The Foreign Service Journal, July-August 2023

26 JULY-AUGUST 2023 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL just months before we were blown up. Weeks after the bombing, the world had moved on. Other than the mandatory Account- ability Review Board dispatched by the Secretary of State, no after-action review or congressional hearing was held. When al-Qaida struck the homeland three years later, the world forever changed. In the words of the 9/11 Commission: “The tragedy of the embassy bombings provided an opportu- nity for the full examination across government, of the national security threat that bin Laden posed. Such an examination could have made clear to all that issues were at stake that were much larger than the domestic politics of the moment.” The title of the book that resulted frommy research became Terrorism, Betrayal, and Resilience: My Story of the 1998 U.S. Embassy Bombings (2018). Amb. Lange: The single biggest day that affected me since the 1998 bombings was 9/11, when al-Qaida attacked the U.S. homeland. Those attacks brought back all of the terrible memo- ries from 1998 combined with anger. Al-Qaida had planted a truck bomb beneath the World Trade Center in February 1993, bombed two U.S. embassies in 1998, and set off explosives next to the USS Cole during its fuel stop in Yemen in 2000. Why hadn’t the U.S. government taken the threat posed by Osama bin Laden more seriously and done more to prevent him from ever again attacking the United States? In email exchanges on 9/11, survivors of the Dar bombing described themselves as “dysfunctional” and “incapacitated.” We were reliving the trauma. The day 9/11/2001 deeply affected those of us who had survived 8/7/1998. Fittingly, commemorations of the East Africa embassy bombings continue to this day. I was pleased that Vice President Kamala Harris, during her March 2023 visit to Dar es Salaam, went to the Hope Out of Sorrow memorial at the National Museum of Tanzania to honor the victims and shook hands with staff who had been present during the attack. Every Aug. 7, at 10:30 a.m., many of the survivors of the Nai- robi and Dar bombings and their families assemble at Arlington National Cemetery at the memorial plaque dedicated to those who lost their lives in the embassy bombings. The gathering brings back painful memories but also reinforces our bonds of friendship and community from shared experiences. FSJ: What should we learn (or have learned) from this tragedy? Amb. Bushnell: The importance of leadership. On Aug. 7, survivors of the blast who made it out of the building regrouped on the front steps and returned as first responders. Our medi- cal team set up triage on the glass-strewn sidewalk, using good Samaritans to send the most severely wounded to the hospital. Kenyan colleagues fromUSAID formed teams with Americans to scour neighborhoods, hospitals, and morgues for the missing. USAID drivers formed an emergency motor pool that ran for the next 10 months. Others initiated the emergency task force. No one waited to be told what to do; we did what was necessary. Take care of your people, and the rest will take care of itself. These words that Don Leidel, a mentor, wrote when I became chief of mission popped into my brain the day after the bomb- ing. I could see a stalwart community taking care of everything from storing bodies for the FBI to initiating medical and death claims for grieving families. My job was to take care of them. That meant asking the right questions, actively listening to answers, eliminating obstacles, and securing resources. Amb. Lange: At all levels: Take care of our people, take care of security, and prepare for the unexpected. As I wrote in a March 2001 Foreign Service Journal article, “Crisis Response: The Human Factor, ” American Foreign Service generalists and specialists, locally employed staff, and family members all have a huge impact on crisis management and embassy security. That makes personnel recruitment and reten- tion vitally important. There are many aspects to taking care of people, but one that comes to mind in this context is the importance of recognizing and dealing with the lingering effects of such devastating events on active and retired personnel and their family members. At left, Secretary of State Antony Blinken lays a wreath at the Nairobi memorial in 2021. Above, one of two permanent exhibits at the Dar es Salaam memorial honoring victims of the 1998 East Africa embassy bombings. VIVIANWALKER U.S.DEPARTMENTOFSTATE