FOREIGN POLICY UNDER PRESIDENT KENNEDY

...An objective review of current American policy must also include several additional questions of a fundamental nature: Can we organize our resources and muster the will necessary to fulfill the extraordinary hopes that have been created by the Alliance for Progress...

...Bowles' evaluation of the credits and debits in the balance sheet of the Kennedy Administration's conduct of foreign affairs, but we publish the article he submitted to us because we believe it is a significant expression from the man widely regarded as the most progressive voice on foreign policy within the Administration...

...To cope with these problems we have spent billions of dollars to arm ourselves and billions more to assist the underprivileged majority of the human race towards a better life of opportunity and justice...

...Only recently an article in The Reader's Digest began with these words: "While Americans watch, the driving engine of Communist aggression rolls relentlessly on, dealing us psychological and political defeats in every corner of the world from Laos to Cuba to Berlin...

...As a lcsult, greatly im-proved operations are ah each evi-dent...

...Taken together these steps have given us a greatly improved balance between nuclear and conventional striking power...

...Vet everyone who accompanied President Ken-ned\ there in December sensed the quickening hope and conliclence thai is beginning to spread through all ol the Latin American peoples...

...This, then, is the background of challenge and commitment against which the record of the Kennedy Administration's first year may properly be judged...

...The twenty or more new non-career ambassadors appointed by the new Administration are almost without exception men with extensive foreign policy experience...

...and the Ticasinv...

...Right now, we would be fighting four wars at once: in Cuba, in Germany, in Southeast Asia, and, with the collapse of the United Nations, in the Congo...

...Yet this kind of nonsense reaches millions of people and confuses a significant share of them...

...Nearly all ambassadors now speak the official language of the country to which they are assigned...

...Above all, can we find some means of breaking the deadlock on arms control with agreement on effective inspection safeguards that will lessen the chance of nuclear war...

...Outstanding younger Foreign Service Officers with the flexibility and perceptiveness to handle the problems of young and newly independent nations have been promoted to posts of responsibility...

...Yet even here there is fresh hope in the talks now in progress at Geneva...

...An objective and informed examination of our foreign policy balance sheet will reveal a combination of successes, near-misses, and disappointments that is far more favorable than many of us realize...

...The threat to Berlin remains, and an end to that crisis is not yet in sight...

...To undertake a continuing effort to improve our relations with the Soviet Union, fully recognizing the obstacles involved, while being prepared to negotiate on any issues, limited or broad, where there is any chance for progress...

...It has several 250,000-watt radio transmitters among the eighty-seven it uses to broadcast its daily news reports and analyses...

...Some forty-four new nations have been created since 1945, and others are struggling to be born...

...The highlight ol European relations last year was the extraoidinaiy development of the Common Market as a prelude to it strong and united Europe, Britain's decision to join the Common Mai kit may, in retrospect, turn out to be one of the most signilicant events ol the decade...

...Ihe savage Soviet attempt to wreck the oi gani/.alion was mil head-on...

...Against this background it is little wonder that some of our fellow citizens lose their sense of perspective...

...The United States Information Agency now operates in ninety-nine countries through 219 posts...

...Although the fighting, for the present at least, has stopped in Laos, it has increased in intensity in Vietnam, where the guerrilla efforts of the Communists are reaching new' heights...

...One of the primary unfinished tasks of American foreign relations is to devise a balanced, long-range China policy...

...production of Polaris submarines and Minute-men ICBM's has doubled...

...What were the shortcomings and the failures...

...If naked aggression should occur today, we are far less liable to find ourselves confronted with an all-or-nothing choice between unlimited retaliation and abject surrender...

...S. foreign polic\ — the defense establishment, the Agency lor Inlet national Development, the U. S. Information Ageniy, the Stale Department, and our missions abroad...

...Now that the Kennedy Administration is fully embarked on its second year in office, it seems timely to draw up a balance sheet of its conduct of foreign affairs...

...Let us put our aid program on a sound basis of self-help in such a manner that nations will be encouraged to produce not only more goods and services but also a greater measure of social justice and individual participation...

...The Kremlin cannot run it cither...

...I believe that the historians of our time will record that in the first year of the Kennedy Administration we made significant progress toward both of these goals...

...As the underprivileged two-thirds of mankind press for rapid economic and social change, entrenched interests often rooted in a feudal past strive to cling to old concepts, and bitterness and impatience intensify...

...Above all, let us come to realize that we Americans are not omnipotent...

...Major steps have also been taken In (].nil\ the ainh.iss.uli >l's aulhoritv ami lcspoiisibilitv loi lhi- total United Stalls piogiam in the eounliv ill his assignment...

...Considerable improvement has also been made in the relations ol each of these key nations with the United .States...

...In lecent months each ol these activities has been brought under the over-all guidance and aulhoiitv ol the am bassador...

...The situation there is not a happy one...

...What do they teach us for the tasks that lie ahead...

...And yet our world remains feverishly dangerous and uneasy...

...The number of strategic bombers on "alert" has been increased fifty per cent...

...In order to make certain that the new airangenient is hilly understood and accepted, bv mid March we had held seven regional conferences covering all overseas missions in Asia, Africa, and Latin America...

...Similar progress in many Latin American countries has been and is being stilled by strongly entrenched groups that oppose change in anv loi in...

...Consider Latin America...

...ground forces have been substantially increased, with emphasis on those needed lor "brush-lire" wars...

...Now what about the less favorable side of our balance sheet...

...According to the letters and pamphlets with which they are flooding the mails, these mixed-up individuals would have us pull the United States out of the United Nations, abandon our alliances, raise tariffs and undermine our foreign trade, eliminate the income tax, slash the Federal budget, and then go to war with everyone with whom we disagree...

...The stability of East Asia is I uither endangered by the continuing bellicose attitude of Communist China...

...This year will have its full quota of challenges, its own surprises, and its own hard decisions...

...Indeed, the tempo of the arms race was ominously increased...

...Despite a succession ol crises, considerable plug less has been made...

...It also stresses countrywide planning instead of individual project construction...

...Soviet inlluence, which 1 cached a high in mid-l!>f>(), has declined in man\ aleas—not ihe least of which is the Congo, where the Soviets had high hopes of picking up the pieces...

...Most of them were drawn from university faculties and foundations...

...Let us strengthen communications between Washington policy-makers and the American people so that our foreign policies are better explained and more clearly understood...

...Although we have successfully coordinated our own approach to disarmament, no tangible gains in the impasse with the Soviet Union have been achieved...

...Its primary emphasis is on economic aid instead of military aid...

...What we Americans will need most in the trying months ahead is a proper sense of perspective, a clearer understanding of the scope and nature of the challenge, and a keener appreciation of our own great moral and material strength...

...Ha\e these newly forged and newly sharpened tools enabled the new Administration to do a better job...

...Indeed, the growing difficulties with which the Kremlin must contend may help explain the reckless military pressures in Berlin and elsewhere...

...Our short-term goal is to create a genuine and lasting peace, a condition which is essential to the growth of freedom and an equitable sharing of the earth's abundance...

...and in the President's Inaugural and the State of the Union addresses last year...

...Let us examine the list...

...Shipments of lood products through the Food for Peace effort have also sharply increased...

...In the lac e ol inaiiv frusti alions, prog] ess has also been made in the United Nations...

...The new Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, the first such peace organization ever established by any government, is also in operation...

...As we prepare for these clearly predictable trials, here are a few principles that strike me as particularly important: Let us develop greater patience in dealing with the swings of the political pendulum and resist the temptation to see every issue in black-and-white terms...

...While there was never any doubt about our opposition to Communism, there has been considerable doubt about the kind of anti-Communist societies we are helping to build...

...What has been accomplished...

...in the foreign policy sections of the Democratic Party platform adopted at the Los Angeles convention in 1960...

...In the last twelve months our military shield has been strengthened in several ways...

...Are we in reality "losing" the Cold War...

...and a unified command, involving the Army and the Air Force, has been formed...

...I suggest we look at the record...

...Where were the setbacks...

...Although the Castro influence in our own hemisphere has lessened, there is no doubt that we suflered a serious setback in our invasion of Cuba last April...

...In Asia, Africa, and Latin America powerful revolutionary forces are speeding up the pace of change...

...Bowles is the Special Representative and Adviser to the President on African, Asian, and Latin American Affairs.—The Editors...

...In Korea we have developed ties with an energetic new government...

...Nigeria and Tanganyika have emerged as strong, free nations...

...In broad outline, the proposed new course of action may be summarized roughly in nine major categories: To review our defense structure and our ability to meet our foreign commitments and to modernize and balance both our conventional and nuclear weapons systems...

...that the United States represents only six per cent of the population of this planet, and that we can never run it, even if we wanted to do so...

...What has happened to the experts who shape and carry out our foreign policy...

...The forces shaping events refuse to be harnessed, and crisis follows upon crisis...

...These are grim and bitter words which distort the record and fortify the dogma of the extremist Right wing...

...As more vital democratic societies begin to emerge, as economies expand, and as wealth and land are distributed moii bmacllv, the piospect that Communism or an\ other lorcign totalitarian movement will take root in this hetnispheie is hound to diminish steadilv...

...Uganda and Kenya soon will become independent...

...Can we devise programs that will enable us to deal more effectively with Communist China with its vast population and dynamic potential...

...Even more important is the improvement in presentation...

...Is our government stumbling ineptly from failure to failure...

...The reshaped AID program gives special inducements to those governments which are determined to develop their own resources, to institute internal reforms, and to allow greater individual opportunity and justice with maximum freedom of choice...

...The percentage of Foreign Service career ambassadors appointed in 1961 was the highest in history...

...To bring a fresh perspective to the problems of colonialism, identifying ourselves with the constructive forces of change that are reshaping Africa and Asia...

...Here in brief are some of the more important changes: • The objective of the program has been clearly defined...

...These are some of the ways in which we have improved the operational tools of I...

...To make a new effort to resolve the complex and explosive difficulties of Southeast Asia, which had worsened during the postwar period...

...A third accomplishment has been the strengthening of the United States overseas information program under the capable leadership of Edward R. Murrow...

...The new Administration also achieved ihe successful launching of the Peace Corps, which is now attracting thousands ol young men and women to the services ol democracy overseas...

...For fifteen years we have worked diligently to build the institutions of world security and cooperation and have responded generously to crises and catastrophes...

...Since tin- wai an iin i -casing numbei ol government agene iis ha\e bi-i-ii looselv attached to <>ut missions abtoacl...

...and none ol the choices con hunting us assures a happ) solution...

...Where have there been gains...

...What are the facts...

...No longer is America portrayed as a self-satisfied nation which has solved all its problems, but rather as a dynamic democratic society aware of its defects and working to correct them, proud of its liberal tradition, ready and able to resist aggression but striving earnestly to develop the basis for a lasting peace...

...An unbiased review reveals several situations on which no progress has been made, and others where our position has deteriorated...

...And behind Russia looms mainland China, huge and menacing...

...These now include i e| it esentat i\c-s ol the Pentagon, ihe Peace Corps, I'SIA, the Food -loi --IV.ice piograin, AID...

...Our long-term national purpose is the creation of a world in which an increasing measure of individual dignity, self-government, and material welfare may gradually become a reality...

...many obsolete installations have been eliminated...

...Can we speed up our overseas aid operations, cutting red tape, improving our standards, and resisting pressures to preserve right-wing dictators who have little support among their people...

...With an angry China on its Hank, an increasingly restless youth, a set of unhappy satellites antl an economy staggering under the burden of an immense war machine, the Kremlin faces problems that I would not care to exchange for our own...

...on loans, in preference to grants...

...The foreign policy program that the new Administration supported prior to the election may be found in President Kennedy's speeches and in his book, The Strategy of Peace...

...This has to go on the debit side of the ledger in our balance...

...The Alliance for Progress is a bold el fort to encourage the kind ol continuing social and economic revolution that lias given our countrv much of its dynamic strength...

...Is it true that the State Department is loaded with bumbling incompetents while, as the author of the article to which I refer asserts, "the driving engine of Communist aggression rolls relentlessly on...

...in the records and writings of his key associates and advisers...

...To seek the basis for a safeguarded and effective global disarmament program, bringing the State Department, Pentagon, and Atomic Energy Commission together on a common national arms control policy under the leadership of a new disarmament agency...

...It also oilers to the- underdeveloped aleas a signilicant example ol what free-economies can accomplish working in pai inci ship...

...In Southeast Asia, the problems that confront us continue to be grim...

...On the complex and often emotion-laden questions involving our foreign policies, it is not easy to achieve a balanced perspective...

...Why aren't we fighting back effectively...

...This program is now on a long-term, more businesslike basis, centralized in the new Agency for International Development...

...To develop a new approach to Latin America designed to prevent the tragic betrayal of the Cuban revolution from being repeated elsewhere in this hemisphere...

...The Soviet Union steadily exerts its great and growing power to frustrate the search for political stability and economic growth...

...To recognize the crucial significance of such key Asian nations as Japan and India by strengthening our relations with them and helping them to build deeply-rooted democratic and prosperous societies...

...By demonstrating the enois in Marx's anahsis ol economic and political lories, the new Europe provides a povverlul magnet lor the unhappy Last I -..Utopian satellites...

...A fourth foreign policy objective of the new Administration is the strengthening of the State Department itself and the reorganization' of its overseas operations...

...What of Attica...

...Unhappily this does not make our task any easier or the danger any less...

...that wc cannot mold every situation to our wishes...

...In Asia, the past year lias seen signs ol improvement in the relations between Japan and Korea...

...And as our record of Cold War losses mounts, people ask: What's wrong...

...More are being built...

...To review our relations with Europe and NATO with a view to encouraging the economic and political integration of that continent and closer cooperation within the Atlantic Community...

...Let us further improve and expand our information and cultural programs both at home and abroad...

...On a personal basis, through trips to Canada, Europe, and Latin America, and meetings with a number of heads of state in Washington, President Kennedy has helped reassure the world ol this country's intentions to stand as a strong force for peace and security...

...Since World War II we have been living in a challenging world...

...To reorganize the foreign aid program on a continuing basis with a new sense of direction, new standards, new purposes, fresh personnel, and improved administration...

...and the Depai tnients ol Commci c e, l.aboi...

...A lespccied and able Acting Secieiaty Ccneral with full powers of the office was elected by an overwhelming vote...

...Let us use our increased military strength and the advantages of the new European union to reinvigorate the NATO defense system, so that it will indeed be a genuine counterbalance to Soviet power...

...A second and equally important foreign policy tool is our reshaped foreign aid program for the new and developing nations...

...in the debates during the Presidential campaign...

...and we are now working out new aid and delense agreements...