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
Results 1-3 of 64
... knew few Somalis I felt I could trust completely . The fact was that I found most Somalis quite likable ; but they lived in a police state , and I knew full well ( and our intelligence confirmed this ) that they were compelled to report ...
... knew from Oakley , a fine man . Scerif and I soon became friends , indeed comrades . I had come to Somalia with little idea of what the country looked like . I had over the years read a number of books on Somalia , and just recently I ...
... knew that dissidents had invaded northwest Somalia from Ethiopia and that the So- mali armed forces had repelled them , as was their duty . However , as other Somali officials had confirmed to me , a number of civilians had been exe ...
Contents
Scholar Soldier Someday Diplomat | 7 |
From Foggy Bottom to the Isthmus | 13 |
The Moscow Hand | 26 |
Copyright | |
13 other sections not shown