Now, a collection of interviews with these diplomats has captured this dynamic period in vivid terms and intimate detail. These interviews go beyond official events and take audiences behind the scenes to understand the inner-workings of American diplomacy as it defends the nation’s citizens and their interests in a changing world.

The collection is “an invaluable resource for students and scholars of modern U.S. history,” writes Alan B. Nichols of The Washington Diplomat. The interviews are “an entertaining compilation of tales by former diplomats free of their so-called ‘diplospeak’ shackles and recounting everything from the serious to the strange with…honesty…”

THE COLLECTION

An Overview

Where to Find It

The Oral History Collection is now a part of the Library of Congress American Memory collection. It is unclassified and available to the public. The easiest way to access the Oral History Collection is on the Library’s Front Line Diplomacy website.

Printed copies of individual histories are at the National Foreign Affairs Training Center in two locations: the Foreign Service Institute's Stephen Low Library and the ADST offices, both located at the Center's campus at 4000 Arlington Boulevard, Arlington, Virginia. They also may be examined at the Special Collections Room of Georgetown University's Lauinger Library in Washington, D.C.

Country Readers are available on CD from ADST for $75.

Individual interviews and those interviews not yet part of the American Memory Collection are also available from ADST for $15. For ordering information, please contact Marilyn Bentley at marilyn_bentley@adst.org or 703-302-6990.

Inside The Collection

The foreign affairs oral histories capture for public use the knowledge, direct experience and perspectives of many whose stories are otherwise not recorded. Their stories offer detailed accounts of foreign policy creation and implementation, the context in which it occurred, and the personalities involved in the process. The interviews give insights and provide information not often found in official documents or in memoirs and histories published elsewhere.

The collection is quite extensive. It spans nearly seven decades, with material describing events as early as the 1920s as well as the recent past. It covers the world, as U.S. relations with almost every country across the globe are mentioned in some fashion. Subjects range from the great events of history to the tedium of everyday struggles to achieve American objectives.

Yet, the interviews also present a picture of specialized activities abroad, for example the work of labor officers, economic development and assistance (AID series), public diplomacy (USIA) and consular activities. This last field contains personal views of the U.S. consular officials who assist U.S. citizens abroad and deal with problems of immigration. In addition the collection highlights women’s voices with the Women Ambassadors Series. This series was developed from a sociological perspective; about 150 spouse histories are also available.

Discovering the Stories

Retired Foreign Service officers conduct most of the interviews; up until 2008 interviews were all tape-recorded and are now recorded digitally. Interview sessions are done in two-hour blocks, with as many sessions as necessary used to gain a story; a completed interview could be anywhere from one to ten sessions over a period of months. Most of the interviews are conducted by Stuart Kennedy at ADST’s office on the FSI campus. The interviews are frank: the participants and interviewers discuss the diplomatic process in any of over one hundred countries, including problems, failures and accomplishments. The role of personalities, both foreign and domestic, is woven into these personal narratives.

Transcripts of the interviews are returned to each interviewee for review and correction before they are made available to the public. Interviewees include career and non-career diplomats, Foreign Service and Civil Service personnel from agencies such as the Department of State, USAID, USIA, Treasury, Agriculture, Labor, Commerce and Congress, spouses, and some military officers. We are making plans to expand the interviewee list to include persons who have served with the Defense Department, the Bureau of Diplomatic Security, congressional committees dealing with foreign relations, and private companies and other nongovernmental organizations that have played a role in United States foreign relations since World War II.

COUNTRY READERS: Go Beyond the Interviews

SUPPORT

The oral history program is supported by financial contributions from ADST members, private donors, foundations and the many volunteers who interview, record, transcribe and edit the histories and create their tables of contents. The Country Readers are compiled by college interns and Foreign Service retirees.

COMMENTS

Comments on the Oral History Program are welcome and should be addressed to: