Evening star., 1961-09-03
STATESMEN
The Heads
OF Stute
In Profile
BY MARY McGRORY
Star staff Writer

Star Staff Writer
AN UNCERTAIN TRADI-
TION. Edited by Norman
A. Graebner. (McGraw-
Hill; $685.
At a moment when foreign
policy colors the consideration
of every man from the Presi-
dent down to the office boy,
this book makes a most timely
appearance.
A history Of secretaries Of
state in this century, 1t con-
sists of IA long essays by col
lege professors in which the
policies and personalities Of
the IA men who have held
the office since 1898 are
profiled. 1t spans the pc
riod which saw the State
Department grow from a
modest organization of go
employees to the present 49,
500. It was also the period
which saw the change from a
complacent isolationism
through involvement in two
world wars to the point
where, in the words of Vice
President johnson. we have
pledged "our lives, our for
tunes and our sacred honor"
to the defense of West Berlin.
Varied Policies
"An Uncertain Tradition"
is certainly aptly named. The
men who held the office,
which is second only to the
presidency, regarded it in a
variety of ways. Some thought
Americans needed only to be
good. Some thought Ameri-
cans needed to be good and
strong. Some approached it
legally, some morally. The
men themselves varied widely.
There was the hapless spoils-
man, William Jennings
Bryan, who was often absent
on Chautaqua lecture tours,
and who resigned from the
cabinet to dramatize his diff
ferences with President Will
son over our neutrality in
World War I. There was
Philander P. Knox, who
served President Taft, and
who believed his mission was
to make the world safe for
American business. There was
Henry L. Stinson, the soldierly
teamworker who sometimes
threw books at his secretary.
Japanese War
Achievements of Secre-
taries of state are difficult
to rate. Things have a way
of getting unstuck. John Hay
thought he had accomplished
something in establishing the
policy of the Open Door in
China. Yet, says the author,
Foster Rhea Dulles, "It is not
an exaggeration to state that
the Open Door policy led ul-
timately to the war with
Japan, 40-odd years later"
If the Secretary Of State
is constantly menaced by the
intransigeant and unpredict-
able abroad, he faces perilS
at home. In his chapter on
John Foster Dulles, Hans j.
Morgenthau somberly details
them: A strong president, a
hostile Congress, an unSym-
pathetic public opinion, a
resistant department.
Worst and Best
Interestingly enough John
Foster Dulles and Dean
Acheson fare worst and best
respectively in this volume.
Norman A. Graebner, writ
ing of the sore-beset Ache
son, quotes the London Econ
omiSt for his estimate: "(He
Isl regarded in the outside
world not merely as a good
Secretary of State, but as the
best the United States has
had in noern times"
Mr.. Morgenthau, analyz-
ing Mr.. Dulles, charges him
with surrender to the con-
ceptS of the opposition whose
reasoning, contradictory in
itself, could not provide the
basis of a rational policy"
He says that the surrender
was unnecessary because
Dulles, who did not change
Acheson's policies, merely re-
named them, had had a free
hand from a President whose
prestige was supreme.
There is much to detain
the thoughtful reader in this
scholarly and readable study
of a thankless job, which is
complicated by the fact that
Americans have historically
regarded foreign policy as a
cluster Of principles rather
than a series Of issues.