Barrie Dunsmore, There and Back
A Review by Gay Regan, October 20, 2011.....

On September 28, Charlotte resident Barrie Dunsmore was feted at a book release party for his new work, There and Back, Commentary by a Former Foreign Correspondent, published by Wind Ridge Publishing Inc. Dunsmore is well known in Vermont and nationally for his 30-year career (1965-1995) as foreign news commentator on ABC. At the release party, Senator Patrick Leahy introduced There and Back by saying that congress should be required to read Barrie Dunsmore’s articles. That was enough recommendation for me to buy the hardback copy ($26.95) that will be available at The Flying Pig Bookstore, Barnes and Noble, or online at windridgepulishing.com. This book is an interesting and entertaining read that I immediately recommended to my book group.
Dunsmore wrote in his September 25, 2008, commentary near the end of the book, “But what I am kind of an expert in is looking at a complex issue, identifying its major elements, providing a historical context with detail that people may not be aware of, adding current contemporary aspects of the issue, and objectively tying that all together in a way that I hope makes (the) topic more comprehensible to all of us.” I felt he achieved his goal in this book. Among his wide-ranging topics, I especially enjoyed Part I, titled “There,” which covered topics about the Middle East, Iraq and Afghanistan, Iran and North Korea, and the Soviet Union. His commentaries for this book were written from 2004 to the spring and summer of 2011. His historical context mostly dates back over his 30 years as a foreign news reporter. His career unfolds in intriguing vignettes as his reader focuses on major world events that were simplified, but not watered down.
I was captivated by his trip to Yemen in 1967 as a 28-year-old reporter. He started his story at the St. Georges Hotel in Beirut and a few weeks later he was flying on a DC-3 aircraft supplied by the Saudis with a French crew and an Arabic speaking reporter. He was dropped off in the desert near the Yemen border in the middle of nowhere. Several hours later a Saudi prince, a graduate from UCLA, arrived in “a new Pontiac with huge tires driven by an impeccably manicured and pedicured Saudi in flowing white robes who greeted (them) with a smile and in perfect American English said, ’Hi. What the hell are you guys doing here?’ What they were doing was trying to get into a village in Yemen to verify whether the village had been attacked with poison gas by the Egyptians. From his notes as a young man Dunsmore described the desert and the poverty in Yemen and his findings in the village of Ketaf. He saw new graves with fresh bodies and carcasses of animals with no external wounds. Dunsmore ended this commentary, written January 10, 2009, with present day statistics about Yemen. His final sentence was “So, when I saw a headline this past week which read, ‘Yemen Near-Perfect Haven for Terrorist,’ I thought, sounds right to me.”
The piece about Yemen painted a picture I could visualize. In other commentaries he made famous heads of state into people rather than names in headlines from a newspaper. Some of his articles were peopled with bad guys or good guys. George W. Bush got much of Barrie’s political wrath and Barack Obama got much of his support. These portraits reflected Dunsmore’s belief in negotiations over unilateral decision-making and in finding ways to coexist rather than declaring war. Other articles showed the importance of a single decision made by a world leader.
Dunsmore praised President Ronald Reagan for his ability to change course. He portrayed a realistic Reagan who softened his original hard line approach with the Soviets and reached an agreement with Gorbachev on the reduction of nuclear weapons. Dunsmore described Reagan’s ability to recognize that he needed to learn more about the Soviet Union. He did a “cram course” reading 24 papers prepared for him by his National Security Advisors and then had a “full rehearsal” with his three-by-five cue cards before his first summit. Dunsmore praised Reagan because he was willing to learn, to change, and to use quiet, civil language in his speech to the Soviets.
When Dunsmore returned “Back” to the United States in 1995, he continued to write commentaries. In Parts II and III his articles mix topics of American culture and media with politics. A number of these commentaries brought home Mr. Dunsmore’s point that the world would be better off if there was an educated electorate, if there was well funded and well researched news reporting, and if politicians dealt “firmly but quietly.”