Chapter 21, "The Sum of Tiny Things" Summary

Back in Sarkhan, Ambassador MacWhite dreads the onslaught of the foreign news reporters. They challenge him to defend his statements against the statements of Senator Brown. Three weeks after Senator Brown denounced MacWhite's assessment of the situation in Vietnam, MacWhite receives a letter from the Secretary of State. In the letter, the Secretary of State lists four issues on MacWhite's record of service: 1) reporting that the embassy staff had been infiltrated by communists, 2) receiving two complaints from other ambassadors about MacWhite's conduct, 3) a request to remove George Swift because he would not allow an Air Force Colonel to read the King's palm, and 4) his testimony to the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee about a country to which he is not an official ambassador.

MacWhite writes a letter to the Secretary of State...