The author, a 37-year veteran of the Foreign Service, provides an unredacted, unabashed and often humorous account of how foreign policy was developed and executed during the Reagan-Bush years and how that impacted U.S. relations with three very different countries where he served as ambassador: Panama, Honduras and Portugal.

This book is must-reading for anyone interested in the real story of what set off the events leading to the U.S. invasion of Panama and capture of its drug-dealing dictator, Manuel Antonio Noriega, and of the Central American crisis that pitted U.S.-backed Nicaraguan contras against the Sandinista regime in Managua. Ambassador Briggs pulls no punches in detailing the administration's successes and failures in a conflicted corner of the globe and in calling to account those in and out of Congress and the administration who sought to promote, subvert or sabotage U.S. policy.

Briggs's stint at the National Security Council provides some fascinating insights into what it was like serving as special assistant to President George H.W. Bush, and then as Bush's ambassador to Portugal at a time when relations between the two NATO allies could not have been closer.

Those contemplating a career in diplomacy will want to take note of Briggs's especially trenchant comments about the management of State, inter-agency relations, economic aid, and more.