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The Last American Diplomat: John D Negroponte and the Changing Face of US Diplomacy
Author(s): George W. Liebmann (Author)
- Publisher: I.B.Tauris
- Publication Date: 18 Dec. 2011
- Language: English
- Print length: 384 pages
- ISBN-10: 1848858698
- ISBN-13: 9781848858695
Book Description
Can John D. Negroponte be described as ‘The Last American Diplomat’? In a career spanning 50 years of unprecedented American global power, he was the last of a dying breed of patrician diplomats – devoted to public service, a self-effacing and ultimate insider, whose prime duty was to advise, guide and warn. Negroponte served as US ambassador to Honduras, Mexico, the Philippines and Iraq; he was US Permanent Representative to the UN, Director of National Intelligence and Deputy Secretary of State to George W. Bush. His was a high-flying and seemingly conventional career but one full of surprises. He opposed Kissinger in Vietnam, argued against direct military action against Marxists in Central America and warned that the Iraq War could be another ‘Vietnam’. George W. Liebmann’s incisive account of Negroponte’s life and career is based on personal and shared experience, as well as thorough research and interviews with Negroponte and other leading actors. It will provide fascinating reading for students and researchers interested in the inside-story of American diplomacy, revealing personal and policy struggles, and the underlying fissures present even in the world’s last remaining superpower.
Editorial Reviews
Review
‘The Last American Diplomat is a true masterpiece, a book far above the standards and the contents of the great majority of the dozens of, often ephemeral, works published each year about the theme and themes of American foreign policy. It is a most detailed and finely written tome about the career and the character of John D. Negroponte, an American whose name is known or remembered, alas, by few who ought to. But there is more to it. George Liebmann has written excellent biographies of men and diplomats who had incarnated the standards of what might be called -necessarily imprecisely, but essentially truly – of ‘the old diplomacy’. This study of Negroponte is a prime example of Liebmann’s historical philosophy as well as his architectural examination of his protaganist’s public career.’ –John Lukacs
‘Liebmann, who is a prominent constitutional lawyer and a personal acquaintance of Negroponte, has given a detailed and scholarly account of this remarkable career. His book will be valued by all serious students of American foreign policy.’ –Will Robinson, Times Literary Supplement
‘So much more than a biography, this fascinating new book by George Liebmann is a major contribution to diplomatic history. Through the lens of John Negroponte’s remarkable career, the reader gains arresting insights into the events and personalities that shaped US foreign policy in the Cold War and post-Cold War periods.’ –Mary Ann Glendon, Professor of Law, Harvard University
About the Author
George W. Liebmann is a lawyer and historian specialising in American and international diplomatic history. His publications include Diplomacy Between the Wars: Five Diplomats and the Shaping of the Modern World (I.B.Tauris).
