Affection and Trust: The Personal Correspondence of Harry S. Truman and Dean Acheson, 1953-1971
Page 36
Acheson, in the midst of writing his memoirs, is trying to remember how he first came to Truman’s notice. Matthew J. Connelly was Truman’s appointments secretary from 1945 to 1953. George V. Allen served several roles in the Truman administration, including ambassador to Iran (1946–48), Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs (1948–49), and ambassador to Yugoslavia (1949–53).
December 17, 1966
Dear Boss,
May I plumb your memory? My own, I find, does unaccountable things—invents what never happened; forgets what did; gets times and places all mixed up, and so on.
For a long time I have believed that on the first morning of your Presidency, April 13th, Matt Connelly summoned me to the Cabinet room from across the street. There—so memory seems to record—he, George Allen, and two or three other people were working over a statement of some sort for you. You, he said, had remembered me from a call I made on you at the Capitol about some rascality that McCarran was up to. You came in and talked with us for a few minutes and we soon finished whatever the task was.
The strange part of this is that although the picture of the scene is clear, I can find no verification of any part of it. You made no statement so far as your book and your Public Papers reveal until your address to Congress; and I am sure I had no part in that. Do you remember my doing any kind of chore for you in those first days?
I resigned as Assistant Secretary on August 8th and you accepted it on August 9th. I had barely gotten to Saranac Lake, N.Y., where Mary was on V.J. Day, when Jimmie Byrnes telephoned me that you wished me to come back to be Under Secretary. It all seems to me so mysterious, that I have been casting around for something to explain what brought me to your attention between my call in January 1945 and your appointing me in August. It hardly seems likely to have been Jimmie since he gave you my resignation and gave me your acceptance.
Don’t disturb yourself about this but if any dim recollection stirs I should love to know of it.
Most affectionate Christmas greetings to Bess & yourself from Alice and me.
As ever,
Dean
January 23, 1967
Dear Dean:
I have searched my memory and try as I would, I cannot pinpoint the precise moment at which the decision crystallized in my mind that I wanted you in the Administration.
I had been aware of you long before I went to the White House and I am sure that my interest in you had to originate with me.
Sincerely yours,
Harry Truman
April 17, 1967
Dear Dean:
It has come to my attention that you had a birthday recently.
I hope it was a happy one, as I am sure it was, and that you will have many more like it.
Sincerely yours,
Harry Truman
April 21, 1967
Dear Boss,
The report about that birthday of mine was true and you were very kind to take note of it. My seventy-fifth year opened without noticeable pain. I am now getting accustomed to the idea, though it does run counter to an idea of myself which still hovers in my mind—that I am a promising lad and may get somewhere if I work hard and stay sober.
Poor old Adenauer is gone. Like Churchill he rather outlived his reputation and, as the British say, rather blotted his copy book in the last few years by the vindictive way he treated his less gifted successor. Both he and Churchill simply could not let go of power. Your predecessor had the same weakness but more reason for it. You were wise and right in stepping down as you did. As I look back, I know that I was tired out when we all left office. We might have saved Europe from much that has gone wrong since, if we had stayed on, perhaps two years, or even one year more. But I could not have lasted through another four.
I see John Snyder who keeps me posted on you and seems well and cheerful himself, and occasionally Harry Vaughan and Clark Clifford. The latter I think is a wise and helpful advisor to LBJ. He is better than I am at surmounting the difficulties in personal relations which make helping LBJ so difficult and disagreeable. I have about stopped the effort and dodge whenever I can. The phrase, “he is his own worst enemy”, was never as true of anyone as it is of him.
How very appropriate it was of the Greeks to give you that old helmet last month. I was struck with the changes in head sizes over two and a half millennia. After my experience in 1964 with that old fool Papandreou over Cyprus, I began to wonder whether the Greeks were worth saving after all. The Turks certainly were.
You yourself will have a birthday coming up soon and Alice and I will soon have been married for half a century. Here’s good luck to all of us, and to you and the boss much love from Alice and me.
Ever yours,
Dean
May 7, 1968
PRESIDENT HARRY S TRUMAN
WITH MUCH LOVE AND BEST WISHES FOR MANY HAPPY OCCASIONS LIKE THE PRESENT FROM
DEAN AND ALICE ACHESON
February 28, 1969
Dear Boss,
The press gave us a bad turn about your going off to the hospital in an ambulance, but has now reassured us that you came back in your old style with your policeman-chauffeur at the wheel. So all seems well. Alice and I spent five weeks in the West Indies (and went to visit the Anthony Edens—now Avons). When we got back here the combination of the cold and the Republicans are driving us off to Florida for another two weeks.
My son-in-law who is staying on until the middle of March to let Bill Rogers find a replacement for him (as no-one will come to work for these people) says that the State Department has never been so bewildered and leaderless as it is now. A poor time and preparation for Mr. Nixon’s journey to Europe. If he thinks his personality can affect negotiations with General de Gaulle, some one should tell him that better men have tried it and failed.
Affectionate greetings to Bess and to you from both of us.
Yours ever,
Dean
March 10, 1969
Dear Dean:
I was highly pleased to have your letter of February 28th, and took note of your comments with satisfaction. It was so nice to hear from you and I agree with what you had to say.
I am glad to report I am home and picking up where I left off—take a walk every morning when the weather is nice and am looking forward to the spring mornings.
Mrs. Truman joins me in sending you and Mrs. Acheson our very warmest regards.
Sincerely yours,
Harry Truman
Present at the Creation was Acheson’s definitive memoir of his service in the State Department in four successive jobs. Acheson enclosed with this letter an advance copy of an article based on the final chapter of Present at the Creation, in which he described the contributions to the Truman administration’s foreign policy made by President Truman himself and by the Department of State. He titled this article, “The Greatness of Harry S. Truman.” Acheson gave the article a kind of subtitle, running right below the title and above the author’s name: “At night, knowing he was in the White House, even he slept better.”
August 12, 1969
Dear Mr. President:
Here is an article Esquire magazine is printing in its September issue. It is taken from my book, Present at the Creation, and I thought you might like to have it. The book will deal with the years 1941–1953, two-thirds of it or more being devoted to the years of great privilege when I was your Under Secretary and Secretary of State. I shall send you a copy of the book as soon as one is off the press—sometime in August, I hope. In writing about those years I came close to reliving them again with you and hope I have captured some of our spirit and purpose that made them such a wonderfully satisfying adventure and writing about them a fine way to spend another two years.
Alice joins me in most affectionate regards to you and Bess.
As ever,
Dean
August 27, 1969
Dear Dean:
I was happy to have a copy of the article Esquire is publishing in its Sept
ember issue. I read it with interest and satisfaction and you were as kind as could be.
I am looking forward to your forthcoming book and, as you well know, I have a special interest in everything you have to say.
Bess joins me in sending warm regards to you and Alice.
Sincerely yours,
Harry S. Truman
September 3, 1969
Dear Boss,
One of the first copies of my book off the press has just been put in the mail to you. Without even asking your permission, I dedicated the book to you. You inspired and supported almost everything described in it. I hope you will find it a worthy account of what we tried to do together.
Alice sends her love to Bess and to you, as do I.
Faithfully,
Dean
September 15, 1969
Dear Dean:
I began to read your book as soon as it reached me, for I am always greatly interested in everything you have to say or write.
I deeply appreciate your dedicating the book to me as I recall with pleasure and satisfaction the years we have spent together shaping the American foreign policy.
With warm regards to Alice and you, in which Bess joins me.
Sincerely and gratefully yours,
Harry S. Truman
Truman and Acheson met for the last time at Truman’s home on April 12, 1970. The occasion was a ceremonial gathering of members of Truman’s administration on the twenty-fifth anniversary of Truman’s succession to the presidency.
May 6, 1971
Dear Boss,
Our most affectionate greetings go to you with this birthday note. May you stay well and have many more of them. As the years pass your stature grows more and more imposing, not merely as the comparisons furnished are smaller and smaller, but also because what you did stands out more and more.
All of us who had the honor of serving under you will never forget the satisfaction of that experience.
Devotedly and respectfully,
Dean
May 14, 1971
Dear Dean:
I was greatly pleased by your kind and generous letter on my eighty-seventh birthday. Coming from you, this carries deeper meaning for me.
My thanks to you and Alice, in which Mrs. Truman is happy to join.
Sincerely yours,
Harry S. Truman
On October 12, 1971, Acheson suffered a heart attack. He died that same day. In his last letter to Truman, written a few months before, he expressed his abiding gratitude to his former chief.
Through his office in Independence, the President issued a final tribute:
America and the whole world have lost a great friend, diplomat and statesman. Dean Acheson was a friend of all mankind and served his country with honor and distinction. No one had a greater knowledge of world affairs and how to deal with them than he, while he was Secretary of State. Mrs. Truman and I have suffered a great personal loss in his passing.
A little over a year later, on December 26, 1972, Harry Truman died at his home. He was eighty-eight. The two friends’ deaths brought to an end one of the most remarkable series of letters in the history of American politics and government. Although the long friendship was over, its effects on American politics and policy have continued to this day.
Dean Acheson and Harry Truman visit Yale University, where Truman lectured and met with students and faculty in April 1958.
Acknowledgments
The publisher acknowledges with thanks the permission generously given by Clifton Truman Daniel, Thomas W. Daniel, and Harrison Gates Daniel, President Truman’s grandsons, and by the Honorable David C. Acheson, Dean Acheson’s son, to publish letters to which they hold copyright.
Clifton Truman Daniel, Thomas W. Daniel, and Harrison Gates Daniel would like to thank Dr. Raymond Gesselbracht, Special Assistant to the Director of the Harry S. Truman Library, for his work in providing the President’s letters used in this book and providing some of the explanatory headnotes, and Kacie Perna, assistant to Dr. Gesselbracht, for typing and formatting parts of the manuscript.
The Library would like to thank the Honorable David C. Acheson for also providing explanatory headnotes, and for furnishing answers to a myriad of factual questions regarding the events portrayed in this book.
The Library, the Daniels, and the Honorable David Acheson would like to acknowledge the book’s editor at Knopf, Patricia Hass, for her enthusiasm for this project, her persistence in seeing it through, and her steady editorial hand.
Finally, all parties wish to thank David McCullough for his introduction and support.
List of Letters
Abbreviations
A: Dean Acheson
AF: Among Friends: Personal Letters of Dean Acheson, edited by David S. McLellan and David C. Acheson (New York: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1980)
DA: Papers of Dean Acheson, Acheson-Truman Correspondence File, Harry S. Truman Library
OTR: Off the Record: The Private Papers of Harry S. Truman, edited by Robert H. Ferrell (New York: Harper and Row, 1980)
PPP: Post Presidential Papers of Harry S. Truman, Harry S. Truman Library T: Harry S. Truman
February 7, 1953: T to A (typed copy, 1 p., re luncheon thanks), PPP: Name File; also DA (typed, 1 p.).
February 7, 1953: T to A (typed, 1 p.), DA; also PPP: Name File (typed copy, 1 p.).
February 10, 1953: A to T (handwritten, 2 pp.), PPP: Name File; also AF.
February 18, 1953: T to A (handwritten, 4 pp.), DA.
February 21, 1953: A to T (handwritten, 2 pp.), PPP: Name File.
March 2, 1953: A to T (handwritten, 6 pp.), PPP: Name File.
March 6, 1953: T to A (typed copy, 1 p.), PPP: Name File; also DA (typed, 1 p.).
April 6, 1953: A to T (handwritten, 2 pp.), PPP: Name File; also DA (typed copy, 1 p.).
April 11, 1953: T to A (telegram, 1 p.), PPP: Name File; also DA (telegram, 1 p.).
April 14, 1953: A to T (typed, 2 pp.), w. enclosures, Drew Pearson, “Reasons Behind Dulles’ Reversal,” Washington Post, April 14, 1953; and John O’Donnell, n.d.; PPP: Name File; also DA (typed copy, 2 pp., and handwritten, 4 pp.); also AF.
April 18, 1953: T to A (handwritten, 4 pp.), DA.
April 24, 1953: T to A (typed copy, 1 p.), PPP: Name File; also DA (typed, 1 p.).
May 2, 1953: A to T (handwritten, 6 pp.), PPP: Name File.
May 25, 1953: T to A (typed copy, 1 p.), PPP: Name File, also DA (handwritten, 4 pp.); also AF.
May 28, 1953: A to T (handwritten, 6 pp.), PPP: Name File; also DA (typed copy, 2 pp.).
June 8, 1953: T to A (typed, 1 p.), DA.
June 23, 1953: A, Memorandum of Conversation (typed, 2 pp.), PPP: Name File.
June 23, 1953: A, Speech (excerpts), “Remarks of the Honorable Dean Acheson at Dinner Given in Honor of Former President and Mrs. Truman, June 23, 1953, Mayflower Hotel, Washington,” PPP: Name File.
July 21, 1953: A to T (typed, 4 pp.), w. enclosure, Eddy Gilmore, “Writer Finds Mighty Russia Starting to Burst at Seams,” Washington Post, July 19, 1953, PPP: Name File; also DA (typed copy, 4 pp.); also AF.
August 18, 1953: T to A (typed copy, 1 p.), w. enclosure, Samuel S. Freedman to T, August 10, 1953, PPP: Name File; also DA (typed, 1 p.).
September 2, 1953: T to A (typed copy, 1 p.), PPP: Name File; also DA (typed, 1 p.).
September 24, 1953: A to T (typed, 2 pp.), PPP: Speech File; also DA (typed copy, 2 pp.).
October 2, 1953: T to A (typed copy, 2 pp.), PPP: Name File; also DA (typed, 2 pp.); also OTR.
October 8, 1953: A to T (typed, 5 pp.), w. enclosure, “Post-War Foreign Policy, Second Phase,” address by A at the Woodrow Wilson Foundation Dinner, New York, October 1, 1953, PPP: Name File; also DA (typed copy, 5 pp.).
October 21, 1953: T to A (typed copy, 1 p.), PPP: Name File; also DA (typed, 1 p.).
October 21, 1953: A to T (typed, 3 pp.), PPP: Name File.
November 5, 1953: T to A (handwritten, 4 pp.), DA.
; December 3, 1953: A to T (handwritten, 2 pp.), PPP: Name File; also DA (typed copy, 1 p.).
December 26, 1953: T to A (handwritten, 4 pp.), DA.
January 28, 1954: T to A (handwritten, 3 pp.), DA.
February 5, 1954: A to T (handwritten, 6 pp.), PPP: Name File; also DA (typed copy, 3 pp.); also AF.
March 17, 1954 (Saint Patrick’s Day): T to A (handwritten, 4 pp.), DA.
March 26, 1954: A to T (handwritten, 2 pp.), w. enclosure, “ ‘Instant Retaliation’: The Debate Continues,” New York Times, March 28, 1954, PPP: Name File; also DA (typed copy, 1 p.).
May 28, 1954: T to A (handwritten, 6 pp.), DA.
June 16, 1954: A to T (handwritten, 6 pages), PPP: Name File; also DA (typed copy, 2 pp.).
June 21, 1954: A to T (handwritten, 3 pages), PPP: Name File; also DA (typed copy, 1 p.).
June 27, 1954 (postmark): Bess Truman to A (handwritten, 1 p.), DA.
June 30, 1954: A to Bess Truman (typed copy, 1 p.), DA.
September 21, 1954: A to T (typed, 2 pp.), PPP: Name File.
October 14, 1954: T to A (handwritten, 5 pp.), DA.
October 19, 1954: A to T (handwritten, 7 pp.), probably w. enclosure, “The Responsibility for Decision in Foreign Policy,” Autumn 1954. PPP: Name File.