American Ambassadors in a Troubled World: Interviews With Senior Diplomats

How do American citizens become ambassadors, and how do they serve as U.S. representatives overseas during such troubled times? What is embassy life really like? How do ambassadors deal with host governments and with officials back in Washington and conduct operations during emergencies and serious crises? Seventy-four senior diplomats give us personal and insider accounts of important experiences. Their comments provide useful insights into the business of diplomacy and will interest students, teachers, practitioners in international affairs, not to mention the general public.

Following a brief historical introduction, the interviewees describe their reasons for becoming ambassadors, the appointment process, their training, the management of an embassy, problems in dealing with heads of state and officials at home. They discuss troubles in Korea and Laos, the Six-Day War in 1967, the Jonestown Affair, hostilities in Cyprus, the Fall of Saigon, civil strife in Nicaragua, along with terrorism, coups, and other demonstrations of violence in the 1970s and 1980s. They point to the future role of ambassadors.

DAYTON MAK and CHARLES STUART KENNEDY, former foreign service officers, are in the Foreign Affairs Oral History Program at Georgetown University. Mr. Kennedy is also the author of The American Consul: A History of the United States Consular Service and, with William D. Morgan, The U.S. Consul at Work, both published by Greenwood Press in 1990.