The Foreign Service Journal, November 2010

N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 0 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 21 Cold War Saga Kempton Jenkins, ADST- DACOR Diplomats and Diplomacy Series, Nimble Books, 2010, $20.94, paperback, 452 pages. Cold War Saga is a lively, first- hand account of the global con- frontation between the Soviet Union and the United States. The author, veteran diplomat Kempton Jenkins, was directly involved in this epic struggle from 1950 to 1980 and has remained in- volved in Russian and East European affairs to the present. Following postings in Germany, Jenkins was as- signed to Moscow in 1960, where he accompanied then-Ambassador Llewellyn E. Thompson Jr. in ne- gotiations with Soviet foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko on a plan to reduce Soviet-Allied tensions in Germany. Returning to the Soviet desk at the State Department, he then moved to USIA in 1968, where he was in charge of programs in the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact countries. In 1973, he was assigned to State’s congressional affairs office, retiring in 1980 to join the Commerce Department as head of the bu- reau of East-West trade. Jenkins “tells it like it was,” says Jack F. Matlock Jr., U.S. ambassador to the Soviet Union from 1987 to 1991. “ Cold War Saga is an absorbing read. If you fought with ‘Jenks’ in the political trenches, it will stir fond memories. If you didn’t, it will take you there — and you won’t forget where you’ve been or what was at stake.” This well-written book is the 40th volume in the ADST-DACOR Diplomats and Diplomacy Series. Retired FSO Kempton Jenkins is a consultant in international public affairs. He is the former presi- dent of the Ukraine-U.S. Business Council and the U.S.-U.S.S.R. Trade and Economic Council, and vice chairman of the U.S.-Yugoslav Business Council. He also served as an adjunct professor on East-West trade policy at Georgetown University. Crossing Mandelbaum Gate: Coming of Age Between the Arabs and Israelis, 1956-1978 Kai Bird, Scribner, 2010, $30, hardcover, 424 pages. In this memoir, Kai Bird takes the reader on a