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132. The Impolite American Consul: A Memoir of the 1966 Buddhist Struggle Movement in Hué
- Author:
- J. R. Bullington
- Publication Date:
- 08-2020
- Content Type:
- Commentary and Analysis
- Institution:
- American Diplomacy
- Abstract:
- My first overseas post as a newly-minted Foreign Service Officer was the American Consulate at Hué. I arrived in July, 1965, just as the massive deployment of U.S. combat units was getting underway. Emerging from a redneck hillbilly background in Tennessee and Alabama, and devoid of any international experience, I could not imagine the challenging, life-shaping adventure on which I was about to embark. This is my Foreign Service war story/love story/coming-of-professional-age story, as well as a participant’s account of a significant but largely unknown episode in the history of the Vietnam War. In 1965, the Vietnam War had not yet come to dominate American politics as it did by 1967. Nonetheless, it was very much in the news, and I was happy to be going to an exciting job in an exotic country that was emerging as a major focus of American foreign policy. Moreover, I had been unable to achieve my childhood dream of a military career because of a teenage bout with polio that left me with a slightly crippled leg, so I was pleased to have this opportunity to serve my country in a war. I was 24, and more than a little naïve.
- Topic:
- Diplomacy, Memoir, Vietnam War, and Buddhism
- Political Geography:
- Vietnam, North America, Southeast Asia, and United States of America
133. Low Profile in the Philippines
- Author:
- Morton III Holbrook
- Publication Date:
- 08-2020
- Content Type:
- Commentary and Analysis
- Institution:
- American Diplomacy
- Abstract:
- As Economic Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in the Philippines in 2000-2004, I worked closely with the American Chamber of Commerce in Manila. Amcham also had a branch office in Davao, the largest city in the southern island of Mindanao, staffed by Filipino nationals. In early 2001, I made my first visit to Davao to check out economic conditions there and help promote U.S. business interests. Though generally peaceful, Mindanao has a troubled history of rebellion and terrorist attacks. As a result, the Embassy’s Regional Security Office gave me a special briefing on what to expect, concluding by telling me to “keep a low profile.“ I flew from Manila to Davao airport, keeping this advice in mind. There was no jetway; our plane stopped about 100 feet from the terminal. As I walked down the steps from the plane, I saw a large banner running about half the length of the terminal building that said “American Chamber of Commerce in Davao Welcomes Morton Holbrook, Economic Counselor, American Embassy Manila.” So much for the security officer’s low profile advice, I thought!
- Topic:
- Foreign Policy, Diplomacy, Memoir, and Civil Servants
- Political Geography:
- Philippines and Asia-Pacific
134. President Bush’s 2005 Mongolia Visit
- Author:
- Pamela J. Slutz and Brian L. Goldbeck
- Publication Date:
- 08-2020
- Content Type:
- Commentary and Analysis
- Institution:
- American Diplomacy
- Abstract:
- President George W. Bush’s November 2005 visit to Mongolia marked an important milestone in U.S.-Mongolia relations. When the two countries established diplomatic relations in 1987 after many years of Cold War frostiness, Mongolia was a communist country closely allied to the Soviet Union.Bush’s visit, the first by a sitting U.S. president, re-affirmed Mongolia’s transformation from communism to democracy and a free market economy.
- Topic:
- Diplomacy, Public Policy, and Memoir
- Political Geography:
- Mongolia, Asia, North America, and United States of America
135. Living with Africa for a Lifetime
- Author:
- Mark Wentling
- Publication Date:
- 08-2020
- Content Type:
- Commentary and Analysis
- Institution:
- American Diplomacy
- Abstract:
- My friends say I was born and raised in Kansas, but I was made in Africa. I first stepped on the continent in 1970 as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Togo and stayed much longer than expected, serving with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and working with non-governmental organizations across the continent. I ended up knowing firsthand in varying degrees each of Africa’s 54 countries.
- Topic:
- Foreign Policy, Diplomacy, Memoir, Peace Corps, and USAID
- Political Geography:
- Africa and United States of America
136. What America Has Lost
- Author:
- Christopher Datta
- Publication Date:
- 08-2020
- Content Type:
- Commentary and Analysis
- Institution:
- American Diplomacy
- Abstract:
- When I was a young man in the 1970s two friends and I went on a student tour of Europe. We landed in Luxembourg on New Year’s Eve and checked into a pension that catered to students. It was run by, what to me at the time, was an elderly woman (today I am probably 20 years older than she was at the time). My friends and I went out on the town to celebrate the New Year, and got back to the pension at about 1 am. The owner was up and waiting for us, and I thought we were going to get chewed out for staying up so late and forcing her to keep the doors open. Instead, she smiled at us and waved us into her dining room, where she opened a very nice bottle of white wine and then poured all of us a glass. This was certainly not the level of service I was expecting. I think we were paying $5 a night to stay there.
- Topic:
- Diplomacy and Memoir
- Political Geography:
- Europe and United States of America
137. When Glasnost Opened Soviet Doors for American English
- Author:
- Gregory Orr
- Publication Date:
- 05-2020
- Content Type:
- Commentary and Analysis
- Institution:
- American Diplomacy
- Abstract:
- In 1987 I joined the United States Information Agency (USIA), a foreign affairs agency whose mission was to engage in public diplomacy with audiences overseas. We liked to say that we wanted “to tell America’s story to the world” via a variety of cultural, educational, and informational programs (e.g. speakers, exchanges, exhibits, and libraries). USIA had a corps of press and cultural officers implementing these programs as well as specialists in areas such as library science and English language programs. As an English language officer, I was expected to promote the learning and teaching of American English as a means of developing mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries. I therefore looked forward to my first overseas trip to make contact with the English teaching establishments in Hungary and the Soviet Union.
- Topic:
- Foreign Policy, Diplomacy, Culture, Soft Power, Public Policy, and Memoir
- Political Geography:
- Soviet Union and United States of America
138. Looking Back on Vietnam Memories During Another Difficult April
- Author:
- J. R. Bullington
- Publication Date:
- 05-2020
- Content Type:
- Commentary and Analysis
- Institution:
- American Diplomacy
- Abstract:
- Enforced social distancing and the consequent abundance of time for reflection can give rise to some unusual mental connections. For me, it was a letter from a previously unknown Foreign Service Officer colleague and memories of another cruel April 45 years ago, when Saigon and the Republic of Vietnam fell to the communist North Vietnamese. This connection, which was brought to mind by Eliot’s poem, evoked not only sad recollections but also some cautious long-term optimism.
- Topic:
- Diplomacy and Memoir
- Political Geography:
- Vietnam and United States of America
139. Grim Week in Guinea
- Author:
- Mark Wentling
- Publication Date:
- 05-2020
- Content Type:
- Commentary and Analysis
- Institution:
- American Diplomacy
- Abstract:
- Guinea’s first president, Ahmed Sékou Touré (AST) died on March 26, 1984, following emergency heart surgery at a Cleveland hospital. When Guinea gained independence from France in 1958, AST was the only leader of France’s African colonies to say “no” to Charles De Gaulle’s offer of continued association with France, stating loudly “We prefer poverty in liberty to riches in slavery.” The French thus quickly abandoned with much vengeance their most wealthy West African Francophone colony, destroying everything they could not take with them.
- Topic:
- Diplomacy, Memoir, and USAID
- Political Geography:
- Africa and Guinea
140. IntraHealth and Global Development
- Author:
- Brenda Brown Schoonover
- Publication Date:
- 05-2020
- Content Type:
- Commentary and Analysis
- Institution:
- American Diplomacy
- Abstract:
- IntraHealth, originally known as Intrah, the Program for International Training in Health, was created in 1979 to train health workers and enhance the skills and champion health workers in overseas countries in areas where they are most needed. Intrah grew out of a U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) cooperative agreement with the School of Medicine at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (UNC). Much of IntraHealth International’s success in global development is due to its President and CEO, Pape Amadou Gaye, who is stepping down after 16 years heading the organization. I first met Pape Gaye in the late 1990s, when he was Regional Director for Intrah’s West and North Africa programs in Lome, Togo, where I was U.S. Ambassador.
- Topic:
- Development, Diplomacy, and Memoir
- Political Geography:
- Africa and United States of America