THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | MARCH 2025 69 On a side note of significance for the Foreign Service, Coll describes at length Ambassador April Glaspie’s July 25 meeting with Saddam, alleged at the time as Glaspie erroneously giving Saddam the “green light” to invade Kuwait. Coll makes clear, however, that the points Glaspie used in the discussion were long-standing, official guidance. Secretary Baker’s refusal to defend Glaspie from the unfounded allegations nevertheless unfortunately and unjustifiably ended her career. In the end, U.S. policy in Afghanistan and Iraq succeeded in achieving its desired end state. U.S. support for the Afghan mujahideen was instrumental in forcing the Soviet Union to end its Afghan adventure and abandon the Brezhnev doctrine. The clear determination of the U.S. to prevent Saddam’s defeat eventually forced Ayatollah Khomeini to “swallow the bitter pill” of negotiating an end to that war, thereby securing the right of innocent passage for the oil tankers moving up and down the Gulf. But in both instances, U.S. success was built on the foundation of a misunderstanding of the region and a failure of imagination. Busy U.S. policymakers preferred to manage pressing crises rather than build policies around long-term strategic objectives and demonstrated scant interest in mastering the nuances of faraway places of no immediate importance. As we look at the unfolding disasters in Gaza and Lebanon, there is not much reason for optimism that anything has changed. Over the course of a 41-year career in the Foreign Service, Gerald Feierstein served primarily in the Middle East and South Asia, including tours in Pakistan, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Lebanon, Jerusalem, and as ambassador to Yemen. Since retiring from the State Department in 2016, Ambassador Feierstein remained engaged in U.S. foreign affairs, primarily through his work as the director of the Arabian Peninsula Affairs program and Distinguished Senior Fellow for Diplomacy at the Middle East Institute in Washington, D.C., until earlier this year. Grandmaster of the Nuclear Chessboard America’s Cold Warrior: Paul Nitze and National Security from Roosevelt to Reagan James Graham Wilson, Cornell University Press, 2024, $32.95/hardcover, e-book available, 336 pages. Reviewed by Joseph L. Novak In America’s Cold Warrior, James Graham Wilson explores the consequential life and eventful times of Paul Nitze, an architect of U.S. nuclear strategy who served in multiple official roles from the 1940s through the 1980s. Wilson’s deeply researched biography paints a vivid portrait of Nitze and his remarkable legacy of nonpartisan public service. The author is a supervisory historian in the State Department’s Office of the Historian. He previously wrote The Triumph of Improvisation: Gorbachev’s Adaptability, Reagan’s Engagement, and the End of the Cold War (2014). He has also edited and compiled several volumes of the highly regarded Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS) series. America’s Cold Warrior deftly fills in Nitze’s backstory. His family was well-off, and he grew up in Chicago. Soon after graduating from Harvard, he joined Dillon, Read & Co., a top-notch New York financial firm. Wise investments meant
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