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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... meeting of donor governments to discuss the matter in Paris on January 23. Lou Cohen wanted to attend as the top U.S. representative . I wondered if I would do well to attend myself , but the usual pattern was for the AID director to ...
... meeting to go see his president , and it is conceivable that it was at this meeting that Siad Barre first told him he had made a definite decision on Libya . ) I did not need instructions from Washington after learning of the an ...
... meeting in Paris of the Consultative Group on Somalia . In contrast to the meeting soon after I had arrived at Mogadishu , I decided this time that I would attend myself , taking Lou Cohen along ; our delegation was chaired by Larry ...
Contents
Scholar Soldier Someday Diplomat | 7 |
From Foggy Bottom to the Isthmus | 13 |
The Moscow Hand | 26 |
Copyright | |
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