Word: trumanism
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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PRESENT AT THE CREATION, by Dean Acheson. Harry Truman's Secretary of State, in these well-written memoirs, recalls the formative years of the cold war with much wit, knowledge and insight...
Twenty years ago, only a Metternich might have appreciated Dean Acheson, that rarest of all Americans, the model diplomat. Excessively sharp of mind and tongue-and not at all afraid to show the biting edge of either-Acheson was not destined for public popularity as Harry Truman's Secretary of State, particularly in an era when careers could be smashed overnight by little more than whispered innuendoes of "Communist" or "leftwing" sympathies. Present confusions and elapsed time, however, have created new perspectives on the diplomatic problems and achievements of the Truman Administration...
...Left and revisionist historians have argued in recent years that, in fact, Acheson and Truman fired the opening shots of the cold war, that such a policy as the Truman Doctrine was the equivalent of bombarding Fort Sumter. Acheson is aware of the argument, and like the careful lawyer he is, presents a formidable brief for the defense. Soviet troops had occupied the northern provinces of Iran; to force them out strong American pressure was needed. The Truman Doctrine, which combined military and economic aid, was developed only to counter Soviet designs upon the faltering regimes of Greece and Turkey...
Summing up the immediate results of postwar policy, Acheson writes: "Our efforts for the most part left conditions better than when we found them." The man most responsible, in Acheson's view, was Harry Truman, "the captain with the mighty heart." Acheson is not blind to his chiefs faults. Truman, he admits, was guided more by feeling than by reason. His most provocative example is Truman's help in founding the state of Israel, a policy that Acheson felt would produce enduring chaos in the Middle East. Elsewhere, he extols the ex-President's judgment, orderliness...
...dissidents eventually got together in Kirkland House for a section, but "there was really no meeting between us," May says. Two years later the course has not apparently changed character. Sorenson's Kennedy and Truman's memoirs are still on the reading list. Sherman Adams has been scrapped for Eisenhower and Roger Hilsman replaces Sam Huntington. The only major change in philosophy is in an optional reading list for Latin America, in which W. Apple-man Williams and a dollar diplomacy history are now included. So far this year, May says, the only person outraged by the course...