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    Dean Acheson: A Life in the Cold War

    Dean Acheson: A Life in the Cold War

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    by Robert L. Beisner


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      ISBN-13: 9780199754892
    • Publisher: Oxford University Press
    • Publication date: 03/06/2009
    • Sold by: Barnes & Noble
    • Format: eBook
    • File size: 4 MB

    Robert L. Beisner is Professor of History Emeritus at American University. A former president of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, he lives in Washington, DC.

    Table of Contents

    Acknowledgments
    Acknowledgments
    Definitions of Acronyms and Abbreviations
    1. Introduction: "The Shiniest Fish that Ever Came Out of the Sea"
    Part I
    2. Rare Meat: Adding Reach to Power
    3. Patterns of Peril: Joining the Cold Warriors
    4. Rome and Carthage: The Truman Doctrine
    5. The Marshall Plan and the Return to Private Life
    Part II
    6. The Inner and Outer Acheson
    7. Acheson, the President, and the State Department
    8. Keeping the Americans In, the Russians Out, and the Germans Down, 1949
    9. Strategy in Europe: Backing the West, Probing the East
    10. Looking for Chance in China, 1949
    11. Neither Wood nor Ivory: Checkmated in China, 1949-1950
    12. Other Early Encounters with Asia and the Middle East
    Part III
    13. Weapons: The H-Bomb
    14. Words: NSC-68, Public Opinion, and Total Diplomacy
    15. Real Diplomacy, in Europe, 1949-1950
    16. Plunge into the Unkown: The United States, Indochina, and China on the Eve of the Korean War
    17. Friends in Place: Acheson and Alger Hiss
    18. Evil Days
    Part IV
    19. Testing Ground-Korea
    20. In the Cockpit
    21. Prodding Evolution with Action: German Rearmament
    22. Acceleration from a Running Start
    Part V
    23. In Thrall: Ironic Failures in Korea
    24. Job's Comforter and the Mad Satrap
    25. Captives of War
    26. At Different Ends of the Triangle: Domestic Debates, European Armies, British Allies
    Part VI
    27. Command in Japan
    28. Failure in Indochina and China
    29. Razor Edge Sensibilities: ANZUS and India
    30. Falling between Two Stools: The Middle East, North Africa, and Africa
    31. Picking Up Sticks in Egypt and Iran
    32. Jousting with Mosadeq, Waiting for Nasser
    33. Latin America: Critical, but not Serious
    Part VII
    34. Lisbon to Letdown: The Fate of the EDC
    35. Apples of Discord: Germany and the Soviet Union, 1952
    36. Scope for the Exercise of Every Vital Power

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    Dean Acheson was one of the most influential Secretaries of State in U.S. history, presiding over American foreign policy during a pivotal era--the decade after World War II when the American Century slipped into high gear. During his vastly influential career, Acheson spearheaded the greatest foreign policy achievements in modern times, ranging from the Marshall Plan to the establishment of NATO. In this acclaimed biography, Robert L. Beisner paints an indelible portrait of one of the key figures of the last half-century. In a book filled with insight based on research in government archives, memoirs, letters, and diaries, Beisner illuminates Acheson's major triumphs, including the highly underrated achievement of converting West Germany and Japan from mortal enemies to prized allies, and does not shy away from examining his missteps. But underlying all his actions, Beisner shows, was a tough-minded determination to outmatch the strength of the Soviet bloc--indeed, to defeat the Soviet Union at every turn. The book also sheds light on Acheson's friendship with Truman--one, a bourbon-drinking mid-Westerner with a homespun disposition, the other, a mustachioed Connecticut dandy who preferred perfect martinis. Over six foot tall, with steel blue, "merry, searching eyes" and a "wolfish" grin, Dean Acheson was an unforgettable character--intellectually brilliant, always debonair, and tough as tempered steel. This lustrous portrait of an immensely accomplished and colorful life is the epitome of the biographer's art.

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    From the Publisher
    "[T]houghtful and well-researched account of Acheson's years as undersecretary and then secretary of state shows him to be a man of sweeping views but pragmatic and definable policies."—New York Times Book Review

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