The Foreign Service Journal, November 2007

assignments in South and Central America, the Middle East, Southeast Asia and India. In 1962 he was detailed to the Peace Corps for two years. The book can be ordered from the author by phone or fax: (727) 863-0500. Distinguished Service: Lydia Chapin Kirk, Partner in Diplomacy, 1896-1984 Edited by Roger Kirk, Syracuse University Press, 2007, $22.95, hardcover, 216 pages. This historical memoir tells the story of a remark- able woman living through a transitional time when wives’ roles were different than they are today. It gives voice to the many women of her generation whose untold contributions will inspire readers of all backgrounds. In 1939, when her husband became a U.S. naval attaché in London, Lydia Kirk packed up her family and embarked on a lifelong journey in which she witnessed firsthand the run-up to World War II and the subse- quent events of the Cold War. She also describes her life as a young girl in Paris and Washington before World War I. With vivid detail, she offers recollections of President Theodore Roosevelt, Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko and Madame Chiang Kai-shek. She paints a picture of Moscow during the early days of the Cold War and Taiwan after the split from Mao Tse- tung’s China. She also shines a light on life in the diplomatic corps and, in particular, the unique challenges and complex managerial and social responsibilities of a diplomat’s spouse. An accomplished author, she wrote three nov- els and a book on life in Moscow that were published during the 1950s and 1960s. Lydia Kirk’s son, FSO Roger Kirk, edited this book, which is part of the ADST-DACOR Diplomats and Diplomacy Series. He served as ambassador to Somalia and Romania, as well as to the U.N. Organizations in Vienna, retiring in 1990. He is co-author of Romania and the United States: Diplomacy of the Ab- surd, 1985-1989 (Palgrave Macmillan, 1994). This Too Is Diplomacy: Stories of a Partnership Dorothy J. Irving, Author House, 2007, $15.00, paperback, 237 pages. Written with grace and humor, Foreign Service spouse Dorothy Irving’s This Too Is Diplomacy shows what “two for the price of one” can mean. Irving served with her husband, retired Ambassador Fred- erick Irving, in Austria, New Zealand, Iceland and Jamaica. She takes us with her in these essays as she feels the tension of life in an occupied city, teaches in a Rastafarian school and enters a car with two armed gunmen — because the resulting contact is in the interest of her coun- try. She tells us why she washed windows in a New Zealand school and scrubbed the walls in the embassy residence, and how she diverted a caller who wanted to kill her husband. She writes of the Icelandic chil- dren who taught her their language, the Jamaican children whom she taught and of her own children growing up in a Foreign Service life. In each country in which the couple served, Irving helped make a difference. In Reykjavik, the govern- ment praised her role in improving American- Icelandic relations during a stressful period when retention of the American-staffed NATO base there was at risk. At three Cabinet meetings the Jamaican government approvingly discussed her wide-ranging involvement in their country. Dorothy Irving grew up in Providence, R.I. She has degrees from Mount Holyoke College and Columbia University. She and her husband now live in the Greater Boston area, where they are often vis- ited by friends from the countries in which they have served. Irving continues her interest in foreign affairs and children’s education. She has written articles for local newspapers and college publications. Nine Lives: A Foreign Service Odyssey Allen C. Hansen, New Academia, 2007, $30.00, paperback, 430 pages. Nine Lives is a window into the excitement, frustra- tions, satisfactions and — sometimes — glamour of a Foreign Service career. It is also a contribution to the debate over public diplo- macy that has raged since the events of 9/11. Allen Hansen’s memoir explains how the United States Information Agency, responsible until 1999 for what is now called public diplomacy, conducted media, cul- 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 7