In July 1989, the embassy moved to a new, compound, from the previous embassy and James K. Bishop was appointed as the United States' ambassador to Somalia. Ambassador Bishop had significant experience in crisis management at US embassies. In 1967, he was at the US Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon when the Six-Day War erupted. About 3,600 Americans were evacuated in 33 hours; Bishop was one of 26 diplomats and soldiers that remained in the city. As deputy assistant secretary of state for Africa from 1981–87, Bishop chaired several task forces for crises and gained experience in the State Department's operations center as evacuations were carried out during several coups d'etat. During his previous assignment as Ambassador to Liberia (1987–90), Bishop was overseeing the voluntary evacuation of embassy staff and civilians as a civil war in Liberia spread, when he left in March 1990. Soon after returning to Washington to prepare for his new appointment to Somalia, he was appointed to a taskforce to deal with the crisis in Liberia, which included a gradual evacuation of American civilians and a rapid closure of the embassy in August.