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31. VOA – A Biased, Sentimental Recollection

Author:
Philip Brown
Publication Date:
02-2021
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
American Diplomacy
Institution:
American Diplomacy
Abstract:
Editor’s note: Created in 1942 as a U.S. government broadcasting effort to combat Nazi propaganda, VOA is now part of the U.S. Agency for Global Media. VOA provides news, information, and cultural programming to worldwide audiences in more than 40 languages. Throughout the barrage of news over the past year —the pandemic, the presidential election and transition, race relations, climate change, environmental disasters —the Voice of America also made headlines. While multiple reports of outside interference may not have commanded the attention of the general public, they always interested me, partly because of the potential damage to VOA’s well-deserved reputation for objectivity but also because of the soft spot I have in my heart for the institution. My first-ever Washington DC job was in 1964 as a 23-year old summer intern at the Voice of America. I had spent the previous summer as a volunteer (Operation Crossroads Africa) in Nigeria; I had quite a bit of journalism experience and I fit in well as a news writer on the Africa desk, a small cadre of individuals who would pull copy off wire service tickers and other sources and adapt it for broadcasts to Africa.
Topic:
Diplomacy, Media, Memoir, and Voice of America
Political Geography:
United States of America

32. ConOff’s Suspicions are Aroused

Author:
Michael Mates
Publication Date:
02-2021
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
American Diplomacy
Institution:
American Diplomacy
Abstract:
As a newly minted vice consul at Embassy Islamabad, I interviewed high-ranking generals, scholars, and artists as well as those from the other end of the spectrum—the peasant with no English planning a marketing survey for local sandals in the USA, the convicted rapist who wanted a refusal in order to avoid a court summons, the oily types with no bank statements and dollops of gold nestling on their chest-fur. The cool mendacity of some applicants took the breath away. But it was the multifaceted complexity of fraudulent efforts to gain undeserved benefits via fiddled documents that fascinated us most. One of the most fascinating was the case of a drug-smuggler who claimed to have been born in Montana to a Sierra Leonean mother.
Topic:
Diplomacy, Memoir, and Smuggling
Political Geography:
Pakistan and United States of America

33. A Light in the Window in Communist Times

Author:
Jonathan B. Rickert
Publication Date:
02-2021
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
American Diplomacy
Institution:
American Diplomacy
Abstract:
Sometimes a Christmas tree is more than just a decorated evergreen. In connection with Christmas 1994, the last Yule celebration in Bucharest for me and my wife Gerd before our transfer back to Washington at the completion of our tour, we hosted a large holiday party for many of our Romanian friends. The lovely Deputy Chief of Mission (DCM) residence on Strada Pangratti was richly decorated for the season. The focal point was the large Christmas tree standing in the living room next to the staircase leading to the second floor. The tree was well over twenty feet tall and beautifully trimmed, with electric lights and decorations from the United States, my wife’s native Sweden, Romania, and other countries where we had served. For us it was a delight to behold as it and the decorations held so many associations with family and Christmases past. Our guests all seemed to enjoy themselves, eagerly sampling the generous selection of seasonal goodies on offer, and we were pleased to have the opportunity to share our holiday with them. One guest even brought with him a group of a cappella singers, who enriched the festive atmosphere with lovely traditional Romanian colinde, or Christmas carols.
Topic:
Communism, Memoir, and Christmas
Political Geography:
Romania and United States of America

34. Mongolia’s Emergence

Author:
Peter Bridges
Publication Date:
02-2021
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
American Diplomacy
Institution:
American Diplomacy
Abstract:
I had long been curious about Mongolia, a lightly populated country twice the size of Texas, which under Genghis Khan and his successors produced, in the 13th century CE, the largest contiguous land empire the world has ever known—9 million square miles. For much of the 20th century people spoke of Outer and Inner Mongolia. The Inner was firmly under Chinese control. The Outer claimed independence but was in fact the first Soviet satellite state, the Red Army having expelled Chinese troops in the early 1920s. The country was almost totally isolated from the rest of the world. In 1939, Japanese forces advanced into Mongolia from China and were pushed back by Soviet forces, in battles that involved tens of thousands of troops but went almost totally unreported in the West. After World War II, Communist China sent twenty thousand or more “guest workers” into Mongolia. It was a prelude to colonization, as China had brought about in Inner Mongolia and would do later in Tibet and Xinjiang. The Soviets did not want a new Chinese state on their border. They and the Mongols managed to get the guest workers sent home. What I knew about the past of Mongolia, Tibet, and Xinjiang came mainly from reading the work of three great explorers and travelers: Sven Hedin, Sir Aurel Stein, and the American diplomat William Woodville Rockhill, who once crossed Tibet on foot. (Henry Adams said that meeting with Rockhill was like having dinner with Genghis Khan.)
Topic:
Diplomacy, History, and Memoir
Political Geography:
Mongolia and Asia

35. Beijing Brushstrokes

Author:
Beatrice Camp
Publication Date:
05-2021
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
American Diplomacy
Institution:
American Diplomacy
Abstract:
While studying Chinese in Taiwan in preparation for assignment at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, I gave birth to baby William, our first child. Along the way, I learned a fair amount about Chinese birthing beliefs; our teachers at the Foreign Service Language School were happy to talk about the importance of fetal education and how my studying Chinese while pregnant would benefit the baby. A few days before my due date, my husband David dreamed I gave birth to a koala. David’s shock over having a furry animal for a son was compensated by the thrill of hearing the newborn utter a Chinese phrase. We had, after all, spent the previous two years struggling to master tones and characters. Not to mention that the little koala’s question of “gànmá” (干吗) or “whatever for?” seemed right on the money.
Topic:
Diplomacy, Culture, Language, and Memoir
Political Geography:
China, Taiwan, and Asia

36. Military Crackdown in Burma and the Massacres of 8/8/88

Author:
Franklin Huffman
Publication Date:
05-2021
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
American Diplomacy
Institution:
American Diplomacy
Abstract:
The February military take-over in Burma called to mind the tragic events of 1988, while I was serving as press attaché at U.S. Embassy Rangoon. During August and September that year, massive pro-democracy demonstrations resulted in the massacre of several thousand Burmese citizens at the hands of the brutal military regime. Previous attempts to throw off the shackles of totalitarianism, usually led by students, had taken place in 1962, when ruling General Ne Win’s police killed several hundred students at the University of Rangoon and dynamited the historic Students’ Union Building, and again in 1974, when the regime shot down several hundred students who marched in support of a general strike, arrested thousands, closed down schools and universities, and declared martial law. In 1988, there had been no major uprisings for 14 years, but astrologers were predicting that dire events would happen on the magical date of 8/8/88—the four eights of August 8, 1988. At the embassy, we knew things were coming to a boil. There were widespread reports of students being beaten, raped and killed in the notorious Insein Prison north of Rangoon. In the ethnic minority areas, rape, beatings, looting, and the burning down of villages were commonplace wherever the Burmese army operated. The country’s economy was in a shambles. In September of 1987 the regime suddenly and without explanation demonetized all 25, 35, and 75 kyat notes (whose strange denominations were established in a previous demonetization), so that people holding cash were wiped out; 80 percent of the money in circulation became worthless. Hundreds of enraged students stormed out of the prestigious Rangoon Institute of Technology, smashed traffic lights, and burned vehicles. The regime’s inevitable response was to close schools and universities.
Topic:
Diplomacy, Military Affairs, Violence, Memoir, Demonstrations, and Massacre
Political Geography:
Burma, Southeast Asia, and Myanmar

37. When the KGB Sends Its B Team

Author:
Jonathan B. Rickert
Publication Date:
05-2021
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
American Diplomacy
Institution:
American Diplomacy
Abstract:
During my foreign service tour in Moscow 1966-1968, embassy security regulations prohibited employees from traveling alone within the Soviet Union. We were warned that we risked being targeted by the KGB, whose operatives might attempt to compromise us in any number of ways. Among those often needing a travel companion to comply with this regulation were the embassy’s Publications Procurement Officers (PPOs), who traveled extensively within the country buying all sorts of books and other publications for various U.S. government organizations. And that is how I came to be invited to join PPO Bill Pryce on a book-buying trip to Ufa and Kazan in early December 1966.
Topic:
Cold War, Diplomacy, Memoir, and KGB
Political Geography:
Russia, Soviet Union, and United States of America

38. Memories of the U.S. Legation in Budapest 1945-47

Author:
Scott R. Schoenfeld
Publication Date:
11-2021
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
American Diplomacy
Institution:
American Diplomacy
Abstract:
Editor’s note: The author lived in Budapest in the immediate post-war period while his father, H.F. Arthur Schoenfeld, was U.S. Minister to Hungary 1945-47. As an eight-year-old, he experienced the pervasive Russian military presence in the heavily damaged city. The house the family lived in has been the residence of U.S. ambassadors ever since. These excerpts from his unpublished memoir of the early days of the U.S. Legation have been edited for length. We arrived just days after hostilities ended in Hungary and less than three months after the Soviets’ long winter siege of Budapest, which damaged or destroyed almost every building in the city. Surprisingly, the house did not seem in bad condition when we moved in. In my bedroom, the occupying Russian troops had lit a fire in the washbasin to warm themselves. This had heavily scorched the wall and blackened the ceiling. Some of the large classical paintings that hung in the downstairs rooms had been bayoneted. The Russians had driven hooks in the dining room walls to tether their horses, but that was pretty much the worst of it. Outside was a different story. The house was situated near the route of the main Soviet military thrust into the city in the last days of the siege. Two German soldiers were buried in shallow graves on the hillside just a few yards behind the house. In the garden field below and in front of the house were the graves of twelve Russian soldiers killed in the fight. We were told that the bodies had been wrapped in the house curtains and stacked for two or three days in the lower entry hall of the house awaiting burial. Above the driveway was a large cave hollowed out of the steep hillside where civilians had taken refuge.
Topic:
Cold War, Diplomacy, History, Violence, and Memoir
Political Geography:
Hungary and United States of America

39. Diplomatic Intervention Made a Difference in Suriname

Author:
Jonathan B. Rickert
Publication Date:
11-2021
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
American Diplomacy
Institution:
American Diplomacy
Abstract:
The smallest and least populous independent state in South America, the former Dutch colony of Suriname nonetheless attracted an inordinate amount of U.S. government attention in the early 1980s, due to the presence of aluminum giant Alcoa and the fear that Cuba might use it to establish its first foothold on the continent. Although the U.S. embassy in Paramaribo had adequate personnel for “normal” times, it was not prepared for the situation following the so-called Sergeants’ Coup of February 25, 1980, led by Sergeant Desire “Desi” Bouterse, against the elected Henck Arron government. Following the coup, Bouterse gained effective control of the government as chairman of the country’s National Military Council (NMR) and, initially at least, sought support from Cuba and other leftist regimes.
Topic:
Diplomacy, Memoir, and Intervention
Political Geography:
South America, Cuba, United States of America, and Suriname

40. Red Tape in Russia

Author:
Peter Bridges
Publication Date:
11-2021
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
American Diplomacy
Institution:
American Diplomacy
Abstract:
Russia is famous for red tape, with paperwork required for just about any activity. I had my own first-hand experiences with this obstructive bureaucracy during my assignment to the USSR 1962-1964. As assistant general services officer during my first year in Moscow, I ordered forms and furniture, supervised the motor pool, got broken toilets fixed, and tried to keep in operation our creaky Soviet elevators, which liked to break down late on Friday afternoons. While this was not glamorous diplomacy, it probably taught me more about Russia than what I gained as a political officer during my second year in the post.
Topic:
Diplomacy and Memoir
Political Geography:
Russia, Eurasia, Soviet Union, and United States of America