Early Life and Career
Glaspie was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, and graduated from Mills College in Oakland, California, in 1963, and from Johns Hopkins University's Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies in 1965.
In 1966 Glaspie entered the United States foreign service, where she became an expert on the Middle East. After postings in Kuwait, Syria, and Egypt, Glaspie was appointed ambassador to Iraq in 1989. She was the first woman to be appointed an American ambassador to an Arab country. She had a reputation as a respected Arabist, and her instructions were to broaden cultural and commercial contacts with the Iraqi regime.
Subsequently, Glaspie was posted to the U.S. Mission to the United Nations in New York. She was later posted to South Africa as Consul general in Cape Town. She held this post until her retirement in 2002.
Read more about this topic: April Glaspie
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