The Foreign Service Journal, November 2009

N O V E M B E R 2 0 0 9 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 39 decades, including 11 years in North Africa. They bring graduate degrees in library science and interna- tional relations and a facility with foreign languages to their scholarly research. Their work corrects much misinformation on the period, and offers a nuanced per- spective on an 18th-century subject that is still relevant today. Vera and the Ambassador: Escape and Return Vera and Donald Blinken, SUNY Press, 2008, $24.95, hardcover, 350 pages. A uniquely informed, be- hind-the-scenes look at diplo- macy and international relations in post–Cold War Eastern Eu- rope, this dual memoir alter- nates between the viewpoints of the American ambassa- dor to Hungary, Donald Blinken, and his wife, Vera, dur- ing President Bill Clinton’s first term. In addition to assisting the efforts of Hungary, an untested democracy, to gain entry into NATO, Ambas- sador and Mrs. Blinken’s challenges and accomplish- ments included providing restitution to Holocaust survivors, dispelling perceptions of American cultural imperialism and establishing the country’s first mobile mammography program. Donald Blinken, an investment banker, served as ambassador to Hungary from 1994 to 1997 and as sec- retary-general of the World Federation of United Na- tions Associations from 2000 to 2004. He is the author of Wool Tariffs and American Policy (Public Affairs Press, 1948) and numerous articles on education and international affairs. Vera Blinken escaped fromHun- gary as a child with her mother as the Iron Curtain came down. A 2002 recipient of Hungary’s Middle Cross, she is a member of the executive board of the International Rescue Committee and a vice chairman of the Friends of Art and Preservation in Embassies.