The Foreign Service Journal, November 2006

74 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 6 warfare. Today, despite a treaty banning chemical arms that some 175 countries have signed, the chemical arms race is alive and well. This book offers an insightful narrative history of chemical warfare from World War I to the pre- sent — including such events at the accidental discovery of the first nerve agent, Tabun, in 1936 in Hitler’s Germany and U.S. and British plans to mass-produce the far more toxic agent, Sarin. The book makes the threat of this constituent of WMD much more palpable. Joanthan B. Tucker, a senior fellow at the Monterey Institute’s Center for Nonproliferation Studies, was previously an arms control fellow at the Department of State, an international security ana- lyst at the U.S. Congress’ Office of Technology Assessment, and a specialist in chemical and biologi- cal weapons policy at the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency. French Covert Action in the American Revolution James M. Potts, iUniverse, 2005, $17.95, paperback, 336 pages. A veteran U.S. intelligence officer recounts the story of France’s covert support for the American Revolution prior to 1778, when Paris allied openly with the Americans against Britain. This aid includ- ed the provision of vital arms and ammunition to George Washington’s army and subsidies to the Continental Congress, among other things. The author brings the colorful leading characters in the drama to life, and also describes the highly effective British counterespionage operations. James Potts served as an intelligence officer for over 30 years, heading stations in Western Europe, and was twice awarded the Distinguished Intel- ligence Medal. His book is the fifth volume in ADST’s Memoirs and Occasional Papers Series. Tangier, A Novel Diane Skelly Ponasik, BookSurge Publishing, 2006, $17.99, paperback, 410 pages. Set in Tangier, where Jews, Christians and Muslims min- gled freely during the late-19th and early-20th centuries, this novel tells the story of Lili, a Moroccan girl raised by the American consul, who is con- vinced her future lies in becoming a Western woman; Lili’s stepbrother, Ted, an American educated in Moroccan palaces who becomes a respected journalist reporting on Moroccan issues; and Ted’s Jewish wife, Meriam. Under conditions of mounting political unrest and civil war, as a young sultan tries to fend off European powers interested in annexing Morocco and bandits and pretenders threaten his throne, each of the characters faces a crisis of identity and allegiance. During her 27-year career as an FSO with USAID, Diane Skelly Ponasik served in the Yemen Arab Republic, Mali, Egypt, Haiti and Macedonia. She was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Morocco in the 1960s, and then spent 10 years on and off there. She is now retired and lives with her husband in Washington, D.C. No More Boss Man: A Novel Frank P. Catanoso, iUniverse, Inc., 2006, $15.95, paperback, 222 pages. In April 1980, 13 enlisted men, along with Samuel Doe, an obscure 28-year-old army sergeant, launched one of the bloodiest coups in the history of Africa by staging a military takeover of Liberia and disem- boweling Liberian President Albert Blamo. Doe, like most military dictators, started with good intentions but, after surrounding himself with a cadre of yes-men OF RELATED INTEREST Continued from page 71