Diplomatic Security Pictorial History
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Assistant Secretaries of State for Diplomatic Security 1985-2008: Seven different Assistant Secretaries of State for the Bureau of Diplomatic Security have served the Bureau with distinction since its creation in 1985. The Assistant Secretary serves concurrently as Director of the Bureau's Office of Foreign Missions. The Assistant Secretary of State for DS leads a powerful global force of some 40,000 special agents, engineers, couriers, security specialists, and other professionals who make up the security and law enforcement arm of the U.S. Department of State. Listed on the sidebar are the counterpart directors of predecessor security offices within the U.S. Department of State. (Source: U.S. Department of State) -
Directors of the Diplomatic Security Service 1985-2008: Eight Directors have served the Diplomatic Security Service with distinction since its creation in 1985. The Director serves concurrently as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Diplomatic Security. The Diplomatic Security Service is dedicated to ensuring that the United States can conduct diplomacy safely and securely around the world; to providing protection for senior State Department officials and foreign leaders within prescribed areas of responsibility; to deterring visa and passport fraud; and to facilitating law enforcement efforts, including execution of federal arrests and search warrants, within the United States. (Source: U.S. Department of State) -
IN MEMORIAM: The Bureau of Diplomatic Security honors all its employees and contractors who have died while in service to the Bureau and the United States of America. These Special Agents -- Ronald Lariviere, Daniel O'Connor, Edward Seitz, and Stephen Sullivan -- were killed in the line of duty under hostile circumstances. The courage and devotion to duty of all our fallen colleagues will never be forgotten. (Source: U.S. Department of State) -
1916: U.S. Secretary of State Robert Lansing creates an informal 'Secret Intelligence Bureau' to examine information of a secret nature received from other U.S. agencies and from allied intelligence agents, and to oversee surveillance of the German Embassy in Washington, DC. The office is never a formal Department bureau but only a few 'special agents' located within the Office of the Counselor. Lansing also proposes an inter-agency 'secret service' to be centered in the Department of State, but the White House fails to act on the suggestion. In 1917, he hires the first Chief Special Agent, Joseph M. Nye. These initiatives come in response to German and Austrian acts of fraud, propaganda, sabotage, and espionage in the United States during the First World War. (Source: Library of Congress, National Photo Company Collection) -
1916: Special Assistant Leland Harrison heads Secretary of State Lansing's Secret Intelligence Bureau, collecting and processing information from various U.S. and allied information sources during the First World War, and providing regular daily reports to the Secretary. Harrison works under the direction of the Counselor of the Department of State, Frank L. Polk, the 'Number 2' person at the Department equivalent to today's Deputy Secretary of State. (Source: Library of Congress, National Photo Company Collection) -
1917: The first Chief Special Agent of the U.S. Department of State, Joseph M. Nye, is appointed by U.S. Secretary of State Robert Lansing in 1917 and serves until 1920. His principal duty initially is to monitor enemy diplomatic activities in Washington and to protect foreign dignitaries visiting the United States, during the period of the First World War. (Source: Library of Congress) -
1918: Fifteen U.S. Army Officers assigned to the U.S. Embassy in Paris served as message couriers for U.S. Expeditionary Forces in France during the First World War, and afterwards for President Wilson and the U.S. delegation at the Versailles peace negotiations in 1919. As such, they were among the early forerunners of today's diplomatic couriers. (Source: DS Records) -
1920: Robert C. Bannerman replaces Joseph M. Nye as Chief Special Agent in 1920 and serves in that position until his death, twenty years later. He expands the tasks of the office to include personnel background investigations, passport fraud, courier oversight, and internal investigations. His son Robert L. Bannerman is appointed head of the Department's Security Office in 1945. (Source: DS Records) -
1941: The day after the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor, U.S. Secretary of State Cordell Hull requests that he be assigned a protective detail by the State Department's Chief Special Agent. The detail consists of one special agent, and marks the beginning of the Secretary of State's protective detail that continues to this day. Secretary Hull is shown here (right) with President Franklin D. Roosevelt, whose administration he serves for nearly 12 years -- the longest tenure of any U.S. Secretary of State. (Source: New York World-Telegram and the Sun Newspaper Photograph Collection, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress) -
1945: Robert L. Bannerman, a special agent for ten years, is appointed head of the Security Office of the U.S. Department of State in 1945. His further development of personnel security evaluations, classified information procedures, and training programs for all Department officers and employees -- and his placement of security officers in selected embassies overseas -- sets the basic foundation for many of today's Diplomatic Security programs. His son Robert B. Bannerman, a third generation special agent, dies in 1986 while serving as Regional Security Officer in Kenya. (Source: DS Records) -
1948: Regional Security Officer Ralph True (standing watch, second from left) and a Marine Security Guard look on as U.S. Secretary of State George C. Marshall prepares to depart Athens, Greece. (Source: U.S. Department of State) -
1948: Diplomatic Courier (left) waits in U.S. State Department mail room as diplomatic pouch contents are sorted and logged. (Source: U.S. Department of State) -
Circa 1950: A uniformed guard is stationed at the main entrance to the U.S. Department of State (now the 21st Street entrance) to check employee identification passes. In 1949, the Division of Security (predecessor to the Office of Security) implements a new photo ID card system, and employees have to present the card whenever entering the building. Visitors to the Department receive a temporary ID with restrictions on hours and areas of the building they can visit. (Source: U.S. Department of State) -
Circa 1950: Diplomatic Courier Vincent Cella carefully oversees the loading of diplomatic pouches aboard an international Braniff Airline flight. During the 1950s, U.S. officials became increasingly worried about security risks relating to diplomatic pouches, including the possibility that the Soviet Union or its allies might try to smuggle an atomic weapon into the United States or steal U.S. technology. (Source: U.S. Department of State) -
1952: Meeting in Vienna are Regional Security Officer Mike Lustgarten (3rd from left), his Assistant Jim Trout (center), Special Agent Leo Crampsey (3rd from right), and Special Agent Frank Madden (second from right). (Source: U.S. Department of State) -
June 30, 1952: Special Agent Frank Madden (center, white suit) looks on as U.S. Secretary of State Dean Acheson (waving hat) acknowledges well-wishers in front of the American Embassy in Vienna. (Source: United States Information Service) -
Circa 1954: Diplomatic Courier Ward Christensen displays his many passport visas. Christensen subsequently served as chief of the Courier Service's regional offices in Cairo, Manila, and Frankfurt; Regional Security Officer for Scandinavia; Chief of Consular Services in Port-au-Prince; Principal Officer in Salzburg; and Counselor for Consular Affairs in Teheran before retiring in 1976. During his posting to Haiti, militants held him and U.S. Ambassador Clinton Knox captive for 20 hours in January 1973 before exchanging them for political prisoners. (Source: DS Records) -
May 1954: President Dwight D. Eisenhower welcomes Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie to the White House, as Special Agent John F. McDermott (standing behind the Emperor) looks on. (Source: Private Collection) -
May 1954: Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie waves to the crowd from the rear seat of his motorcade in New York City, as security detail Special Agent John F. McDermott (front seat passenger) peers over his right shoulder. (Source: Private Collection) -
July 3, 1955: Office of Security Special Agent John McDermott (right) escorts Prime Minister U Nu of Burma as he leaves Independence Hall in Philadelphia, accompanied by Philadelphia Police Department officers. (Source: Private Collection) -
March 1956: Special Agent Leo Crampsey (right) provides security for U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles as he meets with senior South Vietnamese officials in Saigon. (DS Records) -
1957: Diplomatic Courier Bill Croasdale hands a diplomatic pouch through a window of the Orient Express to the U.S. Vice Consul Raymond Baine in Milan, Italy. (Source: U.S. Department of State) -
1957: A State Department diplomatic courier (right) delivers pouched items to a U.S. Embassy Paris officer on the airport tarmac in Paris. (Source: DS Records) -
January 5, 1957: Six Office of Security special agents including James M. McDermott (third from right), Frank Madden (second from right), and Joseph Rosetti (right) stand at the new Main State (now Harry S Truman) building construction site, 2201 C Street, NW, Washington, DC. (Source: Private Collection) -
January 29, 1957: Visit of His Majesty Saud al-Saud, King of Saudi Arabia, to the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. Special Agents Joseph Rosetti (lower right corner, in overcoat) and James M. McDermott (second from right, in back row) provide the security detail. (Source: Private Collection) -
October 1957: Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain departs National Cathedral in Washington, DC, with Presiding Bishop Henry Knox Sherrill and President Dwight D. Eisenhower, followed closely by Special Agent James McDermott (left rear, in felt hat). (Source: U.S. Department of State) -
1958: William O. Boswell, Director of the Office of Security (SY) from 1958 to 1962, institutes the practice of rotating special agents between overseas assignments and Washington, DC. He also reorganizes SY to reflect the increasing demands of overseas and protective security. His son Eric J. Boswell later serves two terms (1995-1998 and 2008-present) as Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Diplomatic Security. (Source: U.S. Department of State) -
November 21, 1958: Special Agent Leo Crampsey bends and peers into waiting limousine as Her Royal Highness Queen Frederika of Greece waves upon arrival in Los Angeles. (Source: DS Records) -
1959: His Majesty King Hussein of Jordan (center left), with protective detail headed by Special Agent James M. McDermott (right, foreground). (Source: Private Collection) -
1959: His Majesty King Hussein of Jordan, center front, with Special Agent James M. McDermott (left in light-colored suit) tour a U.S. facility. (Source: Private Collection) -
April 1959: His Majesty King Hussein of Jordan, center, at New York International Airport, escorted by Special Agents Joseph Rosetti (center rear) and James M. McDermott (right rear). (Source: Aviation News Pictures) -
April 1959: Special Agent Leo Crampsey (left) escorts Cuba's new Premier Fidel Castro (center) during a visit to Washington, DC, shortly after the January revolution in Cuba. (Source: U.S. Department of State) -
July 25, 1959: Special Agent James M. McDermott (standing left, rear) provides security for U.S. Secretary of State Christian Herter during his visit with Mayor Willy Brandt in West Berlin. (Source: Pressebild Schubert, Berlin-Tempelhof) -
April 18, 1960: President Dwight D. Eisenhower throws the first pitch on Opening Day of baseball season at Griffith Stadium, Washington, D.C., as Special Agent Frank Madden (two rows behind president, with glasses and no hat), Vice President Richard Nixon (seated at left), and U.S. Secretary of State Christian Herter (seated, wearing bow tie) watch. (Source: Private Collection) -
September 25, 1960: Office of Security Special Agent James McDermott (center, right) provides protection for Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru of India, as he arrives in New York City to attend the United Nations General Assembly session. India's Foreign Minister V. Krishna Menon (center with cane) escorts the Prime Minister. (Source: United Press International) -
Circa 1961: Director of Security John Reilly (right) holds the cavity resonator 'bug' microphone found inside a carved wooden image of the United States Great Seal, presented by Soviet officials to the U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union in 1948. The DS agent at left points to where the bug was placed in the carving. Security technical officer Joseph Bezjian discovered the bug with the aid of Ambassador George Kennan in 1952. (Source: U.S. Department of State Archives) -
May 1, 1961: Special Agent James McDermott (right) listens as U.S. Secretary of State Dean Rusk addresses journalists following his testimony before the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Inter-American Affairs. (Source: Washington Post) -
April 18, 1962: Office of Security Special Agent Frank Madden (front passenger seat) provides protection for the Shah of Iran, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, and his wife Queen Farah Pahlavi (rear seat), during a New York City ticker tape parade. -
October 15, 1962: SY Special Agent James McDermott (at rear, right) looks on as President John F. Kennedy welcomes Prime Minister Ahmed Ben Bella of the Democratic Republic of Algeria to the White House. (Source: Private Collection) -
December 1962: Special Agent Leo Crampsey (left) with President Jorge Alessandri of Chile at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC. (Source: DS Records) -
March 1963: Special Agent Louis N. Deaner (left, rear) looks on as His Royal Highness King Hassan of Morocco is greeted by President John F. Kennedy in Washington, DC. (Source: DS Records) -
June 10, 1963: Special Agent Leo Crampsey (front passenger seat) protects the President of India, Sir Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, during a New York City ticker tape parade. (Source: DS Records) -
September 10, 1963: King Mohammed Zaher of Afghanistan acknowledges well-wishers during a New York City ticker tape parade, with Office of Security Special Agents providing protection. (Source: Private Collection) -
October 21, 1963: Yugoslavia's President Marshall Tito (center in dark suit and glasses) visits Princeton University in New Jersey. Special Agent James M. McDermott follows at extreme left. (Source: Private Collection) -
November 25, 1963: Thirteen Office of Security Special Agents supplement the protective detail for nearly 50 international leaders marching through the streets of Washington, DC, in the funeral procession for the late President John F. Kennedy. SY Agents are: Keith Lynch; Harry Dovenoge; Bert Bennington; Frank Tully [PRS]; Bill Little; Fred Padley [L.A.F.O.]; Louis Kachulis [D.C.F.O.]; John Bacom [Chicago F.O.]; Frank Headley [Investigations]; Robert Cronin (D.C. F.O.]; Joseph McNulty; Bill DeCourcy [PRS]; and Herb Lampe. (Source: DS Records) -
1964: Special Agent William DeFossett, the first African-American SY Special Agent, shakes hands with Director of Security Marvin Gentile. DeFossett serves the Office of Security from 1962 until 1985. (Source: DS Records) -
October 1965: Owen McShane, Senior Agent in Charge of NYFO and head of the SY security detail for His Holiness Pope Paul VI, is seen in profile at extreme left of picture, immediately above the U.S. flag. The Pope, waving, is preparing to enter a motorcade limousine during his visit to New York City. (Source: Private Collection) -
October 1965: Senior Agent in Charge of SY?s New York Field Office, Owen McShane (rear center, at left of the U.S. flag), leads the SY security detail for His Holiness Pope Paul VI (waving) upon his arrival in New York City to address the United Nations General Assembly. UN Secretary General U Thant follows behind the Pope, at left. (Source: Private Collection)
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January 15, 1966: Special Agents William DeCourcy (left, foreground) and Bert Bennington (center, rear) escort Ambassador at Large W. Averell Harriman, U.S. Secretary of State Dean Rusk, and Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge upon arrival in Saigon during the Vietnam War. The group is met at the airport by the South Vietnamese Foreign Minister, who chats with Harriman. Agent DeCourcy carries a Beretta in his briefcase. (Source: DS Records) -
June 1967: Special Agents Terence Shea (left, in sunglasses) and John Ford (center, with glasses) on protective detail with Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin (center, gesturing with right hand) and Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko (behind Kosygin's left shoulder) in New York City. The Soviet officials are on their way to the Glassboro Summit Conference to discuss limits on anti-ballistic missile systems with U.S. President Lyndon Johnson. (Source: DS Records) -
July 21, 1968: Office of Security Special Agents Terence Shea (left) and Al Boyd (right) provide protection for President Nguyen Van Thieu of South Vietnam (center), at Waikiki Beach in Honolulu. Thieu was in Hawaii for a series of meetings with President Lyndon B. Johnson and senior U.S. Department of Defense officials to discuss a larger role for South Vietnamese armed forces in the war. -
May 1970: Special agents accompany U.S. Secretary of State William P. Rodgers as he arrives at a NATO Ministerial Meeting in Rome. (Source: DS Records) -
October 1971: SY special agents escort California Governor Ronald Reagan during his arrival in South Korea as the Special Representative of President Richard Nixon. (Source: Private Collection) -
March 31, 1969: SY special agents provide protection for dignitaries attending the funeral of former President Dwight D. Eisenhower at National Cathedral in Washington, DC. Two U.S. Marine Security Guards assigned to the detail are pictured as well. President and Mrs. Richard M. Nixon stand at center. (Source: DS Records) -
January 27, 1970: An SY special agent (center, rear) escorts Prime Minister Harold Wilson of Great Britain (waving) and U.S. Secretary of State William P. Rogers in the lobby of the Main State (now Harry S Truman) building at the U.S. Department of State. (Source: Private Collection) -
1972: The first female diplomatic security special agent, Patricia Morton, joins the State Department's Office of Security in 1972. After brief periods with the Washington and Boston Field Offices, she is assigned as one of four Regional Security Officers in Saigon, and later served as Regional Security Officer in The Hague. (Source: National Archives) -
April 26, 1973: The first diplomatic couriers return to Beijing following a 23-year hiatus in U.S. diplomatic presence in China. They flew pouches in through Islamabad for the newly opened U.S. Interest Section in Beijing. (Source: DS Records) -
December 16, 1973: An SY special agent (left) leads the way for U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger (center at right), Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs Joseph Sisco (left of Kissinger), and U.S. Ambassador William Buffum (right of Kissinger) in Baalbek, Lebanon. A U.S. Secret Service agent follows behind. In a special arrangement due to Mr. Kissinger's coinciding positions as White House National Security Advisor and Secretary of State, both SY and USSS share protection responsibilities. This is Secretary Kissinger's first visit to Lebanon during his famous "shuttle diplomacy" mission. (Source: Private Collection) -
Fall 1974: U.S. heavyweight boxing champion Muhammed Ali (center) takes an early morning jog with the U.S. Marine Security Guard detachment stationed at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut. Ali visits Lebanon during a personal tour of several Arab nations. (Source: Associated Press/Harry Koundakjian) -
November 1974: Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Security Victor Dikeos (left) stands with graduates of the Office of Security's (SY's) first special agents training course. The development of formal training programs permitted SY to hire college graduates with little or no security or law enforcement training, and mold them to meet specific duty requirements. Dikeos was instrumental in reorganizing and transforming SY to better address the Department's security, protection, and technology requirements in an era of terrorist threats. (DS Records) -
Circa 1975: Special agents protect Philippines First Lady Imelda Marcos at the Lincoln Center in New York City. (Source: Private Collection) -
January 29, 1975: Bomb damage to a third floor bathroom in the Main State (now Harry S Truman) building of the U.S. Department of State. The Weather Underground, a splinter group of the radical leftist Weathermen group, plants the bomb to protest President Gerald R. Ford's Vietnam policy. Among the damaged offices is that of the chief of the SY Division of Investigations. (Source: DS Records) -
March 10, 1975: U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger (center, left) and Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Joseph Sisco (to right behind Kissinger, smiling) arrive in Ankara, Turkey, to discuss the crisis in Cyprus. An SY Regional Security Officer (lower right corner) is responsible for coordinating the Secretary's U.S. Secret Service detail with Turkish national security authorities on this occasion. (Source: Private Collection) -
Circa 1976: An SY special agent (right, background) looks on as U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger (left) greets U.S. Ambassador to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization Robert Strausz-Hup? at NATO Headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. (Source: Private Collection) -
July 26, 1976: Security Office special agents scan the audience as Turkey's former Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit speaks in the Empire Ballroom of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City. As Ecevit leaves the ballroom, SY agents successfully thwart an attempted assassination by a Greek Cypriot extremist. During the scuffle, the would-be assassin's prosthetic arm detaches as he is wrestled to the ground. Later, three agents are welcomed as heroes in Istanbul and Ankara. (Source: Private Collection) -
July 1976: An SY protective detail accompanies U.S. Secretary of State and Mrs. Henry Kissinger, as President Gerald R. Ford greets an arriving head of state at the White House. (Source: DS Records) -
August 1976: SY agents on duty, at right, during an official Secretary of State mission to Pakistan. Those pictured include (left to right) Nusrat Bhutto, wife of the Pakistani prime minister, U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, his wife Nancy Kissinger, and Prime Minister Zulfikar Bhutto. (Source: Private Collection) -
February 1977: U.S. Special Envoy Clark Clifford (following wreath at rear center, in light gray overcoat) and his SY protective security detail in Ankara, Turkey, attend a wreath-laying ceremony at the tomb of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder and first president of modern Turkey. (Source: Private Collection) -
Circa 1978: An SY special agent (center at rear) escorts Leah Rabin (dark glasses), wife of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, during a visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, accompanied by Mrs. Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (right). (Source: Private Collection) -
January 4, 1978: An SY Regional Security Officer (rear, dark glasses) appears with (left to right) German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt, U.S. President Jimmy Carter, and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat during a visit to Aswan, Egypt. (Source: Associated Press) -
January 6, 1978: U.S. Secretary of State Cyrus Vance (center of photo, at left) represents the United States at a Budapest ceremony marking the return of the historic Crown of St. Stephen and other coronation regalia to Hungary by the United States. An SY special agent stands behind the Secretary's right shoulder. The crown and assorted Hungarian royal regalia were confiscated by U.S. troops in Budapest at the end of the Second World War, to ensure they would not be seized by the Soviet Union. (Source: Interfoto MTI Feature Service, Budapest) -
June 1978: An SY security engineer searches for additional Soviet listening devices in a chimney at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, after recovering an antenna system hidden there by the Soviets. (Source: DS Records) -
September 17, 1978: An SY special agent on protective security detail (center rear, behind Egyptian flag) watches as Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, U.S. President Jimmy Carter, and Israeli Prime Minister Menachim Begin celebrate the newly signed Camp David Peace Accord at the White House. (Source: U.S. Department of State) -
April 1979: An SY special agent follows behind Foreign Minister Sunao Snoda of Japan in Washington, DC. (Source: DS Records) -
1981: The SY special agent in charge of the Chicago Field Office (left) and the special agent in charge of the Secretary's detail (right) look on as U.S. Secretary of State Alexander Haig (left foreground) is welcomed by Chief of Police Richard Bryeczek and Chicago police officers. (Source: Private Collection) -
February 25, 1981: SY special agents (2nd from left and 2nd from right) escort U.S. Secretary of State Alexander Haig and Britain's Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher upon her arrival in Washington, D.C.. (Source: DS Records) -
November 4, 1983: An SY special agent in charge of the Secretary of State's protective detail (seated at left) attends the special memorial service for U.S. Marines killed in the October 23, 1983 bombing of their barracks at Beirut International Airport. Those seated to the right of the Agent are (left to right) U.S. Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Donald Regan, U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz, Commandant of the Marine Corps Gen. Paul X. Kelley and Mrs. Kelley (holding red umbrella), and President and Mrs. Ronald Reagan (with white umbrella). (Source: White House) -
February 1983: An SY special agent, left, covers Secretary of State George Shultz (second from right) along the Demilitarized Zone separating North and South Korea. (Source: Private Collection) -
April 28, 1983: U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz (at microphone) is surrounded by Office of Security special agents at the recently bombed U.S. Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon. U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Robert Dillon, with leather case, stands beside Secretary Shultz. (Source: Associated Press) -
May 20, 1984: An SY special agent (rear center with black necktie) looks on as President Jose N. Duarte of El Salvador (center) addresses the news media in the lobby of the Main State Department building. U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz and Ambassador to El Salvador Thomas Pickering (with glasses) stand slightly behind and to President Duarte's left. (Source: U.S. Department of State) -
Early 1984: An SY special agent (left) watches for threats as a Salvadoran Army major (rear center) briefs U.S. Ambassador to El Salvador Thomas Pickering (foreground) and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Jeane Kirkpatrick (right), in the smoldering ruins of a home during a visit to the war-torn Salvadoran countryside. (Source: Private Collection) -
1984: An SY special agent and advance agent accompany U.S. Secretary of State and Mrs. George P. Shultz and President Ronald Reagan at the Los Angeles Olympic Games. (Source: DS Records) -
July 15, 1984: An SY special agent, second from left, covers Secretary of State George Shultz (in cap, third from left) upon his arrival at Wellington, New Zealand. (Source: Private Collection) -
September 30, 1984: Emergency Response Team special agents aboard a Navy Sea Stallion helicopter en route to Larnaca, Cyprus. The team had just spent ten days investigating the U.S. Embassy Beirut bombing in Lebanon. (Source: Private Collection) -
April 1985: SY special agents (at front right and at left rear with black necktie) provide security for Her Majesty Queen Noor of Jordan (wearing headscarf) during her visit to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. (Source: Private Collection) -
1985: A special agent instructor with the SY Mobile Training Team (center) teaches a hammerfist protective maneuver to a U.S. Embassy Kuwait staff member (right). (Source: U.S. Department of State) -
1985: Three special agents with the SY Mobile Training Team (wearing ball caps) conduct a weapons familiarization firing exercise for U.S. Embassy Kuwait staff. (Source: U.S. Department of State) -
November 1985: Britain's Prince Charles and Princess Diana receive special agent protection during a visit to National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., with Vice President and Mrs. George Bush. (Source: DS Records) -
December 1985: A Diplomatic Security (DS) Assistant Regional Security Officer (left) and Regional Security Officer (center) are shown during weapons training for a gendarme detachment along the Congo River in Zaire. President Mobutu provided the special gendarme detachment to protect the U.S. Embassy in Kinshasa. (Source: Private Collection) -
1986: A DS security engineering officer monitors radio signals from unauthorized sources at a Department of State facility. These monitoring systems were the last generation of vacuum-tube receivers used by DS. (Source: DS Records) -
February 11, 1986: The U.S. Embassy Regional Security Officer in East Germany (second from left with striped necktie) looks on as the formerly imprisoned Soviet dissident Anatoly "Natan" Sharansky (center) is greeted by U.S. Ambassador to West Germany Richard Burt (right). Sharansky crosses from East Berlin to West Berlin at the Glienicke Bridge, an event that marks the beginning of an historic East-West German spy and prisoner exchange during the Cold War. On hand for the event is U.S. Ambassador to East Germany Frank Meehan (with glasses at left) who is instrumental in arranging the exchanges. (Source: Associated Press) -
September 19, 1986: Commemorative ceremony in the White House Oval Office marking President Ronald Reagan's signing of the Omnibus Diplomatic Security and Antiterrorism Act of 1986. The law provided the Bureau of Diplomatic Security (DS) with a formal structure headed by an assistant secretary of state, and placed the Rewards for Justice program and the Diplomatic Courier Service within DS. DS Assistant Secretary of State Robert E. Lamb (third from right) joins others including (left to right): Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger; Secretary of State George Shultz; U.S. Representatives Dante Fascell, William Broomfield, and Olympia Snowe; U.S.