DESPITE the skill, authority and sincerity of the participants, the Great Debate on U.S. foreign policy still rang hollow. Through last week all sides had been more clear and forceful about what they didn't want than about what they did want.
The "internationalists" warned of the dire consequences of losing of and the "isolationists" of the dire consequences of trying to save allies. Nobody held out any happier hope than averting the worst. There seemed to be no architects of foreign policy around just building inspectors.
On every wall calamity teetered: Korea, the strained U.S. budget, laggard Western European defense, the...