U.S. Foreign Policy

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29330, 8 October 1960, Page 3

U.S. Foreign Policy

American Foreign Policy. Theory and Reality. By Louis J. Halle. Allen and Unwin. 348 pp.

A former member of the State Department’s Policy Planning Staff, Mr Halle was invited to give a course of lectures ori American foreign policy at the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva. His lectures have been reproduced in this book. Mr Halle make's no ciaim to originality of treatment and frankly acknowledges that, in practically every field of his country’s foreign relations, he is dependent on the better known histories and other studies. Consequently, he tells us little that is new; but his telling of his story is marked by some pleasant touches of irony and pity, especially for the men in high offices who are, on occasion, very simple and completely human. In general, this book is not a history, although it follows a broadly historical or chronological pattern in tracing the changes from "isolation” "to “Good Neighbour” policy. The history is mixed with analysis of causes, with moralising and philosophising, and with analogies and anecdotes which will drive some readersito the conclusion that the author could have used fewer words and pages. But anyone with leisure to ponder over Mr Halle’s asides and illustrations of his argument will find much good sense in his pages. On one subject, Halle has made,an extensive study of primary source material and has reached his own authoritative conclusions independently. That subject is the American acquisition of the Philippines. Three chapters of his latest book are devoted to this topic and they stand out as markedly superior to the rest. Although he insists that imperialism was repugnant to the American national character, he argues that the anti-imperialists of 18981900 were wholly wrong in their apprehensions over the consequences' for both Americans and Filipinos. In this connexion, he makes an interesting comparison of the Cubans and Filipinos as to their indebtedness to the Americans: "We liberated the Cubans and they found themselves securely included in the area of our national defences. We not only liberated the Filipinos but we made ourselves indefinitely responsible for defending their independence far outside the area of bur national defences." The Cubans of 1960 do not seem to realise that they are biting the hand Which freed them' and that the Americans may once again, to use Halle’s phrase, be forced “to overcome their aversion to the Use of power for the regulation of international relations.”