“Even if in decline, the United States will remain a crucial player in world affairs, and in coping with the challenges of a new and complex era the nation has a rich foreign policy tradition to draw on:  the pragmatism of the peacemakers of the American Revolution; the basic realism of George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, and John Adams; the practical idealism of Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln; the worldliness and diplomatic skill of John Quincy Adams; the remarkable cultural sensitivities of Townsend Harris and Dwight Morrow; the commitment to public service of Elihu Root and Henry Stimson; the noble aspirations for a better world espoused by Woodrow Wilson; the intuitive ‘world point of view’ manifested by Franklin Roosevelt in World War II; the coalition-building of Dean Acheson and the Wise Men of the Truman years and the George H.W. Bush administration during the first Gulf War; the strategic vision of Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger; the ability to adapt and adjust displayed by Ronald Reagan; the efforts of countless men and women who sought to share with other peoples the best of their country and to educate their fellow citizens about the world.” –George Herring, From Colony to Superpower (2008), p. 963


Gallery of American Diplomats

Cartoon

From L to R: James Monroe, John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, Martin van Buren and Abraham Lincoln

Treaty

From L to R: John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Henry Laurens, and William Temple Franklin

Large Policy

From L to R / top to bottom: Alfred Mahan, Theodore Roosevelt, John Hay, Henry Cabot Lodge

Wilson

From L to R: Edward House, Woodrow Wilson, William Jennings Bryan

FDR

From L to R: Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt, Joseph Stalin

Cold War

Nixon Kissinger

Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger

Albright

Madeleine Albright and Hillary Clinton