Alexis Johnson was a Foreign Service officer from 1935 until 1977. His steady, conventional judgment, administrative skill, and knowledge of Asia earned him a series of high posts at historically critical moments-the 1954 Geneva conference on Indochina, Saigon in the 1960s, ambassador to Japan, Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs, and head of the SALT delegation in the Ford Administration. These memoirs are far more detailed and illuminating than the typical contribution to this genre.