Revolution in Zanzibar: An American's Cold War Tale by Don PettersonReview by: Gail M. GerhartForeign Affairs, Vol. 81, No. 5 (Sep. - Oct., 2002), p. 196Published by: Council on Foreign RelationsStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20033280 .

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extent to which American and British Cold War preoccupations left both governments inadequately attuned to the racial and ethnic factors driving

Zanzibari politics. Critical of the habit ual deference of American policymakers to the British in former colonial Africa, Petterson lambastes British policy at every stage, portraying it as short-sighted, biased, and ill informed. The Americans come off somewhat better, collectively and individually. Spiced with many in structive anecdotes about diplomatic life, this could be usefuil reading on several levels for Foreign Service trainees.

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Revolution in Zanzibar: An American's Cold War Tale. BY DON PETTERS ON.

Boulder: Westview, 2002, 304 pp. $28.00. Petterson, who served as U.S. ambassador in Sudan, Somalia, and Tanzania, began his African diplomatic career at the U.S. consulate in Zanzibar shortly before the island's independence in December 1963. From a ringside seat, he observed the overthrow of the Arab-dominated inde pendence government a month later, the maneuvers of foreigners pressing for influence with the new regime of Abeid

Karume, and the decision of Karume and Julius Nyerere of Tanganyika to merge their two countries in April 1964. It is a well-told story that emphasizes the

[196] FOREIGN AFFAIRS Volume8iNo.S

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