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    Monks and
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    Your Diplomats
    At Work

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Table of Contents

YOUR DIPLOMATS AT WORK:
A Comedy in Seven Acts

by Franklin E. Huffman

 

 

Contents

 
   
 
  PREFACE
xiii
 
 

 

 
 

PROLOGUE
From Farm Boy to Diplomat 1
Bridgewater College 4
International Voluntary Services 6
In the Land of a Million Elephants 8
From Laos to London by the Seat of My Pants 13
Adventures in Academia 21
“When you come to a fork in the road, take it!” 23
The Foreign Service Entrance Exam 26
Indoctrination at USIA 28
Deputy Policy Officer for European Affairs 30


1

 




 
 

ACT ONE: GREAT BRITAIN
Living it up in London 33
OK, What Do I Do Now?  35
“Two Countries Separated by a Common Language” 39
Striped-Pants Duty 40
Putting Words in President Reagan’s Mouth 44
The Olney Pancake Race 45
The Special Relationship 47


33  
 

ACT TWO: BURMA
Burma in Perspective 51
Arrival in Rangoon 52
Shrimp in the Bathtub and Other Attractions 56
Burma or Myanmar? 59
Circumventing the Censors 60
Sports and Music to the Rescue 62
An Ethnolinguistic Mosaic 64
Touring Burma by Road 66
The Massacres of 8/8/88 72
Evacuation from Post 77     
Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi 79


51  
 

ACT THREE: MOROCCO
Assignment Roulette 81
Mysterious Marrakech 84
Dar America 88
A Proposition in La Palmeraie 89
Trouble in Paradise 91
Curtailment 92
Closing USIS Marrakech 93
Where Has My Little Dog Gone? 94


81  

 

ACT FOUR: FRANCE         
Into the City of Light 97
Telling America’s Story 99
Cross-Cultural Miscommunication 104
France and the Iraq Debacle 107
Christopher Columbus: Hero or Villain? 109
Linguistic Challenges 110
The Wrong Interpretation 111
Smorgasbord of Touristic Delights 112
Curtailment – Again! 114


97

 

 

PHOTOS


75

 

 

INTERMISSION: WASHINGTON            
Wasting Away in Washington 135
Don’t Join the Foreign Service to See the World 137
The Waiver Review Board 138
The President’s Traveling Circus 139
Bailing Out of Washington 143

135

 

 

ACT FIVE: CAMBODIA    
Please Don’t Throw Me into the Briar Patch 147 
The Five-Minute History of Cambodia (OK, Ten) 149
In the Wake of the Khmer Rouge 154
Trial by Fire 156
Methodical Madness 158
Phnom Penh for the Tourist 159
How I Saved the Khmer Language 161
Challenges of the Job 162
Obstacles to Development 164
What Do You Do for Fun? 167
The Prodigal Pajero 169
Letters from Phnom Penh 170
A Tale of Two Ambassadors 173
Art and Politics 176
Reconstituting the BMW 179
Democracy in Retreat 180


147

 

 

ACT SIX: NEW ZEALAND                        
Out of the Frying Pan 183
The Charms of New Zealand 185
The Maori Issue 187
Dealing with the Ambassador 188
U.S.-New Zealand Relations 191
Handmaiden for a Shotgun Marriage 193
They All Come to New Zealand 194
The Visit of Joe Duffy 196
Medical Misadventures 197
Back to the World 200
Mandatory Retirement 201


183

 

 

ACT SEVEN: CHAD           
“Once More unto the Breach” 205
First Impressions of Chad 206
The Restaurant Scene 210
Chadian Politics 211
A Culture of Dependency 214
Musical Diversions 215
Travels with the Ambassador 217
At War with My Own Embassy 221
A Comedy of Errors 223
Across Cameroon by Caravan 225
Keeper of the Royal Stool 226
Problems with Security 227
Foreign Service Kids 229
West African Safaris 230
Chad in Retrospect 232


205

 

 

CAMBODIAN POSTSCRIPT         
Return to Phnom Penh 233
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly 234
Mission Impossible 235
The Saga of the Two Heads 236
Extracurricular Activities 240
The Triumph of Hun Sen 240


233

 

 

LIFE IN THE FOREIGN SERVICE           
The Good News 245
The Bad News 246
Conclusions 253


245

 

 

INDEX

255

 

 

 

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