But Raphel was a bliever in an old-fashioned diplomatic maxim: you never stop talking...Now, in an era where diplomacy of any kind was being sidelined in America's most sensitive relationships, that behavior was more than unusual - it even looked criminal. "She was trying to work on the US national interest, doing things we all thought were important," one senior official told me, on condition of anonymity since the investigation was still a sore point with law enforcement. "And by doing that she looked to someone like a spy. The danger of the whole thing was criminalizing diplomacy.
When the Wall Street Journal profiled the Raphel case, it headlined the resulting article, "The Last Diplomat." As Raphel rose from our table, she shook her head at the characterization. "Ronan, can we please get this straight? I have had foreign policy come up and say, 'You were doing the old-fashioned thing and now there's a new thing.'" She fixed her blue eyes on me. "I wasn't doing the wrong thing. I wasn't doing the out of date thing. I was the real thing." Robin Raphel pulled on her coat and stepped back out into the cold.
-pg. 151
I am only done with part one of this book, but I would highly recommend reading it as a companion with Michael Lewis' The Fifth Risk.
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