Starting off his journalistic career at the '' Manchester Guardian '' , West became a foreign correspondent in Yugoslavia , Africa , Central America and Indochina . Described by Neal Ascherson as the " paragon of the independent journalist for his generation " , he would spend much of the next two decades in Vietnam , Africa and eastern Europe , where he was codenamned Agent Friday by Communist Poland 's secret police . Among his books are '' The Making of the Prime Minister '' ( with Anthony Howard ) , '' An English Journey '' ( 1981 ) and '' Tito and the Rise and Fall of Yugoslavia '' ( 1995 ) . Along with Patrick Marnham and Auberon Waugh , West was one of three signatories to a letter to '' The Times '' that called for a British monument to honour those repatriated as a result of the Yalta Conference ; it was eventually erected in 1986
Yalta Conference
Yalta Conference
Richard West (journalist)