AMBASSADOR SASSER IN EMBASSY SEIGE - 1999 OVER "MISTAKEN" AIR STRIKE IN YUGOSLOVIA

          Click to listen (Something wrong with RAM file??) Ambassador Jim Sasser Hold up in Bejing Embassy

All Things Considered, May 9, 1999 · Daniel talks with U.S. Ambassador to China Jim Sasser. He has been unable to leave the embassy for the past two days becaues of a mob angry Chinese. Rocks and bricks have been tossed at the embassy, and today a Molotov cocktail was thrown through one of the windows. The U.S. Embassy in Beijing was besieged after U.S. warplanes mistakenly bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade during the U.S. intervention in the Kosovo War. Shortly after the siege of the embassy was lifted, Ambassador Sasser retired (he was slated to do so before the siege, so his retirement was not a direct result) and returned to the United States, where he presently divides his time between Tennessee and Washington, D.C., as a consultant.

Sasser's Senate campaign, 1976 was greatly aided by the efforts of ex-Senator Gore. Brock had defeated the elder Gore for the Senate in 1970 largely upon the basis of Gore's support for civil rights, his friendship with the Kennedy political family, and his opposition to the Vietnam War. Sasser won rather handily over Brock, and went on to serve three Senate terms.

Most of what I have here comes from the Wikipedia site for Senator Sasser. Speaking of his not becoming Senate Majority Leader largly because of his 1994 defeat to Dr. Bill Frist. In the 1994 campaign there were two unforeseen events that negated this scenario. One was the large scale of discontent that the American people seemed to have toward the first two years of the Clinton administration, especially the proposal for a national health-care system largely put together and advocated by Clinton's wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton. The other was the somewhat unexpected nomination of Nashville heart transplan surgeon William H. Frist for the seat by the Republicans.

Wouldn't it have been nice to see Jim Sasser stay in the spotlight and have him as a Presidental Candiate.  Can't blame him for being out of that though.  Thanks Jim for paying attention to my concerns and opinions.  I notice someone referred to Mr. Sasser as "One of the Wise Men" and could not agree with them more.

I continued my letter writting to Senator Sasser while employed as a contract employee at the Department of Energy site in Oak Ridge.

Sasser Genealogy Page

Obama takes the stage and the Tennessee delegation reacts
Sasser Letter
Sasser Letter
Sasser Letter


I really hope and pray that our up and coming Democratic leadership will meet and exceed the last Democratic administration in it's economic policies. I remember a much happier time for us all, 1994 when the Technology Era, as I would call it was in it's prime. My brother had been sent to Almaty, Kazakstan to help with the security at the new American Embassy being built there. Russia was dismantling it's nuclear weapons and deals were being struck to send the bomb grade uranium to the U.S. to be de-commissioned. I was working at K-25 and X-10 and was privy to some of the inside information for that. It was a much economically happier time wasn't it? So let's all hope and pray that we Democrats can bring us back to where we were then.
Oh, Senator Sasser and I were such good friends that he was beginning to feel like one of the family as you can see by the above letter. I had been sending my brother tapes of the Tennessee football games by Diplomatic Pouch, which I knew from working there was sorta slow, especially during Christmas. He was referring to the loss to Penn State (1993 CompUSA Citrus Bowl - January 1, 1994 Penn State-31 and Tennessee-13). I think that without a lot of fanfare our great nations can be friends. S Rozhdestvom! and Z Rizdvom Khrystovym! The next year I watched with interest my brother's investigation of secrets leaving the American Tel Aviv Embassy and was offered an "L" Clearance by the Department of Energy
Back to Joe Payne's Claiborne County Page