You are visitor

n May 5, the State Department will officially dedicate the State Department’s library in honor of the late Dr. Ralph J. Bunche, former under secretary general of the United Nations and winner of the 1950 Nobel Peace Prize. The library dedication, part of the Department’s week-long observance of Public Service Recognition Week, is scheduled May 5 with a formal ribbon-cutting ceremony at the library. Among the guests expected to attend are Joan Bunche, the late statesman’s daughter; former Ambassador Terrance Todman, who worked with Dr. Bunche at the U.N.; and Brian Urquhart, former under secretary for special political affairs at the U.N. and Bunche’s official biographer. GO TO COVER STORY

Dr. Ralph J. Bunche

Life on a Foreign Service roller coaster I was the ripe old age of 52 - when many officers retire instead of join. I had accompanied my husband, Jim, on postings to Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Turkey, Nepal and India, and was with him in Calcutta when the Department invited me to join in April 1983. The Department did its tandem-couple best. My first post was Madras - not close, but at least on the same continent. We were together briefly in my second post, Istanbul, and enjoyed a tour together in London. Jim retired there and accompanied me to Dakar and my last post, Dhahran. GO TO FEATURE STORY

Out of Iraq: teams evacuate 6,700 When Saddam Hussein invaded northern Iraq in August 1996, Marc Grossman, ambassador to Turkey, dispatched a team to the Turkish-Iraqi border to evacuate Iraqi employees of the U.S. Relief Coordination Center and the Military Coordination Center in Zahko, Iraq. The first of three “quick transit” operations was launched. From September through December, the mission in Ankara evacuated some 6,700 predominantly Kurdish Iraqis from Iraq to Turkey and, finally, to Guam. GO TO FEATURE STORY