CAESAR-SERVING PROFESSORS AND THEORIZING POLITICIANS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-01208R000100010036-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 22, 2011
• Sequence Number: 36
• Publication Date: February 25, 1973
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

IL _ I
STAT Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/02/22: CIA-RDP90-01208R000100010036-3
25 Feb 19'(3
Caesar-serving professors and theorizing politician
The Conduct and Misconduct
Of Foreign Affairs
Reflection on U.S. Foreign Policy Since World War 11.
By Charles Yost.
226 pp. New York: Random House. $7.95.
The Crippled Giant
American Foreign Policy and its Domestic Consequences.
By Senator J. William Fulbright.
292 pp. New York: Random House. $6.95.
Hammarskjold
By Brian Urquhart.
521 pp. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. $12.50.
The Reform of Power
A Proposal for An International Security System.
By Leonard Beaton.
242 pp. New York: The Viking Press. $7.95.
Formerly, Ambassadors and
Senators wrote memoirs and
professors wrote theories of in-
ternational relations. Today,
professors often serve Caesar,
while diplomats and politi-
cians become theoreticians of
power..
The arrangement is not with-
out advantage for the study of
international affairs, as two re-
cent books suggest. Ambassa-
dor Charles W. Yost and Sen-
ator J. William Fulbright have
each published highly readable
studies, strongly criticizing
American postwar foreign
policy and seeking to expose
the malignant political ideals
and structures responsible.
Mr. Yost finished his distin-
guished diplomatic career by
? serving as our Ambassador at
the United Nations. While he
speaks with the perspective and
authority of an inside profes-
sional, his views are neither of-
ficial nor complacent. Admir-
ing Acheson, he nevertheless
believes our postwar reactions
to Russia excessive and won-
ders if a Republican victory
in 1948 would not have been
preferable. As it was, lie says,
Stalin and McCarthy almost
seem to have been the archi-
David P. Colleo is professor Agreement on Tariffs and
of European studies at the Trade) and the I.M.F. (Intcrna-
STATohns Hopkins School of Ad- tional Monetary Fund) as nxxl-
. vanced International Studies. els for' the, successful conduct
of policy by pro esstona .
close perusal of our foreign restore a humane vision for the
economic policy, where the future to replace the techno.
next cold war has been taking cratic, depersonalized abstrac.
shape for 10 years, scarcely tion so fashionable among ex.
supports the view that all the perts and so repulsive to their
troubles began with Governor students. Before we are likely
Connally, to end the material poverty of
the few, Fulbright believes, we
Senator Fulbright, who shares will have to alleviate the spir-
many of Mr. Yost's alarms, as- itual poverty of the many.
signs the blame more convinc-
ingly: "Power is a narcotic, a Fulbright, too, hopes for a
potent intoxicant, and Ameri- revival of the United Nations,
ca has been on a 'trip,' " If although his enthusiasm is more
i
ib
rcumscr
ed. By symbolizing
anything, it is the unprofession- c
al chaos of our Government the community of nations, the
which has saved us from a U.N. can perhaps externalize
worse fate. and reinforce the inner checks
on undisciplined competitive-
Mr. Yost carries his faith in ness,' necessary if powerful na-
organizational- and apolitical tions are not to destroy them-
solutions to a passionate plea selves. If the U.N. has not yet
for world government. The mod- had much success, . Fulbright
ern world, he says, is moving agrees, America, whose global
too fast for the nation state, meddling has unilaterally
It is hard not to see Yost's usurped the peacekeeping func-
kind of internationalism as po- tion, bears much of the blame.
litical scienc
Fulbri
fi
ti
ht h
Th
h
f
Ni
c
g
e
on.
opes t
at
e
rus-
xon and
tests of American foreign poll-
cy. The long years of cold war trating exigencies of curbing Kissinger are at least turning
power within a real nation are American policy away from
militarized our political system to be escaped by leaping to
and consolidated a dangerously some putative international universal interventionism to-
bloated defense and foreign utopia. Thus many in Europe tionof a more national tinterests.CBut
policy
b liape apparatus. brought years, little have hoped to escape their in- the Senator hopes we might
improvement. Each of the last tractable national problems by go beyond the amoral sterilities
becoming good Europeans. But of traditional power politics
three Presidents has unfortu- as Europe's evolution suggests, and return to the Wilsonian
nately felt gifted in foreign at- nations usually need to come
notion
fairs. Our foreign policy has not to terms with themselves be- anon peace. aF organized Midid-
only made serious mistakes fore . they can come to terms dle East ser him, theM-
thereby, but grown dangerous- with their neighbors. American p presents a promising
con-
ly personal, secretive and lire- reformers would do well to opportunity for a world con-
sponsible. Yost would drastic- i complain less about the ab- brrt to impose a amestal di al dif-
ally reduce the National Securi- J stract evils of "nationalism" in ference sees erence between b a fetweenunddamen intervention
n
ty Council and the C.I.A.. ban- general, and keep their minds by one nation's arrogating the
ish the military from diplomacy, on the aggressiveness of Amer- right to impose solutions on
and center foreign policy ican foreign policy in particu- others, and intervention by the
around the Secretary of State. lar. United Nations, acting as rep-
The professional foreign serv- Senator Fulbright should of- resentative of the world com-
ice would take the leading role fer considerable reassurance to munity and operating through
for which Yost believes it alone those who fear that humanism powers granted by treaty for
is properly trained. Congress, if and measure are vanishing the common good.
it ever put its own house in from American politics. The Brian Urquhart's admirable
order, could reassert its consti- book surveys American policy political biography, "Iiammar-
tutional functions, in Asia, the Middle East and
Europe and then focuses on the sh d, provides lavish in-
More people are likely to sight t ino the possibilities of in-
agree with Mr. Yost's criticism domestic costs and dangers to ternational organizations for
of the substance and apparatus American democracy from our peacekeeping. The author, him-
of our foreign policy than to permanent "low-grade crisis" self a senior international civil
believe that more power to the over foreign affairs. According servant, and clearly synipathet-
career foreign service would to Fulbright, Americans, going Ic to his subject, presents a
bring decisive improvement. against the grain, have become
Diplomatic professionals have a fearful and ungenerous pro- complex story weeping gene gene?-
ple. Lulled b executive hasty and sweepinr-
generatly been as mesmerized by 'glam- alizations. Harnmarskjoict came
by the cold war as amateurs, our, or the pseudo-scientific
houus-pocus of geopolitical office in 1953, searching for
Somewhat surprisingly, 11r. political ex- a a new consensus to liberate
Yost points to economic institu- perts, the public is too ready the U.N. from the cold war.
lions like the GATT (General to sacrifice democratic re- Even within a world order based
straints in specious einergen- on the sovereign equality of
Gies. We need to regain our
mistrust of power, our respect
for law and parliamentary de-
:C ontii ni
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