Christmas Greeting to the Foreign Service of the United States.

To the Foreign Service:

WHATEVER may be your rank in the Foreign Service, whether you are Chiefs of Mission or junior Foreign Service officers or clerks, you are in some measure active and responsible participants in world affairs at a turning point of history. As such your willingness to sacrifice yourselves, your stamina and the quality of the intelligence which you bring to the performance of your duties are being tested and will continue to be tested as they have never been tested before. I do not send you a conventional holiday message at this time of anxiety and suffering for many millions throughout the world. Instead I wish to tell you of my faith in you and of my confidence that you will prove equal to the heavy burdens which you must carry.