Within four months of becoming a U.S. senator in 1985, John Kerry had traveled to both of that year's foreign policy hot spots. In Nicaragua, he sought a deal he hoped would end the Reagan administration's "contra" war. In the Philippines, he concluded that U.S. support for the decades-long dictatorship of President Ferdinand Marcos had to end.
Marcos was out within a year, thanks in no small measure to Kerry's efforts. The demise of the contras took considerably longer.
Kerry, 69, has tempered the approach he adopted as a freshman firebrand. But he has continued to practice personal, face-to-face diplomacy, often in the service of President Barack Obama's foreign policy. In Afghanistan, Pakistan, Egypt and elsewhere, he has used his stature as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to carry messages, gather information and smooth ruffled feathers for the president.