The Foreign Service Journal, November 2009

62 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 9 an intimate and productive relation- ship with PrimeMinister Rajiv Gandhi and his administration. With the Rus- sians departing Afghanistan, New Delhi expressed concern about Amer- ican and Pakistani support of the Afghan fundamentalists. As part of this dialogue, Gandhi’s principal secre- tary gave Dean a wealth of intelligence on Pakistani General Zia ul-Haq’s 1988 assassination. On that basis, Amb. Dean inform- ed Washington of his personal views on the Zia assassination and the im- portance of supporting a secular, neu- tral government in Kabul. But his candor was neither well received nor publicly acknowledged. Upon arriv- ing in Washington to present his con- cerns, Dean was informed that the department’s doctors had declared him psychologically unsound, and his med- ical clearance was revoked— a regret- table ending for a fine career of dedicated public service. Dean writes that his termination was due to his search for answers to the Zia affair. Action-packed and highly readable, Danger Zones is full of hard-won les- sons for today’s generation of diplo- matic practitioners from one of Ameri- ca’s most eminent ambassadors. Chief among them is the insight that what happened in Cambodia in the 1970s must not be allowed to recur in Pak- istan and Afghanistan. Moreover, In- dia’s arguments and interests there need to be understood in developing U.S. policy toward Kabul, just as much as we need to incorporate Pakistan’s strategic requirements. Syed Ahmed Meer, a Senior Foreign Service officer from 1983 to 1999, served under Ambassadors Thomas Pickering, Harry Barnes, John Negro- ponte, Jim Jones and Steve Bosworth, B O O K S