Acheson's Own Words

Professor Bundy picks his subjects carefully; he probably won't write your biography unless you become Secretary of State. His current book is an explanation and defense of American foreign policy and its chief architect today, and this volume is likely to be remembered as long as Heary Stimson's memoirs which Bundy co-authored.

Part of the credit must go to the editor who has done much more than the usual scissors-and-paste job. Most of the book is Acheson's own words, but dozens of different speeches, Senate committee appearances, and press conferences have been skillfully blended to tell the story of our policy in the Far East in Germany, in Spain, and elsewhere.

Bundy supplies connective material in each chapter and a preface in which he answers the Secretary's critics including the "academic men-of-good-will" who consider him "a prisoner of his critics" and "thus a tool of blind reaction." In discussing McCarthyism, Bundy says, "One way out of this difficulty would be to ignore the Senator, or to reply to his accusations with a short and satisfying word," but he goes on to include a comprehensive section on "Security and Loyalty in the Department of State."

Naturally, the book's success really rests on the high literary content and "specific gravity" of Acheson's words. It is a pleasure to be able to read his speeches without fear of distorting omissions; included in the book is almost all of Acheson's masterful summary of the Chinese problem, as he presented it to the Senate committees last June.

The speeches show no ghost-writer's influence with the Secretary at his best when speaking extemporaneously. In this category is his talk to the Society of Newspaper Editors shortly after McCarthy began his antics. These few pages of Acheson's prose are the most effective defense yet offered for his Department against the patriotic character assassins of today.

Weaknesses of the book are slight. Our Spanish policy and the reasons behind it remain misty after an 11-page chapter, but that may be the fault of the program and not of the presentation. Bundy adds little to the book by explaining at the start where he disagrees with our present policies. This volume is Acheson's record, not an attempt of others to evaluate the program.

But the book is a fine monument to Acheson, one that probably could not have been created to other less intellectual Secretaries of State. When the book was started more than a year ago, many of Acheson's friends--perhaps even the editor--may have had doubts whether he would survive in office to see the publication. But today more and more people are beginning to agree that "Acheson will be listed 50 years from now (as) among the best of our American Secretaries of State."