Word: moralisms
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Each of these challenges has both a moral and a practical dimension. Each involves important ends, but ends that are sometimes in conflict. When that is the case, we face the real moral dilemma of foreign policy: the need to choose between valid ends and to relate our ends to means...
...equivalence. Ours is no longer a world of two solid blocs and clear-cut dividing lines, but one of proliferating centers of power and influence. Ours is no longer a world amenable to national solutions, but one of economic interdependence and common global challenges. Ours is a world where moral affirmation can be carried out only through stages, each of which is by definition imperfect...
Rather we−like all other nations in history−must now conduct diplomacy with subtlety, flexibility, persistence and imagination. We must fuse our great national assets of idealism and realism, our moral convictions and our pragmatic bent. We can no longer impose our own solutions; yet our action or inaction will influence events, often decisively. We cannot banish power from international affairs, but we can use our vast power wisely and firmly to deter aggression and encourage restraint and negotiation. We can help construct a wider community of interest among all nations. We must continue to stand for freedom...
These are worthy goals. They can be achieved. But they summon a different dimension of moral conviction than that of a simpler past. They require the stamina to persevere amid ambiguity, and the courage to hold fast to what we believe in while recognizing that at any one time our hopes are likely to be only gradually fulfilled. It is the essence of moral purposes that they appear absolute and universal. It is the essence of foreign policy to take into account the views of others who may also see their values in this manner...
Clearly, we must maintain our purposes and our principles. But we risk disaster unless we relate our moral convictions to concepts of the national interest and international order that are based not on impulse but on a sense of steady purpose that can be maintained by the American people for the long term...