January Carolina Friends of the Foreign Service Luncheon

Speaker Ambassador Ed Brynn with CFFS Members Shirley and Arvin Kramish

 

The Carolina Friends of the Foreign Service's first luncheon of the year was held on January 26th at Captain John's Dockside Restaurant in Chapel Hill.  Ambassador Ed Brynn, outgoing Foreign Affairs Historian at the Department of State and longtime member of the CFFS, spoke about the Foreign Relations of the United States Series (FRUS).  The FRUS are the definitive documentary compilations of the United States' relations with other countries.  The documents have been published since President Abraham Lincoln signed the mandate in 1861, and 2011 therefore marked the 150th anniversary of the FRUS.  Ambassador Brynn told attendees that the State Department's historians are currently working on compiling documents from the presidency of Ronald Reagan.  (The Office of the Historian is required by Congress to work on a period of foreign relations 25 years earlier than the current year, as it is assumed that all relevant information is available at that point and information from formerly classified materials for the most part has been declassified.)