The Administration: State Looks at Itself

To Senator Joseph McCarthy, the diplomatic corps was infested with Communists who should be hounded out of public life; to John F. Kennedy, the Department of State was a "bowl of jelly." To the American public and to Congress, State has often been an object of scorn, the refuge of striped-pants snobs devoted to balancing teacups. Last week the department looked at itself and concurred with many of the less shrill opinions of its longtime critics. It was a self-examination as candid as has ever emerged from the federal bureaucracy.

"Diplomacy for the 70s," a 610-page...