Bibliograph

Safirka, an American envoy, Peter Bridges

Type

Label

Safirka, an American envoy, Peter Bridges

Language

eng

Index

no index present

Literary Form

non fiction

Main title

Safirka

Medium

electronic resource

Nature of contents

dictionaries

Responsibility statement

Peter Bridges

Sub title

an American envoy

Summary

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

Target audience

adult

Classification