POLICIES & PRINCIPLES: Still Negative

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Irked by mounting criticism of its wait-until-the-dust-settles attitude in Asia, the U.S. State Department last month sent Ambassador-at-Large Philip C. Jessup to the Far East in the hope that he might pick up some ideas for a positive policy—or at least a positive statement. Last week in Seoul, Jessup found that the best he could utter was a strong negative. Nettled at Korean criticism of U.S. negativism, Jessup responded by taking the Koreans to task for failing to achieve certain U.S.-sponsored reforms, e.g., the stabilization of Korea's tottering monetary system. Said he: "The problems of the Far East certainly will not be settled if you and other Far East nations sit back and hope the United States will cope with the situation alone." It was hardly a contribution to a new U.S. Asia policy.