A Message from Secretary of State Dean Rusk
May 1967
WANTED: A Continuing Flow of New Ideas The United States can play its proper role in world affairs only when our foreign policy meets new problems with new policies. Innovation and creativity should be encouraged at all levels of the State Department and the Foreign Service. We must be sure that new policy ideas are not put to one side because of their unorthodox nature, or because they are not considered immediately applicable. Discussion and analysis of such ideas, even if they prove unfeasible, can help to stimulate thinking and suggest alternative courses.
With this in mind, I asked the Policy Planning Council to seek out fresh ideas and thinking among officers, particularly those of middle and junior rank, who may have less easy access to senior policy-making officials. The response has been gratifying.
I hope that the flow will continue. To this end, an Open Forum Panel has been inaugurated, comprised of ten junior and middle rank officers, which will review all suggestions submitted and select those worthy of further consideration for transmittal to me via the Policy Planning Council.
I urge all of you at home and abroad who are concerned with the problems which we face over the next decade to avail yourselves of the Open Forum Panel.
Additional Message by Secretary Rusk
October 12, 1967
We have need for a constant state of ferment, for challenge of established positions, for reexamination of premises. Officers must feel that policy alternatives are under constant, active review.
Authentically new ideas are rare. Someone once said that if you got one really original idea in a lifetime, you have done well. That may be overstating, but it is true that new ideas come rarely.
Some ideas are bound to be "conceptual" in nature and that's all right. But put the idea in its complete context. Don't leave off the arms and legs. We can't be interested in pieces of ideas. Put yourself in the position of the Secretary of State: look for the fatal flaws which can throw the whole proposition off. This does not mean that intensive research is necessary on every idea. But ideas must be developed beyond a primitive stage.
New ideas are sometimes complex and subtle, and therefore take some exposition. They have to be "staffed out," but they do need to be analyzed, criticized. The half-baked is not helpful.
Also appeals to reconsider policies don't advance us unless they introduce new considerations beyond those which were obviously involved at the time of the decision. We can't constantly re-hash all the old thoughts. There must be reason, other than simply disagreement, for raising a suggestion.
When decisions are being made, every flavor of opinion should be present. The President is very strong on this: Let the alternatives, the different solutions, be presented and defended.
But when the decision is made it must be carried out and supported by the organization; otherwise there is anarchy. This is our democratic process: decisions by elected leaders and execution by government servants.
Often a really good idea can be briefly stated. Imaginative, searching questions sometimes are as helpful as a new idea. It sets us thinking in the right direction.
One of the great opportunities for new ideas is in developing the requirements for a reliable peace. We must engage people--especially the younger ones who know only as a matter of history, not of experience, the efforts after World War II to build a reliable peace--to look deeply at this abiding matter. There cannot be too much thought given to organizing a viable peace. In fact, that is a pretty good test to put to every idea that comes along: Does it help to organize a reliable peace?
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