Part XIV

THE ORGANIZATION, FUNCTIONS, AND OPERATIONS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF STATE

A. Organization and Administration

XIV-1

"THE COORDINATION OF [UNITED STATES AGENCIES IN THE FIELD OF FOREIGN POLICY] IS ONE OF THE COMPLICATED TASKS OF ADMINISTERING OUR GOVERNMENT": Reply Made by the President (Kennedy) to a Question Asked at a News Conference, February 7, 1963 1

Yes, my view [on the role of the Secretary of State in national security affairs] and his [Secretary Rusk's] are the same. The Secretary of State is the principal adviser to the President in the field of foreign policy. He is also the chief administrative officer of the Department of State which includes many responsibilities but whose central responsibility, of course, is to carry out the day-to-day business, as well as to set down the larger-and advise the President on the development of larger policies affecting our security.

Mr. Rusk and I are in very close communion on this matter. We are in agreement and I have the highest confidence in him, and I'm sure that but I do think that Senator Jackson's suggestions deserve very careful study. One of our great problems is we deal with the whole world, and the Department of State is involved, the Treasury may be involved, Agriculture may be involved, Defense may be involved, and the intelligence community involved. The coordination of that in an effective way which finally comes to the White House is one of the complicated tasks of administering our Government in these days.

1 The reply printed here is taken from p. 149 of Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: John F. Kennedy, 1963.

See Administration of National Security-Basic Issues-A Study Submitted by the Subcommittee on National Security Staffing and Operations (Pursuant to S. Res. 332, 87th Cong.) to the Committee on Government Operations, U.S. Senate (Committee print, Senate Committee on Government Operations, 88th Cong., 1st sess., submitted Jan. 18, 1963), pp. 6-9.

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XIV-2

PROPOSAL FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A NATIONAL ACADEMY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS: Letter From the President (Kennedy) to the President of the Senate (Johnson), February 11, 1963 3

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DEAR MR. PRESIDENT: I am transmitting herewith for the consideration of the Congress a bill to provide for the establishment of the National Academy of Foreign Affairs, together with a memorandum summarizing and discussing the principal provisions of the proposed legislation.

In the last quarter-century, there has been a dramatic change in the role and responsibilities of the United States in world affairs. Before the Second World War, our commitments to the world outside our own hemisphere were limited. Our role was characteristically that of observer, not of participant. Our representatives abroad concentrated on reporting events rather than on working to change their course. We had no major programs of foreign assistance or overseas information or cultural exchange.

Today we live in a new world-a world marked by the continuing threat of communism, by the emergence of new nations seeking political independence and economic growth, and by the obligations we have assumed to help free peoples maintain their freedom. To meet the challenges of this new world, we have enormously expanded and diversified our overseas commitments, operations and activities.

These operations involve virtually every department and agency of our government. Nearly a million Americans are serving our nation beyond our national frontiers. And the hopes for progress and freedom in much of the world rest in great part on the American contribution.

This new situation demands men and women capable of informed and forceful action everywhere within the economic, political and social spectrum of our concern. It requires these men and women to apply their specialized skills and experience to many diverse problems and activities, and at the same time to maintain an essential unity of purpose and action so that all these operations can be coordinated into a harmonious whole. It therefore demands a new approach to the training and education of men and women for service overseas. It calls for new proficiency in the analysis of current problems, new skill in the formulation of policy, new effectiveness in the coordination and execution of decision, new understanding of the tactics of communism and the strategy of freedom, and new preparation for the multitude of tasks which await our government personnel everywhere in the world.

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* White House press release dated Feb. 11, 1963 (text as printed in the Department of State Bulletin, Mar. 25, 1963, pp. 427-431). An identical letter was sent on the same day to the Speaker of the House of Representatives (McCormack).

Not printed here; for text, see H.R. 3668, 88th Cong., introduced Feb. 11, 1963.

The various Federal departments and agencies have already made extensive efforts to develop programs to equip their personnel for these new challenges. But a piecemeal, department-by-department approach is no longer adequate. A new institution is urgently needed to provide leadership for those efforts to assure vigorous and comprehensive programs of training, education and research for the personnel of all departments.

The proposed National Academy of Foreign Affairs is based on recommendations made by two distinguished groups of educators and public servants. Autonomous in nature and interdepartmental in scope, the Academy would be designed to provide our foreign affairs personnel with the fundamental knowledge and understanding which is indispensable to serving our nation effectively in today's complex world. It is not intended in any way to supersede or to compete with the notable work now carried on in our colleges and universities. The central burden of basic education in foreign affairs must, of course, remain in non-governmental hands. Unlike the present Foreign Service Institute, the Academy will not be oriented primarily to the work of the Department of State alone, but will be the nucleus of Government-wide training and research in international matters. Therefore, the proposed legislation calls for the repeal of earlier legislation establishing the Foreign Service Institute and for the transfer of appropriate facilities of the Institute to the Academy. The Department of State will retain authority to provide specialized in-service training of a routine character on subjects of exclusive interest to its own personnel, as will other Federal agencies.

Nor would the Academy detract from the valuable contribution being made by our senior professional military schools. Finally, it would not propagate any single doctrine or philosophy about the conduct of foreign affairs. Such an institution can serve the cause of freedom only as it embodies the spirit of freedom, and it can fulfill its mission only by meeting the best standards of intellectual excellence and academic freedom.

The Academy is intended to enable faculty and students of the highest quality to focus our collective experience and knowledge on the issues most vital to the advancement of our national purpose. With the full backing of the government and academic community, it will, it is hoped, attract the essential leadership that will make it a great center of training, education and research in foreign affairs. I earnestly hope that the Congress will give early and favorable consideration to this proposed legislation.

MEMORANDUM FROM SECRETARY RUSK

SUBJECT: Bill to provide for the establishment of the National Academy of Foreign Affairs

During recent years, the need for advanced professional training, education, and research in the vast and intricate field of American foreign affairs has become increasingly evident, both to the Federal

* See American Foreign Policy: Current Documents, 1962, pp. 1553-1555.

agencies directly concerned and to outside political and academic leaders. Strenuous efforts have been made to meet this need by the expansion and improvement of existing facilities, but the weight of evidence makes it clear that piecemeal measures will no longer suffice and that a wholly new approach is needed.

The importance of a new approach to foreign affairs training, education and research was highlighted in the Report of the Committee on Foreign Affairs Personnel, chaired by former Secretary of State Christian Herter. It was also the subject of a recent report to you submitted by a special Presidential Advisory Panel of academic leaders, chaired by Dr. James A. Perkins. The legislation now being proposed is based primarily upon the findings and recommendations of the latter report, although it has taken account of ideas and suggestions from many other sources, including various legislative proposals put forward by members of the Congress in past years. The most significant features of the proposed legislation are the following:

1. Enactment of the legislation will manifest a clear and firm commitment by the Congress and the Executive Branch to make training, education and research in foreign affairs a more effective and integrated instrument of American foreign policy.

2. The program of the proposed Academy will encompass the entire range of foreign affairs and thereby serve the totality of American interests. Thus, while the methods of resisting communist expansion-direct and indirect-must be given great emphasis, this subject obviously cannot be treated in isolation. It must be closely linked with various interrelated purposes and activities of U.S. foreign policy, such as the economic and social advancement of the lessdeveloped countries, the preservation of our regional alliances, and the promotion of American commercial ties with other nations. In other words, the proposed legislation recognizes that American foreign policy has many specialized and interlocking components, and contemplates a training and research program that will embrace all these components and clarify the relationship among them.

3. In the broadest sense, the program of the new Academy may be expected to better meet our needs in three major areas: (a) the analysis, compilation and distribution of the products of the best thinking developed in governmental and private research institutions; (b) the study and evaluation of past and present U.S. operating experience in various fields of foreign affairs (especially in new or expanded program areas); and (c) the training and education of professional staffs responsible for formulating, supervising and conducting foreign affairs activities.

4. As the Academy's program is designed to cover all significant aspects of foreign affairs, so it must meet the needs of all U.S. departments and agencies actively involved in foreign relations. The Academy, which would replace the Foreign Service Institute, would be the

"Text ibid., pp. 1545-1553.

7 See ibid., pp. 1553-1555.