Burning the Ambassador's Desk: Snapshots from the Career of a Marginally Talented American Diplomat

The life of a diplomat is not all receptions and black tie affairs. There are long trips, even longer weekend duties, befuddled and befuddling colleagues, problems with water and electricity, and cockroaches, lizards and wars to deal with. Thom Gradisher chronicles his twenty-two years as a Foreign Service officer in Burning the Ambassdor’s Desk from his beginning as a “neophyte” in Africa through tours of duty in India, Sri Lanka, Washington DC and Singapore. Here is the diplomacy behind the tuxedo.