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Reading List

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Acheson, Dean. Present at the Creation. New York: Norton,
1969.

Ball, George W. The Discipline of Power: Essentials of a
Modern World Structure. Boston: Little, Brown, 1968.
Boyd, James M. United Nations Peace-Keeping Operations:
A Military and Political Appraisal. New York: praeger,
1971.

Briggs, Ellis. Anatomy of Diplomacy: The Origin and Execu-
tion of American Foreign Policy. New York: David McKay,
1968.

Davids, Jules. America and the World of Our Time: U.S.
Diplomacy in the Twentieth Century. 3d ed. New York:
Random, 1970.

Eichelberger, Clark M. U. N. The First 25 Years. New
York: Harper, 1970.

Kalb, Marvin and Bernard. Kissinger. Boston: Little, Brown,

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States. New York: Praeger, 1969.

Office of the President of the United States. United States
Foreign Policy for the 1970's. Washington, D. C.:

U. S. Government Printing Office, May 3, 1973.

Osgood, Robert Endkott. Alliances and American Foreign
Policy. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins, 1968.

Secretary of State. United States Foreign Policy 1972.
Washington, D. C.: U. S. Government Printing Office,
April 1973.

Welch, William. American Images of Soviet Foreign Policy.
New Haven, Conn.: Yale Univ. Press, 1970.

U.S. SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT

A major element in the founding of the United States was the idea of equality of opportunity. Our nation's founders had come to America in search of this opportunity, to escape the rigid and stratified social structures and economic conditions of the Old World. The importance of the concept of equality was reiterated almost ninety years later by President Lincoln, in his memorable address at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

From its beginning as a rural agricultural society, the United States held forth, during its first 150 years, a credible promise of opportunity and equality for its citizens--socially, economically, and politically--and as seen through the eyes of people of other countries.

Shortly after the First World War came the first major pause in the forward progress of the fulfillment of this promise. The great depression produced disturbing second thoughts on the part of many, shaking their confidence in the U. S. economic system.

Meanwhile, the overall picture had been changing. From the rural beginning, big cities had grown. These cities were growing even bigger, as technological advances reduced the need for a large farming population. Migration northward and into the cities quickened its pace and volume. The military and civilian mobilization of World

War II resulted in an increased movement of a great part of the population, as it took individuals from all social and economic backgrounds, and from all corners of the 48 states, and placed them temporarily in new and different environments.

The experiences of the depression and World War II caused an immediate focusing by our society on economic aspects, and resulted in production of material things, and acquisiton of them by our people, to a degree greatly exceeding that in any other country or in our own history. Rapidly advancing technology, including that associated with the space race and the Cold War, made its major contribution to this productivity.

The overall result, including the monetary and other rewards which were gained in large part from organized labor's increased bargaining effectiveness, resulted in an affluence for great numbers of the people, but not all.

The migration continued. Poor rural whites and blacks, having seen their means of livelihood reduced or eliminated, or having been attracted by the superficialities of the urban environment, moved in larger numbers into the heart of the large cities. The cities grew both in size and number. But at the same time the congestion and other undesirable features of this city environment were being left behind or avoided by those with moderate or greater means, who made their own migration outward to the surrounding and growing suburbs.

Many began to realize that preoccupation with internal economic improvement and with security and prestige in the international arena had drawn attention and effort away from the need for social improvement.

A number of forces and influences affected social conditions, which soon began to take the form of major problems. Among these problems was the poverty which increasingly affected those who, for whatever reasons, did not personally or directly benefit from affluence, and who came to believe that significant improvement in their lot was being denied them.

Along with poverty was the associated problem of housing, inadequate as to both quantity and quality, worsened by segregation and its cause, discrimination.

Poverty and inadequate, segregated housing combined to make mockery of another proclaimed tradition, equality of education.

Other problem areas were those of crime and disorder. From and within the poverty and the segregated housing came an alarming increase in crime. Non-violent activities gave way to riots and lesser disorders, which were responsible for the "long hot summers" of 1964-1957. As the magnitude and frequency of these disorders declined beginning in 1968, they were replaced by

other dissident activities, having a range of announced and supposed issues and causes, and a variety of participants and active and passive supporters.

Small improvements, often in the form of stop-gap measures and also often having glaring inefficiencies, whetted the appetite for more and larger change on the part of those who previously had experienced a certain resignation to their lot and to the status quo. Support for improvement in social conditions and economic opportunities by well-known public and private figures, and the effect of mass communications, further hastened the ferment.

The 1968 political campaign, the apparent frustration over the Vietnam war, and the growing criticism of the military draft provided focal points by which activists and militants rallied a great deal of participation in the whole spectrum of dissident-type activity. And as the appeal of these issues declines, new ones are brought forward from the wings, such as present and past abuses to the state of our physical environment.

The United States is clearly no longer a rural, agricultural nation. Now, three out of four Americans live in 212 metropolitan centers. Estimates are that 80 percent will live in urban areas by 1980. And while problems of poverty, crime and disorder, housing, and education can be found in the isolated hillsides and valleys of Appalachia, and in the arid spaces of western Indian reservations, the se social problems have become, for the most part, the problems of the cities, and will continue to be essentially urban problems.

The subjects of income security, community development and housing, crime, and education need to be understood in terms of their impact on the Social Environment of the United States. The thoughts of the President of the United States on these subjects is best expressed in his State of the Union message, delivered annually. In his message to the 93rd Congress on January 30, 1974, the then President discussed these areas in the following terms:

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"One measure of a nation's character is the respect it accords to its elderly. Another is the way it helps those in need. We can

be proud of the efforts we have made, but it is time to reassess where we are and what direction we should take in the future.

"We can take pride in the fact that:

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Cash benefits under social security have risen from
$26 billion in fiscal year 1969 to $63 billion in fiscal
year 1975, primarily as the result of five benefit
increases totaling almost 70 percent and reaching
29 million persons.

A program of Supplemental Security Income has been initiated and will soon be providing benefits to more than 5 million of the low-income aged, blind, and disabled, on a uniform, nationwide basis in a way that respects their dignity.

"But our income security programs need more than improved

benefits.

"Over the past thirty-five years, a multitude of federally funded programs has grown up whose primary purpose is income security for those in need. Each of these efforts reflects a humane attempt to respond to a worthy goal. However, as cash, in-kind and service programs have rapidly expanded in the past few years two things have become painfully clear:

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First, the result is an extremely costly set of generally unrelated, uncoordinated programs with many unintended and undesirable consequences; and

Second, these efforts neither efficiently nor equitably accomplish the overall objective of assisting lower income families and individuals to achieve greater economic independence.

"The fact that a third of the new Federal budget--$100 billion--will be spent on income security programs in fiscal year 1975, compared to the $38 billion, or one-fifth of the budget, which they received just five years ago, highlights the need to rationalize and integrate our income assistance programs.

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