The Foreign Service Journal, March 2010

M A R C H 2 0 1 0 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 75 the 20th century. His first foreign assignment, in 1959, was to training positions in Uganda and Iran, after which he was made public affairs officer in Douala, Cameroon. For the next five years (1964-1969), he filled a position in London that was a Kennedy-era inno- vation — Youth Officer. There he worked with international student leaders in Great Britain, as well as ac- ademics, politicians and journalists, ex- plaining the U.S. role in Vietnam and the civil rights struggle at home. From 1973 to 1977, he served as counselor for public affairs in London, endeavoring to explain American events and policy to mostly friendly but skeptical journalists and intellectuals. The Watergate scandal and President Richard Nixon’s resignation usually led the discussions. In 1977, Mr. Pistor took on the job of directing USIA’s Office of Con- gressional and Public Liaison. That year USIA was reorganized, incorpo- rating the State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, a change that caused serious concern in Congress. Mr. Pistor immediately found himself deep in the task of for- mulating testimony for top govern- ment officials to give on the Hill, explaining how an educational and cultural bureau could work success- fully in the media-oriented USIA. At the same time, he used his new posi- tion to launch programs in major U.S. cities explaining the role and purpose of USIA to the American public, which was largely ignorant even of its existence. From 1980 to 1984, Mr. Pistor was posted overseas as minister-counselor for public affairs in New Delhi, where he ran the largest USIA program in any country abroad. The agency’s fa- cilities included prominent informa- tion and cultural centers in NewDelhi, Bombay, Calcutta and Madras. In 1985, he was back in Washing- ton, D.C., directing USIA’s Press and Publications Service. The service pro- vided public affairs material to em- bassies around the world on a daily basis, in addition to publishing six mag- azines in 12 languages and operating production and printing centers in Manila and Mexico City. The assign- ment was a stark change from a year of I N M E M O R Y