Dean Acheson, who died at age 78 on October 12, 1971, was the fiercest of American leaders during the formative years of the cold war. As Under Secretary of State and Secretary of State for President Harry S. Truman, he was (to use the arrogant but perfectly accurate title of his memoirs) Present at the Creation of the basic policies which guided American foreign policv for a quarter of a century. In most instances he was the principal author of those policies.

Should we view his career with the unstinting admiration naturally expressed by his old boss, Harry Truman, and by President Nixon? Or with condemnation for his militant role in perpetuating the cold war? More appropriately, we should feel sadness that a man of such extraordinary intellectual ability, and the finest master of the English language to serve as Secretary of State since Jefferson, should have applied his talents to waging a form of war rather than searching for peace.