Crisis Diplomacy: A History of U. S. Intervention Policies and Practices (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from Crisis Diplomacy: A History of U. S. Intervention Policies and Practices

Certain statesmen in certain periods of history, especially before foreign policy almost everywhere became subject to either democratic or totalitarian control, were able to present to the public a fairly accurate picture of their foreign policies. Among American states men, Alexander Hamilton, John Quincy Adams, and Abraham Lincoln come to mind; among British, the two Pitts and Canning. During most of the nineteenth century and more particularly in our time, it would be futile to expect the pronouncements of statesmen to reveal the true nature of their foreign policies. One would not expect the pronouncements of any contemporary statesman to tell us what his government is really up to in foreign policy. The degree of distortion, to be sure, differs from statesman to statesman and from nation to nation. It is extreme in totalitarian nations where the concealment of the true nature of the policies pursued - domestic and foreign - is one of the foundation stones of the very authority of government. It is bound to be great also in democratic nations which play a continuous active part in the affairs of the world; for that role requires continu ous competition for the support of opinion at home and abroad, a sup port which derives not from the rational understanding of actual policies but rather from the emotional commitment to policies desired and expected.

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