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On Lester “Mike” Pearson of Canada

April 2000

The author served in the American embassy in Ottawa and as Canadian desk officer in the Department of State, 1947-1951. Ambassador Dale retired after thirty years in the Foreign Service in 1975.– Ed.   AT AN INFORMAL RECEPTION given by … Read more

Istanbul Blues

February 2000

  We agreed to finish out our tour in Ankara, Turkey, by filling an unexpected staffing gap at the Consulate in Istanbul. In exchange for camping out for five months with only 400 lbs of air freight trucked to us … Read more

Doing the Wrong Thing for the Right Reason

February 2000

by Edward L. Peck   Ambassador Peck, a thirty-two-year veteran of the U.S. Foreign Service, now retired in the Washington, DC, area, recounts one of his less run-of-the-mill experiences as the principal officer of a small U.S. consulate.      ~ Ed. , … Read more

China in 1945: One Man’s Experience

September 1999

by Carl Fritz Our vision of China today is that of an emerging gigantic economic and military power, one with a huge trade surplus with the United States and a reputation sullied by violations of human rights, spying to obtain … Read more

Banker as Diplomat

June 1999

The author discusses the uncommon instance of a private banker conducting official bilateral talks potentially of considerable national and international importance. Dr. Kilgroe, who teaches U.S. History at North Carolina State University, earned a Ph.D. at the University of North … Read more

A trip Back in Time

June 1999

by Kelly Midura   The author, a U.S. Foreign Service spouse, has been posted abroad with her husband in Latin America and Africa. Their forthcoming assignment is to the Czech Republic. ~ Ed.   “Wrapped up against the chilly wind … Read more

Many Faces of Christmas

June 1999

  The author, who had a distinguished thirty-five-year career in the Foreign Service, is a member of the board of directors of this journal’s parent organization, American Diplomacy Publishers. This article appeared on Christmas Day 1994 in the Hendersonville (N.C.) … Read more

Overland by Jeep to Kabul (… long years ago)

April 1999

  (. . . long years ago) by Carl R. Fritz VENTS LAST YEAR IN Afghanistan, particularly the dropping of U.S. bombs on suspected terrorist camps, have moved me to recall a visit I made to that country back in … Read more

Surviving Double Jeopardy

April 1999

  by James L. Huskey “I counted and identified bodies in a strange déjà vu of the Tiananmen body count. It was surrealistic as colleagues came running to tell me this colleague was alive . . . or that colleague was dead. . . . “We … Read more

Ambassador Lodge Corrects the Record

February 1999

The author, who retired from the US Foreign Service after twenty-seven years, is on the journal’s Editorial Review Board. He has published a number of commentaries and essays in the pages of American Diplomacy, including most recently a personal vignette … Read more

Five-Can Casserole

September 1998

As evidence that U.S. Foreign Service folk do not always dine formally in stuffy diplomatic settings, American Diplomacy offers up the following recipe submitted by retired Foreign Service employee Judy Chidester. Let us know what you think after trying the … Read more

A Fulbright Interlude in Nigeria

July 1998

A PERSONAL MEMOIR – A Fulbright Interlude in Nigeria by Henry E. Mattox    Nigeria Today a context-setting introduction supplied by former west african affairs director roy melbourne:* A generation of thirty years has passed since Dr. Mattox’s Fulbright sojourn, completely … Read more

Religion and Romance in Wartime Vietnam

July 1998

WITNESS TO HISTORY The following account of the author’s adventures during the harrowing days of the Tet Offensive in Vietnam in 1968 could as well be placed under a heading of “Remembering Vietnam” or “Life in the Foreign Service.” But … Read more

Columbus Discovers America

July 1998

I may be the only living person who actually told Christopher Columbus to go discover America. When I make that assertion, I usually get some funny looks; but it’s true. Here’s how it happened. I was stationed at the Embassy … Read more

On Board the Carrier

July 1998

In this brief segment, former Foreign Service spouse Kathryn Schmiel illustrates in her understated but descriptive prose style how American personnel stationed abroad in remote parts of the world — especially the children — often find their diversions in unusual … Read more