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Letters from Readers Page Two
Accidental Diplomats
March 2, 2000
In her review [Foreign Service Spouses, Winter 2000] of my book, The Accidental Diplomat: Dilemmas of the Trailing Spouse, Linda Killen faults the book for saying "little to diplomatic historians." If that is the kind of book she is interested in, she should have reviewed Jewell Fenzi's Married to the Foreign Service: An Oral History of the American Diplomatic Spouse. That book does address the kinds of topics Killen seems to have been looking for in my book, topics that she says are "still unexplored" in the literature. My book is not a history but a sociological analysis of how and why the lives of diplomats' wives are constrained and determined by their husbands' profession, and the ramifications for the women, their marriages, and the Department of State. Ms. Killen may believe this is unimportant, but to Foreign Service, military, and corporate spouses, as well as to America's government and top corporations, it is an issue of increasing importance.
Katherine Hughes
Email: kh154@columbia.edu
Mrs. Hughes,
Thank you for your message concerning the review of your book. I'm sure you're aware that very frequently authors gain the impression that the reviewer has read some book other than the one he or she wrote. I myself have had that experience — and the reviewer spelled my surname wrong, to boot.—Ed.
Sources on U.S. Policy in Latin America
March 4, 2000
I am working on my senior thesis on American Foreign Policy in Latin America during the 60s and need to find some good historical sources. I am writing a historiography, and I am not very familiar with American historians who have written about this period. Please, give me some feedback on this.
Rachel Sellers
Email: Saudades1000@aol.com
Miss Sellers,
You have an interesting and challenging topic. If I were you, I'd start with Richard Dean Burns, ed., Guide to American Foreign Relations since 1700 (1983). Others monographs specifically in the Latin America field (addressing the question from differing perspectives) are Cole Blasier, The Hovering Giant (1985); Walter LaFeber, Inevitable Revolutions (1993); Robert A. Pastor, Whirlpool (1992); Stephen G. Rabe, Eisenhower and Latin America (1988); and Bryce Wood, The Dismantling of the Good Neighbor Policy (1985). Note that you will have to look up the complete citations to the above —I've given a very brief version —for your bibliography. Best of luck with your thesis.—Ed.
Repatriation from Wartime Japan
March 5, 2000
Can you suggest any reading material covering the embassies and the repatriation of the officials from Japan. I'm looking for some first hand accounts that are verifiable.
Robin Baker
Email: Omerus1@aol.com
Dear Robin Baker,
Yes, indeed, I can. A member of the journal's editorial review board, Dr. Roy M. Melbourne, was a young US diplomat assigned in Japan at the time of Pearl Harbor. He was interned and eventually repatriated. Dr. Melbourne is the author of Conflict & Crises: A Foreign Service Story (1993). You may contact him at 2701 Pickett Rd., #2049, Durham, NC 27705. (Dr. Melbourne is not on the Internet.) There are others without doubt, but this one name, for obvious reasons, springs immediately to mind. To seek out others, we'll put your query up in our "Letters" section of the current issue. —Ed.
The Men of the ASTP
March 10, 2000
I found your commentary while looking for information about the ASTP [Army Specialized Training Program: Gateway to the Foreign Service, by Curtis F Jones, Jan.-Mar. 1998 issue]. I cannot find other sites with information on ASTP; could you provide a link or information regarding names of men who were in the ASTP at Univ. of Nevada, Reno?
Colvin Caughey
Email: ruthrn@jps.net
Mr. Caughey,
Thank you for your message. I myself have no information on other Internet sites concerned with the ASTP, but we will post your communication in the journal's "Letters" section. Possibly another reader will be able to help you out.—Ed.