1957

It was exciting to receive in early January a letter with a return address of the Hotel InterContinental, Tehran, Iran. The letter had actually been mailed from Egypt upon ChrisWren's return from Iran, and was in response to a recent appeal for class news.

The letter, dated December 24, advised that Chris had been working in Iran for the previous couple of weeks "helping with our coverage of the hostages there, and with the larger unsettled picture." At that point, Chris planned to be home in Cairo for a few days with his family over Christmas and then return to Iran for another stint of news coverage expected to last into January. Chris stated, "I'm sure that I have as strong opinions as my classmates on what's happening, but am reserving comments until I've wound up my next visit." As we now know, it is probable that Chris's return visit was cut short by the Iranian directive ordering all U.S. correspondents out of the country. We trust Chris is now safely back in Cairo, and we'll look forward to seeing his opinions in print.

Chris further noted that he is in his third year as Cairo bureau chief for the New York Times. Since last fall he has done reporting from Libya, southern Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Tunisia, and, of course, Egypt. He mentioned that he had found time for some fine skin diving in the Red Sea in early November but has otherwise been kept right out straight covering the Middle East story. Chris and his wife Jacqueline are in the process of deciding whether to put in for a fourth year in Cairo or to move on to a new assignment. "Moscow and Cairo back-to-back have been fairly rugged assignments. I was hoping to find some time in 1979 to indulge in the luxury of a mid-life crisis, but unfortunately it's been too busy a year."

Jacqueline Wren, who holds a degree in Biblical history from Oxford University, teamed with Chris in the production of an illustrated article on "Touring the Egypt of the Old and New Testaments" that appeared recently in the travel section of the Times. The Wrens wrote that "a visit to Egypt offers rich rewards to those who know the Bible and have the gift of imagination. But they must be willing to seek out, sometimes in obscure places, the still-visible evidences of those ancient days."

The article went on to relate specific geographical sites to the Biblical stories of the exodus of the Hebrews and the flight and subsequent wanderings of Joseph and Mary with the infant Jesus. Not surprisingly, the annotated Dartmouth Bible is recommended as a source for historical reference.

My apologies to Laurence H. Silberman for referring to the Crocker National Bank as being located in Washington, D.C. Crocker is actually a California bank, headquartered in San Francisco. Larry and his wife Ricky have recently moved to the West Coast and have already run into several classmates, including Peter Wardle and Tom Ely. While still living in Washington, D.C., last spring,. Larry had published an article entitled "Toward Presidential Control of the State Department" in Foreign Affairs, a quarterly review published by the Council on Foreign Relations Inc. The article was a compelling argument for reducing the Foreign Service's penchant for resisting political appointments, which inevitably leads to lack of Presidential confidence in the ability to control the Foreign Service and hence the tendency to circumvent the State Department Larry argued that it would be far better to work with Presidents to recruit the most capable nonprofessional appointees, while utilizing experienced State Department personnel as heads of U.S. delegations only in countries whose relationship to the U.S. is highly sensitive, volatile, or critical in nature. It was interesting to observe in the footnotes a reference to Larry's having been assisted in the research for this presentation by two Dartmouth undergraduates, Robert 'BO and Katherine '81 Silberman (who, I assume, are related). J. William Fulbright was among other contributors to this particular issue of Foreign Affairs.

On the home front, we were delighted to learn that John D. Lange Jr. has been given the Treasury Secretary's performance award for 1979. John is the director of the office of trade finance in the Treasury Department and is a charter career member of the senior executive service. John's citation reads as follows: "As super visor of the Treasury team responsible for the formulation of trade finance policy, John Lange has excelled in handling the rapid evolution of Export-Import Bank policy during the past 18 months. During this period, the bank became, by design, the focal point of U.S. export promotion efforts. It has expanded its direct loan and guarantee programs and explored the possibility of foreign currency-denominated business. During this period of expanded activity, Mr. Lange has kept a watchful eye to ensure that additional finance has meant additional exports." Congratulations, John, for a job well done!

Pictured in front of the padlocked gates of the seized U.S. Embassy in Tehran areBill Hartley '58, left, and Chris Wren '57. The two were among those covering theIranian hostage story, Bill for U.S. News and World Report and Chris for the NewYork Times, until all American reporters were ordered to leave Iran in January.

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