The Foreign Service Journal, March 2006

M A R C H 2 0 0 6 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 73 The Human Dimension Behind Embassy Walls: The Life and Times of an American Diplomat Brandon Grove, University of Missouri Press, 2005, $34.95, hard- cover, 328 pages. R EVIEWED BY X ENIA W ILKINSON In Behind Embassy Walls: The Life and Times of an American Diplomat , a senior career FSO whose service spanned administrations from Dwight Eisenhower to Bill Clinton offers a penetrating insider’s look at the Foreign Service. Consider just a few of the events and developments Bran- don Grove experienced: the Cold War in Berlin, Arab-Israeli negotiations in Jerusalem, mass suicides of Ameri- cans in Guyana, Mobutu’s kleptocracy in Zaire, and crisis management in Somalia. Colleagues might expect Ambas- sador Grove’s memoirs to be a digni- fied and restrained account of these and other highlights of his Foreign Service career. Instead, he has written a refreshingly candid book, which adds a compelling human dimension often missing from such accounts. The son of an American oil execu- tive and a Polish emigré mother, Brandon Grove grew up in an interna- tional environment. He attended pri- vate elementary school in Hitler’s Germany, an English school in Hol- land and a French lycée in Franco’s Spain, before World War II forced the family back to the U.S. in 1941. By 1946, his father was transferred to occupied Vienna, where Grove, then a college student, helped to smuggle his friend, Polish pianist Andrzej Wasoski, out of the Soviet sector in a caper rem- iniscent of the film, “The Third Man.” With that background, it is not surpris- ing that Grove chose an FS career. Grove explores the professional and personal challenges of serving our country in very different settings. Charged with representing the Allied occupation authorities in West Berlin and, later, opening our embassy in East Berlin with instructions to main- tain minimal relations with the host government, Grove’s accounts of divided Berlin during the 1960s and 1970s capture the shadowy and ambivalent world of Cold War diplo- macy. While consul general in Jerusalem, where he was not accredit- ed to any government, Grove strove to maintain good relations with both Israelis and Palestinians. As ambas- sador to Zaire, Grove urged economic reforms on the incorrigibly corrupt dictator, Mobutu Sese Seko, a key Cold War ally. Although most of Grove’s odyssey took place in the context of the Cold War, much of his experience is still rel- evant to the challenges that a rising American diplomat might encounter today. With incisiveness and humor, he explains how the system worked fromwithin, including insights into the day-to-day activities of American diplomats overseas to support key U.S. foreign policy objectives. In his first Washington assignment, Grove had the good fortune to work as special assistant to two under secre- taries, Chester Bowles and George Ball. His performance was noticed by the leadership of the State Depart- ment, auguring well for future assign- ments. His assessments of the charac- ter and abilities of the politicians and statesmen with whom he worked, including Bobby Kennedy, Willy Brandt, Chester Bowles, George Ball and Phil Habib, are astute, frank and witty. Kennedy had no patience for host-country protocol, while Bowles’ disorganized management style led to a rift with his boss, Dean Rusk. Grove’s vignettes about socialite Lorraine Cooper, a powerful ambas- sador’s wife with extravagant ideas about decorating the residence in a drab communist country (to create the ambiance of entering a big, red rose!), are particularly vivid. The upheavals of Foreign Service life took a toll on Grove’s family, caus- ing his first marriage to dissolve. Happily, he met his lovely second wife, Mariana Moran, at a Washington din- ner party in honor of President Mobu- tu. In a touching epilogue, Grove shares a momentous encounter with his adult son, Mark, who finally reveals to his father that he is gay. Both father and son contribute their own versions of Mark’s coming out, leaving no doubt that their family life was strengthened by open communication. Grove never lost his zest for the diplomatic career, despite his keen awareness of the political constraints that limit what individual diplomats can accomplish. He put his career on the line when, as director of the Foreign Service Institute, he circum- vented his boss, Under Secretary for B OOKS