Carlos P. Rómulo (1899-1985) was an author and the foremost diplomat of the Philippines. He was the only Filipino journalist to win the Pulitzer Prize and the first Asian to serve as president of the UN General Assembly (1949). He also gained prominence as America's most trusted Asian spokesman.

Carlos Rómulo was born on Jan. 14, 1899, in Manila; but his well-to-do parents lived in Camiling, Tarlac. His father, Gregorio, was a Filipino guerrilla fighter with the Philippine revolutionary government of Emilio Aguinaldo during the Filipino-American War. Rómulo claimed to have witnessed his grandfather tortured by the water cure administered by American soldiers. After early schooling in Tarlac, Rómulo entered the University of the Philippines, where he received a bachelor's degree in 1918. After getting a master of arts from Columbia University in 1921, he returned to work as professor of English and chairman of...