This action-packed memoir by a leading American diplomat provides provocative reflections on events and leaders, American and foreign, 1959 to 1989. Over the course of his career, Ambassador Dean found himself embroiled in controversy in hot spots in Asia and the Middle East. Serving several stints in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, he worked on development projects in all three countries and with the U.S. military in Central Vietnam in the early 1970s. He brokered the deal that ended the war in Laos and faced down an attempted coup d'état in 1973 against the neutralist regime of Prime Minister Souvanna Phouma. As ambassador in Cambodia, he was the last man out on April 12, 1975, as the last helicopter left Phnom Penh and Khmer Rouge forces approached the city. He was notably willing to work with anyone and everyone-communists and capitalists, diplomats and spies, urbanites and peasants, entrenched leaders and emerging reformers, Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists. "A thoroughly readable, even fascinating, account of Dean's life and experiences as one of America's top twentieth-century diplomats." Robert V. Keeley, author, publisher, career diplomat, and former U.S. ambassador to Greece. "Dean's career reflects his strongly held belief that America should lead through the good example of its own principled behavior and decency, not through brute force and threats." John V. Whitbeck, international lawyer and author of The World According to Whitbeck. "Ambassador Dean comes across in this memoir as exactly what he is Ambassador Dean comes across in this memoir as exactly what he is Ambassador Dean comes across in this memoir as exactly what he isa dedicated and talented man deeply proud of his record in the practice of American diplomacy." Bruce Laingen, U.S. ambassador (ret.) and former president, American Academy of Diplomacy.
| |||||||||||||||
Book Description
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent book and very good reading,
By Hamba Gahle (Switzerland) - See all my reviews
This review is from: DANGER ZONES: A Diplomat's Fight for America's Interests (Paperback)
Ambassador Dean has given a personal account of the fifty-some years he spent in the service of the US both in the military and with the State Department. He provides an insight into US policy and execution of that policy that is rare and hence valuable. If only he had been listened to more carefully in Washington the US might not be in the mess it is currently in abroad!
This book should be required reading in any International Relations course. I enjoyed it, it explained many things I did not previously understand and I learnt a great deal from it.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Curious Diplomatic Career of U.S. Ambassador John Gunther Dean,
By Ted Marks (Phippsburg, ME, USA) - See all my reviews
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: DANGER ZONES: A Diplomat's Fight for America's Interests (Paperback)
John Gunther Dean was one of America's distinguished diplomats who won kudos for his performance in Laos and Cambodia, among other places. One would think that his memoir would be equally distinguished. And it is, to a degree -- but his memoir also has a touch of the bizarre because his career ends like some Middle East spy mystery.
Dean's career figured prominently in recent American history. He served as America's chief diplomat in Laos, Cambodia, Denmark, Lebanon Thailand and India. Indeed, in 1973 he played a key role in brokering the peace settlement in Laos where he single-handedly put down an attempted coup that could have brought down the government of Prime Minister Souvanna Phouma even as the Laotian premier was close to reaching a peace agreement with the Pathet Lao. Moreover two years later, Dean was America's last man out of Cambodia when that country fell to the Khmer Rouge in 1975. By all accounts his performance in that difficult assignment was exemplary. So there was nothing bizarre about his career; it was the end of his career that leaves the reader on the edge of his or her seat. Mr. Dean reports that he was effectively dismissed from his last post in New Delhi in 1988. The State Department first told him that he was mentally unstable, and then, as soon as he submitted his retirement papers, exonerated him of that blasphemy. Dean takes us through his entire career, describing in some detail the dramatic events in Laos and Cambodia as the American war in Indochina wound down. After Cambodia fell, he was named ambassador to Denmark and then Lebanon. In Beirut in 1980, he was the target of an assassination attempt by men who were armed with American weapons that had been sent to Israel. Dean never did get a full explanation of who was behind the assassination attempt, but he speculates that the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad was behind the incident, because Dean had made some belligerent public remarks about Israel's air strikes against Palestinian targets in Lebanon. From Lebanon, Dean was posted to Thailand in 1981, and then was sent to New Delhi in 1985 as ambassador to India. It was in New Delhi that Dean developed concerns about the historic confrontation between India, primarily a Hindu country, and Pakistan, which was a Muslim state. Since the 1971 war between India and Pakistan, the United States had affected a clear "tilt" towards the Pakistanis, and because of that, India had developed a close security relationship with the Soviet Union. India developed its nuclear capacity in the early 1970s, and Pakistan was in the midst of developing its own nuclear weapons. Moreover, the Russians were in the midst of their own adventure in Afghanistan, so things were tense on the subcontinent to say the least. Dean's story turns bizarre in August of 1988, when Pakistani military strongman Zia ul Haq was killed in the crash of his military aircraft with American Ambassador Arnold Raphel on board. Dean became suspicious of the events surrounding the crash of Zia's plane. After all, Muslim fundamentalists were fighting the Russians, and the fate of Pakistan had become enmeshed with the fate of Afghanistan. He expressed his concerns in cables back to Washington, and also discussed them with the ambassadors from England, Canada and France. It was at that point that he was called back to Washington for consultations, he thought, with senior members of the government, including the secretary of state. Those meetings were cancelled on his arrival in Washington, and Dean was told he had undergone a personality change that required him to take medical leave. Several months later, in early 1989, Dean retired from the State Department. From 1996-2003 he gave an oral history to the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training, and out of that oral history came this book. There are no final judgments in Dean's memoir, but it is well worth reading as it details the career of one of America's most colorful ambassadors.
5.0 out of 5 stars
A life lived In history,
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: DANGER ZONES: A Diplomat's Fight for America's Interests (Paperback)
John Gunther Dean lived the histor of tumutumous evets since the 1940's. His family fled Hitler's Germany, started a new lif in the U S. John served in the army, comleted Harvard where I met him soon after we arrived in Cambridge. He joined the foreign service, hoping all along to bring warring parties togeh, but finding himsef in high diplomatic posts in the thick of problems incding Africa,India, Laos and too close exposure to the wars in Vietnam and Cambodia. His styl is clear and to the point and with a sense of humanit, even sympathizing with the terrible suffering of civilians uner the relentless bombog of German cities. Paul Edelman
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
