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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... decided to go myself , since I had had no similar experience while in the State Department secre- tariat . When we took off from Andrews Air Force Base , there were still many details to pin down for the secretary's schedule . I worked ...
... decided on a position of “ limited involvement . " This meant that we could foresee a possible need for a dam but would not commit ourselves until a number of studies , some of which we would fund , had been completed . In the next ...
... decided that the dam made no economic sense and that he planned to go over the project with his colleagues when he reached Bonn . Apparently he had gotten their attention . We ourselves could not legally move forward on dam financing at ...
Contents
Scholar Soldier Someday Diplomat | 7 |
From Foggy Bottom to the Isthmus | 13 |
The Moscow Hand | 26 |
Copyright | |
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