The Foreign Service Journal, September 2010

S E P T E M B E R 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 63 Chinese Communists, saved his forces from annihilation, and continues to this day to prevent the People’s Republic of China from seizing Taiwan. We also pressured the PRC for decades with an economic embargo that we encour- aged allies to join. Given that history, surely Beijing had no reason to viewWashington am- icably. Yet in the early 1970s Mao Tse- tung decided that cooperation with the U.S., at least on some issues, was more useful than the status quo. And we have proceeded on that basis for nearly 40 years. Regrettably, Tehran has not yet moved in a comparable direction. That could simply be because Iranians are not Chinese, or it could reflect their leaders’ proclivity to focus on past injustices rather than areas of common interest. Whatever the explanation, the hard-won wisdom John Limbert imparts in this volume is well worth bearing in mind as we look for a way out of the current downward spiral. David T. Jones, a retired Senior FSO, is a frequent contributor to the Journal . He is the co-author of Uneasy Neigh- bo(u)rs: Canada, the USA and the Dy- namics of State, Industry and Culture (Wiley, 2007), a study of U.S.-Cana- dian relations. Two Brits Tell All The House on Sacred Lake, and Other Bolivian Dreams — and Nightmares Margaret Anstee, Book Guild Ltd., 2009, hardcover, $21.39, 304 pages. Dirty Diplomacy: The Rough- and-Tumble Adventures of a Scotch-Drinking, Skirt-Chasing, Dictator-Busting and Thoroughly Unrepentant Ambassador Stuck on the Frontline of the War Against Terror Craig Murray, Scribner, 2007, hardcover, $22.23, 384 pages. R EVIEWED BY D ENNIS J ETT Those who send text messages em- ploy shorthand in place of common phrases. One popular abbreviation is TMI, which stands for “too much in- formation.” That term came to mind repeatedly while I read these two books by former British diplomats. The countries and the personalities involved could not be more different, but both books contain some useful lessons. The first identifies the obsta- cles to economic development, while the other illustrates the perils of dis- senting from official policy. And they both describe the challenges that can arise in the relationship between the diplomat and a host government. The House on Sacred Lake is about Margaret Anstee’s 50-year love affair with Bolivia. She began her career in the British Foreign and Common- wealth Office, but switched to the United Nations Development Pro- gram, which assigned her to Bolivia in 1959. She has remained involved with the country ever since; the titular house is the retirement home she built on the shore of Lake Titicaca (at an el- evation of nearly 13,000 feet). Anstee reflects on her role as an economic adviser to a whole series of Bolivian presidents — but not the current one, Evo Morales, who ap- parently needs no advice except that of Hugo Chavez. TMI comes into play as Anstee describes in excruciat- ing detail the challenges of obtaining title to the land, building her home and working with various contractors. One does get a sense of just how hard it is to bring about development in a country where even someone with significant wealth and incredible connections cannot accomplish the simplest task in less than several years. The unique character of Bolivia and the frustrations on both sides of the cultural divide between its indigenous and European-origin citizens also come through with clarity. The contrast between Anstee’s lifestyle and that of the other author, Craig Murray, could not be more stark. Whereas Anstee is straitlaced and ascetic, Murray is a hard-drinking womanizer. TMI enters into his tale through his brutally honest descrip- tion of his antics and their conse- quences. When, for instance, he falls head over heels in love with a beauti- ful young Uzbek woman — whom he describes as “a sexually active virgin” — he jettisons his long-suffering wife and two kids. As if that were not enough excite- ment, the book’s index lists a dozen entries under “womanizing and sexual adventures of” the author. (Murray’s description of his fondness for drink is less graphic, but also TMI.) On a more serious note, Murray usefully documents why Uzbekistan’s government is considered one of the most repressive on earth. And as he did in his September 2007 FSJ article, “The Folly of a Short-TermApproach,” he chronicles how Washington was willing to overlook human rights abuses, corruption and gross economic mismanagement for so long because Uzbekistan provided a military base deemed essential for the war on ter- ror and the military efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan. As the British ambassador, he crit- icized this approach as being as un- B O O K S