Category: International relations

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Cambodian victims of the Khmer Rouge regime. Photo by Wide World

Dissent in the Foreign Service

Gregory J. Newell is the young man Ronald Reagan has put in charge of this administration’s policy on the United Nations. Newell, 35, as Assistant Secretary for International Organizations at the State Department, has decided the best way to implement Reagan’s policy of distrust of

Filipino security men carry the body of Benigno Aquino. WORLD WIDE PHOTO

Inside the Manila Embassy

MANILA, The Philippines–When Philippine opposition leader Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino was assassinated in August, 1983, the first decision confronting the American ambassador was whether to attend mass for the fallen opposition leader. President Ferdinand Marcos, in power for 18 years, made it clear that he wanted

A U.S. Marine is pulled from the wreckage of the Marine headquarters after it was bombed last October. WIDE WORLD PHOTO

Ronald Reagan’s Foreign Service

Once the most insular and sacrosanct of elite bureaucracies, the United States Foreign Service is rapidly becoming one of the most highly politicized agencies in the federal government. The trend did not start under the Reagan Administration, but it has certainly accelerated since January,1981. What

Ernesto Cardenal, Nicaragua’s Minister of Culture, is flanked by folksingers under a banner that says: The Triumph of the Revolution is the Triumph of Poetry. Photo by Mercedes de Uriarte

Nicaragua’s War of Words

MANAGUA–Nicaragua’s Foreign Ministry is housed in an expropriated neighborhood complex of former stores and boutiques. Its staff can often be found searching dog-eared book indexes to document upcoming diplomatic speeches. Computerized U.S. libraries could locate this information in minutes, but here it takes days–if indeed

Xai Xai, Mozambique

Spreading The Revolution: The First Task Facing Independent Mozambique

On the eve of independence Mozambique faces almost overwhelming domestic problems: underdeveloped agricultural system, a shortage of schools and health facilities due to the mass exodus of 103,000 Portuguese, a $950 million external debt, and an acute shortage of foreign exchange. Which task gets top