page_title: John R. Countryman
section_title: Foreign Service career
hierarchical_section_title: John R. Countryman / Foreign Service career
caption_attribution_description: English: Tripoli International Fair, in 1966.
context_page_description: John Russell Countryman, stage name Johnnie Russell, is a former child actor and retired career officer for the United States Foreign Service.
  Before the age of ten, Countryman appeared in more than a dozen Hollywood films, and afterwards had a brief career on the New York stage. A graduate of a private Jesuit military secondary school, he served in the Air Force and then entered the Foreign Service in 1962. He held various postings in the Middle East and Africa before being appointed United States Ambassador to Oman from 1981 to 1985. Following his 35-year diplomatic career, he served as Executive Director of the Mission for Peace and Cooperation in the Middle East under the auspices of Search for Common Ground.
context_section_description: At nearly 30 years of age, Countryman was one of the oldest in his incoming class, as most entrants had just graduated college. He scored high in his German language test and was recommended to study a "hard" language like Turkish for a Near East posting. He briefly worked in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, which covered Turkey at the time, and then began his Turkish language course. He reported to the diplomatic mission in Istanbul in January 1963.
  Countryman's posting required him to serve as a general rotation officer in each of the mission's four departments: consular, administrative, economic, and political. When officers in the consular and political departments left unexpectedly, Countryman filled their place. In January 1965 he completed his posting and was assigned to the State Department in Washington, D.C. as a staff aide to Averell Harriman.
  In August 1966, Countryman applied for Arabic language training with the intention of concentrating his diplomatic service on one geographic area. He studied Arabic, Islamic law, and Arabic history over a period of 18 months at the American University of Beirut. He also completed a three-month training course as a petroleum attache at Exxon in Houston, Texas. During his time in Lebanon, the Six-Day War broke out in Israel and Countryman was assigned to help evacuate US personnel. He himself was evacuated to Athens. When the war ended, Countryman and the other Arabic language students were the first to return to the embassy.
  Countryman's next posting was to Saudi Arabia, where he served as Economic Officer and Deputy Principal Officer of the US consulate from May 1968 to 1970. At the time, the British still maintained colonial bases in the area under the supervision of their Political Resident in Bahrain. The British desired an American presence, however, and the US consulate liaised with the British. During his time in Saudi Arabia, Countryman assisted in establishing all the administrative posts for the United States in Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and Oman. He left this post in Summer 1971, about a month before these British protectorates gained their independence.
  In 1970, Countryman was transferred to Libya to serve as chief of the economic section of the diplomatic mission. In the absence of political dialogue with Muammar Gaddafi and Libyan authorities, his office concentrated on economic affairs. His first assignment was to organize the US exhibition at the Tripoli International Fair, for which his group received a distinguished honor award. In 1972, he was elected president of the American Foreign Service Association/Tripoli. In 1973, he was denied re-entry to Libya three times on the pretext that his passport was not written in Arabic.
  From 1971 to 1975, Countryman served as Deputy Chief of Mission in Libreville, Gabon, in west-central Africa. During his Gabonese tour, Countryman and his wife also toured South Africa, which was then under apartheid.
  As a candidate for senior training, Countryman returned to the United States with his wife in 1975 to attend the United States Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. His study project paper, "Iran in the View of the Persian Gulf Emirates", was published in May 1976. In 1976, thanks to his diplomatic experience in Saudi Arabia and familiarity with the Persian Gulf states and emirates, plus the research he did at the Army War College, Countryman was tapped for the post of Deputy Director of Arabian Peninsula Affairs (ARP) at the State Department, where he worked until 1978. This period marked an increase in wealth in Saudi Arabia due to its oil reserves, and Congress' passage of a law restricting arms sales to areas that had newfound wealth. Countryman briefed Democrat and Republican Congressmen on the issues, which included Israel's concern over the supply of American weaponry to Saudi Arabia. Countryman explained: "It was in Israel's best interest that the United States had access to oil and there be stable oil and financial markets in the world. So then the issues came down to just how sophistic
caption: Tripoli International Fair in 1966
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