Present at the Creation: My Years in the State Department

New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc, 1969. Fourth Printing. Hardcover. Good/fair. Jim Keith (Author photograph). xvii, [1], 798 pages. Illustrations. Notes. References. Index. DJ soiled, creased, & scuffed: small tears/chips, small pieces missing. Inscribed and signed by the author (Dean Acheson); small smear in the inscription. Dean Gooderham Acheson (April 11, 1893 - October 12, 1971) was an American statesman and lawyer. . Dean Acheson joined the Department of State in 1941 as Assistant Secretary of State for Economic Affairs and, with brief intermissions, was continuously involved until 1953, when he left office at the end of the Truman years. As the 51st U.S. Secretary of State, he set the Foreign policy of the Truman administration from 1949 to 1953. He was Truman's main foreign policy advisor 1945-1947, especially regarding the Cold War. Acheson helped design the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan, as well as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. After 1949 Acheson came under partisan political attack from Republicans led by Senator Joseph McCarthy over Truman's policy toward the People's Republic of China. As a private citizen in 1968 he counseled President Lyndon B. Johnson to negotiate for peace with North Vietnam. During the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, President John F. Kennedy called upon Acheson for advice, bringing him into the executive committee (ExComm), a strategic advisory group. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize. With deft portraits of many world figures, Dean Acheson analyzes the processes of policy making, the necessity for decision, and the role of power and initiative in matters of state. Throughout Acheson's time with the State Department, his was one of the most influential minds and strongest wills at work. It was a period that included World War II, the reconstruction of Europe, the Korean War, the development of nuclear power, the formation of the United Nations and NATO. It involved him at close quarters with a cast that starred Truman, Roosevelt, Churchill, de Gaulle, Marshall, MacArthur, Eisenhower, Attlee, Eden Bevin, Schuman, Dulles, de Gasperi, Adenauer, Yoshida, Vishinsky, and Molotov.