Sunset at Saigon.

WALTERS, Vernon A.

Item Number: 128187

First edition of the U.S. diplomat’s self-published work. Octavo, bound in quarter morocco by Lopez Valencia with gilt titles and tooling to the spine in five compartments within raised gilt bands, marbled endpapers. Association copy, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper, “For Bill Safire A Fighter for a good cause All the best Dick Walter.” The recipient, William Safire was an important American author, columnist, journalist, and presidential speechwriter. He joined Nixon’s campaign for the 1960 Presidential race, and supported him again in 1968. After Nixon’s 1968 victory, Safire served as a speechwriter for him and Spiro Agnew. He authored several political columns in addition to his weekly column “On Language” in The New York Times Magazine from 1979 until the month of his death and authored two books on grammar and linguistics: The New Language of Politics (1968) and what Zimmer called Safire’s “magnum opus,” Safire’s Political Dictionary. Safire later served as a member of the Pulitzer Prize Board from 1995 to 2004 and in 2006 was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George W. Bush. In fine condition.

United States Army officer and a diplomat Vernon A. Walters served from 1972 to 1976 as Deputy Director of Central Intelligence, from 1985 to 1989 as the United States Ambassador to the United Nations and from 1989 to 1991 as Ambassador to the Federal Republic of Germany during the decisive phase of German Reunification. Walters rose to the rank of lieutenant general in the U.S. Army and is a member of the Military Intelligence Hall of Fame.