Ends & Means

Always ready with a sharply focused view of U.S. foreign affairs-and the words to express it--is Dean Acheson, ex-Secretary of State and now a Johnson Administration troubleshooter. At Amherst College in Massachusetts last week Acheson gave his version of how to achieve an effective foreign policy. Excerpts:

"The righteous who seek to deduce foreign policy from ethical or moral principles are as misleading as the modern Machiavellis who would conduct our foreign relations without regard to them. What passes for ethical standards for governmental policies in foreign affairs is a collection of moralisms, maxims and slogans which neither help nor guide but only confuse decisions."

Used & Reused. "One of the most often invoked and delusive of these maxims is the so-called principle of self-determination. In the continuing dispute over Cyprus, it has been invoked by nearly all parties to the struggle to support whatever they were temporarily seeking to achieve--by all Cypriots to justify revolt against British rule, by Archbishop Makarios to support an independent government for the whole island, by Greek Cypriots as foundation for enosis with Greece, and by Turkish Cypriots for partition of the island and double enosis, union of one part with Greece and the other with Turkey.

"Another set of moralisms and maxims crops up to bedevil discussion and decision about what is broadly called 'foreign aid.' A good deal of trouble comes from the anthropomorphic urge to regard nations as individuals and apply to our own national conduct vague maxims for individual conduct--for instance, the Golden Rule--even though in practice individuals rarely adopt it.

"But, you will say to me, at least one moral standard of right and wrong has been pretty well agreed to be applicable to foreign policy. Surely the opinion of the world has condemned the use and threat of force. Does this not give us firm ground on which to stand? Well, does it? Is it moral to deny ourselves the use of force in all circumstances, when our adversaries employ it, under handy excuses, whenever it seems useful to tip the scales of power against every value we think of as moral and as making life worth living?"

Where Ends Justify Means. "What, then, is the sound approach to questions of foreign policy? I suggest that it is what we might call the strategic approach--to consider various courses of action from the point of view of their bearing upon major objectives. If you object that is no different from saying that the end justifies the means, I must answer that in foreign affairs only the end can justify the means, that this is not to say that the end justifies any means or that some ends can justify anything.

"The end sought by our foreign policy, the purpose for which we carry on relations with foreign states, is to preserve and foster an environment in which free societies may exist and flourish. Our policies and actions must be tested by whatever they contribute to or detract from achievement of this end."

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