Parting Words

Secretary of State Dean Acheson delivered his parting words last week to some 300 U.S. Foreign Service officers stationed in Washington.

Acheson spoke in a warmly fraternal mood, working carefully toward a cold, hard point of impact. "You are men who for twelve years have been correcting my errors and guiding my footsteps," said he. Fondly he cited the fact that the U.S. Foreign Service has grown from 1,900 twelve years ago to 9,000 today. Two-thirds of U.S. diplomatic posts overseas are now headed by career Foreign Service officers. In the new Administration, he prophesied, "you can expect no monopoly on U.S. representation, but certainly you should have the majority. You alone have the combined knowledge for the lack of which the U.S. might make horrible mistakes."

The Great Lag. What was that knowledge? Among other things, said Acheson, a good Foreign Service officer must be prepared to take part in "battles with Congress." He continued: "Make no mistake about it. There is a real battle with Congress. There is a great lag in the education and information between you who know the outside world and the great mass of the American people and their elected representatives, a great lag between you who know the facts of the world and the 150 million people who really govern the U.S. . . . You must learn to take it and live with it . . ."

Acheson then enveloped the Foreign Service officers in his own private hair shirt. "You know that you are the targets of unfounded and wicked criticism. You are the objects of deep distrust. It is the wide belief of the American people that other men should have known better than you and spared us our troubles. What is going on in our midst has been going on through the course of mankind. It was especially true of the Middle Ages. There were murders and backstairs accusations then as now . . . There are some who believe that this will change with the new Administration. I say to you that it will not. When something really wicked has been turned loose in the world, it will continue until men acquire a greater understanding."

In substance, Dean Acheson had said that the Foreign Service should ignore the mandate for a change in administration, and--by identifying itself closely with Acheson's own difficulties--retain a kind of blood brotherhood loyalty to the Truman-Acheson policies. This presented the Eisenhower Administration with still another problem of inertia to overcome.

But most of all, Acheson went a long way toward satisfying the long-standing claims of his critics that he mistrusts the American people.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.