following stories illustrate how U.S. diplomats (as well as a 120-member orchestra) began to interact with China.
Reagan in China reveals a culinary faux pas.
Restarting Educational Exchanges with China after the Cultural Revolution describes momentous opportunities and challenges.
Abraham Lincoln, Hillary Clinton and Liu Xiaobo shows the sensitivity of commemorating “government by the people” during Secretary Clinton’s visit in 2008.
The Philadelphia Orchestra’s 1973 China Tour relates the behind the scenes challenges of this historic undertaking.
Crises
Foreign Service personnel and families have served in dangerous situations around the world, coping with crime, riots, coup d’etats, bombings, kidnappings, assassinations, and evacuations. The following recollections give some firsthand accounts across the decades.
I Didn’t Join the French Foreign Legion set in 1979 Chad
Remembering Mikhail Gorbachev and the 1991 Coup
Military Crackdown in Burma set in 1988
The 1978 Revolution in Afghanistan
Valentine’s Day Murder of U.S. Ambassador set in 1979 Afghanistan
The Deadliest Attack Ever set in 1983 Beirut
In the Line of Fire, recollections across one officer’s career
Reluctantly Remembering Somalia, Part 1 set in 1990s
Reluctantly Remembering Somalia, Part 2 set in 1990s
Living with Terror in Buenos Aires set in 1970s
Crises and Evacuations, recollections of several officers
Assignment Guatemala set in 1968
The Riot: A Family Story set in 1980 Liberia
A Riot for Dinner set in 1963 Cambodia
Welcome to the Real Foreign Service set in 1971 Bolivia
Surviving Double Jeopardy set in 1989 Beijing and 1998 Nairobi
Present at the Footnote: Excitement Around Here Last Week set in 1973 Haiti
Foreign Service Families
Thousands of spouses and children of Foreign Service Officers have lived abroad, attending school, managing the household, or pursuing their own careers. The following vignettes give a glimpse of some of their experiences such as rescuing baby chimps with advice from Jane Goodall, handling moon rocks, learning to ride a horse from a Cossack, teaching English, cringing over language mishaps, firing a witch, or remembering the fun that Russia could offer kids. There were also hard experiences such as living through riots, coup d’etats, enduring sexual and racial harassment, and trying to help Cubans in need.
Beijing Brushstrokes
Getting to Know Jane Goodall
Moon Rocks at Home
Reflections: Teaching Adventures
In the Line of Fire
A Witch of a Cook
We Once Lived in Russia
The Riot: A Family Story
Little Red Schoolhouse
A Riot for Dinner
Medical Encounters in Cuba
Adventures in a Cairo Souk
Adventures
Just about any member of the Foreign Service can tell fond tales of mishap and adventure, whether it occurred on duty or on personal time. The following are exhilarating accounts of car breakdowns and accidents, helicopter rough landings, “road trips” across trackless Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan, disconcerting language moments, and a hotel room mix-up. Along the way, the authors mostly encountered local goodwill and hospitality.
Breakdown on the Road to Damascus
Auyantepui
Lady Astor and Me
We Even Got Paid!
Huaraz
Vignettes from a Tour in Albania
Overland by Jeep to Kabul
A Trip Back in Time
Adventures in a Cairo Souk