ABSTRACT
The American people's indifference, if not aversion, to the history of international politics has been at the root of Americans' mounting confusion about their foreign policy. The long and unhappy story of US attempts at negotiations with Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's Iran would be incomprehensible without due allowance being made for the root cause of this diplomatic disaster. The diplomatic establishment of the United States has grown vastly. The scribes that assisted the first secretary of state in drafting his messages to his ministers abroad have multiplied by the thousands. In 1850, 218 persons serviced the Department of State. In 1992, 10,108 officials cared for the foreign policies of the United States. In American diplomacy, as in other undertakings, sheer quantity does not necessarily turn into quality. America's universalist appeal has the support of history. American diplomacy is the diplomacy of a multi-ethnic democracy that is increasingly populist and uncompromisingly egalitarian.
