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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... hoped it might be an augury for the future . Our service was rich in talent , and I had a number of colleagues who were at least as well qualified as I to serve as ambassador to Somalia or to other countries . I hoped the president ...
... hoped she did not regret having joined me from Rome , where she had been the secretary to Ambassador Rabb . We made sure no more hunks were about to come down and asked the Department what they could do to speed up the plans for a new ...
... hoped for much greater American support . He warned me about what he 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 ...
Contents
Scholar Soldier Someday Diplomat | 7 |
From Foggy Bottom to the Isthmus | 13 |
The Moscow Hand | 26 |
Copyright | |
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