The Cultural Diplomacy Institute

01/21/2025

Dignitaries from across Washington and around the world crammed into the U.S. Capitol Rotunda on Monday to watch power transfer peacefully from Democratic former President Joe Biden to his Republican successor, Donald Trump.

01/21/2025

05/10/2024

Gen. Eric M. Smith stepped out on a warm, late-afternoon run last fall, pounding the pavement of Southeast Washington on a routine three-mile loop. As the top U.S. Marine, he had spent the morning cheering on participants in the annual Marine Corps Marathon, and wanted to squeeze in his own workout before taking his wife out to dinner.

It was Oct. 29. A few blocks away, Timothy and Joyce LaLonde concluded a celebratory post-race lunch and began the walk back to Joyce’s nearby home. The siblings, accompanied by several family members, were shaken by what they encountered: A man facedown on the sidewalk — alone, unresponsive and bleeding from his mouth.

“Tim, come!” Joyce LaLonde recalled yelling to her brother. “Hurry!”
The ensuing scramble saved the life of the Marine Corps commandant, a father of two who had stepped into his new role on the Joint Chiefs of Staff just three months earlier. Smith, who turns 59 in June, suffered cardiac arrest at the tail end of his run, just a block from his home at Marine Barracks Washington — a crisis in which the speed and quality of medical intervention proved vital.

For the first time, those directly connected to Smith’s rescue have publicly detailed how he survived, a fortuitous succession of events resulting in an improbable return to the Pentagon after barely four months of recovery. This account is based on hours of interviews with the general and eight others, including Smith’s surgeon and the paramedics who administered several electrical shocks to stabilize his heart.

What began with Joyce LaLonde spotting the general sprawled on the concrete and her brother, a certified CPR instructor, rendering aid ended, all agreed, with the best possible outcome.

“If you were to have this scenario play out 1,000 times, maybe five people … would survive it like he did,” said Smith’s cardiac surgeon, Thomas MacGillivray. “It’s an unusual thing that somebody gets CPR for that long and not just survives it, but is back to normal life within a couple of few months.” Impossible, he added, without everyone having provided the care they did.

On Thursday, Smith thanked Joyce and Timothy LaLonde and Joyce’s husband, Nathaniel Birnbaum, in a small ceremony at the commandant’s home. Each received the Navy Distinguished Public Service Award for their heroism, and will be recognized again Friday along with first responders during an “Evening Parade” event at the barracks featuring marching and music.

“You have really given me a second chance,” Smith said, pinning the medal, with its blue and yellow ribbon, to their chests. “I’m grateful to you.”

Gen. Eric M. Smith collapsed in cardiac arrest while out for a run. This is the remarkable, previously untold story of how he survived.

09/10/2023

Washington sees Hanoi as an important partner in the effort to counter Beijing’s claims in the South China Sea, a resource-rich waterway through which trillions of dollars in trade flows each year.

09/10/2023

Visitors will see clean New Delhi streets ornamented with hundreds of thousands flowers. What they will not see are the hundreds of thousands of people who have been displaced.

09/10/2023

Analysis: As two of the biggest players on the world stage wrestle with issues at home, the U.S. president took center stage in India, coaxing leaders away from China's influence.

09/02/2023

Pope Francis on Saturday called on leaders to dispel the "dark clouds of war," speaking in a country sandwiched between two world powers - Russia and China - he has targeted in a Vatican diplomatic effort over Ukraine.

08/24/2023

Here’s what we know and what NBC News has verified about the dramatic incident.

08/23/2023

A top Russian general who went missing after the mercenary group Wagner’s insurrection in June has been fired from his role as head of the country’s aerospace forces, Russian state media reported Wednesday citing unnamed sources.

08/23/2023

Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin is listed among passengers on board a plane that crashed north of Moscow, according to Russian state media.

08/20/2023

The pilotless spacecraft was aiming to be the first ever to land on the south pole of the moon, an area where scientists believe there could be important reserves of frozen water and precious elements. It had been expected to land Monday.

The pilotless vessel was aiming to be the first ever to land on the moon's south pole, racing an Indian spacecraft launched on July 14.

08/19/2023

Soldiers who overthrew the democratically elected president in July have quickly entrenched themselves in power.