How I Lost My Virginity and Ended Up at the United Nations

Over the course of this year, the centenary of William F. Buckley’s birth, we will republish an article by him weekly. This week’s column recalls the time that the Nixon administration invited William F. Buckley to represent the United States at the United Nations.

In mid-June, on a weekday afternoon, I got word that John Scali had left word that I should telephone him. I knew Scali, though only slightly. We had traveled together — or more accurately, simultaneously — to China 18 months earlier, I with the press corps covering Richard Nixon’s trip, Scali as a special consultant to the President.