John Brady Kiesling, who publicly quit his Foreign Service career in February 2003 to protest the impending invasion of Iraq, will speak to the League of Women Voters of South San Mateo County during a two-hour program in Atherton on Saturday, September 23, starting at 10 a.m.
Mr. Kiesling’s letter of resignation to Secretary of State Colin Powell, published in the New York Times and Washington Post, reverberated around the world as a warning of the perils of the rush to war.
Mr. Kiesling, who now lives in Greece, has deep roots in the Peninsula. He grew up in Los Altos and graduated from Los Altos High School. His mother, Nancy (Lalu) Kiesling, now lives in Menlo Park and owns the Book Rack, a paperback bookstore at 865 Santa Cruz Ave. in Menlo Park.
Mr. Kiesling will be in the Bay Area this weekend to promote a book that came out last month. He will hold a book signing at his mother’s bookstore on Friday, September 22, from 5 to 8 p.m.
In “Diplomacy Lessons: Realism for an Unloved Superpower,” Mr. Kiesling draws on 20 years of personal experience as a Foreign Service officer — serving in Israel, Morocco, Armenia, Washington and Greece — to outline basic principles of being respected and effective in a world wracked by conflict.
Growing up on the Peninsula in the 1960s and 1970s, the son of Roy and Lalu Kiesling must have absorbed some of his parents’ idealism. Ms. Kiesling was active in progressive causes. She served on the board of the Palo Alto Co-op and volunteered with environmental groups, such as Environmental Volunteers, and at Stanford’s Jasper Ridge.
Before buying the Book Rack in 1987, Ms. Kiesling joined the late Joan Targ in developing the Hayfields subdivision in Portola Valley — nine homes with open space, and an organic garden. She lived there in a trailer for almost seven years. “It was a bit too long,” she says during an interview at the Book Rack.
Her son, she says, was always interested in languages and archaeology. He graduated from Swarthmore College, majoring in ancient Greek. “That had a wonderful good influence,” says Ms. Kiesling. “Their interest in public service is so great.”
Mr. Kiesling received a master’s degree in ancient history and Mediterranean archaeology from U.C. Berkeley, and worked as an archaeologist in Spain, Greece and Turkey before joining the Foreign Service in 1983 under President Reagan.
In the Foreign Service, Mr. Kiesling served as a vice consul and aide to the U.S. ambassador in Tel Aviv. He was an economic officer in Casablanca and a political officer in Athens.
Later, Mr. Kiesling learned Armenian and spent two years in Yerevan, followed by a year as deputy U.S. special negotiator for the long-running Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Back in Greece, he struggled to cope with the diplomatic fallout from the current Bush administration’s foreign policies.
Since resigning from the Foreign Service, Mr. Kiesling has been writing and speaking on U.S. foreign policy. He is a visiting lecturer at Princeton University.
INFORMATION
John Brady Kiesling will speak at the kickoff meeting of the League of Women Voters of South San Mateo County on Saturday, September 23, from 10 a.m. to noon, at the home of Lida Urbanek, 75 Tuscaloosa Ave., in Atherton. For reservations, call Linda Craig at 322-6914 by Thursday, September 21. Mr. Kiesling will also sign books and speak Friday, September 22, between 5 and 8 p.m. at the Book Rack, 865 Santa Cruz Ave. in Menlo Park.
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