Present at the Creation: My Years in
the State Department by Dean
Acheson
Superb Autobiography Of A Major American Hero
Dean Acheson joined the U.S. Department of State in 1941 as an
assistant secretary for economic affairs. Shortly after the end of World
War II, he attempted to resign, but was persuaded to come back as under
secretary of state; Harry Truman eventually rewarded Achesons loyalty by
picking him to run the State Department during his second term (1949 to
1953). The period covered in this book was one of great obscurity to
those who lived through it, Acheson wrote at the beginning of his
memoirs, first published in 1969. The period was marked by the
disappearance of world powers and empires ... and from this wreckage
emerged a multiplicity of states, most of them new, all of them largely
underdeveloped politically and economically. Overshadowing all loomed
two dangers to all--the Soviet Unions new-found power and expansive
imperialism, and the development of nuclear weapons. Present at the
Creation is a densely detailed account of Achesons diplomatic career,
delineated in intricately eloquent prose. Going over the origins of the cold
war--the drawing of lines among the superpowers in Europe, the conflict in
Korea--Acheson discusses how he and his colleagues came to realize
that the whole world structure and order that we had inherited from the
nineteenth century was gone, and that the old methods of foreign policy
would no longer apply. Among the accolades Acheson garnered for his
candid self-assessment was the 1970 Pulitzer Prize for history.
Personal Review: Present at the Creation: My Years in the State
Department by Dean Acheson
Dean Acheson became a personal hero during my high school years
(1951-55) when I first learned about politics, especially the Red Baiting
years; I was an active participant in the "Joe Must Go" campaign to unseat
Joe McCarthy, for example. When I first read this book in 1971 it was if a
childhood hero had come alive, still admirable in many ways, but with
faults that I had not recognized as well.
Acheson dedicated his book to Truman, the "captain with the mighty
heart." Nonetheless he describes his major disagreement with President
Truman over establishing Israel and his problems with implementing the
policy despite his misgivings.

"I did not share the President's views on the Palestine solution to the
pressing and desperate plight of great numbers of displaced Jews in
Eastern Europe. The number that could be absorbed by Arab Palestine
without creating a grave political problem would be inadequate, and to
transform the country into a Jewish state capable of receiving a million or
more immigrants would vastly exacerbate the political problem and imperil
not only American but all Western interests in the Near East. From Justice
Brandeis, whom I revered, and Felix Frankfurter, my intimate friend, I had
learned to understand, but not to share, the mystical emotion of the Jews
to return to Palestine and end the Diaspora. In urging Zionism as an
American Government policy, they had allowed, so I thought, their emotion
to obscure the totality of American interest."
I was totally entranced with his description of firing General MacArthur. As
a Wisconsin farm boy, the passages were eye opening; I had been deeply
moved by MacArthur's "old soldiers" speech in Milwaukee.
"It seems impossible to overestimate the damage that General MacArthur's
willful insubordination and incredibly bad judgment did to the United
States. The general was surely bright enough to understand what his
Government wanted him to do. General Ridgway, who succeeded him,
understood perfectly and achieved the desired ends. MacArthur disagreed
with the desired ends . . . he pressed his will and his luck to a shattering
defeat."
Two other passages found their way into my copy book:
"I believe that it must be the policy of the United States to support free
peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by
outside pressures. I believe that we must assist free peoples to work out
their own destinies in their own way."
"The doctrine of the separation of powers was adopted by the Convention
of 1787, not to promote efficiency but to preclude the exercise of arbitrary
power. The purpose was, not to avoid friction, but, by means of the
inevitable friction incident to the distribution of the governmental powers
among three departments, to save the people from autocracy."
If nothing else, Acheson convinced me that the Founders had created a
structure of government that not only creates friction, but often creates
deadlock. This is a book that repays careful reading and re-reading; there
are lessons here that ring true over the decades since I first read
Acheson's superb autobiography.
2008 Addendum:
Robert L. Beisner's Dean Acheson: A Life in the Cold War is the best
biography of Acheson I've read, and it was fascinating to re-read
Acheson's autobiography side by side with Beisner's book. Acheson

played a central role in the creation of many important institutions, -- Lend
Lease, the Truman Doctrine, the Marshall Plan, the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the
European Union and the World Trade Organization. According to Beisner,
"Dean Acheson was more than 'present at the creation' of the Cold War;
he was a primary architect." I also found it interesting to reread parts of
Present at the Creation to add depth to The Wise Men: Six Friends and the
World They Made by Walter Isaacson.
Robert C. Ross 1970 2008
Note: One of twelve NY Times "Editors' Choice" books for 1969; see first
Comment.
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