-Caveat Lector-
From
http://www.cosmopolis.ch/english/cosmo3/acheson.htm
}}}>Begin
www.cosmopolis.ch
No. 3, February 2000
Dean Acheson
The biography by James Chace
James Chace is Professor of Government and Public Law at Bard College
and editor of World Policy Journal. His biography of Dean Gooderham
Acheson is a political one. Except for Acheson's youth, he does not
portray the private citizen in detail. Chace concentrates on the life
of the public servant, especially on his impact on foreign policy.
And even there, he concentrates on the overall picture. Therefore,
Chace's book is sometimes more a comprehensive introduction to
American foreign (and domestic) policy than an actual biography.
The subtitle of the book, The Secretary of State who Created the
American World, is reflected in Chace's statements that Acheson was
"the most important figure in American foreign policy since John
Quincy Adams" and that he was "a prime architect of the Marshall
Plan". Acheson clearly was a key figure in the formulation of
American foreign policy but not the only one. In his more than 400
pages, Chace naturally also gives credit to other men.
Dean Acheson, the son of an Episcopal pastor who later became bishop
of Conneticut, was born in 1893 in Middletown, Conn. He was a teenage
rebel. He finished last in Groton School (northwest of Boston) but
still managed to get into Yale University. Despite his mediocre
academic record, Acheson was accepted at Harvard Law School where he
finally took off, finishing fifth in his class. Professor Felix
Frankfurter became his mentor and suggested him to Supreme Court
Justice Louis D. Brandeis as a law clerk. Acheson went to Washington
where he was to spend the rest of his career. He worked for Brandeis
for two years. Influenced by the Justices Brandeis and Oliver Wendell
Holmes, Acheson tried to reconcile their opposite views and evolved
from a moral absolutist to a pragmatist.
In the 1920s he worked as a lawyer with Covington and Burling. Still
interested in labor law, he "also became convinced that the orderly
flow of international capital movements, lower tariffs, and
reciprocal trade agreement were conducive to international peace and
prosperity. He had become a Democrat." In the early 1920s, he was a
member of Washington's liberal Penguin Club and later became active
in the Maryland Democratic Party.
In 1933 Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed him Treasury Under Secretary -
thanks to Felix Frankfurter, "a longtime political confidant and
admirer of FDR's". Acheson left government in 1934 because he
believed that FDR lacked the legal authority to purchase gold at a
price above the one fixed by statute. FDR hoped to relaunch the
economy that way - but his gold- buying plan "never yielded very
dramatic results". Acheson had opposed it on legal, not on strictly
economic grounds.
As a private citizen, Acheson continued to influence politics. He
chaired a panel whose work led to the Administrative Procedures Act
which governs the way federal agencies operate. He helped find legal
loopholes that allowed FDR to send military equipment to Britain. He
was convinced that the nation's vital interests legitimated executive
action without congressional authorization. Later, Acheson's campaign
strategy advice impressed Roosevelt to the point that it led to a job
as Assistant Secretary for Economic Affairs. Acheson was part of the
creation of the Lend-Lease-system that prepared America's entry into
Second World War. Secretary of State Cordell Hull asked him to take
in hand the creation of a United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation
Administration, Acheson's "first big creative job". He was also
"instrumental in creating the international financial institutions at
Bretton Woods", the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank
(he was one of the men who drafted its charter). Regarding the
Charter of the United Nations, he thought it was impracticable.
Three quarters of Chase's book are dedicated to the Cold War. There
are too many actions and events, so just a few facts: After FDR's
death, Acheson served President Truman, a former haberdasher,
especially as Secretary of State from 1949 to 1953. Both men were
products of small-town life and men of action. "For Truman, the
greatest political value was loyality." Acheson was loyal "as much to
the office of the presidency as to the man." He admired Truman's "no-
nonsense style of doing business, which was so unlike FDR's". An
"iron bond" between the two men helped forge new institutions and
define new policies.
Acheson was a driving force behind the creation of the Marshall Plan
to restore the West European economies. He also urged the President
to fire General Douglas MacArthur for insubordination since he wanted
to use nuclear arms against China. Acheson was accused of having lost
China to the Communists in 1949, but withstood the assault of
Republicans in Congress who wanted him removed from office. Later, he
refused to denounce Alger Hiss as a Soviet spy and "stood up to the
vilifications of Senator Joseph McCarthy". Acheson supported Truman's
choice to engage in combat in Korea in 1950 after the North had
started invading the South. He was a key figure behind the creation
of NATO, the formulation of the Truman Doctrine and the setup of the
postwar international financial structure. In those years, America
emerged as the World's leader and the policies, that finally helped
to bring down communism, were formulated and implemented.
Acheson was a (according to Chase the) strategic thinker: "in his
essence [... he was] a realist". He helped America to make the
"right" choices at the beginning of the Cold War. He served later
Presidents from Kennedy - as a member of his executive committee
during the Cuban missile crisis - to Nixon, as informal adviser and
emissary. He urged President Johnson and later President Nixon to
disengage in Vietnam. Acheson broke with Nixon when he extended the
war into Cambodia. America and the rest of the world owe Acheson
tribute. Chace's biography is an important part of it. Although he
studied newly opened Soviet and Chinese archives as well as some
family letters and diaries, Chace largely relies in his work upon
secondary literature and on Acheson's own writings (especially on his
famous autobiography Present At The Creation). Therefore, he does not
present a new Acheson, but the essence of his work and impact on
American (foreign) policy.
James Chace: Acheson. The Secretary Of State Who Created The American
World. HUP, 1999 (Paperback), 512 p. Get it from Amazon.com
Dean Acheson: Present at the Creation. My Years in the State
Department. Paperback (October 1987), W. W. Norton & Co. Acheson's
autobiography is outstanding in its genre and a must for everybody
interested in American politics. It won him the Pulitzer Prize for
history in 1970. Get it from Amazon.com
Copyright 2000: www.cosmopolis.ch Louis Gerber. All rights reserved.
End<{{{
From
http://motlc.wiesenthal.com/text/x07/xm0772.html
}}}>Begin
An Overview
Frankfurter was a Jewish U.S. Supreme Court Justice appointed by
President Roosevelt. He was a staunch supporter of personal liberties
and a lifelong Zionist and activist in Jewish affairs, but was not a
strong advocate of rescuing European Jewry.
American Legal Career
American Jewish Supreme Court justice. Graduated from Harvard Law
School in 1906 and worked as an assistant to Henry L. STIMSON, who
was then U.S. Attorney for New York. Frankfurter followed Stimson to
the War Department when the latter was appointed Secretary of War by
President William H. Taft. In 1914 Frankfurter was appointed to the
faculty of the Harvard Law School, remaining there for 25 years.
Frankfurter's area of legal specialization was criminal law and
procedure and that led him to fight without success to have the Sacco
- Vanzetti conviction overturned. This failure, in part, led
Frankfurter and a number of like - minded jurists to found The
American Civil Liberties Union.
A Lifelong Zionist
Frankfurter's lifelong support for Zionism led him to represent the
Zionist cause for the 1919 Paris Peace Conference. On February 3,
1919, Frankfurter met with Emir Faisal and came to an important,
although unfortunately abortive, agreement regarding Jewish - Arab
relations in mandatory Palestine. In the letter written to
Frankfurter to seal their agreement, Faisal wishes the Jews a hearty
welcome to Palestine and claims that the Jewish and Arab national
movements complement each other. In 1921, in the aftermath of the
Weizmann - Brandeis dispute, Frankfurter withdrew from formal Zionist
activities. He continued, however, to work for Zionist causes on an
unofficial basis.
Career During Roosevelt's Administration
Frankfurter was a supporter of President Franklin D. ROOSEVELT and
saw the New Deal as a culmination of the liberal ideals he had worked
for previously. During the 1930s Frankfurter acted as an unofficial
advisor to the Roosevelt administration, primarily on social and
economic issues. In 1939, Roosevelt appointed Frankfurter to the
Supreme Court. During his tenure on the court, Frankfurter became a
staunch supporter on personal liberties and freedom of expression. He
did, however, support the government's prerogatives in inculcating
loyalty among school children by mandating the pledge of allegiance.
Although not strictly proper, Frankfurter continued to advise
President Roosevelt during his tenure on the court. Because of this,
Frankfurter enjoyed almost daily access to the president.
Not a Strong Advocate of Jewish Rescue
Frankfurter also remained active in Jewish affairs activities, acting
on an unofficial basis. In 1942, Frankfurter was one of the first to
receive information about the Nazi massacre of European Jewry. His
information included a copy of the RIEGNER CABLE. In 1943,
Frankfurter met with Polish representative Jan KARSKI and expressed
his disbelief at the documented information contained in the
briefing. Frankfurter did not use his position in the administration
to strongly press the rescue issue, although he did make a number of
inquiries regarding rescue in the summer of 1942. Suffering a stroke
in 1962, Frankfurter retired from the Supreme Court. He died in 1965.
Courtesy of:
Courtesy of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
End<{{{
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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Believe only after careful observation and analysis, when you find that it
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A merely fallen enemy may rise again, but the reconciled
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