The Press and Foreign Policy

In the recently published book, The Secretary of State (Prentice-Hall, 1960), President Dickey is the author of the chapter devoted to "The Secretary and the American Public." The seven chapters in the volume were prepared as background papers for the 18th American Assembly, held at Arden House, October 6-9, 1960.

A summary of President Dickey's views, under the heading "The Press and Foreign Policy," was written by Robert U. Brown '34, editor of Editor & Publisher, in the January 21 issue of that weekly journal. With his permission, the summary is reprinted here:

...John S. Dickey, president of Dartmouth College, reported that secrecy in foreign affairs is becoming a thing of the past, public opinion is becoming more and more important in this field, and the press has played a large part in this development.

"Fifty years ago, indeed only 25 years ago, a study of the Secretary of State would have taken little, if any notice of the public relationships of the office," Mr. Dickey commented. "Traditionally, diplomacy has been a relationship between rulers and, more recently, between nation-states. The agents who served and ministered to this relationship have generally, until relatively recent times, regarded themselves as answerable only to the highest executive authority. This circumscribed answerability of diplomatists has been fostered and the work of negotiation safeguarded by a tradition of secrecy in foreign affairs and of circumspection in the utterances of those privileged to deal with these affairs."

Mr. Dickey found that this situation has changed drastically during the 20th century; "today the public's relation to our foreign affairs is a major, perhaps the major factor, in our diplomacy. In my view this revolutionary change is attributable to four broad factors that individually and in their inter-action on one another have created within the past 50 years a well-nigh new dimension in the conduct of our foreign affairs, namely, the public dimension."

These four factors, according to Mr. Dickey, are: 1. An enlightened and extended democratic process - a more direct relationship between the people and foreign affairs;

2. Modern communications - mass media make public affairs and public figures ever more public - "these technological advances seem to have stimulated both the rapacious and the professional tendencies of contemporary journalism. On the one hand, the mass appetite seems to demand more over-simplified, more highly personalized news than before. Circumstances such as a cold war are readily exploited for feeding this appetite, with the possibility of ultimately disastrous consequences in public misunderstanding of foreign affairs. On the other hand these same technological developments have brought so much more information to bear on public questions, particularly in foreign affairs, that the competition for professional penetration is also sharper. The journalists specializing on foreign affairs today as correspondents, editors, commentators, or writers are often so widely and expertly informed that they will not tolerate a government information policy that insults their competence and their sophistication in the field";

3. The changing character of all international relations - the spread of the democratic idea and the mobility of per sons and information are in fact changing the character of international relations throughout the world - "once called into being, public opinion throughout the modern world must be wooed by every nation and every statesman with an aspiration to power and leadership. From here on, any nation that permits a vacuum of information and understanding to exist anywhere (including at home) about itself can be sure that someone else will quickly fill that vacuum. Likewise, it must now be understood that anything of significance that is said anywhere is said everywhere. In the domain of public policy the free world can have no big secrets and there is truly no place for official actions to hide";

4. The character of contemporary U. S. policies - "when our policies involve the positive commitment of national resources and manpower or changing the rules governing our domestic life, and when these policies must be carried out through international negotiations and agreement —at such times the dependence of a Secretary of State upon the public approaches the absolute."

Mr. Dickey reviewed the development of information policies in the Department of State to the establishment and operation of the present Bureau of Public Affairs and its information program. It is a thoroughly informative and interesting paper. On the subject of "leaking news," Mr. Dickey said:

"Leaks are effective only under conditions of secrecy, and the essential story told in this paper is that a climate of secrecy is no longer compatible with the conduct of the office of the Secretary of State."

For those who may fear that the Department's "information program" may enter into the realm of "propaganda," Mr. Dickey said: "If our national interest requires positive foreign policies involving men, money, and other forms of national commitment, then it is clear that the Secretary of State must assume a major responsibility for seeing to it that the American public is willing to assume such commitments. .. . This in some measure means 'selling' the public. . . . The immediate arbiter ... in this area is the Congress. If existing statutory prohibitions were enforced literally, there would be an immediate outcry from all quarters, including 'the Hill.' "

We would add that the outcry would probably come first from the press which is a fairly effective watchdog in this area.

Majid Tehranian '59, who came to Dartmouth from Tehran, Iran, is the editor of Pendar, a journal of Iranian students in America, published in Cambridge, Mass. The quarterly serves as "a forum for the discussion of issues that concern our common destiny as Iranians." Mr. Tehranian is at Harvard doing graduate work in government and Middle Eastern studies.