The Foreign Service Journal, January-February 2020

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2020 91 Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. When the SALT talks began in 1969, the United States and the Soviet Union combined had 30,000 nuclear weapons deployed. Today, that number is 1,400. Mr. Strand’s last Foreign Service assign- ment was as deputy director, then acting director, of the politico-military affairs office in the department’s Bureau of Intel- ligence and Research. He retired from the Foreign Service in 1986, but continued to serve as a reviewer, then senior reviewer, in the Freedom of Information Act office until 2016. In 1961, while serving at the embassy in Conakry, Mr. Strand met Penelope Ann Packard. They married in Conakry in 1963. Married for 52 years, they shared a love of opera. Mrs. Strand, a classical singer and photographer, died in 2015. Mr. Strand also loved theater, architec- ture (he spent a summer touring Euro- pean cathedrals with his family), the great outdoors (he took his family on many hiking trips to the Blue Ridge Mountains) and, especially, literature. Mr. Strand was his wife’s sole caretaker during the last year of her life. He is survived by his sons, Stratton, a senior attorney for the Department of Justice, and Ashley, an actor and a teacher; and three grandchildren. n Joseph C. Wilson IV , 69, a retired FSO and former ambassador, died on Sept. 27, 2019, in Santa Fe, N.M., after a long illness. Mr. Wilson was born Nov. 6, 1949, in Bridgeport, Conn. He grew up in Califor- nia and Europe before earning a bach- elor’s degree in history from the University of California, Santa Barbara, in 1968. Mr. Wilson enjoyed a 22-year career in the Foreign Service, starting in 1976. Early on, Mr. Wilson made it clear to an A-100 classmate that he intended to focus his career on Africa, because it was the quickest way to the top and he was fluent in French. Indeed, early in his career, he held administrative positions in Niger, Togo and South Africa, and served as deputy chief of mission in Burundi and the Republic of the Congo (Brazzaville). He often joked that when he was hired, he recommended himself for a position in Paris given his French fluency and was told that they had a placement for him in a former French colony that was just like Paris. That was Niamey, Niger. Mr. Wilson is best known for his work on Iraq during the first and second Gulf Wars. In 1990, as chargé d'affaires in Baghdad when SaddamHussein invaded Kuwait, he was the last American diplomat during this period to speak with Saddam Hussein, telling him in no uncertain terms to withdraw fromKuwait. Despite Saddam’s threats, Mr. Wilson successfully evacuated several thousand Americans and other nationals from Iraq, for which President George H.W. Bush hailed him as “a true American hero.” Secretary of State James Baker III thanked him for his outstanding service to the nation during that time. He served as ambassador to Gabon and São Tomé and Principe from 1992 to 1995; political adviser (POLAD) to General James Jamerson, commander in chief of United States Armed Forces, Europe (EUCOM); and as senior director for Afri- can affairs at the National Security Council under President Bill Clinton. Amb. Wilson retired from the Foreign Service in 1998 but could never shake Iraq. In 2002, he traveled to Niger, at the CIA’s request, to investigate the possibil- ity that SaddamHussein had purchased yellowcake uranium to use in his nuclear weapons program. He could find no evidence of such purchases. When President George W. Bush, in his 2003 State of the Union address, declared that SaddamHussein had recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa, Amb. Wilson was compelled to write an opinion piece in The New York Times , “What I Didn’t Find in Africa,” in which he concluded that “the intelligence related to Iraq’s nuclear weapons programwas twisted to exagger- ate the Iraqi threat.” What happened after that is widely known. Amb. Wilson’s wife, Valerie Plame, who was working undercover for the CIA, had her cover blown by the Bush admin- istration (presumably in retaliation for his op-ed), and had no choice but to leave the CIA. After an investigation by a special counsel, senior administration officials were found guilty; and the whole episode was made into a movie, “Fair Game.” Amb. Wilson documented his experience in public service and the subsequent events of 2002 in his New York Times bestselling book, The Politics of Truth. Subsequently, Amb. Wilson and Ms. Plame moved to Santa Fe, N.M. Having been bitten by the Africa bug early on, Amb. Wilson would never lose his love for the continent. He worked as a consultant primarily assisting in electrical infrastructure projects throughout Africa. After fully retiring, he taught a course at University of California, Santa Barbara, on American foreign policy after WorldWar II. His first marriage, to Susan Otchis in 1974, ended in divorce in 1986. His second marriage, to Jacqueline Giorgi, a French diplomat, lasted from 1986 to 1998; and his 19-year marriage to Ms. Plame ended in 2017. Amb. Wilson is survived by his brother, William; four children (twins Joseph C. Wilson V and Sabrina Ames, and twins Trevor and Samantha); and five grand- children. n