in foreign comments about us--unfortunately, they are reflected as
vices.

An American is a man with energy and drive, Americans say; he
is strong and self-confident, yet friendly and straightforward in
manner. Alien eyes perceive these same traits. Yet the composite
American described by peoples of other cultures is awkward, well-
meaning, embarrassingly friendly, and, most irritating of all to them,
perpetually impatient and possessed of an annoying sense of su-
periority.

The image of America held by the peoples of the world is not, of
course, all derived from watching Americans overseas at work and
play. The image is also shaped by our diplomacy, our military strat-
egy, our Atlas missiles, and our school closings. Federal troops in Lit-
tle Rock's Central High School and Washington's debates about
foreign aid make headlines in every country of the world. Our
military efforts to contain the spread of communism typically re-
ceive scant attention and less approval in those countries whose
political leadership believes the United States is obsessed with the
danger of communism and under-impressed with the prior dan-
gers of political instability and economic hopelessness.

Thus it is that the overseas Americans carry with them not only
the responsibility for their own behavior but also the guilt for in-
tolerance in Arkansas or bumbling in Washington. They likewise
bask in the reflection from great achievements at Cape Canaveral
or inspiring acts of leadership in Washington. Businessmen or
missionaries, airmen or soldiers, spies, "experts," or diplomats, they
are all, like it or not, surrogates for the United States Secretary of
State.

Many play the part with a feeling of acute embarrassment. Some
learn quickly to relax in the p0.resence of their own power. Not a few
take too seriously the notion that their image mirrors America to
foreign eyes, and feel they must settle every outstanding issue of
American foreign policy every time they talk with a stranger.

Whatever his emotional response, wherever he lives, whatever he
does for a living, almost any one of the overseas Americans will

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