ová, Jana Kernerová, Jana Ruckerová, Helena Vágnerová, Marie Bártová, Zuzana Ku
erová, Karel Sedlák, Miroslav 
ernik, Petr Dole
al, Jakub Hornek, Louis Quintal, Paloma Herrera, Asunción Sanz, Geraldine Melby, Carmen Fonseca, and many, many more.-----------------
MY THANKS GO to my literary agent, Andy Ross, for seeing the value in my first attempt at formulating a book proposal. His expansive definition of being an agent meant staying in touch throughout the writing process, offering encouragement and insightful comments. My editors, Brendan Curry and Sophie Duvernoy, along with many others at Norton, did a fine job in all the many aspects involved in the art of book publishing.
The unique circumstances of writing a book that relied heavily on information that is clearly in the public domain but has not been declassified became an intriguing problem. I owe a debt to Jessica Friedman, who first raised the issue. Boston attorney Paul Johnson, a friend, connected me to lawyer/writer/film producer Thomas Herman who understood the complexities of writing a book based on leaked documents. Tom, in turn, led me to John B. Bellinger III, the former State Department legal advisor, whose intimate knowledge of the pre-publication review process proved invaluable. I am grateful to all of them for grappling with the unusual issues that arose from working with WikiLeaks cables.
My family endured far too much dinner table talk about cables, bearing with me as I exclaimed over yet another great find. My parents, to whom this book is dedicated, checked in regularly, and my late husband, Harold, who always liked to say he was “worldwide available,” was a sounding board for my ideas. My children Andie, Gareth, and Gwyneth shared my overseas assignments and are proud of being third-culture kids. They all read parts of the manuscript and identified the boring bits, and if I have failed to remove them it is not their fault. Son-in-law Sean offered encouragement, and my brothers Chet and Colin had such exciting thoughts about how to market the book that I couldn’t help but finish it. I am lucky to have an uncle, William Irwin Thompson, who is the literary giant of the family and who offered a thoughtful critique on every chapter.
Because the leaked cables are still considered classified, I was unable to get input from my foreign service colleagues who are still serving, but my academic colleagues were willing and able to help. Dr. Marissa Lombardi read the chapter on corruption, and Dr. Leslie Hitch and Dr. Micky Cokely were constant sources of wise counsel. Four graduate students—Dana Stranz, Lin Feng, Ruth Garcia, and Jingshu Zhu—all took on research work, and Dana Stranz also did enormous additional editing.
I believe higher education is critical to our nation’s place in the world, and I was privileged to attend three fine schools that gave me the analytic skills to succeed in my profession. California State University Northridge taught me to be a journalist and a lifelong writer. Tufts University’s Fletcher School helped me achieve my ambition to become a diplomat, and the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education gave me the chance to think critically and analytically about the role of educational exchanges, which were central to my work as a public diplomacy officer. At Fletcher I was blessed with phenomenal professors such as the late ambassador Hewson Ryan, former ambassador William Rugh, diplomatic historian Alan Henrikson, security studies expert Richard Shultz, and many more. At Penn I was exposed to the minds of professors Robert Zemsky, Matt Hartley, and Mary-Linda Armacost, along with the fine members of Cohort 10.
Writing a book turns out to be a great way to find out who your friends are. Many people offered encouragement and helpful insights. Dean John LaBrie of the College of Professional Studies at Northeastern nudged me along, as did Jo Ann Gammel and Mary Huegel at Endicott College. Imogen Sieveking is one of the best interpreters of Latin America I have ever met. My many students inspire me.
My former boss, Ambassador Richard Graber, led by example and ran a great embassy. Ambassador John Hamilton personified for many of us the meaning of the word integrity. As I wrote, I had images in my mind of incidents and scenes from embassies and consulates led by extraordinary people such as Eric Edelman, Bruce Wharton, Deborah McCarthy, John Ordway, Adrian Basora, and Steve McFarland. I enjoyed a special relationship that comes from a shared career interest with public diplomacy officers such as Susan Domowitz, Jeff Sexton, Dan Whitman, Kay Mayfield, Ryan Rowlands, Ida Heckenbach, Paula Wikle, John Vance, John Law, and David Gainer. I learned a great deal from other FSOs with different skills, such as Stuart Hatcher, Marty Melzow, David Lindwall, Mike Foster, Kevin Rubesh, Michael Rinker, Charles Blaha, Kenneth Meyer, Tom Nave, Joanne Ingalls, Martina Strong, Judy Pruitt, Michael Dodman, Amy Carnie, Greg O’Connor, and many more. These people run embassies. They give their all, every day.
All of us worked alongside locally employed staff—the people who serve as the continuity for U.S. foreign policy abroad. They serve as windows into their countries, and the best of them tirelessly educate each new crop of American officers, transforming us from raw beginners to people who can interpret events with a practiced eye. They contributed content and editorial value to many of the cables. Helena Markusová was such a person for me. Others include Markéta Koláová, Jana Kernerová, Jana Ruckerová, Helena Vágnerová, Marie Bártová, Zuzana Kuerová, Karel Sedlák, Miroslav ernik, Petr Doleal, Jakub Hornek, Louis Quintal, Paloma Herrera, Asunción Sanz, Geraldine Melby, Carmen Fonseca, and many, many more.
My husband was a member of one last group of great importance—the spouses of foreign service officers, such as Stephanie Rowlands, Gerry Andrianopoulis, Irene Mills, Richard Gilbert, Collette Rinker, Jean O’Connor, and many more. These talented and devoted people don’t often get credit for their enormous contribution to the foreign service. They make it possible for officers to be sent to unaccompanied posts in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, and they handle the pack-outs and move-ins, schools, medical issues, and so much more.