A Conversation with James T. L. Dandridge II, DACOR Bacon House President

James T. L. Dandridge II is a retired career senior Foreign Service officer with the rank of Minister Counselor, now President of the Diplomatic and Consular Officers Retired Organization (DACOR). Originally from Selma, Alabama, he served as a U.S. Army Special Operations Officer. His final assignment was as Special Operations Branch Chief, Joint Chiefs of Staff, retiring in 1979. He moved on to serve with the United States Information Agency (USIA) and the United States Department of State, retiring with 65 years of federal service.

With this conversation, he highlights his time with USIA and the State Department. He also spotlights his work with the National Museum of American Diplomacy (NMAD), the first museum in the world dedicated to diplomacy, for which he is vice chairman of the Diplomacy Center Foundation.

He reviews the DACOR Bacon House Conference 2021, entitled  “Rebuilding Diplomacy." The three focus areas of the conference were, "Strengthening the Foreign Service, The State Department Within the Foreign Affairs and Strengthening U.S. Diplomacy Abroad.” In follow on, he discusses what he considers the greatest challenges of the Department of State today in 2021. 

To the emergence of China as a world superpower, he discusses Chinese President Xi’s intentions, along with what he believes American Foreign Policy should be toward those intentions. 

In closing, Jim Dandridge reflects on the U.S. led Afghan War, considered the longest war in American History.