The Foreign Service Journal, April 2018

56 APRIL 2018 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL DEFINING DIPLOMACY for YEARS Above inSILVERFOILonCover wisdom to a more searching, critical appraisal of the interac- tion between our external aid and the dynamics of change and growth in a developing nation. This effort to broaden the perspective on our aid programs embraces the dimension of political development which the Title IX legislation seeks to isolate for special consideration. –Congressman Donald M. Fraser (D-Minn.), author of Title IX of the Foreign Assistance Act FSJ July 1970 An American Foreign Policy Imperative—Responsible Restraint With the passage of time, then, we came to see an activist world policy as a moral and practical necessity, sanctified by success, and essentially unlimited by any particular level of available resources. On this national consensus rested several decades of hyperactive American assertion of world leadership. It led to alliances with 43 countries. It led to the creation in foreign lands of 143 American military bases. It led to the consistent allocation of at least 40 percent of our federal budget to national security purposes. It led to the application of American military force in Korea, Lebanon, the Dominican Republic, Laos, and Vietnam. It led to our sending economic assistance to 111 countries, and military assistance to at least 79. It is now clear that time has over- taken this consensus. –Marshall Wright, FSO FSJ July 1970 Exorcising the Hobgoblin of Conformity: The Question of Foreign Service Resignations The Vietnam war has caused more soul-searching on the part of career Foreign Service officer—and especially the younger ones—than any comparable international event in the history of American diplomacy. There have been a number of little discussed and unpublicized resignations from the Foreign Service because of our policy in Vietnam. …During fiscal year 1968, 266 officers resigned; 80 percent of them were younger officers. –Dino J. Caterini, FSO FSJ January 1971 The Military As a Modernizing Force FSJ November 1971 The Trade Policy Crisis The United States is not likely to choose deliberately to follow a disastrous course of protectionism, isolation and self-indulgence, but it could be swept onto such a course. This will not happen if we are vigorous in attacking our domestic problems of productivity while being equally realistic concerning what we can negotiate abroad. If we are too hardnosed and use unac- ceptable methods, however, we shall fail in our negotiations. –Willis C. Armstrong, retired FSO FSJ June 1969 The H-Bomb Decision, Part II President Truman’s direc- tive of November 19, 1949, to State, Defense and the Atomic Energy Commission “as to whether and in what manner the U.S. should undertake the development and possible production of ‘super’ atomic weapons,” set the national security policy machinery in motion. In the Department of State the first major attempt to come to grips with the problem was a 128-page memo- randum which George Kennan submitted to the Secretary of December 15. –R. Gordon Arneson, retired FSO FSJ June 1969 Problems of the Foreign Service Out of the welter of studies and criticism of the perfor- mance of the Department of State and the Foreign Service, three major problems emerge. In essence, they concern the ability of the present organization to comprehend and analyze the diverse factors now changing the world environ- ment, the effectiveness of senior officers as executives in giving leadership and direction to the many international activities conducted by the United States and the efficiency with which the enlarged facilities and personnel of the Department are being utilized. –Rufus Burr Smith, retired FSO 1970 ~ 1979 FSJ February 1970 Rooftops of Dubrovnik by Susan Trinka FSJ March 1970 The Dynamics of Growth in Developing Nations The question of how a society is organized and func- tions is our primary concern, because the internal workings of a society profoundly influence its interna- tional behavior. Thus Title IX seeks to broadenAID’s man- date from an unquestioning reliance upon the conventional