Category: Foreign Service Stories
Saba-Saba and the Fourth of July – Celebrating Independence
by Andrew A. Clark
The following story is about celebration of political independence. In Tanzania, the holiday called Saba-Saba (seven-seven in Swahili, meaning in this case the seventh of July 1954) celebrates the founding of the Tanganyika African National Union – TANU – which eventually was instrumental in gaining political independence. At the time of this event Saba-Saba was the primary political holiday in Tanzania, eclipsing even the day of actual independence. It was a day of serious political celebration.
So here’s the story…
A New FSO During President Kennedy’s Final Year
A Diplomat’s Perspective by Louis V. Riggio Prelude Having passed the Foreign Service Written Examination in December 1961 and the Oral, in June 1962, shortly after the latter I found myself at Parris Island for Marine Corps Recruit Training; … Read more
The “Stumble Stones” of Oslo
Memorials to Norway’s Holocaust Victims
by Nina Brambani Smith
Thai Memoir
Firsthand Observations on Countering Insurgencies: Lessons for Today?
by Dick Virden
The Philadelphia Orchestra’s 1973 China Tour
A Case Study of Cultural Diplomacy During the Cultural Revolution
by Francis B. Tenny
Breakdown on the Road to Damascus
One Indelible Memory of Syria by Patricia Ann Liske We were returning to our post at Embassy Amman from a weekend excursion to Damascus in June, 1995, and I was riding in the middle car of our three-car caravan. My … Read more
Reflections: Teaching Adventures in Cambodia, Taiwan, and Japan
by Florence Jue Cambodia (1957-59) In the early years of the Foreign Service, the spouse of a diplomat was prohibited from earning a paycheck overseas, but could only volunteer for local charitable activities, to teach, and to assist with embassy’s … Read more
A Christmas Tale of Swans. Trains, and of a President, a King, and Queens
The King’s Speech, the film about King George VI, reminds me about the late Queen Mother — his wife and mother of the current Queen Elizabeth — and President Truman. President Nixon in 1972 gave Queen Elizabeth as a state … Read more