Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Quickie: Where Caution is King

Dean RuskImage via Wikipedia

Thus Rusk is a cautious man, and caution is king throughout the State Department. Rusk did not create the condition, he has merely compounded it. John Foster Dulles was a notable exception to the rule that a Secretary of State does not "make" foreign policy; with President Eisenhower's approval, Dulles often acted out of his own mind and experience, and woe to the State Department underling who went against him. What Dulles personalized, Rusk has institutionalized; and the most common complaint within and without the State Department is that there is little room for the original thinker, the daring or dissenting mind.

from Essay: The State of the Department of StateFriday, Oct. 15, 1965 | Time.com