Chapter 5, "Confidential and Personal" Summary

Ambassador Louis Sears sends a long letter to Dexter Peterson at the State Department in Washington, D.C. about the situation in Sarkhan. In the letter, he brags about how skillfully he handled the Colvin scandal. He includes newspaper clippings that praise his own effectiveness as an Ambassador. He warns that Father Finian is trouble for starting a rebellion in Burma and asks if the Catholic Church supports him. He also brags about how he corrected the misunderstanding about the source of the rice by distributing handbills crediting the USA. He tells the State Department that he has things under control and that the threat of Communism is all bunk. He complains that Maggie Johnson, the press attachy, brings in news reporters too often. He asks for Joe Bing to be reassigned to Setkya and...