The Foreign Service Journal, November 2004

moved to Manila, making periodic visits to Saigon and Danang. After returning to America, she found herself suddenly alone. A divorcee, she went back to college and shaped a new life and career for herself. Drawing on her journals, with a personal, colorful style, the author conveys the wonders, excitement, the sorrow and the surprising joys of exploring far corners of the globe with an open heart and mind. Mary Stickney lives and writes in Ponte Vedra, Fla. Her first book was Jungle Paths and Palace Treasures (2001). The Last Word James K. Welsh Jr., Trafford Publishing, 2004, $27.00, paperback, 274 pages. As the title suggests, this autobiog- raphy is a sometimes startling but always candid portrayal of a many- faceted lifetime spanning five conti- nents. It describes in detail both the author’s naval and Foreign Service experience. His exten- sive and straightforward discussion of the trials and tribu- lations of a bicultural Foreign Service family will strike a chord with many. Readers will also find a close-up view of New Hampshire politics, the Catholic Church and the contemporary scene in France, Turkey, Morocco and Central Africa. Jim Welsh, a French- and Turkish-speaking Annapolis graduate and naval officer, served with the U.S. Information Agency in Turkey, the French West Indies, the Central African Republic, Morocco and France. Following retirement from the Foreign Service, he sought the governorship of New Hampshire before moving to France, where he still resides, to become a gentleman farmer and ordained Catholic deacon. A Teetering Balance: An American Diplomat’s Career and Family William Boudreau, 1stBooks, 2003, $24.90, paperback, 437 pages. A Teetering Balance provides an inside view of an American diplomat at work. Much of the story is cen- tered on Africa during the Cold War, from the 1960s to the mid-1980s, where the author was posted in the Congo, Madagascar and the Comoros. He also worked on African-related issues in the State Department and at the Pentagon. Readers are given a close-up view of a white mercenary rebellion, missionaries at risk, Angolan liberation move- ments, devastating natural disasters and attempts to deny Soviet military access to bases in Africa, among other his- torical events. As the title conveys, however, the story is also about the challenges of sometimes competing inter- ests. The author describes the balancing act of being true to his chosen profession as a diplomat and looking after the best interests of his family. William Boudreau joined the Foreign Service in 1960 and retired in 1984. He currently resides in Seabrook Island, S.C., and serves as vice president for programs for the Charleston Foreign Affairs Forum, a World Affairs Council affiliate. From the Heartland Carl Coon, Five and Ten Press Inc., 2004, $10.00, paperback, 101 pages. Beginning with a collage of reminiscences from two years the author spent as the U.S. consul in Tabriz, Iran, this little book takes the reader through the former Soviet Central Asia deep into the heartland to Tibet and the Xinjiang province of China. Prefaced with summary geopolitical background, this is essentially a personal trip report that combines insights into the peoples and cul- tures of the region with the mundane but often humorous details of day-to-day events on the road. Carleton Coon, a retired FSO, is also the author of One Planet, One People (see p. 23). One of the Very Best Men Robert Sherwood Dillon, Five and Ten Press Inc., 2004, $5.00, paperback, 56 pages. In the spring of 1951, after service in the Army and anticipating graduation from Duke University and mar- riage, Robert Dillon went to Washington, D.C., with a fra- ternity brother who was going to interview with an outfit Dillon had never heard of — the CIA. This lean and well- written little memoir recounts the events that led to Dillon’s own recruitment by the CIA during the Korean War, and what he remembers (and can repeat) of the near- ly five years he spent working in covert operations on the China coast. The story ends with the launching of the author’s Foreign Service career in 1956. Robert Dillon is a retired FSO and former ambas- sador to Lebanon. F O C U S N O V E M B E R 2 0 0 4 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 39