Author - John Coyne

by Mark Jacobs (Paraguay 1978-80) Published in Hudson Review Autumn 2024 In the early hours of April 23, 1996, I was standing under a palm tree in the Plaza Uruguaya in Asunción, Paraguay. The plaza was empty, not just because of the hour, but because everyone in the capital believed a military coup was about to go down. The previous evening, General Lino Oviedo had holed up at an army barracks on the edge of the city, where he was threatening to roll his tanks on Mburuvicha Róga, the official residence of President Juan Carlos Wasmosy.   The coup had not yet happened, but the city—the whole country—instantly shut down. People went inside, closed their doors, and stayed there. Nothing was running, including public transportation. The media went into silent mode. Driving to the U.S. embassy, where I was serving as public affairs officer, I encountered no traffic on the roads. . . .

Diplomat couple from Hawley, Minnesota retires after 2 decades abroad together. The couple met in high school and went on to serve together in the same countries through their entire tenure in the Foreign Service.   From left, Tim Gerhardson, Secretary Antony J. Blinken and Christina Gerhardson participate in a retirement ceremony at the Department of State in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 3, 2024. By Ingrid Harbo Today at 6:14 AM HAWLEY, Minn. — From Hawley, Minnesota, to Harare, Zimbabwe, Tim and Christina Gerhardson have stuck together. Originally from Hawley, Tim Gerhardson (Pakistan 1990-90), a Foreign Service officer, and Christina Gerhardson, a Foreign Service specialist, retired from 22 years as diplomats in the United States Foreign Service in June 2023. The couple met in high school and went on to serve together in the same countries throughout their tenure in the Foreign Service. “We just wouldn’t go otherwise,” Tim Gerhardson said. “We . . .

Rowland Scherman (PC/W Staff photographer 1961-64) writes: “Here’s the guy who started and ran the Peace Corps, R. Sargent Shriver. I was the first PC photographer, 1961-63. There will be more about this wonderful guy in future Substacks.”

Rowland Scherman (PC/W Staff photographer 1961-64) was like any other PCV as he traveled the world, photographing PCVs at work. I met him in 1962 in Ethiopia. He would go onto become a nationally known photographer, famous for many of his photographs. This gallery of photographs by Rowland includes images of iconic figures from the 1960s, from musicians Janis Joplin and Bob Dylan, to public figures Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King. He has now created a website. Here is one of his first publications with a few of Rowland’s famous photographs..  Bob Dylan Enters the World… In his 1961 inaugural speech, President Kennedy asked us what we could do for the country; and I, like thousands of others, responded. In those days I was what one might call an “advanced amateur.” I knew what an f stop was, and the other basics, but not really much more. By answering . . .

It’s a Small World After All by Dorothy Crews Herzberg (Nigeria 1961-63) IndependentlyPublished 132 pages October 2024 $12.00 (Paperback)   When Dorothy Crews Herzberg joined the Peace Corps in 1961, she was unaware that the program had not yet been approved by the U.S. Congress. The Corps’ proponents were hedging the strategy that having four hundred volunteers already working overseas would strengthen their case. While serving in the Peace Corps Dorothy Crews married Hershel Herzberg, and from 1961 to 1963 they wrote letters to her parents. Dorothy’s father saved and carefully preserved the fragile blue air letters. Every page of “Me, Madam” illuminates the energy of Nigeria immediately after independence. The author’s letters convey with intimacy what it was like to be there as the people struggled to create a new democracy.  

Thanks for the ‘heads up’ from Wm Evensen (Peru 1964-66) Description John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson: Collection of Presidential Bill Signing Pens. Likely the finest collection of Bill Signing Pens ever assembled. A set of 50 fountain pens, used by Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, housed in a 27 1/2″ x 38″ frame with green backing, the presidential seal at the top center, and with the caption “With these fifty pens, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law the foundation of the great society which was passed by the historic and fabulous first session of the 89th Congress” at the bottom of the frame. The opened pens measure out to 5.25″ long and the closed capped pens measure out to 6.25″ long. Each pen has a caption box beneath it with the name of the act signed into law and the date of when it happened. While the presentation does . . .

New Executive Director named for White House Initiative on AANHPI WHITE HOUSE Helen Beadreau takes over the helm of the Biden administration’s WHAANHPI. The White House Initiative on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders (WHIAANHPI) and the President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders announced Helen Beaudreau  as its new executive director. Beaudreau succeeds Krystal Ka‘ai, who was appointed by President Biden in May 2021 as the first Native Hawaiian to lead both the WHIAANHPI and the President’s Advisory Commission. Ka‘ai stepped down from her role as Executive Director on Oct. 5, 2024 and joined the President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders on Oct. 7. “Helen Beaudreau has spent her career working to advance equity for underserved communities.” said HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra.  “WHIAANHPI has important work to do – addressing anti-Asian bias, expanding language access, promoting equitable access to . . .

During the 1950s, two societal impulses swept across America. One impulse that characterized the decade was detailed in two best-selling books of the era: the 1955 novel by Sloan Wilson, The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, and the non-fiction book, The Organization Man, written by William H. Whyte and published in 1956. These books looked at the “American way of life” and how men got ahead in their work and in society. Both are bleak takes on the corporate world. These books were underscored by Ayn Rand’s ideas as expressed in the novel Atlas Shrugged, published in 1957. Her philosophy of Objectivism proposed reason as man’s only proper judge of values and his only proper guide to action. Every man, according to Rand, was an end in himself. He must work for rational self-interest, neither sacrificing himself to others nor sacrificing others to himself. Objectivism rejected any form of . . .

Human Rights Watch Mourns Middle East Expert Joe Stork Human Rights Watch 26th October 2024, Joe Stork, a beloved mentor and friend to human rights activists across the Middle East and a treasured colleague whose career at Human Rights Watch spanned more than three decades, died unexpectedly on October 23, 2024, at his home in Washington, DC. He was 81. Stork, who joined Human Rights Watch in 1996 as the Middle East and North Africa Division’s advocacy director and later became the division’s deputy director, played a pivotal role in shaping the division into what it is today. One of his first assignments with Human Rights Watch was to document rampant abuses in Bahrain, a country on which he continued to do research and advocacy for decades. “Anyone who had the pleasure of crossing paths with Joe will remember him not just for his brilliant mind and shrewd advocacy, but . . .

Diary of the Ouagadougou Doctor A Peace Corps Experience Author House Publisher by Milt Kogan, M.D. (Burkina Faso 1969-72) Published in 2010 $16.71 (Paperback); $22.49 (Hardback) The book is a collection of excerpts from a diary written while serving as a Peace Corps Physician in Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso).     Milt Kogan, M.D. has been working as a doctor and an actor in Hollywood for 50 years. He is best known for playing the desk sergeant, Officer Kogan, on the television series Barney Miller in 1975. Medically, he has been working in geriatric psychiatry. He is Board-Certified in Family Medicine and has an MPH in Epidemiology from U.C.L.A. As an actor, he is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and votes for the Oscars and is a member of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and votes for the Emmys. He has amassed . . .

                      If Trump Is Elected– End the Peace Corps In his few years as President (2017-2021), Donald Trumps did not think much about the Peace Corps. In his very first year as president, in 2017, he eliminated more than 20 percent of the staff. In 2017, newspaper columnist Gene Michol, visiting his Peace Corps daughter in the Gambia, wrote in an ob-ed piece how Trump was trying to eliminate the Peace Corps, writing, “In Trump’s world these young heroes are losers. They toil in obscurity. They come home broke. They put others’ comfort and prospects above their own. They don’t want the world to quake in fear at America’s greatness. Their patriotism calls them to use marked skills, boundless energies and opened arms to forge partnership with less generously blessed peoples across the globe. “To our president, they’re chumps. For . . .

Magical Thinking by Kathleen Coskran (Ethiopia 1965-67)        It was quiet. Too quiet. Too still. Not a leaf moving in the old maple on the boulevard and across the street, the neighbor’s flag hung limply over the TRUMP sign, was plastered over the sign. The thunderstorm that had swept through overnight had cleaned the sidewalks, filled the gutters, and, now she saw, covered the offensive sign, the American flag itself covering what needed to be covered.     She thought of taking a picture and sending it to…to somebody…the New York Times? the local Trump campaign office? the Harris-Walz campaign? with an appropriate title, “At Last” or “Democracy Saved.” Well, she’d have to think about that. Was that too bitter, too mean, or obvious? What was the word? She wasn’t used to these emotions, to the disdain, or was it the fear that rose immediately the day she saw Henry, . . .

Publishing Your Peace Corps Story Finding an Agent Yes, it is difficult to find an agent. But you can start here and have a list of names, addresses, and what these agents want to see. http://www.1000literaryagents.com. Remember, if an agent says he or she only publishes YA novels then don’t send them your Peace Corps story, unless, of course, it is written for Young Adults. Agents are in the business (and it is very much a business) of making money so if they think your book will sell, they will represent you. If they think your book is wonderful but won’t sell to a publisher, they won’t represent you. Very few agents are in the business of literature. They leave that work to the academics. Editors & Publishers You have heard, I’m sure, how Catch 22 went to more than 50 publishing houses before it was published back in 1960. That novel is . . .