Ambassadors at Sea: The High and Low Adventures of a Diplomat

Ambassadors at Sea by Ambassador Henry Catto is an informative look through the back door and into the closets of world leaders. By recounting his experience on a very personal level, you live with the author among those on the international stage whose personas are usually submerged into and behind their official facades. Ambassadors at Sea is thus a footnote to history, and will appeal to those who wish to delve deeper than the news releases and headline portraits of those who shaped the world during a very crucial period of our history. Jesse H.Oppenheimer San Antonio, Texas

"Ambassadors at Sea" by Henry Catto is an informative, and at the same time,delightful book. Ambassador Catto has recounted his experiences as ambassador first to El Salvador and later to Great Britain, as Chief of Protocol, as head of the United States Information Agency, Ambassador to the European Office of the United Nations,and spokeperson for the Pentagon under Secretary of Defense,Cap Weinberger.There are wonderful anecdotes about all the Presidents he served under:Reagan,Bush, Nixon, and Ford, as well as interesting asides about Nancy Reagan, Henry Kissinger, Margaret Thatcher, and countless foreign dignitaries.Catto expresses his reactions to the famous and the fatuous in an honest and self-deprecating way. For example:he refers to a conversation with Nancy Reagan at a dinner party by commenting,"To say she was hard to talk to would be a gross understatement",or on President Nixon;"I never heard anyone accuse him of having a sense of humor".These bits of information make for fun reading., This book is both educational and enjoyable. What more can you ask!

Ambassadors At Sea, a private memoir of a public life, reads like a novel that you can't put down. In in, Catto---a self-described small-town Texas boy who grew up to be a Washington insider--takes us on a tour of his career in various high-level positions under several Presidents, culminating with his appointment as Ambassador to the Court of St. James, where he hung out with such world-stage stars as Margaret Thatcher. But Catto's book is not a dry laundry-list of a diplomatic career, but rather, a witty, moving, and always fascinating story of the wholly human characters who most of us see only through headlines---as well as the personal sacrifices and conflicts that Catto himself experienced. Throughout it all, Catto is charmingly self-effacing and always very witty. I simply couldn't put the book down--and was sorry when I came to the last page.

This Ambassador has written a beautiful and witty book. It is a joyous romp through a glamorous career in which he finds himself in the "sea" of the world's great and powerful and enjoys every minute of it. Ambassador Catto worked in important positions under several administrations from the 60's to the 90's, including appointments in the Departments of State and Defense, US Ambassador to the UN (Geneva), Great Britain and El Salvador, as well as Chief of Protocol, and Head of US. Information Service and League of Pan American States. His perceptions give depth and breadth to the history and newsmakers of the past four decades, and shine light through keyholes of the rich and powerful. Ambassador Catto's view is so optimistic and good natured, you can't help but feel the past 50 years have been great after all. American Ambassadors have a reputation for being big financial contributors to presidential campaigns but not necessarily knowledgeable of languages, world history or foreign affairs, or sensitive, compassionate and tactful. Ambassador Catto, however breaks the stereotype and is uniquely qualified. As a knowledgeable businessman he was able to promote American business interests abroad, and being fluent in French and Spanish and a lover of people, and art and literature of other cultures, he was always comfortable in any society. His book is written with unfailing generosity of spirit, humbly giving credit for his successes throughout the book to his brilliant wife and others, including his good friend, President George Bush. He manages to be humorous, poignant and poetic all at the same time. I think his book should be made into a movie with Bill Murray starring as the lovable roving chief of protocol and ambassador. It wouldn't be Saturday Night Live, but it would be lively.