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FOREIGN RELATIONS, 19 5 0, VOLUME I


   d. All its actions in the international field are in conformity with
 the principles of the Charter of the United Nations.
   e. The United States always stands ready to consider in appropriate
 forums concrete proposals put forward by the USSR which contain,
 any promise of diminishing international tension and which do not
 involve compromise of the basic principles of the United States and
 the free world. At the same time, the United States believes that
 general discussions with the USSR will be fruitful to the extent that
 the United States and the free world possess strength on a scale
 providing authority and flexibility in negotiations.
   f. It has the will and the means to make hard decisions and execute-
 necessary plans at sacrifice and cost without creating political or
 economic instability.
   g. Notwithstanding necessary partial curtailments of assistance for
 purely economic purposes, it regards the development of strong in-
 digenous economies in other areas of the world as an indispensable
 element in its foreign policy.
   h. It has no imperial ambitions.
   i. It contemplates the wide distribution of power in the worlk
 among peoples and nations, large and small, all responsive to suitable,
 and effective international authority.
   j. It is determined that in building up its military strength it shall'
 nott undermine its basic principles, its respect for individual liberty,
 its hatred of political oppression, its opposition to totalitarian prac-
 tices, its love of justice.
   The people and the Government of the United States can not fail
 to be aware that, in the future even more than in the past, their re-
 liability, ,their character land their devotion to sound principle will
 be judged not only by what they do directly in the name of foreign,
 policy butt also by how they manage their 'affairs and deal with each
 other in their domestic relations. Other peoples will not be impressed
 only by factories put into operation in the United States and armecl
 forces created. They will also be impressed by the quality of the edu-
 cational system, the support given to cultural institutions, the rise or
 fail of crime rates, the measure of social justice for various groups-
 and individuals, the degree of self- and group-discipline shown in
 the pursui't of the national purpose and by other tests of ,the vigor
 and scope of the nation's civic virtue.
   In order to correct constantly recurring misunderstanding -and mis-
conceptions 'about the United States, which are often more damaging,
particularly -among basically well-disposed foreign peoples, -than the
lies of Soviet propagandists, the need continues for making widely
known abroad the nature of the people, the history and the institutions'
of the United States. The objective is not to boast the virtues of the
United States or to induce other peoples to adopt its institutions,
political, economic or social. The objective rather is to create under-
standing of how Americans live -and work, ham. wiehly various is