Sketches from Life Of Men I Have Known

New York: Harper & Brothers, 1961. First Edition [stated], presumed first printing. Hardcover. Good/Fair. xiv, [2] 206, [2] pages. Illustrations. Index. DJ scuffed, worn, torn, and soiled. Dean Gooderham Acheson ( April 11, 1893 - October 12, 1971) was an American statesman and lawyer. As United States Secretary of State in the administration of President Harry S. Truman from 1949 to 1953, he played a central role in defining American foreign policy during the Cold War. Acheson helped design the Marshall Plan and was a key player in the development of the Truman Doctrine and creation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Acheson's most famous decision was convincing President Truman to intervene in the Korean War in June 1950. He also persuaded Truman to dispatch aid and advisors to French forces in Indochina, though in 1968 he finally counseled President Lyndon B. Johnson to negotiate for peace with North Vietnam. During the Cuban Missile Crisis, President John F. Kennedy called upon Acheson for advice, bringing him into the executive committee (ExComm), a strategic advisory group. In the late 1940s Acheson came under heavy attack for his defense of State Department employees accused during the anti-gay Lavender and Red Scare investigations by Senator Joseph McCarthy and others, and over Truman's policy toward China. Acheson returned to his private law practice. Although his official governmental career was over, his influence was not. He was ignored by the Eisenhower administration but headed up Democratic Policy Groups in the late 1950s. Much of President John F. Kennedy's flexible response policies came from the position papers drawn up by this group. As a record of close calls and near disasters unsuspected by the general public, this work is an exciting read. In his Afterword, Acheson sums up a view of diplomacy when he wrote: "Today great emphasis is laid upon what is called projecting an image of ourselves upon the minds of other men. Doubtless this is most important. But are not the authenticity of the image and its character important, too? And do not both lie more in the realm of what we do that in the technique of projection? The Marshall Plan for instance, projected, by the mere doing of it, an image of America of which we can be forever proud. It was the soundest diplomacy because it created confidence inspired by good faith--and by good works."