Present at the Creation; My Years in the State Department

Acheson, Dean [Ambassador Edward Perkins]

ISBN 10: 039307448X / ISBN 13: 9780393074482

Published by W.W. Norton & Company, New York, 1969

About this Item

Octavo, xiv, [4], 798 pp. Blue cloth, title in gilt on spine. Lacking first edition statement on copyright page, number line starting at 2. Occasional underlining and notes from Ambassador Perkins, yellow post-it notes at various points. In publisher's dust jacket, $15.00 retail price on front flap, touch of toning to spine, a near fine example. Inscribed to Ambassador Edward Perkins while serving as the United States Ambassador to the United Nations by the Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations, Joseph Verner Reed, Jr.: "For Ambassador Edward J. Perkins and Lucy Perkins, I admire and appreciate you both as you two effectively represent, celebrate and also embody classical American strength and virtues. Your friend, Joseph Verner Reed. Under-Secretary-General United Nations IX-92." Dr. Edward J. Perkins (1928-2020) served as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, as well as Liberia, South Africa, and Australia throughout his 25-year foreign service career. In 1986 President Ronald Reagan appointed Perkins to serve as ambassador to South Africa in hopes of fending off a congressional override to his veto of economic sanctions against the country. It was a controversial decision amidst apartheid in South Africa, and many Black leaders urged Perkins to not take the role. Perkins accepted the position and served until 1989, one year before Nelson Mandela was released from prison. He was appointed U.N. Ambassador by George H.W. Bush in 1992, serving for one year. The author of this book, Dean Acheson (1893-1971) served as Secretary of State for President Harry S. Truman. He was instrumental in defining foreign policy for the United States during the Cold War. Acheson's memoir, Present at the Creation, won the Pulitzer Prize for history in 1970. Seller Inventory # 12664

Bibliographic Details

Title: Present at the Creation; My Years in the ...

Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company, New York

Publication Date: 1969

Binding: Cloth

Illustrator: Presentation copy of Present at the Creation by Dean Acheson, inscribed to U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Edward J. Perkins.

Condition: Very good

Dust Jacket Condition: near fine

Signed: Signed by Author(s)

Edition: First Edition, Second Printing.

About this title

Synopsis:

The author relates his experiences in the State Department during a period that witnessed World War II, European reconstruction, the Korean War and McCarthyism

Review:

Dean Acheson joined the U.S. Department of State in 1941 as an assistant secretary for economic affairs. Shortly after the end of World War II, he attempted to resign, but was persuaded to come back as under secretary of state; Harry Truman eventually rewarded Acheson's loyalty by picking him to run the State Department during his second term (1949 to 1953).

"The period covered in this book was one of great obscurity to those who lived through it," Acheson wrote at the beginning of his memoirs, first published in 1969. "The period was marked by the disappearance of world powers and empires ... and from this wreckage emerged a multiplicity of states, most of them new, all of them largely underdeveloped politically and economically. Overshadowing all loomed two dangers to all--the Soviet Union's new-found power and expansive imperialism, and the development of nuclear weapons." Present at the Creation is a densely detailed account of Acheson's diplomatic career, delineated in intricately eloquent prose. Going over the origins of the cold war--the drawing of lines among the superpowers in Europe, the conflict in Korea--Acheson discusses how he and his colleagues came to realize "that the whole world structure and order that we had inherited from the nineteenth century was gone," and that the old methods of foreign policy would no longer apply. Among the accolades Acheson garnered for his candid self-assessment was the 1970 Pulitzer Prize for history.