Dean Acheson: A Life in the Cold War |
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Dean Acheson: A Life in the Cold War
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by Robert L. Beisner
Sales Rank: 254016
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List Price: $45.00
$29.70
At Amazon
on 8-7-2008.
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Features
Cover Type: Hard Cover with 800 pages
Published by: Oxford University Press, USA October 1, 2006
Written in: English
ISBN 10 Number: 0195045785
ISBN 13 Number: 978-0195045789
Book Dimensions:
8.6 x 6.3 x 1.9 inches
Weighs: 2.5 pounds
From Publishers Weekly
Although Acheson (1893–1971) was a life-long Democrat who served four presidents, Harry Truman's flamboyant and sharp-tongued secretary of state is admired on the right as an architect of American Cold War foreign policy, most famously for the Truman Doctrine and Marshall Plan. Historian Beisner's exhaustive treatment of Acheson's long, influential career reveals the tangled roots of contemporary policy and political discourse—especially the purported links between the unilateral projection of American might and our national security—during and after WWII. A crucial and complex figure, Acheson was not the earliest "cold warrior," though later among the staunchest, and not easily reduced to left or right in the conflict's dissonant strategic and moral calculus. A deep wariness with regard to the atomic bomb, for instance, did not necessarily temper his involvement in developing U.S. nuclear arms policy, including deployment of the more powerful H-bomb. His early urging of engagement in Vietnam later gave way to counseling Johnson to end it. Chronicling rather than criticizing the assumptions undergirding the postwar period's rapidly evolving bipolar order, this thorough biography offers insight into perhaps one of the least understood fields of government action at the outset of a momentous era that's still, in many respects, very much underway. (Sept.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
Beisner's diplomatic history of Dean Acheson, President Harry Truman's secretary of state, is comprehensive yet not solely of scholarly interest. It sifts Acheson's record at the State Department and yields a positive assessment with a few caveats. Beisner questions Acheson's decisions during the Korean War, particularly in encouraging Truman to approve the military advance to the China-Korea border that ended in disaster. Explaining that Acheson was an Atlanticist who knew little about Asia, Beisner writes more approvingly about his role in establishing institutions such as NATO. His diplomatic strategies in reviving a prostrate Western Europe against an obstreperous Soviet Union form the bulk of the narrative. Aristocratic in appearance and accent, Acheson did not suffer fools gladly, whether Communists or congressmen. In addition to detailing his pungency, Beisner also discusses Acheson's attitude toward power and his loyalty to Truman. Significant cold-war historiography that merits the consideration of greater libraries. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Reader Reviews
A very solid and balanced recounting of the career in power of one of the most important diplomatic figures of the past one hundred years. In his book, Professor Beisner wisely concentrates almost entirely on the twelve years Dean Acheson was in power in Washington, D.C. The great issues grappled with in the immediate years after World War II still live with us today: Russia, Germany, Vietnam, Japan, North Korea, Israel, Iran, France, and China/Taiwan. If you are curious to know why some things are the way they are in today's world, read this book. The number of key foreign policy challenges that flew at this talented Secretary of State is astonishing.
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Dean Acheson: A Life in the Cold War
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Price: $29.70
Updated on 8-7-2008.
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