Word: rusk
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...Rusk is commonly labeled "colorless" and-notably by Schlesinger-"indecisive." Yet, as he points out, "the course of wisdom lies in reducing the impact which accidents of personality have upon the relations among nations." He deplores "making policy by phrase," usually writes statements and memos in tinder-dry language. Not that he is totally incapable of turning a wry phrase or cracking a joke. During the Cuban missile crisis, it was Rusk, after all, who commented: "We're standing eyeball to eyeball and I think the other fellow just blinked." Addressing 200 college-age members of the Senate Youth...
...Time Is Coming." In the face of such wide and widening divergence, the President decided that it was time to lay it on the line to Congress and simultaneously put Hanoi on notice that "the string is running out." Rusk reviewed the futile peace probes of the past five weeks...
...statement urging continued restraint. The President's face, said one participant, was "frozen as concrete." When Fulbright began to air his views, Johnson pointedly turned to Rusk and chatted away intently, completely ignoring the Senator. Senate Minority Leader Everett Dirksen said he would support whatever course the President decided upon, but declined to make any judgment himself because "I don't like to have the sidewalk fly up and hit me in the face." His refusal to take a stand was elemental politics; by leaving the choice to the President, he also left the G.O.P. free to criticize...
Consent v. Coercion. As Rusk sees it, the great conflict in today's world is between the "forces of consent" and the "forces of coercion"-and to yield to coercion is to invite catastrophe. "Can we build peace," he asks, "by standing aside in the face of aggression...
...almost glacial calm, Rusk considers diplomacy a slow, dull business-and he is grateful that it is. "Let's not have too much excitement these days," he observes. "It's too damn dangerous." Addressing a group of State Department visitors last week, he counseled: "Reserve judgment to a degree until you dig into the heart of a problem. Glandular reactions are not good enough any more." He is uncharacteristically cutting toward "these third-party amateurs who are so busy trying to mediate the Viet Nam war," mostly without any suspicion that hundreds of existing diplomatic channels have been...