The Jonestown Massacre, Part III
Listen now
Description
Back in Jonestown, Jones commanded everyone to gather in the main pavilion. The youngest members of the Peoples Temple were the first to die, as parents and nurses used syringes to drop a potent mix of cyanide, sedatives and powdered fruit juice, similar to Kool-Aid, into children’s throats. Adults then drank the concoction while armed guards surrounded the pavilion. Richard Dwyer was Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. embassy in Guyana when the tragedy took place. In his oral history, he recounts the prelude to the massacre, how he pretended to be dead when shot at the airstrip, and how he dealt with the subsequent harrowing events. He was interviewed by ADST’s Charles Stuart Kennedy starting in July 1990. Read the Moment here.
More Episodes
In the 1960s, U.S. foreign policy had two bugbears: the Soviet Union and Cuba. The United States wished to prevent another Cuban Revolution and Fidel Castro’s rise to power, through policies like the Alliance for Progress. As the United States continued to worry about potential leftist...
Published 06/16/20
Published 06/16/20
Distinguished American diplomat Tex Harris recounts attempted intimidation by Argentine security forces in 1977, at the height of that country’s “Dirty War.” From the series "Tales of American Diplomacy" by the Association for Diplomatic Studies & Training. Because diplomacy matters now more...
Published 05/13/20