Affection and Trust: The Personal Correspondence of Harry S. Truman and Dean Acheson, 1953-1971

by David McCullough

  Dr. Noble, who is retiring because of the trouble which we are all having with the calendar, now asks me to appeal to you in aid of another request—for access to your reserved papers for 1945 and 1946. The request for the former year is urgent. The professional staff of the Historical Section of the Department is now compiling the 1945 volumes of Foreign Relations of the United States, an official publication of this Government. Section officials have already gone through pertinent papers of the same character as yours in the files of the Department of State and the Roosevelt Library. The projected volumes cannot achieve the purpose for which Congress authorized them unless all repositories of relevant diplomatic papers for the period have been examined.

  Dr. Noble is not asking permission to examine all reserved papers but only those pertaining to foreign relations in 1945 and, later, 1946. He is not asking authority to publish all that his section thinks relevant. Policy officers determine what it is in the public interest to publish, subject—if you wish it—to your veto over the publication of any of your papers.

  You have always been the leading exponent of the view that the practice, sanctioned by history, which permits a retiring President to take with him the papers collected in the White House during his term of office is justified by preserving them in trust for the Government in the service of which they were created. So I know you will agree that, when that Government in the course of publication directed by Congress finds need to examine these papers, it should not be denied the opportunity of doing so.

  Before he packs up and joins the “Has Been” Club, may I tell Dr. Noble that you will help him again? If you give me the word, his successor, Mr. William M. Franklin, will get in touch with anyone you say to arrange the working details.

  We are doing what you never do—having a lazy summer. This year Washington, or rather Sandy Spring, has been an ideal resort, on many days almost too chilly to swim.

  With warmest greetings.

  As ever,

  Dean

  Homer Capehart was at this time a Republican senator from Indiana. Truman was on the campaign trail in, among other places, the senator’s home state, where Capehart lost his bid for re-election. The “Mississippi situation” Acheson refers to involved the admission of African American James Meredith to the University of Mississippi. The governor of Mississippi for a time prevented Meredith’s admission, but Attorney General Robert Kennedy persuaded the governor to allow Meredith to enroll and on October 1, 1962, a heavily guarded Meredith entered the university. A large, violent mob gathered, and President Kennedy had to send in federal troops to restore order.

  October 8, 1962

  Dear Boss,

  I hope that you have not answered my note of August 8th because you have been so busy getting Senator Capehart’s blood-pressure up, and not because you thought that I was off-side in pleading good old Dr. Noble’s case for a look at your reserved papers for 1945 and 1946. If you are fed up with the whole subject, I shall not press it further.

  Alice and I are off in two weeks for a visit to Berkeley and Pasadena (Cal. Tech) in both of which I lecture and then hold meetings and seminars with faculty and students. Then on Dec. 15th we go off for a month in the West Indies with the MacLeishes and the John Cowleses of Minneapolis. This shows, at least, that our life holds interest still.

  The Mississippi situation was, I imagine, inherently pretty bad. But it seems to me that the mob was allowed to get out of hand by too long temporizing by JFK. He seems to have been thinking too much of possible criticism and not enough of the calming effect and vigor and decisiveness on those who are working themselves into hysteria. I hope he doesn’t treat Mr. K this way over Berlin.

  Cuba is a problem that I am glad I don’t have to deal with. Two Presidents have pretty well messed it up.

  Our warmest greetings.

  Yours,

  Dean

  Truman cites instances from American history when Presidents—Andrew Jackson and Abraham Lincoln—took decisive action to force the South to obey the law of the land. Recent Presidents had not always, in Truman’s opinion, been so decisive. The “damfool” comment in the postscript probably refers to his own foolishness in going on the campaign trail again, at age seventy-eight, when he didn’t have to. This was to be his last trip along the campaign trail, and he cut it short because of the Cuban missile crisis. “In calling off my appearances as a partisan Democrat,” he said in an October 25 statement, “I appeal to everyone regardless of his party affiliation to support the Chief Executive and the Commander in Chief.”

  October 12, 1962

  Dear Dean:

  My being fed up with you is an impossibility. I have been from Philadelphia to San Francisco, Los Angeles to Boise, Idaho, and back again to Youngstown, Ohio—to Clarksburg, West Va., and Evansville, Indiana. All, I hope, in the interest of the Democratic Party. That’s the reason you haven’t heard from me.

  You tell Dr. Noble to come to see me and he’ll get what he wants. These archives boys are trying to obtain what Dr. Noble wants to see before I’m ready to turn them over. Dr. Noble will have no trouble—but tell him to come to see me—not the Archivists!

  I’m glad you are going on a vacation—wish I could.

  Arkansas and Mississippi are bad examples of what can happen when the man in charge (in Washington) is not sure of his powers. You remember what old Andy did to So. Carolina and what Old Abe had to do in ’61.

  As to Cuba the man in the White House when it started should have stopped it at the beginning. Grover Cleveland acted in Venezuela and without, I hope, your thinking I’m haywire and an egotist, Berlin, Greece and Turkey were in the same category.

  Damn it, Dean, you are one man who can say to me what you please anytime, anywhere on any subject.

  You and George Marshall had the keenest minds I ever came in contact with. What a hell of a fix I’d have been in without the two of you.

  Most sincerely,

  Harry Truman

  “Ain’t a man a damfool to do what I’m doing when he don’t have to.” That’s a quotation from Sen. Holman of Oregon when I gave him permission to fly over Attu in World War II with Mon Wallgren. I stayed in Seattle and they went on a jaunt which they wished they hadn’t taken. At least Holman thought that.

  Truman did not accept the invitation Acheson mentions. “British Public Enemy No. 1” refers to the outcry in Britain over Acheson’s recent speech at West Point, where he said, “Britain has lost an empire and has not yet found a new role.… Great Britain, attempting to work alone and to be a broker between the United States and Russia, has seemed to conduct policy as weak as its military power.” Acheson had trouble understanding how a very small and not very important part of a speech delivered to a student audience could give rise to headline news expressing outrage and hurt pride.

  December 14, 1962

  Dear Mr. President:

  I am for my sins Vice President under Chris Herter of the Atlantic Council of the United States, which is a merger of all the NATO and Atlantic Community organizations, brought about at the State Department’s request.

  It is giving on January 14 a dinner in honor of Laurie Norstad, the retiring Supreme Commander in Europe. Chris has asked General Eisenhower to come and has asked me to ask you. A formal invitation will be com[ing] along in course. I think this is a matter which you can deal with as most convenient to you. I see no pressing reason why you should turn from more important engagements for this salute to a retiring General. If it fits in with your plans and you would find it pleasant, everybody, including myself, would be delighted to see you there.

  Alice and I are off today for a brief vacation in the West Indies to get away form this cold and feel the sun and water of the Tropics once more.

  With warm greetings from British Public Enemy No. 1.

  As ever,

  Dean

  The article Truman refers to is “My Morning in America,” published in the Saturday Evening Post, on December 15. Truman and Ac
heson were both devoted autobiographers, and both possessed a streak of nostalgia for bygone days. The most personal and revealing part of Truman’s memoirs is a long section about his early life. He also wrote several autobiographical manuscripts, the most important of which were published by historian Robert H. Ferrell as The Autobiography of Harry S. Truman (1980). Acheson wrote two volumes of memoirs: Morning and Noon (1965), about his early life, and Present at the Creation (1969), about his State Department years. Truman acknowledges in this letter his debt to the many books he has read in his lifetime, particularly books of history and biography. “Terrible trial” refers to the burden of the presidency, which fell upon him on April 12, 1945.

  December 18, 1962

  Dear Dean:

  I’ve been reading your Saturday Evening Post article. Tried to call you soon as I read it. It gave me many memories of my growing up.

  We had almost the same experiences. Only your experiences were in the great state of Connecticut and mine were in Missouri. You had white people who helped out and we had black and brown—but the experiences were almost the same!

  At the time of the Spanish American War, the twelve and fourteen year olds organized a company. That company marched, carried 22 rifles, killed the neighbor’s frying chickens and camped out until our parents put a stop to it. Then I had to study whether I wanted to or not. Read the Old & New Testaments—King James translation—three times before I was fifteen, and all the histories of world leaders and heroes I could find. Our public library in Independence had about three or four thousand volumes, including the ten encyclopedias!

  Believe it or not, I read them all—including the enclo’s. Maybe I was a damphool but it served me well when my terrible trial came.

  You know better than anyone. Hope your trip abroad was a happy one.

  Sincerely, your friend and great admirer,

  Harry Truman

  December 20, 1962

  Dear Dean:

  If you are punished for your sins by association with Christian Herter—I am of the opinion that you are not punished! He needs your brains and ability. No one knows that better than an old man who—by accident—became President of the United States.

  You were one of my greatest assets. Marshall was the other. How in the world could a man be as lucky as I was—with two such able men!

  I don’t know what to do about January 14th. I am told that the Dam Democrats at Kennedy’s suggestion are putting on a $1,000 dinner! If and when that happens we’ll quit being democrats with a little d!

  I was not consulted about the “thousand dollar dinner.” If I had been, I’d have told them that Democratic dinners should start at $25.00. A thousand seats at $25.00 would be $25,000.00, two thousand seats at $10.00 would be $20,000.00 and 4,000 seats at five dollars would still be $20,000.00. Therefore more real Democrats would take a hand! That’s the way Democrats have won.

  To hell with these multimillionaires at the head of things. Maybe I’m just a poor retired farmer.

  Sincerely,

  Harry S. Truman

  Truman underwent an operation to correct an abdominal hernia on January 18. The vacation partners Acheson mentions are Mr. and Mrs. Archibald MacLeish. Acheson’s memoir Morning and Noon covered his life from 1893 to 1941. The two troubled alliances Acheson refers to are those of the communist nations and of the Western powers. Besides learning of Truman’s operation in his morning newspapers, Acheson read about a fracas at the East German Communist Party congress, where a Chinese delegate said the “Tito group” of communists in Yugoslavia had “surrendered to the imperialists.” This was understood to be a veiled attack on the Soviet Union’s policy of peaceful coexistence with the West. Acheson also read about France’s adamant opposition to British entry into the European Economic Community, a predecessor entity to the European Union. Jean Monnet was the intellectual father of the European unification movement, of which President de Gaulle was the chief enemy. Harold Macmillan was prime minister of Great Britain.

  January 19, 1963

  Dear Boss:

  I was distressed to read in the press that you were to fall victim again to Dr. Graham’s sharp knives, and then reassured this morning that your condition was reported as “excellent.” Alice and I send you a large case of love and devotion—all in full quarts—to take you home to a leisurely (I hope) recuperation. If I know Boss Bess, you are going to take a rest and a good one. Why isn’t this the time for you both to visit Ed Pauley in southwestern sun? Alice and I are just back from three weeks in the West Indian sun, partly being lazy with the MacLeishes at Antigua, and part of the time cruising on a sailboat from St. Lucia to Trinidad through waters more exotic than any that Ulysses saw. So we are experts on the value of sun and relaxation.

  Thank you so much for reading, liking, and writing me about the piece I wrote about my childhood. The memories it evoked from you about your own are fascinating. They confirm a suspicion about you which has been growing on me for over fifteen years. It is nothing less than that you are a shrewd old fraud. All this talk about you being a simple retired farmer, untroubled by what Cordell Hull used to call “book larnin”, is part of a deep conspiracy to mislead the gullible electorate and probably violates the Hatch Act. Unless silenced by bribery of regular letters from you, I shall—at a moment carefully chosen to rock the John Birch Society to its foundations—disclose the shattering truth that you are, in fact, the most unmitigated intellectual, who, before he was out of short pants, had read four thousand volumes and three encyclopedias. One has to go back to Drs. Sam Johnson and Ben Franklin to equal that. If this is blackmail, as one of our patriots said to George III, make the most of it.

  Today’s press tells me also that both the alliances are in trouble. China is trying to divide the children of darkness; and France, the children of light. My guess is that neither will succeed. Jean Monnet has always said that the unification of Europe can only take a step forward in an atmosphere of crisis. At the urging of my German friends, and with the approval of the State Department, I have been urging Adenauer by cable to move General de Gaulle from the disastrous course he has charted, which, if followed, will go far to destroy the Chancellor’s life work. My guess is that de Gaulle’s purpose was to needle MacMillan into making the break. The General is too conscious of history’s judgment to make it himself.

  With all get well messages and our love to both bosses.

  Yours,

  Dean

  February 15, 1963

  Dear Dean:

  You don’t know how very much I appreciated your letter of the 19th, and I don’t want you to consider this a reply to it. I just want you to know that I received your letter and it brought me much pleasure when I needed it most. I hope to get around in a week or two to answering it.

  Mrs. Truman and the doctor are still insisting that I not do very much for a while longer, you will be hearing from me before too many days go by, in the manner in which you ought to hear.

  Give my best to Alice.

  Sincerely yours,

  Harry

  Truman sent with this letter his two most recent NANA articles, one on Cuba, which appeared on February 24, and one about France, which would appear on March 16. Truman argued that the United States had a responsibility to make the Cuban people free again. He imagined a conversation between himself as President and Castro, at which an understanding was reached that would result in free institutions in Cuba. He concluded that the recent Cuban crisis was useful in that it gave the United States an opportunity to show the Soviets that when a line was clearly drawn, as it was during the Cuban missile crisis, the United States stood firm. His article about France, though intended to reflect on de Gaulle’s refusal to allow the United Kingdom to join the European Economic Community, was drawn largely from his presidential papers. He recounted de Gaulle’s action at the end of World War II to establish by force an occupation zone in Germany around Stuttgart. The United States ordered him to remove his French forces, and when h
e refused, Truman cut off supplies to his troops. De Gaulle hadn’t changed, Truman implied. Truman concluded by holding out a dream of “a unified international community under the United Nations—devoted to the common good of all people.” Acheson would have liked the next sentence better: “As we keep on trying to organize the whole world for peace, we must remain alert to the realities of the situation—and that we live in a period of ruthless power.”

  March 9, 1963

  Dear Dean:

  Your good letter of the 19th was heartwarming. I have been working a couple of hours a day on a Cuban release and a De Gaulle squib. I am sorry to say I haven’t had the nerve to talk to the White House. If you know of any reason why I should I might consider doing it.

  Why in hell a successor would not consider things which happened three Presidential generations before hand—well, I’ll never understand. I am sending you a copy of the Cuban release and one on De Gaulle which will come out a week from tomorrow. You see I kept a transcript of the conversations with the interim President of France. What luck that was! De Gaulle has not changed from Stuttgart. He was told what was in view by all the people between me and what had to be done (I have the record!) and the President finally cut off U.S. Supplies to France and the Provisional President of France came across and moved to the occupation positions that France was supposed to take!

  But Dean, why rehash all this past history stuff? I suppose it is because I want to show off to my able, distinguished and brainy Sec. of State! Please don’t believe that. Dean, I never had a man in my immediate White House family or anywhere else in my political career that I thought more of than I did of Dean Acheson. You know why? Because he always told me the truth and the facts whether I liked it or not!