Overview
This is the authoritative biography of Dean Acheson, the most important and controversial secretary of state of the twentieth century. It is an important and dramatic work of history chronicling the momentous decisions, events, and fascinating personalities of the most critical decades of the American Century.About the Author:
James Chace was the Paul W. Williams Professor of Government and Public Law at Bard College
Editorials
Patrick Glynn
[An] authoritative and highly readable biography....Superb. -- CommentaryLance Morrow
Acheson handsomely reproduces the post-war era. -- TimeFrancis Fukuyama
It is hard to read this account of Acheson and Truman and not feel considerable nostalgia for an earlier Democratic Administration, when giants truly walked the earth. -- New York Times Book ReviewRichard Bernstein
. . .a useful, clear history of the major events of the post-war world that Acheson helped to shape. . . .a book about. . .a figure of clear vision and strong character who managed to support mostly the right policies when other policies were being proposed.— The New York Times
Library Journal
Chace Henry Luce Professor in Freedom of Inquiry, Bard College begins his book with the early life of Dean Acheson in a small town in Connecticut. One might expect the chief architect of U.S. foreign policy during the Cold War to be a conservative in his early years, but Acheson was almost the opposite. This irony and many others continued throughout Acheson's life. His initial goal was to be a promising labor attorney, and even as late as World War II, he longed to return to the practice of law. Yet he stayed on as Undersecretary of State and later as Secretary of State under Truman's second administration, and he would continue to advise later presidents until his death in 1971. Chace has done an excellent job of research and writing the story of Acheson's life; countless interviews and more than 50 pages of notes form the biography. It is difficult to separate someone of Acheson's caliber from an administration's foreign policy stance, yet Chace succeeds brilliantly.-- Mark E. Ellis, Albany State University Library, Leesburg, GA
Washington Post Book World
What makes Acheson such an excellent book is Chace's ability to blend serious foreign policy analysis with colorful vignettes...He tells his story with intelligence and grace.Richard Bernstein
. . .a useful, clear history of the major events of the post-war world that Acheson helped to shape. . . .a book about. . .a figure of clear vision and strong character who managed to support mostly the right policies when other policies were being proposed. -- The New York TimesNew York Times Book Review
An engrossing biography.Kirkus Reviews
An intelligent, meticulously researched biography of Dean Acheson (1893-1971), who as Harry Truman's Secretary of State became 'the most important figure in American foreign policy since John Quincy Adams.' With aristocratic hauteur, decisiveness, command of facts, and biting wit, Acheson could face down dictators, rabid right-wingers, and American presidents. Only now, however, with the collapse of the Iron Curtain and the opening of U.S. and Soviet files, can a proper assessment be made of his achievements and errors.Drawing on these and other sources, World Policy Journal editor Chace provides an even-handed appraisal. An accomplished lawyer, Acheson came into his own as Assistant Secretary of State for Franklin Roosevelt, when he played a key role in shaping the Lend Lease and Bretton Woods accords. Chace throws the last pile of dirt on revisionist historians' contention that Acheson helped precipitate the Cold War, noting that he sought to reach agreement with Josef Stalin until Soviet designs on Europe forced him into pursuing containment. Under Truman, Acheson helped formulate the Marshall Plan and Truman Doctrine and, in what Chace sees as his lasting legacy, brought West Germany into NATO, thus preventing a major Continental land war for the last half of the century. While admiring Acheson's achievements, Chace also notes that his shrill rhetoric encouraged successors' global containment schemes, which this Eurocentric, pragmatic statesman never intended, and that his policies in Asia were less sure-footed than his policies in Europe. He became vulnerable to GOP attacks because of his refusal to condemn Alger Hiss and America's 'loss' of China, yet he retained theunstinting support of Truman.
As an elder statesman, Acheson urged John Kennedy to order limited air strikes during the Cuban missile crisis and turned against the Vietnam War as one of Lyndon Johnson's 'wise men.' A skillful biography of one member of a species now seemingly headed toward extinction in Washington: a government titan of remarkable achievement, eloquence, loyalty, and integrity.
From the Publisher
"To understand America's role in the world today, you have to understand Acheson, one of the century's most influential and colorful statesmen. And Chace does. He portrays him as a brilliant realist who had the ability and desire to assure that the United States was willing to assert its power." -- Walter Isaacson, author of Kissinger