Reader riposte: Ambassadors

Captain Peter Leavy, commanding officer of HMAS Sydney, writes:

Bit of extra info for you about your blog post on making statements with ambassadors. The black ambassador to South Africa during Reagan’s time was Edward L Perkins and he was also the US Ambassador to Australia. When I was in New York in HMAS Sydney in July I was fortunate enough to meet him when he came to the ship for lunch. 

Our Consul General there, Mr Phil Scanlan, had invited a number of former US Ambassadors to Australia (Bill Lane AO, Edward L Perkins and Mel Sembler AO) down to the ship for lunch – I’ve attached a photo with him in it. It was a great opportunity (the next day we had Richard Armitage, but that is another story!). 

Someone asked Ambassador Perkins (who is now retired) what his most memorable time was in the State Department – without a moment’s thought he said helping end apartheid in South Africa when he was there as the Ambassador. I guess the move by Reagan worked (or at least, helped!).

Just for stamps I’ve also included a picture of us sailing past the Statue of Liberty.