FOREIGN RELATIONS: What Is a Diplomat?

What qualities make a successful diplomat? Says Machiavelli: he must have "little regard for good faith and be able, by astuteness, to confuse men's brains and ultimately overcome those who have made loyalty their foundation." Says Talleyrand: "Above all, not too much zeal!" Says the U.S.'s John (Open Door) Hay, Secretary of State from 1898 to 1905: "There are three species of creatures who, when they seem coming are going, when they seem going, they come: diplomats, women and crabs."

One day last week Old Diplomat John Foster Dulles, who has been in the game since he got a job...

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