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. |
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... began ringing slowly , and another church began to answer , with a lighter bell . All was fresh and fascinating . I had no thought for now of being in the cloddish army , a private en route to an unknown battalion . I was abroad , for ...
... began to come to work almost on time . How much they accomplished at work was another question . Alas , said the Somali deputy minister in charge of sports programs when I called on him one day , we would like to develop more sports ...
... began in November 1991 . Early in 1992 the United Nations , under its new secretary - general , Boutros Boutros - Ghali , began to consider multilateral action in Somalia . In April the UN Security Council authorized a limited ...
Contents
Scholar Soldier Someday Diplomat | 7 |
From Foggy Bottom to the Isthmus | 13 |
The Moscow Hand | 26 |
Copyright | |
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