Copyright by Gregory Krauss 2007 - The University of Texas at Austin

experience working in a bank—helped him get a job in the commercial section of the
embassy, beginning in May 1941. 10
First Assignments: 1941-1957
Background
Lister remained in Colombia from May 1941 through at least March 1944,
when he became stationed in Buenaventura, Colombia. After passing the Foreign
Service Exam, Lister was appointed a Foreign Service Officer (FSO) in December
1945. 11 Lister’s assignments for the next decade were mainly in Europe. In February
1946, he was assigned to Warsaw, Poland, where he worked at the U.S embassy for
two and a half years. 12 In February 1949, he began a year of Russian language
training in the U.S., followed by two years as a political officer in Moscow, where he
served under Ambassador George F. Kennan. 13 Beginning in August 1952, Lister
began a year of Communist and Soviet studies, taught in Russian, in the Bavarian city
of Regensburg, in West Germany. 14 He then returned to the State Department, where
he worked for four years mainly at the Polish desk, which, as the name suggests
coordinated policy towards Poland. 15
Lister’s direct encounters with Communist countries in these years not only
made him an avowed anti-Communist, but also shaped his perspective on how
Communism should be fought. In his work as a political officer, Lister’s job largely
entailed combating Soviet propaganda. He thus came to regard the Cold War largely
11