By Donald P. Gregg
Pot Shards is a memoir, in response to the author's memorable studies. Donald P. Gregg spent thirty-one years as an operations officer in CIA and ten years within the White condo lower than presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan and vice chairman George H. W. Bush. Pot Shards is his memoir. It tells of a philosophy significant who graduated from collage in 1951 and instantly joined CIA while instructed, "You'll bounce out of airplanes and retailer the world!" With raucous humor, he describes his parachute education and arctic survival direction in Idaho. His e-book is a window into the chilly War-era CIA, either its failings (twenty years in a chinese language reformatory for a detailed pal) and unheralded successes, together with Gregg's position in saving the lifetime of Kim Dae-jung, a Korean political dissident who later, as president, received the Nobel Peace Prize. Gregg colorfully describes his excursions in Japan, Burma, Vietnam, and South Korea. His 4 years facing the Vietnam struggle illustrate essentially the problems of conversing fact to energy with sharp-edged encounters with Robert McNamara, Curtis LeMay, and numerous generals. Gregg labored successfully opposed to torture while encountered in either Vietnam and Korea. within the White residence, Gregg was once inspired by means of vice chairman Bush's worth as "the rudder on Reagan's sailboat," unseen yet relevant. He recounts his travels with Bush to sixty-five nations with either humor and discernment-- Thatcher on the most sensible, Mugabe on the backside. Gregg served either as CIA station leader in Seoul, 1973-75, and as U.S. ambassador to Korea, 1989-93. He later made greater than fifty journeys to Seoul as chairman of The Korea Society. Now, as chairman of the Pacific Century Institute, the previous diplomat, as soon as feared and disliked by way of North Korea, has visited that secretive kingdom six instances, as lately as February 2014. Gregg continuously stresses discussion over demonization in facing the North Koreans. "Don Gregg is that real and admirable factor: a good American. He spent such a lot of his existence serving his kingdom: within the CIA, on the White condominium and as a US ambassador. He has tales to inform, lots of them gripping, and they're superbly and movingly recollected the following during this memoir of a fantastic life." -Christopher Buckley "A own witness to a long time of principally hidden intelligence and diplomatic historical past, Donald Gregg recounts his not going and notable occupation as a CIA officer, nationwide safety consultant, and US diplomat. His adventures and insider wisdom people family with East Asian international locations over many many years make for a full of life narrative, enjoyable for the overall reader and beneficial for severe students alike. via all of it, Ambassador Gregg expresses a typical heat and situation for humanity that makes his tale a very own journey." -Nicholas Dujmovic, Ph.D., CIA employees Historian, heart for the learn of Intelligence
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Extra info for Pot Shards: Fragments of a Life Lived in CIA, the White House, and the Two Koreas
Back, silence in reaction. a 3rd, indignant cable from me evoked the bureaucratic reaction that it's going to take an act of Congress to officially identify the construction for Habib. i made a decision to behave informally and had good-looking brass plaques put on the open air gate and beside front door. The place of abode is now universally referred to as Habib condo. As “Nordpolitik” started to undergo fruit, the South Koreans stepped up the velocity and depth in their contacts with the North. The embassy was once absolutely supportive of this technique, yet there has been a combined response from the Korean and U. S. army institutions. the once a year harmony workout, held each spring, concerned transporting hundreds of thousands of U. S. troops to Korea, to behavior education routines designed to repel a simulated North Korean assault upon the South. The North hated this exercise—it was once an annual reminder to them in their humiliation in 1950, while President Harry S. Truman had stunned them by way of sending U. S. troops to repel their unique invasion. based on solidarity, North Korea constantly placed itself on an exceptionally excessive army alert point, and despatched out waves of propaganda opposed to the “American warmongers and their South Korean lackeys. ” After a great deal of pushing and pulling, basic Robert RisCassi and that i obtained the Pentagon and the Korean Ministry of safety to comply with cancel the 1992 unity workout. They together introduced this past due in 1991. almost immediately thereafter, the 2 Koreas signed a couple of vital agreements. The “Basic Agreement,” signed on December thirteen, 1991, pledged either nations to paintings towards “reconciliation, nonaggression, exchanges and cooperation. ” On December 18, President Roh introduced that there have been no nuclear guns in South Korea. On December 31, North and South Korea signed the “Joint assertion” calling for a denuclearized peninsula and pledging to permit inspections by means of the foreign Atomic power enterprise. The signing of those agreements ushered in a interval of fine emotions among North and South Korea. a sequence of 8 leading ministerial conferences was once held, and the customers for an incredible reconciliation have been greater than ever prior to. regrettably, this chuffed interval didn't final lengthy. on the annual safeguard session assembly held on the Pentagon within the autumn of 1992, the solidarity workout was once reinstated for March 1993. either army institutions had stated the important education that this workout supplied, and safety Secretary Dick Cheney reinstated the workout with out consulting both the nation division or me. i used to be stuck thoroughly without warning. The presidential crusade was once coming to its sour finish, and any flow by means of President Bush to override his safeguard secretary may have given a political factor to the Democrats. i used to be informed by means of kingdom that it was once a “done deal” and that there has been no need in protesting it. I nonetheless reflect on this the only greatest mistake made by means of the us in the course of my time as ambassador. This used to be purely the 1st of a number of harmful strikes Cheney later made as vp to undercut any movement towards reconciliation with North Korea.