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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... seemed to me tragic that Italians could not devise a Left opposition that was not tied , ideologically and financially as well , to the horrific system that ruled Russia . After three years in Rome , my wife decided to take our three ...
... seemed to be grouping for further , more massive attacks , and Somalia needed new help from its friends . From what he had just told us , so far at least , the attacks had not been massive . I was about to ask the minister a question ...
... seemed to me and to other ambassadors , and to those Somali friends with whom I could speak freely --and I had some - that Siad would not remain in power much longer . He was old , he had unquestionably cached large assets abroad , and ...
Contents
Scholar Soldier Someday Diplomat | 7 |
From Foggy Bottom to the Isthmus | 13 |
The Moscow Hand | 26 |
Copyright | |
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