Acheson: The Secretary of State Who Created the American World [Hardcover]

James Chace (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 31, 1998

Drawing on his family diaries and letters as well as the latest revelations from Russian and Chinese archives, this is a biography of Dan Acheson, Truman's controversial secretary of state, tracing his ascent from carefree schoolboy at Groton to architect of the post-war world.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

World Policy Journal editor James Chace has produced a balanced, intricate portrait of Secretary of State Dean Acheson, one of the chief architects of America's foreign policy in the mid-20th century. Starting with Acheson's childhood as a preacher's son in Connecticut, Chace traces his subject's rise through Yale and Harvard Law School (where he shared a house with several classmates, including a pre-Broadway Cole Porter), a two-year stint as Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis's law clerk, and key roles in the Departments of Treasury and State under FDR.

But it was Harry Truman who, upon being reelected in 1948, rewarded Acheson with the offer of secretary of state, a position he took with some initial reluctance, protesting that he was not adequate to the requirements of the job at such a critical juncture in history. He proved himself wrong with his decisive role in the shaping of the Truman Doctrine and the NATO alliance, averting war with the Soviet bloc on the European front. But, as Chace shows, Acheson's efforts were not as effective in China and Korea. And there were domestic problems as well; Acheson and his department were a particular target of the anticommunist witch-hunt even before Sen. Joseph McCarthy got in on the act. Chace's richly detailed narrative is particularly effective in placing Acheson's marginal role in the Alger Hiss affair in its proper context while highlighting Acheson's personal integrity in the matter.

After 1953, Acheson remained an outspoken commentator on America's foreign policy, frequently criticizing Eisenhower's reliance on nuclear weaponry, and serving in an advisory capacity to Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, the latter of whom took Acheson's advice to get out of Vietnam to heart. Acheson even had occasion to advise Richard Nixon, who had accused the secretary in 1952 of heading a "Cowardly College of Communist Containment," although he broke with Nixon after the president ordered the bombing of Cambodia. Chace's account of Acheson's life and career is as lively as it is intelligent, a well-crafted story that provides the reader with much insight into the unintended origins of the cold war. --Ron Hogan

From Publishers Weekly

The blazing career of Dean Acheson (1893-1971), American statesman, secretary of state under Truman and political pragmatist par excellence, is vibrantly brought to life against the tumult of a rapidly changing political arena in this superbly written and erudite biography. The son of a Conn. Episcopalian clergyman, the obstreperous Acheson attended Groton (where he finished last in his class), then Yale College and Harvard Law School, and joined the Navy for the duration of WWI. After clerking for Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis, Acheson, a staunch Democrat, entered government under the New Deal, becoming undersecretary of the Treasury in 1933. Though a legal dispute with FDR about the pricing of gold led to his resignation, he lobbied for FDR's reelection, worked for the State Department during the war and was appointed undersecretary of state by Truman, becoming instrumental in the implementation of both the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan. Following Truman's upset reelection in 1948, he was named secretary of state, a job consumed by crisis: the creation of NATO, the Communist takeover of mainland China and the beginning of the Korean War. Leaving office in 1953 he became a senior statesman, urging JFK to appoint Dean Rusk as head of the State Department (which he came to regret), taking a hawkish stance on the Cuban missile crisis and advising LBJ on Vietnam, laying the foundations, Chace writes, "for the American predominance at the end of the 20th century." A professor at Bard College, Chace (The Consequences of Peace) commands this broad historical canvas?which includes vivid portraits of FDR, Truman, Adlai Stevenson, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Archibald MacLeish and Cole Porter?with an expert hand.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 512 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster (August 31, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684808439
• ISBN-13: 978-0684808437
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #693,018 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant Biography Of Man Who Created A Pax Americana!, October 15, 2000

By 

Barron Laycock "Labradorman" (Temple, New Hampshire United States) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Acheson: The Secretary of State Who Created the American World (Paperback)

No one was more influential in successfully constructing the American political approach toward negotiating the difficult passage of the United States in the fractious post World War Two period than Harry Truman's controversial Secretary Of State, Dean Acheson. No single individual was more energetic, impassioned, or persistent in creating the American worldview of the second half of this century than Acheson, and although he was not among the original company of American "Cold Warriors", he quickly made up for his late start with extraordinary enthusiasm, brilliance, and decisive action. In this stirring, comprehensive, and immensely readable biography by historian James Chace, the reader is taken into the fascinating vortex of the wealthy power elite, where we watch with fascination as this child of privilege slowly comes of age, graduating from prestigious Groton Academy and undergraduate studies at Yale, moving on to Harvard Law School, where he was a housemate of Cole Porter's.

Acheson indeed quickly learned to walk with ease in the corridors of money, power, and influence, first, as a protégé of Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter, and then as a close advisor to General George Marshall. He was a friend and confidant to Winston Churchill, and after the war was appointed by Harry Truman to the job of a lifetime, that of Secretary of State from 1949 until 1953, thus achieving the key position he needed to massively influence the key decisions and policies that would shape the post-WWII world. As a consummate man of action who often moved decisively behind the scenes, Acheson executed the Marshall Plan to contain Soviet aggression and influence in Berlin, and was also the principal architect of the so-called Truman Doctrine designed to limit Stalin's expansionist ambitions in the early 1950s. Moreover, he was a driving force in the creation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or NATO, which ensured military parity in Europe and restrained The Soviet Union in its efforts to export its philosophy and politics to the rest of a Europe still reeling from the effects of the war.

The author's portrait of Acheson is not that of an impassioned ideologue seemingly obsessed with single-handedly combating the evils of communism. Quite the contrary, Chace's view of Dean Acheson seems more that of a quite intelligent, thoughtful, and balanced veteran of `realpolitik', i.e., of a brilliantly pragmatic patriot whose enlightened views of the Soviet Union and Communist China quite gradually hardened based both on experience as well as a belated recognition of the horrors of what had transpired in each of those countries both before and during the Second World War. Unfortunately for Acheson, his moderate and realistic views earned him the distrust and repudiation of the far right, and McCarthy and his fellow travelers unfairly branded him as the man "who had lost China". Acheson later became a much-valued elder statesman who advised Presidents and Senators alike, and he is largely credited with having successfully articulated the policies and strategies that eventually won the Cold War. This is a quite literate, entertaining, and very informative book about a man central to the construction of the post WWII American foreign policies that literally saved the world from communism. I highly recommend it. Enjoy!

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Well written readable bio of US's most important S of State, March 18, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Acheson: The Secretary of State Who Created the American World (Hardcover)

James Chace has written an excellent history of the cold war through his biography of Dean Acheson, the architect of the US post WWII foriegn policy. If you like history and biographies -- this book is a great read.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wow!, January 27, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Acheson: The Secretary of State Who Created the American World (Hardcover)

While it can sometimes be overly favorable to the former Secretary of State, this book provides a very interesting view of the most important events of the century. A must read for anyone interested in Cold War history, the author has done a great job - it's not remotely boring!