During my orientation to the U.S. Foreign Service, one of the presenters confidently told us that, for sure, given a normal diplomatic career, we’d all be evacuated, due to war or civil turmoil, at least once from the U.S. embassy or consulate where we were assigned.
Actually, I was evacuated twice, upping the odds. Before you have visions of my being airlifted to safety by a U.S. military helicopter, however, I must confess that both were blessedly uneventful.
In Algeria, my tour was curtailed early because of ongoing strife in the country and increasing threats against diplomats and other foreign nationals. I left on a crowded Air Algérie flight to Paris where I enjoyed an afternoon and evening before flying out to Washington the next day.
In Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, terrorist attacks against Americans led to another embassy draw down of embassy personnel. This time I flew out on a crowded flight to Amsterdam and enjoyed an evening in another pleasant European city.
I was quite fortunate. Recent evacuations are more likely to mirror the kind recently carried out in Afghanistan and Sudan. In Sudan, the more recent, American embassy staff were brought to safety by helicopter, as chaos descended on the country.
The evacuations in Sudan followed dangerous battles between two strongmen, each wanting power and apparently too selfish to care about what they were inflicting on the citizens of their country.
Yes, U.S. diplomats are sometimes killed. Their names are inscribed on walls in a lobby of the U.S. State Department in Washington. Fortunately, however, most American and other foreign diplomats usually make it out. Left behind are ordinary men, women, and children facing civil war, including not only physical attacks but also starvation as basic goods run out and cannot be replaced.
The diplomatic world is perhaps chastened again by its helplessness, as its members leave carnage and perhaps memories of local friends and acquaintances who have no U.S. helicopters to bring them to safety.