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pleased to introduce both a colleague in diplomacy and a
distinguished professor in the School of Foreign Service
at Georgetown University, the Honorable Henry A. Kissinger.

Henry A. Kissinger

Mr. Chairman, Ambassador Bunker, Excellencies, Ladies
and Gentlemen.

I appreciate very much what Ambassador Neumann has said
about me. It was very gracious of him to place me on a
pedestal. I want to tell him I'm perfectly capable of
getting on it by myself. [laughter]

There was nobody for whom I would rather have interrupted
the writing of my memoirs -- this wearying search for an
error I might have committed, unsuccessful I might point
out, -- than for my friend whom I have admired for all these
years, Ellsworth Bunker.

From the beginning of my governmental career he con-
tributed to establishing that minimum relationship that is
necessary between the perceptions of the Harvard professor
and the token requirements of reality. [laughter]

Ellsworth has been one of my heroes and one of my
inspirations.

When one is in academic life one thinks of foreign
policy as a series of profound analytic decisions, Moving

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with that magnificent clarity characteristic of professors
from one self-evident postulate to another, for the students
who may be here, I would like to reveal the shocking truth...
-- that for most practitioners foreign policy is a journey
from one confusion to another. And the reason is that,
where a professor can pick a subject, the subjects present
themselves to the diplomat. Where a professor can take
all the time he wants to deal with issues there is only a
finite amount of time available for the practitioner and he
must always struggle to relate the urgent to the important.
All of the decisions that are made in the real world imply
some compromise. All of foreign policy rests on elements
of power, on aspirations to these, and on quests for
justice. Without security there can be no foreign policy.
But if the search for security becomes the overwhelming
and exclusive concern of one nation it produces insecurity
for all other nations, and the problem therefore is what
sort of relative security nations can enjoy.

In the nuclear age, peace must be the profoundest
aspiration of any statesman, and yet if peace becomes the
only goal it will become the slogan of the most ruthless
who can use *Others'* fear of war to achieve his ends. And so
it is, even with justice. Moral values for philosophers
are absolute. But for statesmen they can only be approached

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in stages. And there is therefore an inevitable tension,
imperfection, and, if you will, confusion, between the
stage of any foreign policy and the goals of any leader.

>This is why [foreign policies] → the task of foreign policy
for our country can never be completed, and why all of us
who have had major responsibility can only wish the best
for our successors and feel with compassion the enormous
responsibilities which they bear.>I have said all of
this because America has been very fortunate that in our
transition from the period of isolation to a period of
global responsibility, we have had the guidance and the
inspiration of great public servants who embodied in their
personality the non-partisan nature of our foreign policy,
who understood what this country means to the world and
made their wisdom available to a succession of Presidents
and Secretaries of State.

Many years ago, one of my predecessors as Secretary
of State, Dean Acheson, whom I consider the greatest
Secretary of State of this century, introduced President
Truman at the Yale Club by saying, "Truman is a Yale man,
in the best sense of the word." And at the risk of
committing a horrible sacrilege I would like to say that
Ellsworth Bunker is a Foreign Service Officer in the best
sense of the word. I say sacrilege because those of you
who are not members of the Foreign Service will not

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appreciate the absolute impossibility of achieving this exalted state without having gone through the arcane rituals which were never revealed to me when I technically headed the Department of State. [laughter]

But it seems to me that Ellsworth ~~being~~ married to one of the most distinguished foreign service officers -- ~~who~~ is one of those taught me the futility of attempting to fight this great institution and made me decide to try to join it. [laughter]

Having conducted foreign policy for so many different Secretaries of State, we represents some of the great values of that institution which all of us who have had to work with it have grown to admire and to consider indispensable.

In a period of potential nuclear holocaust and growing interdependence, it is essential for the United States to maintain a steady course and a continuity of foreign policy. Presidents and Secretaries of State come and go, if not always as rapidly as some wish. [laughter] But the values and goals of the United States are permanent, and those have been represented by the great Foreign Service that has supported Presidents and Secretaries of State through all the difficulties with great competence and total loyalty.

And a second great institution in this country is the group of men whom Ellsworth Bunker represents in his other capacity. For the entire postwar period our foreign policy has been ennobled by a group of distinguished men, ~~who~~,

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having established their eminence, dedicated themselves to
public service. Their ambition ran to service, not to
holding office. Men like Averell Harriman, David Bruce,
John McCloy, and Ellsworth Bunker, among many others, have
represented a devotion, a standard, and a dedication that
has honored our nation. Free peoples everywhere owe them
a debt of gratitude for their service. Presidents and
Secretaries of State have been sustained by their matter-
of-fact patriotism and their wisdom. While I was in office
they were a group always available for counsel, without
second thoughts, or the need to fear that they would use
participation in government for political advantage. My
only complaint about them is that when I came into office
they were already in their seventies and so we only have
another thirty years to look forward to for their participation. (laugh)

Ellsworth was one of the most distinguished members
of this group. His influence has depended on his character
and his courage. He has coupled integrity with judgment
and those are qualities which nobody can hire. Presidents
and Secretaries of State have found Ellsworth a reliable
pilot through treacherous shoals. They could count on him
for compassion, patience, discretion, great ability, and
total honesty. While I was in office it was Ellsworth's
responsibility to represent the United States in a situation
in which it was necessary to prove that some principles
cannot be given up regardless of popular passions. And

some years later he served as Ambassador in another
negotiation in which he had to prove that some positions
must be given up. Again, regardless of popular passions.
In each case he demonstrated that the fundamental values
of this country transcend the emotions of the moment.
And in each case history will record that he stood for
what was right and he will receive for this the popular
acclaim that he now and then missed in carrying out his
complicated tasks.

In our period Ambassadors have a very delicate task.
In an age of rapid communication their instructions can be
conveyed in great detail and changed daily. In negotiations
their discretion is therefore often very limited. But if they
are less necessary for routine business, they are more
needed than ever to educate officials who have to spend so
much of their time managing cumbersome bureaucracies that
too often they lose the feeling for the intangible political
realities of the world in which they live. Ambassadors
now have a crucial role in dealing with this essentially
psychological and philosophical problem, in making this
profound difference in their superior's understanding
of policy as a process of events, as historical realities.

In my experience there is no Ambassador from whom I
have learned more and who has moved me more deeply than
Ellsworth Bunker in his matter of fact, understated

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approach, in his unquestioning dedication to a national interest which he understood, if properly conceived, had to reflect the world interest. I know that he will continue to serve our country with a devotion and ability and sense of mission that have strengthened my predecessors and me and my successor. And I can only wish that he will be with us for a long time. For our glory, Thank you.

Rev. Fadner

Blessed are you Lord God of all Creation. Through your goodness we have been blessed with great leaders as tools to accomplish your designs. There is my friend, co-alumnus, mentor, Jim Trainor, for more than a score of years as secretary of his country's first professional School of Foreign Service, be it was who handed out annual prizes to able students. And now from beyond he sponsors the first award for diplomatic distinction in the name of his alma mater. There is our colleague, Dr. Kissinger, with his words of an eminent teacher and practitioner of the noble vocation of pursuing the goals of peace and patriotism, and there is our present inspiration, Ambassador Ellsworth Bunker. Under the guidance of you, Almighty God, he has lived your truth that hatred, hostility, war in the last analysis, spell the failure and the breakdown of the