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TLS signed “RN,” two pages, 7.25 x 10.5, personal letterhead, June 10, 1991. Letter to William Hyland, the editor of Foreign Affairs and former United States Deputy National Security Advisor. In part: "I want you to know how impressed I was by your May 20 op-ed piece in the New York Times. Without indulging in the gooey sentimentalism of some of those who advocate a new isolationism in order to deal with our massive domestic problems, you pointed out the fundamental truth that we do not have to choose between having an effective foreign policy and an effective domestic policy. The two are inextricably linked and we can and should have both.
A few months ago Herb Stein observed, 'The United States is a very rich country. We are not rich enough to do everything, but we are rich enough to do everything important.' The declinists are wrong; the isolationists new and old are wrong; the end-of-history buffs are wrong.
After Vietnam there was a period when the conventional wisdom was that the United States could do nothing. After the Gulf there are many who believe that the United States can do everything. Both are wrong. We are now at one of those great watersheds in our history when we can continue to meet our responsibilities as the world's only complete superpower and at the same time deal with some of our domestic crises which have for too long been left in the back burner. You are right on target when you observe that if we do not find a way to deal with our social and economic problems at home, 'our foreign policy will also be floundering for lack of public support or understanding.'
While I do not go as far as you would in pulling our forces out of Europe and the Far East and 'leaving behind only a skeleton structure for emergency deployments,' I would agree that this should be a goal towards which we should work having in mind that for a time it will be necessary to maintain substantially reduced deployments until we can more clearly see how our allies in those areas are going to meet their responsibilities. I would also suggest that in the Mideast, while it will be politically difficult, your suggestion that 'a better course would be to bargain any new military commitments for Arab concessions in the Israeli peace process' should apply to the hardliners in the current Israeli government as well.
I am trying to address some of these problems in a book which will be published in January of next year. You can be sure that I shall try to steer a course between those who gibly celebrate the birth of a 'new world order' and those whose only interest seems to be to find ways to spend 'a peace dividend.' You were able to do that in your column, and I hope I will be able to do so in my book. It is not easy!" In fine condition, with creasing to the upper left corner.
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