The Ambassador [antikvár]

CHAPTER ONE As a diplomat I have a good record. In his valedictory letter the President called it. 'a distmguished and meritorious career, the sum of whose service represents a great profit to the United States of America'. I was able to accept the compliment with some irony but with confidence that I had earned it. I have served the Department for thirty-five years and have been an Ambassador for ten. I have taken my share of hardship posts, and been tossed my quota of hot potatoes. Even my enemies will admit that my failures have not been too blatant and that I have had one or two conspicuous successes. Some of my friends tell me that this decision to quit the service in mid-career is my shrewdest stroke yet. They point out that on the one hand I am in high favour with the President who can recall me to duty at will as a special negotiator, and that on the other, I am free to pursue my own political ambitions. My friends, of course, assume that I have political ambitions and I am hurt that they should credit me with so much calculation. And yet why should I be hurt? I have always been known as a cool-headed bargainer and there is a certain diplomatic value in a reputation for ruthlessness. If I am changed my friends have hardly had time or occasion to notice it. How can they possibly know the private conscience of Maxwell Gordon Amberley when he has come so late to knowing it himself? To this point I have observed all the conventions of the Service and I have arranged my exit with biblical decency. After the death of Phung Van Cung, I waited a full twelve months in office - more than enough to absolve the Administration from any guilt in his death or responsibility for its consequences. Then I made the statutory visit to 9