MY SAY: HANS MORGENTHAU ON STATESMANSHIP
Hans Joachim Morgenthau was one of the leading twentieth-century figures in the study of international politics. He got this one right.
“In an essay published in January 1962, Hans Morgenthau, an eminent political scientist, faulted Kennedy for approaching issues of foreign policy, such as the proposed invasion of Cuba or the crisis over Berlin, as a politician. That is, when faced with a choice between two incompatible alternatives, he tended to opt for a half-measure, seek a middle ground or temporize by claiming to need more information (or fresh ideas). A statesman, Morgenthau said, “must cross the Rubicon or refrain from crossing it, but he cannot have it both ways. . . . There is no riskless middle ground.” The statesman, he added, must act in spite of his “ineluctable ignorance” of the consequences.”
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