“The president has failed:

To explain clearly why our brave men and women in uniform should be ready to sacrifice their lives in a war on Iraq at this time;

To lay out the full ramifications of this war, including the extent of innocent civilian casualties;

To specify the economic costs of the war for ordinary Americans;

To clarify how the war would help rid the world of terror;

To take international public opinion against the war into serious consideration.

Throughout the globe the United States is becoming associated with the unjustified use of force. The president’s disregard for views in other nations, borne out by his neglect of public diplomacy, is giving birth to an anti-American century.

From John Brown’s Resignation Letter to Collin Powell, dated March 10, 2003

Position: Foreign Service Diplomat in London, Prague, Krakow, Kiev, Belgrade and Moscow
Tenure: 1981 until March 10, 2003

John Brown resigned from Foreign Service just before the invasion of Iraq, becoming the second U.S. diplomat to do so. His resignation letter began, “I am joining my colleague John Brady Kiesling in submitting my resignation from the Foreign Service (effective immediately) because I cannot in good conscience support President Bush’s war plans against Iraq.”

In 1977 Brown earned a PhD from Princeton in Russian history. He worked for the State Department for 22 years, mostly in Eastern Europe and Russia.

Although Brown is no longer employed by the State Department, he is more active than ever in his quest to influence foreign policy. In his role as a senior fellow at the University of Southern California Center on Public Diplomacy he produces the web-based John Brown's Public Diplomacy Review. In the PD Review, Brown aggregates Bush administration diplomatic efforts and foreign policy initiatives for the general public, policy makers and scholars. Additional themes include international broadcasting and media, propaganda, cultural diplomacy, educational exchanges, anti-Americanism, and the reception of American popular culture abroad.

Considered an expert in propaganda, Brown is currently under contract with Praeger Publishers to write a book, Propaganda and American Foreign Policy: A Historical Overview. The book aims to place current U.S. government propaganda campaigns into their proper historical context.