The Foreign Service Journal, October 2019

28 OCTOBER 2019 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL it became the first American diplomatic property, earning the designation of being the only U.S. National Historic Landmark outside the United States. Wonderfully illustrated and concisely organized, Lions at the Legation features key episodes in U.S.-Moroccan relations as viewed from the perspective of the legation in Tangier. From sur- viving French bombardment in 1844 to hosting President Teddy Roosevelt’s Great White Fleet in the early 20th century, Lions at the Legation captures an abundance of historical events. The title of the book refers to an “emoluments” dilemma that transpired in the 1830s, when consuls were presented with lions as gifts from the Moroccan sultan to the U.S. president. As a distraught Consul Thomas Carr wrote to Secretary of State John Forsyth on Sept. 3, 1839:“I have exerted myself to the utmost to prevent the presentation of any animals from the Emperor … [but] they replied it was perfectly out of their power to prevent it, … that a Moorish agent who should thus refuse to convey a pres- ent to his master would very justly have his head cut off.” Gerald Loftus, a Foreign Service officer from 1979 to 2002, served as director of the Tangier American Legation Institution for Moroccan Studies from 2010 to 2014. He has written about the long history of Moroccan-American relations on permanent display at the institution’s museum at www.TALIMblog.org. Lawrence Mynott is an English artist living in Tangier. U.S.-Vatican Relations, 1975-1980: A Diplomatic Study P. Peter Sarros, University of Notre Dame Press (ADST-DACOR Diplomats and Diplomacy Book), 2019, $50/hardcover, 496 pages. The U.S. relationship with the Holy See has often been turbulent, but especially so from 1975 to 1980 when FSO P. Peter Sarros helped lead the U.S. mission at the Vatican as chargé and ambassador. During this short period, U.S.-Vatican relations experienced two American presidential administrations, three presidential envoys and three separate popes. Drawing on official documents as well as Sarros’ diaries and notes, this unique book shows how the United States and the Vatican often worked together behind the scenes to influence major issues of the day. Sarros sheds light on the Vatican’s response to the Iran hostage crisis, the Helsinki process and Cold War rivalries. Confidential consultations led by Sarros and U.S. envoys were ultimately successful in securing Vatican support on interna- tional issues. Sarros concludes that U.S. diplomacy was largely successful during this period because it complemented the Vatican’s own international strategy of increasing its influence through sup- porting a global balance of power while also resisting the spread of communism in Europe. P. Peter Sarros is a retired senior Foreign Service officer whose career spanned four decades. He served as chargé d’affaires and ambassador of the presidential mission at the Vatican from 1975 to 1980. He taught diplomacy at George Mason University and served as diplomat-in-residence at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies. Using Nature’s Shuttle: The Making of the First Genetically Modified Plants and the People Who Did It Judith M. Heimann, Wageningen Academic Publishers, 2018, $32/paperback, 194 pages. “ Using Nature’s Shuttle is a delightful account of the history of GMOs… [told] through the eyes of the scientists working in Ghent, Belgium…onwhat is probably the greatest advance in agricultural biotechnology since the invention of agriculture,” says biochemist andNobel laureate Sir Richard Roberts. JudithM. Heimann conducted intensive interviews withmore than two dozen of the individuals involved to present the story of a group of idealistic, young scientists at a public university in Bel- gium—often the first in their families to go to college—whomade history in the realms of plant microbiology andmolecular biology by harnessing a particular strain of million-year-old soil bacterium that could geneticallymodify certain plants in a particular way. They and their colleagues and rivals then figured out how to use that knowledge to geneticallymodify a variety of plants tomake them safer and healthier for man, beast and the environment.The modified plants weremore affordable and simpler for farmers to grow and helped improve people’s overall well-being, especially in the developing world. A former FSO and diplomat’s wife, JudithHeimann has spent most of her life abroad, includingmore than 20 years as a diplomat in Benelux countries. She is the author of Paying Calls in Shangri- La: Scenes fromaWoman’s Life in American Diplomacy (2016), The Airmen and the Headhunters (2007) and The Most Offending Soul Alive (1999).