There will be no room, here, for the smug myopia which views American civilization as the final solution to all world problems; which recommends our … - George F. Kennan

...one moves through life like someone moving with a lantern in a dark woods. A bit of path ahead is illuminated, and a bit of the path behind.

If humiliation and rejection are to be the rewards of faithful and effective service in this field, what are those of us to conclude who have also served prominently in this line of work but upon whom this badge has not yet been conferred? We cannot deceive ourselves into believing that it was merit, rather than chance, that spared some of us the necessity of working in areas of activity that have now become controversial, of recording opinions people now find disagreeable, of aiding in the implementation of policies now under question. … In no field of endeavor is it easier than in the field of foreign affairs to be honestly wrong; in no field is it harder for contemporaries to be certain they can distinguish between wisdom and folly; in no field would it be less practicable to try to insist on infallibility as a mark of fitness for office.

Fig leaves of democratic procedure to hide the nakedness of Stalinist dictatorship.