A memoir of Mr. Acheson's subordinate service from 1941 to 1947 and
of his five years as Secretary of State. The book is suffused with
praise of Truman. Its reconstruction of specific engagements like
Iran and postwar Germany is detailed, with attention to diplomatic
stresses; its recollections of State Department life emphasize
administrative problems and the task of putting policies across to
Congress. Acheson depicts himself as worker, not architect; basic
foreign-policy stands are taken for granted. It is unnecessary to
dwell on ideological distortions and evasions - they arise most
conspicuously in Acheson's account of the Korean War, which shows
how the Chinese were provoked yet terms them "aggressors" off and
on. Acheson not only refuses to condescend to argue for his view of
Russia as "aggressively expansionist," but censures the "preventive
war" advocacy of his opponents. Aphorisms, jokes and reminiscences
of individual statesmen from Morgenthau to Mossadegh outweigh
salient advice to posterity. Acheson's remarks on the China issue
and the McCarthy days are lively and dignified; however, they also
clinch the impression of an anti-democratic regard for the American
citizenry as primitives open to demagoguery from right or left, and
mere troop-suppliers for ventures like Korea, whose sufferings on
all sides he quite ignores. As apologetics, the book may be more
effective than Truman's memoirs. As analytic history it is less
interesting than Kennan's or Ridgway's. As narrative, it's rarely
tedious or inspiring although obviously important. (Kirkus Reviews)
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize With deft portraits of many world figures, Dean Acheson analyzes the processes of policy making, the necessity for decision, and the role of power and initiative in matters of state. Acheson (1893–1971) was not only present at the creation of the postwar world, he was one of its chief architects. He joined the Department of State in 1941 as Assistant Secretary of State for Economic Affairs and, with brief intermissions, was continuously involved until 1953, when he left office as Secretary of State at the end of the Truman years.
Throughout that time Acheson's was one of the most influential minds and strongest wills at work. It was a period that included World War II, the reconstruction of Europe, the Korean War, the development of nuclear power, the formation of the United Nations and NATO. It involved him at close quarters with a cast that starred Truman, Roosevelt, Churchill, de Gaulle, Marshall, MacArthur, Eisenhower, Attlee, Eden Bevin, Schuman, Dulles, de Gasperi, Adenauer, Yoshida, Vishinsky, and Molotov.
"The passing decades confirm Dean Acheson's place as the clearest thinking, most effective Secretary of State of the twentieth century. As a writer he has no equal since Thomas Jefferson first occupied the office in the eighteenth century."—Gaddis Smith, Yale University
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