Domestic Politics and Peacemaking: Reconciling Incompatible Imperatives

The intrusion of domestic politics into questions of foreign policy and peacemaking has usually had a negative impact. This has been true in a number of earlier small wars—for example, the Boer War and the French struggles in Indo-China and Algeria. It appears to be equally true in the Vietnam war. The force of this argument is illustrated by discussing the policy-making style of the American Govern ment, with some references to the British and French cases, first in normal circumstances, and then in situations where each has had to contend with rising dissent both within the elite and by the general public. Some effort has been made to indicate the difficult kinds of choices which confront a demo cratic government in this situation. Insofar as the govern ment attempts to manipulate public dissent to silence elite critics, another argument is made for the unique importance of dissent by former officials to counterbalance the govern ment's control of information and expertise. The situation which develops in these cases seems to indicate that the intru sion of domestic politics inhibits the possibility of successful peace negotiations.