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
Results 1-3 of 47
... agreed that Panama's flag must fly — along with ours , most agreed — in the Zone . Only a dreamer could have imagined that a time would come when only Panama's flag would fly there — when indeed there would be no more Canal Zone . The ...
... agreed to introduce such techniques , not for promotion but for recruitment . Today , a Foreign Service candidate takes part in several group exercises as part of a full - day assessment . My own bad report from Moscow had no lasting ...
An American Envoy Peter Bridges. read at breakfast . He readily agreed that it satisfied his basic needs for infor- mation ... agreed to let me go and said he would sign an efficiency report on my work if I would prepare one for him . I ...
Contents
Scholar Soldier Someday Diplomat | 7 |
From Foggy Bottom to the Isthmus | 13 |
The Moscow Hand | 26 |
Copyright | |
13 other sections not shown