Dean Acheson: The Cold War Years, 1953-71 [Paperback]

Douglas Brinkley (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 31, 1994

Dean Acheson is perhaps best remembered as President Harry Truman's powerful secretary of state. Yet he also played a major role in politics and foreign affairs after his tenure in the Truman administration. This engrossing book, the first to chronicle Acheson's postsecretarial career, paints a portrait of a brilliant, irascible, and powerful man acting during a turbulent period in American history. "Lucid and graceful. . . . A fascinating window on the Cold War, seen through the eyes of a giant."-Evan Thomas, The New York Times Book Review "A good and fundamentally well-ballanced book."-George Ball, The New York Review of Books "Brinkley's book is valuable. . . . What Brinkley has done, by focusing on the phase of Acheson's life when his native conservatism was most outspokenly revealed, is to highlight the reckless perversity of the charges laid against him by his enemies, and so to restore to him the reputation he does deserve, as the grandmaster of the anti-Communist grand alliance."-Godfrey Hodgson, The New Republic "A new, thoughtful and thorough study of Acheson in retirement traces his continuing influence over American affairs in long overdue detail."-Martin Walker, Washington Post Book World "A vivid and compelling portrait of the lion in winter."-The Philadelphia Inquirer "The most full and fully informed study to date on Acheson."-Raymond L. Garthoff, New York Newsday "A fascinating, slightly off-center perspective on the Cold War world and the mentality which governed American foreign policy from 1947 to 1991."-Warren Kimball, Times Literary Supplement "Brinkley's treatment of Acheson is fair and objective. . . . [He] has done students of recent American history a signal service in giving him his say."-H.W. Brands, American Historical Review

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Deftly examines Acheson's influential role as political advisor after the Truman administration.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Acheson was one of those politicians who, though out of power, remained influential in the background. Brinkley (coauthor with Townsend Hoopes of Driven Patriot: The Life and Times of James Forrestal , LJ 4/1/92) provides us with a solid and eminently readable portrait of Acheson's life after his retirement as Harry Truman's secretary of state. Describing Acheson's years in the wilderness during the Eisenhower presidency, he explains how John F. Kennedy's arrival on the scene enabled Acheson to perform the role of elder statesman and presidential adviser to both Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson. Especially interesting is Acheson's reconciliation with Richard Nixon, a man whom Acheson had bitterly detested while serving as secretary of state. Both men, however, shared a similar realist view of foreign policy, and Nixon sought Acheson's advice on a range of issues. Brinkley's book is important for understanding not only Acheson but also the conduct of American foreign policy between 1953 and 1971. Highly recommended.
- Ed Goedeken, Purdue Univ. Libs., West Lafayette, Ind.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 446 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press (August 31, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300060750
• ISBN-13: 978-0300060751
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,651,744 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Dr. Douglas Brinkley is currently a Professor of History at Rice University and a Fellow at the James Baker III Institute of Public Policy. He completed his bachelor's degree at Ohio State University and received his doctorate in U.S. Diplomatic History from Georgetown University in 1989. He then spent a year at the U.S. Naval Academy and Princeton University teaching history. While a professor at Hofstra University, Dr. Brinkley spearheaded the American Odyssey course, in which he took students on numerous cross-country treks where they visited historic sites and met seminal figures in politics and literature. Dr. Brinkley's 1994 book, The Majic Bus: An American Odyssey chronicled his first experience teaching this innovative on-the-road class which became the progenitor to C-SPAN's Yellow School Bus.

Five of Dr. Brinkley's books have been selected as New York Times "Notable Books of the Year": Dean Acheson: The Cold War Years(1992), Driven Patriot: The Life and Times of James Forrestal, with Townsend Hoopes (1992), The Unfinished Presidency: Jimmy Carter's Journey Beyond the White House (1998), Wheels for the World: Henry Ford, His Company and a Century of Progress (2003), and The Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, and the Mississippi Gulf Coast (2006).

Five of his most recent publications have become New York Times best-sellers: The Reagan Diaries, (2007), The Great Deluge (2006), The Boys of Pointe du Hoc: Ronald Reagan, D-Day and the U.S. Army 2nd Ranger Battalion (2005), Tour of Duty: John Kerry and the Vietnam War (2004) and Voices of Valor: D-Day: June 6, 1944 with Ronald J. Drez (2004). The Great Deluge (2006), was the recipient of the Robert F. Kennedy prize and a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book award.

Before coming to Rice, Dr. Brinkley served as Professor of History and Director of the Roosevelt Center at Tulane University in New Orleans. From 1994 until 2005 he was Stephen E. Ambrose Professor of History and Director of the Eisenhower Center for American Studies at the University of New Orleans. During his tenure there he wrote two books with the late Professor Ambrose: Rise to Globalism: American Foreign Policy Since 1938 (1997) and The Mississippi and the Making of a Nation: From the Louisiana Purchase to Today (2002). On the literary front, Dr. Brinkley has edited Jack Kerouac's diaries, Hunter S. Thompson's letters and Theodore Dreiser's travelogue. His work on civil rights includes Rosa Parks (2000) and the forthcoming Portable Civil Rights Reader.

He won the Benjamin Franklin Award for The American Heritage History of the United States (1998) and the Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt Naval History Prize for Driven Patriot (1993). He was awarded the Business Week Book of the Year Award for Wheels for the World and was also named 2004 Humanist of the Year by the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities. He has received honorary doctorates from Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut.

Dr. Brinkley is contributing editor for Vanity Fair, Los Angeles Times Book Review and American Heritage. A frequent contributor to the New York Times, The New Yorker, and The Atlantic Monthly, he is also a member of the Theodore Roosevelt Association, the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute, the Council on Foreign Relations and the Century Club. In a recent profile, the Chicago Tribune deemed him "America's new past master."

Forthcoming publications include The Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the crusade for America and a biography of Walter Cronkite.

He lives in Austin and Houston, Texas with his wife and three children.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An Objective Book About a Bright, Arrogant, and Intimidating Statesman, October 3, 2011

By 

Whetstone Guy (Montgomery Village, MD) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Dean Acheson: The Cold War Years, 1953-71 (Hardcover)

I enjoyed reading this book. I did not read the last chapter on Southern Africa Policy, 1961-1971. The author Douglas Brinkley, an historian and professor, writes objectively. If you are interested in learning about Dean Acheson's years after he left full-time public office (Dean Acheson was Secretary of State in the Truman Administration and an Assistant Secretary of Treasury under FDR), I recommend this book.

3.0 out of 5 stars Apparently missing some very important information ..., February 6, 2012

By 

G. E. Mantel "RCM-Maki" (Mesabi Iron Range) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Dean Acheson: The Cold War Years, 1953-71 (Paperback)

Re formation of Warren Commission: "Douglas Brinkley ... has additional information concerning [Dean] Acheson's involvement. This information is apparently based on interviews with William Bundy. In telephone conversations with this author, Brinkley initially offered to provide copies of this interview. He subsequently changed his mind. This material may be of great significance." [Information provided by Donald Gibson via the Third World Traveler website.]