America once hoped to show the world a shining example of a nation free of the corruption that attended being a great power in the classical European tradition. One of the most shattering blows to our morale is the general contempt for our international behavior that prevails. How might we revise our thinking to give us a global role that would command respect?

My language is that of moral idealism. I well recall my dismay as a student when my lecturer Hans Morgenthau attacked idealism in general, and Wilsonian idealism in particular, as a possible basis for American foreign policy. Later I understood what he meant: that ideals had to be firmly grounded in political reality. But that term needs clarification. What I will propose is not politically realistic in the sense that there is much chance of American policy makers accepting it in the near future. I am not a candidate for office.