The Foreign Service Journal, November 2003

FS family member Fritz Galt has a direct tie-in to our national war on terrorism. American agents must track down nuclear terrorists and defuse their bomb. But is our national security apparatus up to the task? One man, Army commando George Ferrar, is hot on the conspira- tors’ trail, but the Pentagon, CIA, FBI and the woman he loves all believe that he is a terrorist! The author takes advantage of his unique perspective — seeing life from within the government, observing the impact of American policies abroad and knowing the international locations in detail and first-hand — to craft an adventure story that is both timely and terrifying. Galt, who began writing novels at age 15, has lived much of his life abroad. As the spouse of a career FSO, he has accompanied his wife and their two children to postings in Yugoslavia, Taiwan, India and China. He writes humorous pieces for The Sun , a world- wide newsletter for and about Foreign Service spouses, and co-publishes Tales from a Small Planet , a webzine for people living abroad. This is his fifth spy novel. HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY Securing American Independence: John Jay and the French Alliance Frank W. Brecher, Praeger Publishers, 2003, $69.95, hardcover, 327 pages. Retired FSO Frank Brecher explores the controver- sial diplomacy by which the United States separately brought to a de facto close its War of Independence against the British, leaving its main ally, France, in the lurch. He focuses on the two principal, ostensibly allied peace negotiators, the young New York attorney John Jay and the middle-aged French diplomat Count de Vergennes. The lessons they learned as a result of the crucible through which they had to pass before their very personal — and historic — encounter in France affected the negotiating strategies they adopted and the way the war ended. This is the second volume in the author’s trilogy on early Franco-American relations; the first, Losing A F O C U S 28 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / N O V E M B E R 2 0 0 3 T HE R EMINGTON