Acheson:
The Secretary of State Who Created the American World
By James Chace
Simon and Schuster, $30
ISBN 0684808439

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In Dean Acheson's 1969 Pulitzer Prize-winning memoir of his years in the State Department (1941-1953), Present at the Creation, he wrote, "In a sense, the postwar years were a period of creation, for the ordering of which I shared with others some responsibility." Historian James Chace demonstrates in his outstanding new biography that Acheson was the prime mover behind major U.S. foreign policy initiatives in this period when a "new world" was being created and "the most important figure in American foreign policy since John Quincy Adams."

As Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs, Acheson faced many challenges, from the creation of the World Bank to the skillfully crafted Truman Doctrine. Each required doing a super sales job on Congress.

During his tenure as Secretary of State, he pushed for the security pact which later became known as NATO. In 1950 he and the President decided "to treat the North Korean aggression as a local war" and thus "established a Cold War precedent for fighting a limited war rather than a general war."

The key to Acheson's achievements -- and the administration's -- was that, unlike some other presidents, President Truman did not want to run foreign policy from the White House. Instead, he wanted "respect, consultation, and the right to make final decisions. Acheson understood this and never failed to provide him with the personal touches that Truman craved."

Acheson was not an ideologue but "an intensely pragmatic man, impatient with abstractions." Although he became strongly anti-Communist, he did not have a grand design. After leaving office, his advice was sought by Presidents Kennedy, Johnson, and even Richard Nixon, who had been one of Acheson's most vociferous critics.

Chace's superb study helps to view the private person as well as the public figure, detailing Acheson's early career as a law clerk and the influential relationships in his life, including those with friends and family. Acheson is absorbing reading about an extraordinary, if, at times, controversial, public servant who helped chart the way through uncertain foreign policy waters at a crucial point in our history.

Roger Bishop is a monthly contributor to BookPage.