Contributors: Nov. 24, 1997

DOUGLAS WALLER, our State Department correspondent, left Foggy Bottom last week to get a closer look at diplomacy--or the lack of it--in action. He flew to the U.S.S. Nimitz, somewhere in the Persian Gulf. Waller knows his way around carriers, having recently completed a book on Navy pilots that will be published by Simon & Schuster next June. Still, getting to the ship required some doing, between getting permission to board and rousting out a groggy Bahraini official in the middle of the night to obtain a visa. Waller's efforts result in a rare glimpse of the intricate workings of both...

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