Confessions of a Diplomatic Pouch Clerk

Book excerpt: The author was in the U.S. Foreign Service from 1957 to 1969. This is a true story of his experiences while employed as a diplomatic pouch clerk in the American Consulate General in Sydney, Australia; and in the U.S. Embassies in Manila, Beirut and Tokyo. The story entails his fight with Neo-McCarthyites in the State Department; the effects in Beirut of the 1967 Six Day War; a nuptial quandary with a Japanese Qantas airline stewardess; and assorted golfing, drinking and sexual divertissments. It is punctuated with original insights and with the malaise and anger which has befallen the psyches of Americans of good will following the death of FDR and the assassinations of his potential successors.