Word: thomson
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Thomson discusses the problems of "executive fatigue" and the inertia and "curator mentalities" of many officials as crucial factors in our Vietnam and larger Asian policy. He tells of the "domestication of dissenters" (one employer, Thomson wrote, used to refer to him as his "favorite dove"). And he describes the "effectiveness trap" which "keeps men from speaking out, as clearly or often as they might," in order "to preserve their effectiveness" as another factor leading to the kind of freezing of ideas that is so prevalent in Washington...
Although the reaction to his article was over-whelmingly congratulatory (John Kenneth Gal-braith, in a letter to the Atlantic, said it was the finest political article he had read in many years), Thomson said he had received one letter from a former top-ranking Washington policy-maker, criticizing him for breaking the faith and trust of internal governmental activity...
...agree that service under a President requires you to keep faith forever with that President even when he is leading the nation to the brink of disaster," Thomson said. "At that point I would invoke a higher ethic...
...THOMSON takes a very critical stand about United States policy towards Asia. He says we have "over-militarized all our Asian commitments," of which Vietnam is only the most costly and most obvious example...
...Negotiations are like a compression chamber," Thomson says. "Once you get in it, the pressure comes from all sides to reduce your grandiose objectives. And it also becomes very hard to break off talks once you have started them. I think all of us should press very hard for talks...