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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... Siad Barre was in a quandary . The Soviet Union and Cuba had been furnishing Somalia's own main military support . But on November 13 , after an all - day meeting with his chief cronies , Siad Barre announced that Somalia was breaking ...
... Siad Barre had been unsuccessful in putting down the revolt of the Isaq clans in the north , despite his brutal methods , which had killed thousands of unarmed civilians and caused the United States to end arms deliveries to Somalia ...
... Siad Barre . U.S. Peace Corps volunteers are asked to leave Somalia ; several American embassy officers are expelled on fab- ricated espionage charges . The United States cuts off assistance to Somalia , as required by legisla- tion ...
Contents
Scholar Soldier Someday Diplomat | 7 |
From Foggy Bottom to the Isthmus | 13 |
The Moscow Hand | 26 |
Copyright | |
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