Books, Arts & Manners: Class Act

Acheson: The Secretary of State Who Created the American World, by James Chace (Simon & Schuster, 512 pp., $30)

HISTORY has been kinder to Dean Acheson than commentary in his own time, particularly from conservatives. Policy controversies of the time—the “loss of China,” the handling of the Korean War—can still be debated, but the Truman era is now remembered favorably as a period of creative and resolute American foreign policy. The “Truman Doctrine,” which rescued Greece and Turkey; the Marshall Plan; the North Atlantic Treaty and the formation of NATO; the decision to resist aggression in Korea and the U.S. rearmament afterward— these are now seen as major steps that strengthened America for the contest with the Soviet Union. Dean Acheson was the architect of most of this policy.

PW

About the Author

Peter W. Rodman

Featured Tags

Acheson: The Secretary of State Who Created the American World, by James Chace (Simon & Schuster, 512 pp., $30)

HISTORY has been kinder to Dean Acheson than commentary in his own time, particularly from conservatives. Policy controversies of the time—the “loss of China,” the handling of the Korean War—can still be debated, but the Truman era is now remembered favorably as a period of creative and resolute American foreign policy. The “Truman Doctrine,” which rescued Greece and Turkey; the Marshall Plan; the North Atlantic Treaty and the formation of NATO; the decision to resist aggression in Korea and the U.S. rearmament afterward— these are now seen as major steps that strengthened America for the contest with the Soviet Union. Dean Acheson was the architect of most of this policy.