The Foreign Service Journal, March 2005

successful — i.e., appreciated and remembered by audiences abroad — not because they made foreigners march to geopolitical decisions made in Washington, but because they rep- resented “hope and possibility, not a smug claim to a perfected democra- cy.” The lesson to be drawn from Satchmo and his confreres, Von Eschen concludes in her memorable book, is that our government, whose official actions overseas have bred so much hostility, sorely needs “a jazz approach to foreign policy.” n John Brown, a former Foreign Service officer, compiles a daily “Public Diplomacy Press Review,” available free by requesting it at johnhbrown30@hotmail.com. 56 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / M A R C H 2 0 0 5 B O O K S u Von Eschen notes that the key to the jazz diplomats’ success was that they, “as vibrant representatives of the nation, refused to be exclusively defined by it.”