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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... called Quislings and traitors . There were a lot of them in any country , and they spewed out misinformation . When I wanted the facts I should come see him , at any time . He might ask to see me rather late at night ; such were his ...
... called the Courses of Azania . Mogadishu was perhaps what the author referred to as Sarapion . I had long agreed in my mind with the scholars who thought that Somalia was probably also the Land of Punt , where Egyptians had sailed for ...
... called for an American policy of " assertive multilateralism . ” It was clear that he wanted to see the United Nations active in peacemaking as well as traditional peacekeeping , in Somalia now and presumably else- where later . In ...
Contents
Scholar Soldier Someday Diplomat | 7 |
From Foggy Bottom to the Isthmus | 13 |
The Moscow Hand | 26 |
Copyright | |
13 other sections not shown