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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... programs , which concentrated on agriculture and animal husbandry , made good sense . We were pushing the green revolution , as Kulmie urged . We were helping Somali farmers import seeds that increased yields by 50 to 75 percent ; we ...
... programs , but as noted earlier , I had been concerned from the beginning about the size of our American staff . ( We also had a large and generally very competent Somali staff ; I did not think we had more Somali employees than we ...
... programs , or any other programs , would grow in the future . I said that the security situation in Somalia was uncertain and that this was an additional reason for us to restrict our resi- dent staff to those people definitely needed ...
Contents
Scholar Soldier Someday Diplomat | 7 |
From Foggy Bottom to the Isthmus | 13 |
The Moscow Hand | 26 |
Copyright | |
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