The Foreign Service Journal, November 2013

22 NOVEMBER 2013 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL Hollywood on the Potomac: How the Movies ViewWashington Mike Canning, Friends of Southeast Library, 2012, $25, paperback, 270 pages. The nation’s capital is often used in Hol- lywood films, sometimes as a setting for historical fiction or fantastical dramas, and other times simply as a backdrop for national symbolism or alien invasions. Hollywood on the Potomac takes an in-depth look at 58 movies made between 1939 and 2011 (from “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” to “J. Edgar”). The comprehensive list allows read- ers to see how the city’s depiction in film has evolved alongside the film industry, and also how different genres and topics utilize the city, its landmarks and its history in different ways. The book includes a “goofs” section for each movie, exposing amusing physical and chronological flaws during its production. Washingtonians and others familiar with the city, as well as movie buffs and political minders, will particularly enjoy this book. The author’s prodigious research and his analysis of the relationship between the movie, its material and the era of its production contribute to an engrossing read. Mike Canning was a Foreign Service officer for 28 years, serv- ing in eight countries on four continents as a press and cultural officer. A freelance writer on film, public affairs and politics, he has reviewed movies for the Hill Rag newspaper for about 20 years. He lives on Capitol Hill. Early American Diplomacy in the Near and Far East: The Diplomatic and Personal History of Edmund Q. Roberts (1784-1836) Hermann F. Eilts, New Academia Publishing, 2012, $34, hardcover, 255 pages. “Anyone interested in the history of U.S. diplomatic relations in the Middle East and East Asia, or early American history, will be grateful that Hermann Eilts’ family pushed for this book’s posthumous pub- lication as part of the ADST-DACOR Diplomats and Diplomacy Series,” wrote FSO Jason Vorderstrasse in his review of this book in the June Foreign Service Journal . A merchant fromNew Hampshire, Edmund Q. Roberts had a significant impact on American foreign policy at a time when the federal government was small and depended on a loosely orga- nized, self-financed and, by today’s standards, “unprofessional” cadre of individuals to advance the nation’s commercial interests. Roberts departed in 1832 on a diplomatic assignment to ascertain the terms on which American merchants might be received in various Indian Ocean and Southeast Asian polities and, if possible, negotiate commercial treaties with those states. He negotiated the first U.S. commercial treaties with the ruler of Muscat and Oman and with the king of Siam (Thailand), but was unable to conclude a treaty with Cochin China. Nor did his proposal to open relations with Japan materialize until decades after his death. Herman Eilts, an FSO from 1947 to 1979, served in Iran, Saudi Arabia, Aden, Yemen, Iraq, London and Libya, and was U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia (1965-1970) and to Egypt (1973- 1979). After retiring, Ambassador Eilts founded and directed Bos- ton University’s Center for International Relations. He continued to lecture and write until his death in 2006. A Case of Loyalty Arthur Stanford Lezin, CreateSpace, 2013, $13.50, paperback, 167 pages. On Aug. 1, 1946, Ben Bernard Lezin was asked by the United States government to defend his loyalty to the country, or face termination from his engineering job with the Navy Department. Born in the Ukraine but a U.S. resident since age 12, Lezin was accused of having anti-American sentiments and of being a member of the Communist Party during the height of McCarthy- ism and the Red Scare. As related by his son Arthur, Ben Lezin’s story eloquently represents the struggles of hundreds of other Americans, who were not communist sympathizers, to defend their loyalty to the very government that was feverishly discrediting them. In the end, Lezin would prove his credibility and save his career, but only after an arduous struggle that included intense scrutiny by the Navy Department and the FBI, as well as years of lost salary and work. Arthur Stanford Lezin attended Reed College and Harvard University, and served in the Foreign Service with USAID. His career took him and his family to Guatemala, Chile, Colombia, Uruguay, Pakistan, Zaire, Mauritania and Haiti. Lezin is also the author of From Afghanistan to Zaire: Reflections on a Foreign Service Life (CreateSpace, 1997). He and his wife, Alice, live in central Oregon.