The Memoirs of Ambassador J. Graham Parsons

This book presents the memoirs of the late well-known and highly respected US diplomat J. Graham Parsons, who served in pre-war Japan, China, and Cuba, Canada and Washington, DC, during World War II, and postwar India, Japan, Laos, and Sweden among other assignments. As the memoir makes clear, Ambassador Parsons interacted with some of the most famous figures in 20th century politics and diplomacy. Scholars have accused him of being a hawk, but the reader will discover he was more nuanced than that. He was loyal to his employer, and thus reflected the policies, but not necessarily the politics, of a particular administration. Indeed, he was a traditional diplomat of the old school, and expressed concerns in the concluding chapter about how diplomacy—specifically, the State Department—was evolving and the over-politicization of American foreign policy prior to his passing in 1991, just shy of his 84th year.