Confessions of a Diplomatic Pouch Clerk

About the Book

The author was in the U.S. Foreign Service from 1957 to 1969. This is a true story of his experiences while employed as a diplomatic pouch clerk in the American Consulate General in Sydney, Australia; and in the U.S. Embassies in Manila, Beirut and Tokyo. The story entails his fight with Neo-McCarthyites in the State Department; the effects in Beirut of the 1967 Six Day War; a nuptial quandary with a Japanese Qantas airline stewardess; and assorted golfing, drinking and sexual divertissments. It is punctuated with original insights and with the malaise and anger which has befallen the psyches of Americans of good will following the death of FDR and the assassinations of his potential successors.

About the Author

James Abrahamson was born 6/9/29 and raised in the bawdy sawmill-seaport town of Aberdeen, Washington. He graduated from Stanford University with a B.S. in Political Science in 1952; and was then drafted into the army where he served as a reluctant G.I.in the 8th Army teletype center in Seoul, Korea. He joined the U.S. Foreign Service in 1957 and resigned in Japan in 1969. For the next ten years he taught English Conversation in the Tokyo-Yokohama area. From 1979 to 1992 he worked in Las Vegas as a casino porter; and then bought a retirement condo near Lake Chapala, Mexico which he now calls home.