Page:Dramatic Moments in American Diplomacy (1918).djvu/13

 FOREWORD The public apathy in regard to our foreign policy and the cheerful indifference shown by the majority of our people towards the Diplomatic Service has had a baleful influence upon our country. Even since the disclosures of Germany's designs in the world war have turned attention violently towards the realm of world politics, and thrust the slumbering questions of our international rights and duties into the glare of newspaper headlines, the discussion thus aroused in our press and in our legislatures has revealed a comprehensive ignorance of the first principles of our foreign relations. It displays a total disregard for more than a century of painstaking upbuilding by that successful and farseeing body—the American Diplomatic Corps.

It is not and could not be the object of this volume to give a chronological history of the diplomatic achievements of the United States. My purpose is rather to present in simple form a few of the most striking incidents in the service—to picture the outstanding figures and big dramatic actions in our dealings overseas which should be common knowledge to all Americans, but is not.

I have no fear that the story will be old or stale. Part and parcel of our very life though they be, I venture that a large proportion of both the actions and the principles set forth will be not only new