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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... served on several conti- nents but never in Africa . Did that matter ? The Somalis did not like to be lumped in with other Africans , and although they belonged to the Organiza- tion of African Unity , they were also in the Arab League ...
... served us pasta with pieces of kid on top - us 5 & D.C. shared dish & used right hand but difficult make a lump of pasta with only R hand so I cheated - dessert canned pine- apple - then tea ( had served us orange juice to start ) —was ...
... served as ambas- sador to another country falling into chaos , Liberia . Within ten days of their arrival in Mogadishu , Bishop's wife and daughter were terrorized by a group of Somali brigands . There was still an oversized embassy ...
Contents
Scholar Soldier Someday Diplomat | 7 |
From Foggy Bottom to the Isthmus | 13 |
The Moscow Hand | 26 |
Copyright | |
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