This book is a revealing account of two episodes in America's Cold War-era foreign relations. A young American professor is caught up in a racially fraught crisis at an American White missionary-led university in the Congo and is publicly fired. Several years later, he becomes a key staff aide for a congressional committee battling to distance the U.S. government from the Congo dictator's human rights and corruption abuses. His interconnected experiences in these two fascinating places provide first hand insights into some of today's burning issues: the dynamics of racial conflict, the paranoia of authoritarian regimes and the hidden dysfunctions of the U.S. Congress (including corrupting relationships with narrow-based domestic and foreign lobbyists), the State Department (truth-shading and short-term thinking) and the pundit press. At the same time, this is a tale of the author's tortuous personal growth and political maturation. Its focus on individual agency in challenging environments resonates today as increasing numbers of Americans study and work in authoritarian countries and strive to maintain democratic institutions at home. Refreshingly candid, self-critical, well-documented and, in the end, hopeful, this is a rare memoir opening new windows for readers onto America's foreign policies and its domestic political disorders.
