Rather than promote from 2007 within, James Callaghan had 2007 decided to appoint an external head of the Security docs Service. Though the retreat behind closed doors was a mixed blessing for him, Smith took article2 up the challenge before retiring in 1981 to a house in Sussex he greenwashing had designed himself.His three years at the Security Service were clouded by a grave greenwashing article2 htm illness for htm his wife. Not without personal risk, he developed docs a vast circle greenwashing of contacts of 02 all shades of opi- greenwashing nion and preserved in his own house there a place of friendly discussion and docs reason through 07 the transition article2 to docs 2007 07 02 direct rule.After a 02 spell at the article2 heart of Government, in the Cabinet Office, Smith returned to Moscow as Ambassador in 1976. As before, the complexities of Soviet life htm brought out the best in him. His mathematician's analysis of the Soviet enigma brought originality and 02 vision to his htm reporting, 2007 for docs 2007 07 02 example on difficult arms 07 control 07 issues. He was firm and patient in greenwashing article2 htm equal measure with Soviet officials.

The concern which he and his wife showed for their staff and the British community at all levels inspired loyalty and affection.Smith had believed that retirement would follow his Moscow posting, but in an unexpected turn his political masters - this time a Labour Government - once again asked him to cut short an Ambassadorial tour to take on a tricky assignment at home. In the last months of the Stormont Assembly, he had the difficult task of acting as Whitehall's man on the spot while sending advice back to the Home Secretary. He did what he could there to keep hope alive, particularly through support for the arts and the work of the British Council, involving himself in visits by leading British cultural figures.Smith's tour in Prague was cut slightly short in 1971, when he was asked to go to Northern Ireland, where the situation was steadily worsening. Returning to London in 1963, he was the Head of the Department dealing with the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe for the next five years, through the Prague Spring and the subsequent Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia. The somewhat dubious reward for Smith's expert and perceptive advice was to be posted as Ambassador at Prague in 1968, in the aftermath of the invasion. Early in his tour, he travelled to Alma Ata in Kazakhstan only to be given a message by the Mayor, without explanation, to return to Moscow.

The Cuban Missile crisis had broken out, and the world was on the brink of nuclear war. In an acutely testing period, he provided vital support to two eminent Ambassadors, Sir Frank Roberts and Sir Humphrey (later Lord) Trevelyan. Succeeding second time around, he was despatched to New York as the most junior UK delegate at the first meeting there of the UN General Assembly. Postings to Norway, Washington and Caracas followed, before he returned to London in 1956 as the Assistant Head of the African Department. One of his subordinates there, Charles Wallace, described in his memoirs, The Valedictory (1992), how Smith was always the first to arrive, having completed the Times crossword, and was seen as a good-natured perfectionist: "any draft he approved without alteration was regarded as a measure of excellence by the originator".After this varied early career, Howard Smith was sent to the key post of Head of Chancery in Moscow in 1961, at the height of the Cold War.