Table of Contents

Introduction - Intimidating Seniority; Into the Fray against John Foster Dulles; A Democrat Looks at His Party at Eisenhower's Foreign Policy; The Changing Political Climate in Europe, 1957-60; JFK, NATO Review and the Berlin Crisis of 1961; The Cuban Missile Crisis; Strains in the Atlantic Alliance, 1962-3; Repairing Cracks in Nato, 1964-7; The Vietnam War, 1961-8; Reconciled with Nixon; Southern Africa Policy, 1961-71; Epilogue - Death at Harewood.

Reviews

Considered a major architect of postwar foreign policy, Acheson (1893-1971) served as Truman's Secretary of State from 1949 to 1953. This eminently readable study, however, doesn't focus on his career in office, but rather on his last 18 years as an oft-consulted elder statesman. During this period, Brinkley shows, Acheson continued to play a prominent role in domestic politics by providing the Democratic Party with well-articulated positions for the 1956 and 1960 presidential elections, as well as in foreign affairs. Between 1960 and his death he served as head of several NATO task forces, as special envoy to France and as foreign-policy adviser to Presidents Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon. He also found time to write six well-received books, including Present at the Creation , which won a Pulitzer Prize. Incorporating new material in this well-rounded portrait, Brinkley conveys the broad scope of Acheson's fertile mind, his personal integrity, and his diplomatic acumen--as well as some of his unattractive characteristics, such as his egotism, arrogance, intolerance and a caustic wit that could turn vicious. Brinkley is an assistant professor of history at Hofstra in New York. Photos. (Nov.)

Acheson was one of those politicians who, though out of power, remained influential in the background. Brinkley (coauthor with Townsend Hoopes of Driven Patriot: The Life and Times of James Forrestal , LJ 4/1/92) provides us with a solid and eminently readable portrait of Acheson's life after his retirement as Harry Truman's secretary of state. Describing Acheson's years in the wilderness during the Eisenhower presidency, he explains how John F. Kennedy's arrival on the scene enabled Acheson to perform the role of elder statesman and presidential adviser to both Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson. Especially interesting is Acheson's reconciliation with Richard Nixon, a man whom Acheson had bitterly detested while serving as secretary of state. Both men, however, shared a similar realist view of foreign policy, and Nixon sought Acheson's advice on a range of issues. Brinkley's book is important for understanding not only Acheson but also the conduct of American foreign policy between 1953 and 1971. Highly recommended.-- Ed Goedeken, Purdue Univ. Libs., West Lafayette, Ind.