Safirka: An American EnvoyKent State University Press, 2000 - 241 pages Peter S. Bridges's service as an American ambassador to Somalia capped his three decades as a career officer in the American Foreign Service. Safirka, a frank description of his experiences in Somalia and elsewhere, offers pointed assessments of American foreign policy and policymakers. Bridges recounts his service in Panama during a time of turmoil over the Canal; in Moscow during the Cuban missile crisis; in Prague for bleak years after the Soviet invasion; in Rome when Italian terrorists first began to target Americans; and in key positions in three Washington agencies. In Somalia Bridges managed the largest American aid program in sub-Sahara Africa. He dealt with a postcolonial regime, hobbled both by traditional clan rivalries and by a leader who cared far less about Somalia's people and progress than about maintaining his control over that poverty-stricken, strategic - which soon erupted in civil war. |
From inside the book
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... Italian student rebellion at the end of the 1960s . The 1970s had been for Italy the anni di piombo — years of lead : almost fifteen thousand acts of politi- cal violence had occurred , and more than four hundred people had been ...
... Italy that 10 percent of the money had gone into the pockets of Siad Barre's family and cronies.4 In 1985-86 my good friend the Italian ambas- sador , Mario Manca , could no doubt sense the corruption in the air . We all could . But ...
... Italian troops is seized upon by Mussolini as the pretext for the Italian invasion of Ethiopia , whose conquest is completed in 1936 . 1940 Italy enters World War II and occupies British Somaliland . 1941 British forces from Kenya occupy ...
Contents
Scholar Soldier Someday Diplomat | 7 |
From Foggy Bottom to the Isthmus | 13 |
The Moscow Hand | 26 |
Copyright | |
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