Dean Acheson - Department Quotes

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My memory... is of a department without direction, composed of a lot of busy people working hard and usefully but as a whole not functioning as a foreign office. It did not chart a course to be furthered by the success of our arms, or to aid or guide our arms. Rather it seems to have been adrift carried hither and yon by the currents of war or pushed about by collisions with more purposeful craft.

Dean Acheson
In the State Department, one never lacks for helpful suggestions.

Dean Acheson
General Marshall was "impatient with a type of nonsense particularly prevalent in the State Department known as 'kicking the problem around.' All of us who have work with General Marshall have reported a recurring outburst of his: 'Don't fight the problem, gentlemen, solve it!' With him the time to be devoted to analysis of a problem, to balancing 'on the one hand' against 'on the other hand,' was definitely limited. The discussion he wanted was about plans of action "

Dean Acheson
My official duties were summed up in the Department of State Bulletin by misleading platitudes... Both (Secretary) Hull and the President... knew me and, surely, had not asked me into the Department to perform the largely nonexistent duties defined in the Bulletin.

Dean Acheson
The position of the United States had undergone a drastic change; the purpose and capabilities of the State Department had not.

Dean Acheson
Plainly plenty of work was waiting to be done. The question was: would the State Department do it? I proposed to have a shot at finding out.

Dean Acheson