by David A. Langbart Even before the United States formally entered World War II, the conflict had a significant impact on the Department of State.  In the 36 months leading up to the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Department saw … Read more

by Bob Baker Part of my job at U.S. Embassy, London, was to persuade British student leaders that despite our war in Vietnam, we were still necessary and reliable partners in Britain’s most important alliance, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. … Read more

by Larry LesserJust a few days after I arrived in Rwanda, my secretary Melanie Webb (not her real name) asked to meet with me to discuss a very urgent personal problem — a life-or-death issue involving her boyfriend. I was … Read more

by Bob BakerVienna was snowed in when I first visited there in 1974. Twenty years later I was back in Vienna to relax and to direct the Regional Program Office’ excellent staff. Then Moscow melted and the Office had huge … Read more

by Bob Baker Bamako, Mali, was in 1968 a poor, socialist dictatorship, largely in the Sahel region of West Africa. After my tour of duty in Kampala, Uganda, a telegram came from the Personnel Division in the U.S. Information Agency, … Read more

by Felicity O. Yost My father, Charles Woodruff Yost, joined the Foreign Service at the suggestion of former Secretary of State Robert Lansing, a family friend and neighbor in Watertown, New York. Lansing’s Watertown brother-in-law, Pastor Allen Macy Dulles, had … Read more

by Bob Baker My press releases from the U.S. Embassy in Bamako, Mali, on American aid programs  were ignored by government order.t I had the  idea to  combine health propaganda with the fact of U.S. help in the vaccination campaign … Read more

by Bob BakerFrom USIA headquarters in Washington, I made official inspection trips to rate the officers at our African posts. One trip to Nigeria in 1982 was memorable. Nigeria’s Benin and Ife bronzes (12th-17th centuries) are among the world’s greatest … Read more

by David A. LangbartAn essential aspect of the U.S. foreign policy program, especially since the 1930s, is the use of cultural representatives abroad.  Having major musicians perform overseas under the auspices of the U.S. government is a major component of … Read more

by Bob Baker”Don’t worry about the upsets in Kampala, Bob,” my new boss in Africa wrote reassuringly in 1967 before I left Washington, D.C, “It’s more like gang warfare in Chicago than a real war and has already calmed down.” … Read more

by Larry Lesser I’m thinking about a man I saw when I was a consular officer in the American Embassy New Delhi back in the ’60s. He was an American citizen; I’ll call him Abner Strong. He came in one … Read more

by Yale Richmond The participating States… Make it their aim to facilitate freer movement and contacts, individually and collectively, whether privately or officially, among persons, institutions and organizations of the participating States, and to contribute to the solution of the … Read more

by Bob BakerMy last years in Africa, 1968-1969, were in Mali, mostly sahel or desert except around the Niger and Senegal rivers. It was called “a hardship post” because of the isolation, heat, diseases, and the local Marxist anti-American dictatorship. … Read more

by David A. Langbart

by George Kennedy

American Writers Who Were Diplomats
by William Sommers

by Cristóbal S. Berry-Cabán

by John Reid

by Dick Virden

by Robert Baker