image from
My wife Roberta K. Brown and I NEVER argue but when we do, it sometimes has to do with how we describe my professional career. I want to say that I was in the Foreign Service (being careful to make sure that someone does not understand "Forest Service").
Bobbi likes to say that I (or we) worked for USIA [JB -- see]. That's true but today's interlocutor may hear CIA and/or probably has never heard of an agency that was folded into State Department 20 years ago -- after I retired.
All that as a way of commending this wonderful article [JB -- see below link] about USIA exhibits program -- its impact on US/Soviet relations and on several generations of Russians and Americans.
I was not a guide but I interviewed many who became guides and during two tours at AmEmbassy Moscow, including PAO [Public Affairs Officer - JB] 1987-1990, I visited exhibits everywhere from Dushanbe to Tbilisi to Magnitogorsk to Donetsk to Kishinev to Leningrad to Moscow.
Image from, with caption: Exhibit guides Kaara Ettesvold and Kathleen Rose trying on Russian school girl uniforms
Just looking at the people who are mentioned and whose photos are used -- Paul Smith Margot Mininni Thomas Bolling Robertson John Beyrle, Bill Kiehl, Rick A. Ruth -- brings back memories. Public diplomacy at its best. John Katzka, Frank Tonini, Ian Kelly, Gil Callaway, Michael J. Hurley, Jack Matlock Margo Squire Alec Guroff Kathie Guroff Conrad Turner, Morris E. Jacobs
No comments:
Post a Comment