Dean Acheson (1893–1971)
Author of Present at the Creation: My Years in the State Department
About the Author
Image credit: Portrait of Dean Acheson, from a series of color portraits of Truman cabinet members Turman Library Photographs
Works by Dean Acheson
An American vista 2 copies
Associated Works
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Acheson, Dean
- Legal name
- Acheson, Dean Gooderham
- Birthdate
- 1893-04-11
- Date of death
- 1971-11-12
- Burial location
- Oak Hill Cemetery, Washington, D.C., USA
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- Middletown, Connecticut, USA
- Place of death
- Sandy Spring, Maryland, USA
- Places of residence
- Middletown, Connecticut, USA
Washington, D.C., USA
Sandy Spring, Maryland, USA - Education
- Yale University (1915)
Harvard Law School (1918) - Occupations
- United States Secretary of State (1949-1953)
diplomat
lawyer
author
United States Under Secretary of the Treasury (1933-1933)
United States Assistant Secretary of State (show all 7)
United States Under Secretary of State (1945-1949) - Relationships
- Lewis, Sinclair (friend)
Acheson, David C. (son) - Organizations
- Covington & Burling
United States Department of the Treasury
United States Department of State
Scroll and Key
Delta Kappa Epsilon
American Academy of Arts and Sciences (show all 10)
Franklin D. Roosevelt administration (1933-1933)
Franklin D. Roosevelt administration (1941-1945)
Harry S. Truman administration (1945-1953)
Harry S. Truman's cabinet (1949-1953 ∙ Secretary of State) - Awards and honors
- Medal for Merit (1947)
Phi Beta Kappa
Presidential Medal of Freedom (1964)
Members
Reviews
Lists
Awards
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Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 26
- Also by
- 1
- Members
- 772
- Popularity
- #32,960
- Rating
- 3.7
- Reviews
- 8
- ISBNs
- 25
This book contains a series of reminiscences/portraits of the diplomats and politicians he worked with (or, in some cases, against) and/or under during his time in the diplomatic corps. The book opens with chapters about Ernest Bevin and Robert Shuman, Acheson's opposite numbers for England and France, respectively, during the years at the end of, and immediately after, the war, when the large Western democracies were figuring out how they wanted to administer Western Europe and how to negotiate with Soviet Russia and create a united front against what they saw as Soviet plans for further expansion. There is a chapter, also, on Acheson's dealing with several Russian diplomats and their negotiating tactics. The chapters cover negotiations around the establishment of the United Nations, the administration of the post-war occupation of Germany and the establishment of the western alliance that became NATO. Of particular interest to me were the deliberations that led to the decision to bring West Germany into the alliance (i.e., to rearm them, a development that was viewed with some alarm, as I've learned from other reading, in many parts of Europe). While there was serious reluctance to take this step in some quarters, in the end the West Germans were seen by the U.S. and the Western European powers as a pivotal member of any alliance that would be able to stand up to Stalin and his successors.… (more)