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Cover -- Copyright -- Contents -- List of Illustrations -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- 1. Enduring Icons -- 2. Getting an Education -- 3. Wearing a Uniform -- 4. Family Values -- 5. A Working Apprenticeship -- 6. Falling in with the CIA -- 7. Back in the Department -- 8. Practicing Diplomacy -- 9. First Anointings -- 10. Camelot, Catastrophe, & -- a Coda -- 11. Foreign Face Cards -- 12. More Foreign Face Cards -- 13. American Jokers -- 14. More American Jokers -- 15. Advice and Consent -- 16. This and That -- Index.

The diplomatic business is a competitive one. Most countries set lofty standards for their representatives. In various capitals colleagues of the corps respect or sneer at each other's professionalskills, are attracted or repelled by each other's graces and accomplishments, and sometimes selfishly cheer a rival's ineptitude. Good diplomats serve national interests cheaply and effectively. Bad ones do a great deal of harm.

For the past half-dozen years I made my living as an ambassador. People have not stopped asking, "Just what does an ambassador do?" The question is something of an improvement on the one encountered by former ambassador to Great Britain, Kingman Brewster, as reported in Newsweek a year ago: "Do you think ambassadors matter any more?" Perhaps my acquaintences are simply kinder—or less sophisticated— than Brewster's.Most of the classic books on diplomacy try to answer such questions by describing ambassadors as analysts, reporters, and negotiators. The American public favors another, simpler response. So do many top administrators in Washington—especially when they are new to office. They conclude that in this age of jet aircraft, instant communication, summits, and special envoys, ambassadors are mere post office boxes and innkeepers.