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Dean Acheson: A Life in the Cold War
Dean Acheson was one of the most influential Secretaries of State in U.S. history, presiding over American foreign policy during a pivotal era--the decade after World War II when the American Century slipped into high gear. During his vastly influential career, Acheson spearheaded the greatest foreign policy achievements in modern times, ranging from the Marshall Plan to the establishment of NATO.
In this acclaimed biography, Robert L. Beisner paints an indelible portrait of one of the key figures of the last half-century. In a book filled with insight based on research in government archives, memoirs, letters, and diaries, Beisner illuminates Acheson's major triumphs, including the highly underrated achievement of converting West Germany and Japan from mortal enemies to prized allies, and does not shy away from examining his missteps. But underlying all his actions, Beisner shows, was a tough-minded determination to outmatch the strength of the Soviet bloc--indeed, to defeat the Soviet Union at every turn. The book also sheds light on Acheson's friendship with Truman--one, a bourbon-drinking mid-Westerner with a homespun disposition, the other, a mustachioed Connecticut dandy who preferred perfect martinis.
Over six foot tall, with steel blue, merry, searching eyes and a wolfish grin, Dean Acheson was an unforgettable character--intellectually brilliant, always debonair, and tough as tempered steel. This lustrous portrait of an immensely accomplished and colorful life is the epitome of the biographer's art.
In this acclaimed biography, Robert L. Beisner paints an indelible portrait of one of the key figures of the last half-century. In a book filled with insight based on research in government archives, memoirs, letters, and diaries, Beisner illuminates Acheson's major triumphs, including the highly underrated achievement of converting West Germany and Japan from mortal enemies to prized allies, and does not shy away from examining his missteps. But underlying all his actions, Beisner shows, was a tough-minded determination to outmatch the strength of the Soviet bloc--indeed, to defeat the Soviet Union at every turn. The book also sheds light on Acheson's friendship with Truman--one, a bourbon-drinking mid-Westerner with a homespun disposition, the other, a mustachioed Connecticut dandy who preferred perfect martinis.
Over six foot tall, with steel blue, merry, searching eyes and a wolfish grin, Dean Acheson was an unforgettable character--intellectually brilliant, always debonair, and tough as tempered steel. This lustrous portrait of an immensely accomplished and colorful life is the epitome of the biographer's art.
800 pages, Hardcover
First published October 1, 2006
28 people are currently reading
247 people want to read
About the author
Robert L. Beisner
7 books1 followerA historian of American foreign relations, Robert Beisner taught at American University from 1965 until his retirement in 1998. He attended Hastings College for two years, before transferring to the University of Chicago, where he earned both his master’s degree (1960) and his doctorate (1965) in history. His dissertation won the Allan Nevins Prize for the best dissertation in American history in 1966, and he served as editor in chief of the two-volume bibliographic Guide to the Foreign Relations of the United States.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
August 17, 2019
Dean Acheson practiced international law and served both FDR and Truman. So far Acheson is considered to be the most outstanding Secretary of State in United States history. Acheson served as Secretary of State from 1949 to 1953. Acheson severed as General George Marshall’s Chief of Staff when he was Secretary of State. The State Department was in a state of chaos after many years of neglect by FDR. General Marshall reorganized the department and moved it out of a Navy building and into its new home. He told Acheson what he wanted and let Acheson do the job. Acheson became SOS when Marshall left the job.
Beisner does an excellent job of presenting an unbiased view of Acheson. The author points out the times when history has proven Acheson correct and when he was wrong. It is a surprise how often he was correct. The issues they had to deal with are just as important today. We could learn a lot about how to deal with the world from following their working guidelines. The book is well written and meticulously researched. I found this book fascinating particularly after reading the biography of Averell Herriman and Steil’s “The Marshall Plan”.
I read this as an audiobook downloaded from Audible. The book is thirty-one hours and thirty-seven minutes or 800 pages. The book was first published in 2006. The book has won many awards. Ben Bartolone did an excellent job narrating the book. Bartolone is an actor and audiobook narrator. This is my first experience listening to him.
Beisner does an excellent job of presenting an unbiased view of Acheson. The author points out the times when history has proven Acheson correct and when he was wrong. It is a surprise how often he was correct. The issues they had to deal with are just as important today. We could learn a lot about how to deal with the world from following their working guidelines. The book is well written and meticulously researched. I found this book fascinating particularly after reading the biography of Averell Herriman and Steil’s “The Marshall Plan”.
I read this as an audiobook downloaded from Audible. The book is thirty-one hours and thirty-seven minutes or 800 pages. The book was first published in 2006. The book has won many awards. Ben Bartolone did an excellent job narrating the book. Bartolone is an actor and audiobook narrator. This is my first experience listening to him.
December 23, 2023
In the years immediately after the Second World War, the United States found itself navigating a new world order created by the outcome of the conflict. With all of the other major belligerents either defeated or exhausted by their martial exertions, the nation enjoyed an unprecedented predominance in world affairs. With this hard-won ascendancy Americans found themselves playing a major role in determining the postwar settlement, and received calls for help in recovering from the devastation caused by the fighting. In performing these roles, the U.S. soon clashed with its wartime ally, the Soviet Union, over the direction of global affairs, a clash that quickly devolved into a decades-long contest for global dominance.
During this period, the course of American strategic policy for the next four and a half decades was shaped by just a handful of public officials and their advisers. Among the most important of these men was Dean Gooderham Acheson. An urbane product of Groton, Yale, and Harvard Law School, as first undersecretary and then Secretary of State in the Truman administration, Acheson played a role in shaping American foreign policy in the years that was second only to that of the president himself, as he spearheaded initiatives ranging from the Truman Doctrine to the creation of NATO and the founding of West Germany. These placed him at the forefront of the administration’s opposition to Soviet expansion, yet they did not spare him from remorseless criticism from Republicans, who castigated him as a latter-day appeaser whose policies had betrayed the nation.
Among the many merits of Robert Beisner’s fine study of Acheson is the effectiveness of his rebuttal of such charges. His book is less a biography of Acheson – the life of his subject both before and after his time in the State Department takes up less than a tenth of the book’s 656 densely-packed pages of text – than it is a highly detailed analysis of his role in shaping postwar American foreign policy, one that examines his contributions to that policy and the factors that shaped his decisions. In the process, Beisner discerns Acheson’s underlying beliefs, and how they served as the basis of his response both to the problems of the postwar world and the emergence of the Soviet challenge.
The downside of Beisner’s approach is that it minimizes consideration of Acheson’s formative years and how they shaped his views. Despite his gilded education credentials, throughout most of his schooling Acheson was more interested in socializing than in hitting the books. It was only when he became a protégé of future Supreme Court justice Felix Frankfurter in law school that he blossomed intellectually. Through Frankfurter Acheson gained both a Supreme Court clerkship and connections into Democratic Party politics. After a brief stint in the Treasury Department at the start of Franklin Roosevelt’s presidency, Acheson returned to private practice, only to rejoin the administration on the eve of the Second World War.
Acheson had an uneasy relationship with Roosevelt, whom he regarded as cavalier in his approach to public policy. This contrasted greatly with his attitude toward Roosevelt’s successor, Harry Truman, with whom he developed an enduring friendship. Acheson’s relationship with Truman is at the heart of Beisner’s book, as the mutual respect the two men had for each other gave Acheson considerable freedom in developing and implementing foreign policy. Though the two men did not always agree, Acheson always respected Truman’s authority and kept their differences from becoming public. In return, Truman stood loyally by Acheson throughout his tenure as Secretary of State, rejecting frequent calls from both Republicans and Democrats to fire him for foreign policy setbacks.
Truman’s support gave Acheson enormous latitude to develop strategic policy, and Beisner’s examination of this forms the bulk of his book. While America’s relations with practically every part of the globe is covered, the focus is on two regions in particular. The first of these is Europe, which reflects its centrality to Acheson’s view of foreign policy. A confirmed Atlanticist, Acheson never wavered from his beliefs that European recovery was essential to the postwar world and that it was the primary battleground of the Cold War. Germany was key to this, as Beisner chronicles the determination Acheson showed in supporting German reunification and West German rearmament in the face of the formidable opposition of both the Soviets and his French allies. This determination was rewarded with the economic recovery of western Europe and the formation of NATO in 1949, which became the cornerstone of the West’s response to the Soviet threat.
The other region was Asia. It was an area that caused Acheson unceasing frustration both at home and abroad, as he faced a series of unfavorable developments. Foremost of them was the Communist triumph in China in 1949, which left the secretary of state vulnerable to attacks from congressional Republicans. This was followed a year later by the Korean War, which proved a roller coaster of highs and lows, with the North Korean advance soon countered by the invasion of Inchon, followed by a northward advance that was reversed by Communist China’s intervention. Beisner regards the weeks that followed as the worst in Acheson’s tenure, as he struggled to maintain America’s image in a theater he never regarded as anything other than secondary to that of Europe.
Throughout all of this, Beisner shows that Acheson remained consistent to his core belief that the United States could only defend its interests from a position of strength, one that meant not just a robust and flexible military but partnerships with effective allies throughout the world. In many respects this mindset was his greatest legacy to American foreign policy, one that he worked to maintain after he left office both in public and as an informal adviser to Truman’s successors. And Beisner’s book makes it clear why even many of Acheson’s former enemies came to respect his advice in later years, as many of his initiatives solidified into the nation’s foundational strategy in the Cold War. It’s a well-argued work that reflects both the author’s extensive archival research and his extensive command of American diplomatic history. Though anyone seeking a comprehensive biography would be better served reading a different book (Beisner himself recommends James Chace’s Acheson: The Secretary of State Who Created the American World), anyone seeking to understand Acheson’s contributions to American foreign policy or the redefinition of America’s role in the world in the early years of the Cold War cannot ignore this splendid and indispensable work.
During this period, the course of American strategic policy for the next four and a half decades was shaped by just a handful of public officials and their advisers. Among the most important of these men was Dean Gooderham Acheson. An urbane product of Groton, Yale, and Harvard Law School, as first undersecretary and then Secretary of State in the Truman administration, Acheson played a role in shaping American foreign policy in the years that was second only to that of the president himself, as he spearheaded initiatives ranging from the Truman Doctrine to the creation of NATO and the founding of West Germany. These placed him at the forefront of the administration’s opposition to Soviet expansion, yet they did not spare him from remorseless criticism from Republicans, who castigated him as a latter-day appeaser whose policies had betrayed the nation.
Among the many merits of Robert Beisner’s fine study of Acheson is the effectiveness of his rebuttal of such charges. His book is less a biography of Acheson – the life of his subject both before and after his time in the State Department takes up less than a tenth of the book’s 656 densely-packed pages of text – than it is a highly detailed analysis of his role in shaping postwar American foreign policy, one that examines his contributions to that policy and the factors that shaped his decisions. In the process, Beisner discerns Acheson’s underlying beliefs, and how they served as the basis of his response both to the problems of the postwar world and the emergence of the Soviet challenge.
The downside of Beisner’s approach is that it minimizes consideration of Acheson’s formative years and how they shaped his views. Despite his gilded education credentials, throughout most of his schooling Acheson was more interested in socializing than in hitting the books. It was only when he became a protégé of future Supreme Court justice Felix Frankfurter in law school that he blossomed intellectually. Through Frankfurter Acheson gained both a Supreme Court clerkship and connections into Democratic Party politics. After a brief stint in the Treasury Department at the start of Franklin Roosevelt’s presidency, Acheson returned to private practice, only to rejoin the administration on the eve of the Second World War.
Acheson had an uneasy relationship with Roosevelt, whom he regarded as cavalier in his approach to public policy. This contrasted greatly with his attitude toward Roosevelt’s successor, Harry Truman, with whom he developed an enduring friendship. Acheson’s relationship with Truman is at the heart of Beisner’s book, as the mutual respect the two men had for each other gave Acheson considerable freedom in developing and implementing foreign policy. Though the two men did not always agree, Acheson always respected Truman’s authority and kept their differences from becoming public. In return, Truman stood loyally by Acheson throughout his tenure as Secretary of State, rejecting frequent calls from both Republicans and Democrats to fire him for foreign policy setbacks.
Truman’s support gave Acheson enormous latitude to develop strategic policy, and Beisner’s examination of this forms the bulk of his book. While America’s relations with practically every part of the globe is covered, the focus is on two regions in particular. The first of these is Europe, which reflects its centrality to Acheson’s view of foreign policy. A confirmed Atlanticist, Acheson never wavered from his beliefs that European recovery was essential to the postwar world and that it was the primary battleground of the Cold War. Germany was key to this, as Beisner chronicles the determination Acheson showed in supporting German reunification and West German rearmament in the face of the formidable opposition of both the Soviets and his French allies. This determination was rewarded with the economic recovery of western Europe and the formation of NATO in 1949, which became the cornerstone of the West’s response to the Soviet threat.
The other region was Asia. It was an area that caused Acheson unceasing frustration both at home and abroad, as he faced a series of unfavorable developments. Foremost of them was the Communist triumph in China in 1949, which left the secretary of state vulnerable to attacks from congressional Republicans. This was followed a year later by the Korean War, which proved a roller coaster of highs and lows, with the North Korean advance soon countered by the invasion of Inchon, followed by a northward advance that was reversed by Communist China’s intervention. Beisner regards the weeks that followed as the worst in Acheson’s tenure, as he struggled to maintain America’s image in a theater he never regarded as anything other than secondary to that of Europe.
Throughout all of this, Beisner shows that Acheson remained consistent to his core belief that the United States could only defend its interests from a position of strength, one that meant not just a robust and flexible military but partnerships with effective allies throughout the world. In many respects this mindset was his greatest legacy to American foreign policy, one that he worked to maintain after he left office both in public and as an informal adviser to Truman’s successors. And Beisner’s book makes it clear why even many of Acheson’s former enemies came to respect his advice in later years, as many of his initiatives solidified into the nation’s foundational strategy in the Cold War. It’s a well-argued work that reflects both the author’s extensive archival research and his extensive command of American diplomatic history. Though anyone seeking a comprehensive biography would be better served reading a different book (Beisner himself recommends James Chace’s Acheson: The Secretary of State Who Created the American World), anyone seeking to understand Acheson’s contributions to American foreign policy or the redefinition of America’s role in the world in the early years of the Cold War cannot ignore this splendid and indispensable work.
April 26, 2014
Great read about maybe the greatest Secretary of State the country has ever had. Certainly he was the greatest of the 20th Century. This book goes into great detail about his life in public service and not much on his early life or after leaving government in an official capacity. Mr Beisner goes into great detail about the maker of foreign policy of the United States before and during the Cold War. Recommend for anyone interested in the details of post WWII, Cold War NATO and American policy toward Russia and the formation of modern Europe.
June 22, 2018
A historical tour de force, I would recommend it to be read in conjunction with the subject’s memoirs “Present at the Creation” for the full Acheson experience.
February 20, 2020
One of the ablest minds that ever came to government was Secretary Of State Dean Acheson under
President Harry S. Truman. Truman himself said of Dean Acheson and his predecessor General George C. Marshall, "was ever a man better served?"
Dean Acheson (1893-1971) was born in Connecticut to parents who hailed from Canada and the United
Kingdom. He got a most proper education at Groton, Yale and Harvard Law School. He clerked for
Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis for a spell after graduation and was in private practice.
Like so many in 1933 went into government service under Franklin D. Roosevelt. Acheson was Under
Secretary of the Treasury under FDR's first Secretary of the Treasury William Woodin who died early
in FDR's first term. Acheson himself resigned in protest over FDR's inflationary programs. He would
be in private practice until 1940 when he went to the State Department as an Assistant Secretary of
State where he went up the ladder in position and power. By the time Truman was Secretary of
State and his Secretary of State was George C. Marshall, Acheson was his Under Secretary.
Many of the policies that Marshall implemented Acheson worked on such as the policies as the
Marshall plan and the Berlin Airlift when Marshall retired Truman moved Acheson to the top spot
as Truman was inaugurated for his first term in his own right in January 1949.
Acheson like so many others was Eurocentric. It was where our country originated from where
most immigrants back in the day came. In his handling of Europe Acheson shined, his most prominent achievement was the North Atlantic Treaty Organization against our former Allies the
Soviet Union. With the aid of the Marshall plan Europe recovered from the ravages of World War
2 and the alliance was a bulwork against Soviet intended expansion.
For the rest of the world Acheson was less successful. Asia other than Japan was a mystery, we
opened Japan and we brought Japan out of its isolation with Commodore Perry. We never had to
deal with any of it. Other than Liberia we had no interests in Africa. Latin America took a back
seat also perenially in Acheson's world.
China resumed it's civil war between the Kuomintang party of Chiang Kai-Shek and the Communists of Mao Tse-Tung. Truman and Acheson inherited Chiang from our alliance forged by
FDR. FDR saw something that didn't exist in Chiang, but he dealt with him and Truman inherited
Chiang.
What Truman saw was our money going down a rat hole in China. The aid stopped, the Communists won in 1949 and the Republican right were demanding who lost China for us as if it
were our's to lose. Acheson became the symbol of their frustration and hate. Acheson even from
the lofty position he was in gave as good as he got. Maybe too good as he defended Alger Hiss
long after it was discovered Hiss was a traitor and spy.
In the Middle East we took over British interests especially as the need for oil to fuel our now
perennial war economy was standard policy. Australia and New Zealand became closer to the
USA after World War 2 and we made the ANZUS Treaty with them.
The Republican right demanded a purge of the State Department which Acheson wouldn't give of
any and all who were not true Cold Warriors. Acheson was the ultimate cold warrior himself
right up to his death, but he did not yield or yield up his department. Purges would come in the
Republican Eisenhower administration.
With the calumnies poured on Acheson the GOP would have been surprised at what Acheson thought of many Democratic liberals. He thought them fuzzyheaded and dreamers and not clear
thinkers at all. Those however were private opinions that became public for the most part after
Acheson's death.
With John F. Kennedy's election Acheson began doing many short term assignments as health
permitted. He was a senior member of the old foreign policy hands dubbed the Wise Old Men.
He backed Lyndon B. Johnson's escalation of the Vietnam War.
Back in the day as Secretary of State Acheson refused approaches made Ho Chi Minh and the Viet
Min rebels as Acheson saw France as a key component of NATO. Imagine if he had dealt with
Ho back then?
Acheson wrote a solid memoir Present At The Creation which came out toward the end of his life
and earned him a Pulitzer Prize. It's an indispensable volume for those studying the history of
those times.
Robert Biesner's book is indispensable itself for learning about a man who was responsible for a
lot of the good and bad that's in the world now.
President Harry S. Truman. Truman himself said of Dean Acheson and his predecessor General George C. Marshall, "was ever a man better served?"
Dean Acheson (1893-1971) was born in Connecticut to parents who hailed from Canada and the United
Kingdom. He got a most proper education at Groton, Yale and Harvard Law School. He clerked for
Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis for a spell after graduation and was in private practice.
Like so many in 1933 went into government service under Franklin D. Roosevelt. Acheson was Under
Secretary of the Treasury under FDR's first Secretary of the Treasury William Woodin who died early
in FDR's first term. Acheson himself resigned in protest over FDR's inflationary programs. He would
be in private practice until 1940 when he went to the State Department as an Assistant Secretary of
State where he went up the ladder in position and power. By the time Truman was Secretary of
State and his Secretary of State was George C. Marshall, Acheson was his Under Secretary.
Many of the policies that Marshall implemented Acheson worked on such as the policies as the
Marshall plan and the Berlin Airlift when Marshall retired Truman moved Acheson to the top spot
as Truman was inaugurated for his first term in his own right in January 1949.
Acheson like so many others was Eurocentric. It was where our country originated from where
most immigrants back in the day came. In his handling of Europe Acheson shined, his most prominent achievement was the North Atlantic Treaty Organization against our former Allies the
Soviet Union. With the aid of the Marshall plan Europe recovered from the ravages of World War
2 and the alliance was a bulwork against Soviet intended expansion.
For the rest of the world Acheson was less successful. Asia other than Japan was a mystery, we
opened Japan and we brought Japan out of its isolation with Commodore Perry. We never had to
deal with any of it. Other than Liberia we had no interests in Africa. Latin America took a back
seat also perenially in Acheson's world.
China resumed it's civil war between the Kuomintang party of Chiang Kai-Shek and the Communists of Mao Tse-Tung. Truman and Acheson inherited Chiang from our alliance forged by
FDR. FDR saw something that didn't exist in Chiang, but he dealt with him and Truman inherited
Chiang.
What Truman saw was our money going down a rat hole in China. The aid stopped, the Communists won in 1949 and the Republican right were demanding who lost China for us as if it
were our's to lose. Acheson became the symbol of their frustration and hate. Acheson even from
the lofty position he was in gave as good as he got. Maybe too good as he defended Alger Hiss
long after it was discovered Hiss was a traitor and spy.
In the Middle East we took over British interests especially as the need for oil to fuel our now
perennial war economy was standard policy. Australia and New Zealand became closer to the
USA after World War 2 and we made the ANZUS Treaty with them.
The Republican right demanded a purge of the State Department which Acheson wouldn't give of
any and all who were not true Cold Warriors. Acheson was the ultimate cold warrior himself
right up to his death, but he did not yield or yield up his department. Purges would come in the
Republican Eisenhower administration.
With the calumnies poured on Acheson the GOP would have been surprised at what Acheson thought of many Democratic liberals. He thought them fuzzyheaded and dreamers and not clear
thinkers at all. Those however were private opinions that became public for the most part after
Acheson's death.
With John F. Kennedy's election Acheson began doing many short term assignments as health
permitted. He was a senior member of the old foreign policy hands dubbed the Wise Old Men.
He backed Lyndon B. Johnson's escalation of the Vietnam War.
Back in the day as Secretary of State Acheson refused approaches made Ho Chi Minh and the Viet
Min rebels as Acheson saw France as a key component of NATO. Imagine if he had dealt with
Ho back then?
Acheson wrote a solid memoir Present At The Creation which came out toward the end of his life
and earned him a Pulitzer Prize. It's an indispensable volume for those studying the history of
those times.
Robert Biesner's book is indispensable itself for learning about a man who was responsible for a
lot of the good and bad that's in the world now.
July 7, 2008
Beisner does a good job of portraying Acheson's pivotal roles in several defining events of the postwar world: the Iran, Greek, and Turkish crises in the late 1940s, the formation of European and transatlantic security institutions, the creation and rearmament of West Germany, the loss of China to the communists, and the outbreak and prosecution of the Korean War. Acheson's relationship with Truman is especially well-documented.
October 23, 2021
This is a book about the rebuilding of the world in the aftermath of World War II. It is also about the relationship between President Harry Truman and his Secretary of State, Dean Acheson. Together, they understood the risks presented by an aggressive Soviet Union. Risks that if realized would leave us today in a profoundly different world. My take from reading this book is that Acheson had a vision based in reality for the world that we live in now. He was dedicated to liberty and democracy and he used his talents in diplomacy to put in place the measures that would eventually bring an end to the Soviet threat. Acheson believed in Germany and Japan and helped them both rehabilitate and evolve from war time enemies to free democracies in a very short period if time. Acheson was a founder of NATO and a foe of the UN. Much of the success of the Cold War was obtained through the threat to use nuclear weapons. Acheson understood the risk in such weapons but had to deal with the reality that they were cheap and deadly effective. Robert Besiner has done an outstanding job on this book. It is a thoughtful, careful and detailed study of how our world got to be where it is now from 1945 to 1990. Well done. JIM
June 28, 2023
This is an excellent comprehensive work. I didn’t give up. Rather, for me Acheson is a reference source which I turn to turn to for specific Cold War topics. Most recently I read David Halberstam’s The Coldest Winter — an outstanding single volume history of the Korean War. Then I read about 200 pages of Dean Acheson covering the same events (Chapters 16,18-20, 23-27. One key take away from this exercise (Haberstam + Beisner on Korean War) is I can now see more clearly than I did for many years — how the attacks of the right against the Truman administration (China Lobby, McCarthyism, MacArthurism) as and the catastrophe that was the Chinese intervention in Korea— literally forced JFK into Vietnam and convinced LBJ he could not retreat there. The Chinese intervention in Korea made all of Asia seem vitally important— not the least in the dynamics of American politics. The French were insisting in 1950, that Korea and Vietnam were one war as the US established its first permanent military mission in Vietnam. By the end of 1951 the US was paying two-thirds of French war costs in Indochina.
July 5, 2009
Very informative book about a very important Chapter in our history and the orgins of the Cold War.
I knew very little about Dean Acheson, i recieved a timely education.
I knew very little about Dean Acheson, i recieved a timely education.
Want to read
May 30, 2009just started but looks really good
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews