The diplomat-scholar : a biography of Leon Ma. Guerrero

Leon Ma. Guerrero (1915–82), a top-notch writer and diplomat, served six Philippine presidents, beginning with President Manuel L. Quezon and ending with President Ferdinand E. Marcos. In this first full-length biography, Guerrero’s varied career as writer and diplomat is highlighted from an amateur student editor and associate editor of a prestigious magazine to ambassador to different countries that reflected then the exciting directions of Philippine foreign policy. But did you know that he served as public prosecutor in the notorious Nalundasan murder case, involving the future Philippine president? Did you also know that during his stint as ambassador to the Court of Saint James he wrote his prize-winning biography of Philippine national hero, Jose Rizal? Learn more about him in this fully documented biography recounting with much detail from his correspondence the genesis and evolution of his thinking about the First Filipino, which is the apposite title of his magnum opus. Contents Preface Prologue Chronology I. Ermita and Santa Cruz to Intramuros: Between Literary and Legal Career 1. Bourgeois Ermita: Birth and Boyhood 2. Education under American Jesuits 3. The Humorist as Critic, Writer and Actor 4. Juggling Law and Journalism on the Eve of War II. To Tokyo and Back: The Making of a Diplomat 5. The Assistant Solicitor 6. From Intelligence Officer in Bataan to the Return of Ignacio Javier 7. Second, then First Secretary 8. At the Home Office: The Diplomat as Historian III. Going In, then Out of the Political Jungle: Padre Burgos to Arlegui 9. The Legal Counsel, Professor and Translator 10. The Foreign Policy Critic and Spokesman 11. “Asia for the Asians” or How to Leave Arlegui in Six Months IV. London and Madrid: The Philippines in a Resurgent Asia 12. At the Court of Saint James 13. A Verbal Tussle in the UN 14. The Biographer 15. At Franco Country 16. In Search of the Burgos Trial Records 17. Home Leave in Preparation for a State Visit V. New Delhi to Belgrade: The Philippines towards Non-Alignment 18. Homecoming to Asia at Nehruvian India 19. “Diplomacy of Development” and Other Speeches 20. The Foreign Policy Rescuer and Again, Critic 21. The Diplomat as Efficient Intellectual-Bureaucrat 22. Endorsing Non-alignment amid Personal Crisis 23. Flirting with Dictators 24. Martial Law Propagandist 25. At Tito’s Pre-Balkanized Yugoslavia Epilogue Glossary List of Abbreviations Bibliography Index About the Author Leon Ma. Guerrero (1915-82), a writer and diplomat, served six Philippine presidents, from President Manuel L. Quezon to President Ferdinand E. Marcos. In this first full-length biography, Guerrero's career as writer and diplomat is highlighted from an amateur student editor and associate editor of a prestigious magazine to ambassador to different countries.