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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... arrived at the port of Mom- basa , for onward shipment to Mogadishu , containing the household effects of the ... arriving in Mogadishu in several weeks . I felt sorry for this officer , who had been doing what he was From Siad to Canal ...
... arrived at Damo village - dozen huts . Arlene discovered later only 9 inhabitants including kid who fled military service . Got boat almost up to ledges , then we waded a few feet in . 1500 : started up sandy incline , going around to R ...
... arrived in Mogadishu in Sep- tember 1990 , together with his wife and youngest daughter . Bishop had , as described ... arrival in Mogadishu , Bishop's wife and daughter were terrorized by a group of Somali brigands . There was still an ...
Contents
Scholar Soldier Someday Diplomat | 7 |
From Foggy Bottom to the Isthmus | 13 |
The Moscow Hand | 26 |
Copyright | |
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