Saturday, November 3, 1956. The United Nations about 10 p.m. Lester Pearson, Canada's foreign minister (and future prime minister) stands before the United Nations General Assembly. He is about read a proposal composed of seventy-eight words shaped by caution and hope, in a last-ditch attempt to prevent a conflict in Egypt from igniting a war throughout the Middle East. Pearson, in perhaps his finest hour, is about to carve out common ground to bring together angry allies and bitter enemies by suggesting the creation of the first UN peacekeeping force. In a unique blending of biography and political history, Antony Anderson's The Diplomat creates not only a compelling portrait of Pearson, the man at the centre of the negotiations, but also a nuanced analysis of the political maze navigated by Pearson to avert a bloody war.