Historical Memorandum No. 1389

August 1983

By William Z. Slany
Office of the Historian, Department of State

Search for Creativity and Ideas
The enormous creative surge in the Department of State in the 1940's was the result of the challenges of the postwar world. A new world organization was established while America devised responses to Soviet expansionist pressures. By the 1960's the Department found itself applying the principles of the forties in an increasingly rigid manner to the new problems of the 1960's -- the end of monolithic communism, the tipping of the nuclear power balance, decolonization and the emerging Third World, and guerilla warfare and terrorism. On all of this was superimposed the Vietnam War.

Secretary of State Rusk had a strong interest in stimulating new policy ideas in the Department. He revitalized the policy planning function by replacing the moribund Policy Planning Staff (S/P) with the Policy Planning Council (S/PC). He encouraged his Deputy Under Secretary for Management to jolt the Department forward by introducing new management concepts and tools. A variety of new programs stimulated officers of the Department and the Foreign Service: more opportunities for service in other agencies, expanded university training, and seminars in new areas of international affairs such as science, technology, and population growth. Secretary Rusk also granted official status to the Open Forum Panel as a channel for alternative foreign policy ideas to come to him from the lower reaches of bureaucracy.

Establishing the Open Forum
In May 1967 Secretary Rusk asked the Director of the Policy Planning Council, Henry Owen, to recommend new procedures outside existing channels through which Department and Foreign Service Officers could submit new policy ideas. Director Owen suggested that an informal forum of officers that had been meeting since the beginning of 1967 be officially established as the Department's Open Forum Panel. In August 1967 Secretary Rusk announced the inauguration of an Open Forum Panel, a voluntary group of 10 junior and middle grade officers, which would "review all suggestions submitted and select those worthy of further consideration for transmittal to him" through the Policy Planning Council. In December 1968 the Department announced that Secretary Rusk had approved Director Owen's proposal to make the Open Forum Panel permanent and to expand the Open Forum responsibilities not only to screen ideas but to generate ideas on its own and become a link in the policy planning process and to present the views of youth and other inadequately -- represented public groups. Secretary Rusk approved at this time the full-time assignment of junior FSO's to the Policy Planning Council who would also serve as the core of the Open Forum Panel.

Secretary Rogers Confirms the Open Forum
On his first day in office on January 22, 1969, Secretary of State Rogers assured Department officers of his commitment to a receptive and open establishment where divergent ideas were fully and promptly passed on for decision. In September 1969 he expressly affirmed his appreciation for the desire to encourage the Open Forum's contribution to the Department. Again on September 29 Secretary Rogers issued a special Department Notice reiterating the Open Forum's mandate for bringing ideas "and well thought-out dissent" to his attention and to that of other top officers where such ideas might not reach through regular channels.

Secretary Rogers continued to give strong support to the Open Forum Panel throughout the following four years of his term in office. The Secretary's initiative in establishing Departmental management reform task forces in 1970 resulted in additional activity and significance for the Open Forum and a new directive further solidifying and formalizing the organization's mandate. As he left the Department in August 1973, one of Secretary Rogers' final acts was to meet with the newly-elected Open Forum leadership.

Organization of the Open Forum Panel and Relationship with the Policy Planning Council
The original Open Forum Panel authorized by Secretary Rusk in 1967 consisted of 10 junior and middle grade Foreign Service Officers selected by the Department to serve six months. Fisher Howe, a member of the Policy Planning Council, served as Chairman. In 1968 Secretary Rusk approved the full-time assignment of junior Foreign Service Officers as associate members of the Policy Planning Council and members of the Open Forum Panel. Their assignment as associate members was intended to allow the Junior Officers to assure that the roles of the Planning Council and the Open Forum Panel were closely aligned. By the end of 1968 the Open Forum Panel comprised 20 members plus an advisor who was a member of the Policy Planning Council.

When the Council was reorganized as the Planning and Coordination Staff in October 1969, the new staff was directed to "encourage and support the Open Forum Panel and similar volunteer efforts to develop participation and innovation in the foreign affairs community." From 1969 until 1973 the Policy Coordination Staff provided an Executive Secretary for the Open Forum Panel who also served as a part-time staff assistant for S/PC. Since 1973 the elected Chairperson of the Open Forum Panel has occupied a year-long full-time position in S/PC which is outside the formal supervision and efficiency performance review systems of S/PC. S/PC provides office space and clerical support to the Open Forum Panel. Management Reform Bulletin No. 34 of February 22, 1972, formalized this relationship between the Policy Coordination Staff and the Open Forum Panel.

Growth and Development of the Open Forum Panel
Between 1969 and 1974 the Open Forum Panel evolved into an organization with an even larger membership, larger attendance at meetings, an growing self-confidence, and an acceptance in the Department of its importance. The Forum emphasized its four major functions as: the Department's link to outside opinion groups, a forum for the discussion of programs and policies, a channel for new ideas and approaches, and a channel for responsible dissent.

The Forum Panel meetings gradually broadened in scope of topics and numbers of those attending. In 1969 and 1970 some meetings were held in the homes of members, but by 1972 regular weekly meetings in the State Department had become a permanent feature of the Forum and its most conspicuous activity. Speakers at these meetings included members of the foreign affairs community, correspondents, academicians, and members of Congress and their staffs. The meetings at times were also addressed by the principals of the Department.

The Open Forum Panel gradually after 1970 became less of a small panel of individuals and more a continually expanding, informal group of officers and others interested in foreign affairs issues. The opportunity for membership expanded beyond the Foreign Service and the Department of State to all employees of the Department, AID, ACDA, and eventually USIA. Membership was neither formal nor organized. By 1972, up to 75 persons might attend particular meetings. By 1975, attendance at weekly Open Forum meetings ranged from 30 to 250. That level continues today.

The Open Forum Panel began its activity in 1967 primarily as a channel for bringing new alternative policy ideas before the Secretary. The Panel seemed originally to envisage itself as a screening body for such ideas aimed at allowing only proposals of real merit to reach the Secretary. Between 1967 and 1970, 140 ideas were received, of which 20 were found qualified to pass on to the Secretary. This function gradually was overshadowed by Open Forum-sponsored meetings and discussions in the years following 1971.

Another activity of the Department's Open Forum Panel was to render assistance to the establishment of subordinate Open Forum Panels for the regional and functional Bureaus. These Panels were to advise and assist the Assistant Secretaries of State.

Open Forum Journal began publication in May 1974 as an in-house, classified journal of alternative, independent opinion and responsible debate by foreign affairs professionals. It was viewed as complementary to the Department's dissent channel. The Journal, originally authorized by Secretary Rogers in 1973, is edited by an Editorial Board appointed by the Chairman, which exercises full authority over selection of articles and format of the publication.

Leadership of the Open Forum Panel
After the appointment of the original members of the Open Forum Panel in 1967, replacements were made for a time on a self-selecting basis by the remaining members -- with the advice of the Policy Planning Council. Through June 1970, members of the Policy Planning Council or the successor Policy Coordination Staff (after 1969) were elected or selected as Chairmen of the Open Forum Panel. By 1969 the Panel began selecting Chairmen by election, and in 1970 the first non-S/PC Chairman, David Aaron of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, was elected. The practice of electing Chairmen for one-year terms also dates from this period. The election of 1970 also involved the election of a Vice Chairman of the Panel. In the following few years the practice of electing voluntary Chairmen and Vice Chairmen continued with elections regularly held in mid-year. In January 1974, the Department established the Chairmanship as a full-time position, allowing full support to Panel activities. In 1973 the Open Forum began the practice of appointing a Steering Group, approved by the Chairman, to devise Open Forum programs and develop consensus positions on proposals and ideas to be conveyed to the Secretary.

"Diplomacy for the Seventies" and the Open Forum
In 1969 Secretary Rogers charged Deputy Under Secretary for Management Macomber with the preparation of a detailed management reform plan for the Department. Deputy Under Secretary Macomber created 13 task forces comprised of 250 Foreign Service, Department, and AID officers. These task forces completed their work in the autumn of 1970. Their 600-page combined report, with more than 500 recommendations, was entitled "Diplomacy for the Seventies: A Program of Management Reform for the Department of State."

During their deliberations, the task forces heard recommendations and received information from the Open Forum Panel itself. Task Force IX, responsible for openness in the Foreign Affairs community, fully endorsed the Open Forum Panel as an important channel for the presentation of ideas and concepts as well as criticism of current operations. Task Force IX urged that the Open Forum not become a pressure device for advocating ideas or programs but should be clearly limited to the discovery and transmittal of ideas worthy of consideration by Department leadership. The Task Force also recommended a publication, possibly the Newsletter, to present ideas discussed at the Open Forum Panel and urged the Panel to consider inviting representatives of youth groups to attend some unclassified discussions.

Task Force VII, charged with the stimulation of creativity, recommended "that the Planning and Coordination Staff be empowered to perform the adversary function for the Office of the Secretary." The Task Force considered the possibility of placing this "adversary function" or procedure for considering alternative courses of action in the Open Forum Panel or the Bureau of Intelligence and Research. But the Task Force concluded that the Open Forum had done a useful job in stimulating younger officers to produce new ideas and bring these ideas to the attention of the Secretary. The Task Force felt that the Open Forum Panel should continue to receive full support from the Department and should be broadened to enable officers of all ages to use the Open Forum to express new ideas and dissent.

Formally Organizing the Secretary's Open Forum Panel
Management Reform Bulleting No. 34 of February 22, 1972, formalized the organization and functions of the Open Forum Panel. The Bulletin took note of the recommendations of Task Force IX and defined the membership of the Open Forum Panel as open to all interested employees of the Department of State, AID, and ACDA. The membership would elect a Chairman or Vice Chairman annually, and the Director of Planning and Coordination was made responsible for encouraging and supporting the work of the Open Forum Panel and assigning an Executive Secretary to the Panel.

The Open Forum Panel was assigned the following functions:

"1. Meets with the Secretary and other senior officers of the Department and discusses ideas and suggestions submitted by employees in the Department or at posts abroad.

"2. Works closely with S/PC in receiving, transmitting to senior officers, and responding to expressions of divergent opinion and creative dissent on policy matters submitted to the Department by employees.

"3. Serves as a forum for discussion of policies and programs.

"4. Is a link with outside individuals and groups, especially youth groups, and, where appropriate, serves as a channel for their ideas."