American diplomacy, since the beginning, when Benjamin Franklin was sent to Paris as the American Minister Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, has been a dangerous business. It has also, since the beginning, been little understood by most Americans. In this volume, in their own words, American diplomats describe the hazards of their profession. Edited by Ambassador (retired) Charles Ray, a 30-year veteran of the U.S. Foreign Service, these stories show American diplomacy in a way not shown by popular media, or for that matter, many academic studies.