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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... months a shark would take a victim here . By the water's edge a tall , thin Somali in a macawis sat quietly , gazing out at the sea and the glorious new sun . At seven , after breakfast , Scerif drove me down to the most decrepit ...
... month , and even if drought should continue in much of Somalia there was sure to be some rain at Hargeisa . I was not a ... months over a thousand people died at Gannet , some from dysentery but most from something worse : cholera ...
... months , Siad Barre's clothing factory had found time and cloth to make all these soon - to - be - discarded ... month for either of them , payable in dollars not shillings , please ( which would be in contravention of Somali cur- rency ...
Contents
Scholar Soldier Someday Diplomat | 7 |
From Foggy Bottom to the Isthmus | 13 |
The Moscow Hand | 26 |
Copyright | |
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