38 MAY 2024 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 1961 1962 Diplomacy as a Profession The conduct of foreign policy rests today on an exercise in understanding truly staggering in its dimension— understanding not just of the minds of a few monarchs or prime ministers, but understanding of the minds and emotions and necessities of entire peoples, and not just of a few peoples at that—peoples in all conceivable stages of progress from the state of primitive man to the greatest complexity of modern industrial society. And what is involved here is the necessity for understanding the lives of these peoples in all their aspects: social, economic, cultural, as well as political. It is this vast work of cognition and analysis in which the Foreign Service officer participates so prominently and responsibly; and it is in this task, commensurate in its demands on the mind with the tasks of academic scholarship and science, that I have personally come to see diplomacy’s elevation to one of the really great and challenging callings of mankind. —Ambassador (ret.) George F. Kennan, from a talk at AFSA, May 1961 FSJ. 1961 The Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 reconstitutes the International Cooperation Agency as the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). 1964 AFSA forms Committee on Career Principles. Broadening Traditional Diplomacy As it became clear that substantial American forces would have to be stationed abroad for many years, a series of informal arrangements were worked out between the State and Defense Departments to ensure that the large U.S. military commands received the diplomatic advice and help they wanted. … The institution of the political adviser (POLAD) is … part of the massive expansion of traditional diplomacy: where formerly the Foreign Service devoted itself largely to representation, negotiating, and reporting, we are now obliged to know more about and participate in large and important military, economic, scientific, and information programs. The traditional skills remain invaluable, but the range of their application is now far broader. —FSO Richard B. Finn, February 1962 FSJ. The Cuban Missile Crisis For days since that first early Tuesday morning meeting with Secretary Rusk, the debate over the wisest course of action had been moving inexorably to a final decision. … What the Soviet Union would or would not do in response to our several proposals for action was inevitably uppermost in everyone’s mind. How could we maintain the security of our nation and our national dignity without triggering the holocaust of World War III? All of us, no matter the degree of responsibility, lived intensely with this question. —Robert A. Hurwitch, FSO, deputy assistant secretary of State for interAmerican affairs, July 1971 FSJ. 1962 President John F. Kennedy signs Executive Order (E.O.) 10988, authorizing federal employees to unionize. 1965 AFSA; Diplomatic and Consular Officers, Retired (DACOR); and State Department organize the first Foreign Service Day.
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