Outpost: Life on the Frontlines of American Diplomacy: A Memoir (56 page)

15. June 1999. Skopje. Waiting with President Clinton while the First Lady talks to U.S. troops at the airport.

16. August 2000. Warsaw, Poland. Presenting credentials to Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski, who served as Poland’s president from 1995 to 2005 and helped to achieve Poland’s entry into NATO and the European Union.

17. May 2001. Warsaw University library. President George W. Bush greeting attendees at his speech, in which he signals his support for continued enlargement of NATO.

18. May 2003. Taking a walk with Secretary of State Colin Powell at midnight in Krakow’s central square.

19. August 2004. Seoul, South Korea. With Foreign Minister of South Korea Ban Ki-Moon. Ban would go on to become the Secretary General of the United Nations.

20. February 2007. Beijing, China. The U.S. negotiating team.

21. July 2007. Pyongyang, North Korea. The first of three trips to the heart of darkness.

22. July 2007. En route to Beijing from Seoul with South Korean counterpart Chun Yung-woo.

23. December 2007. Second trip to North Korea. This time a visit to the nuclear reactor now shut down per our negotiation. I’m flanked by Special Assistant Chris Klein and Yuri Kim and our South Korean interpreter on the end. No one was looking forward to the visit.

24. July 2008. Singapore. With Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice attending a meeting on North Korea on the fringes of the ASEAN Regional Forum.

25. October 2008. Third and last visit to North Korea. This time I walked across the Demilitarized Zone in the “Truce Village” of Panmunjom, leaving behind North Koreans and being welcomed by U.S. personnel and South Koreans.

26. January 2009. Washington. Vice President Joe Biden saw me at a State Department event and talked me into one more Foreign Service adventure. The next day I learned from Secretary of State Clinton that the adventure in mind was Iraq.

27. April 2009. Baghdad. Meeting President Talabani late on my first night in Iraq, having arrived that same evening at 7:00
P.M.