Dean Acheson - Secretary Quotes

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... old inhabitants of the bureaucratic jungle like (Secretary) Hull knew that Cabinet boards and committees were paper tigers. They made a fine show in a parade but soon dissolved in the rain... After attend a few meetings (of this board), the Secretary deputized me to 'explain his absence' and substitute for him.

Dean Acheson
... the Assistant Secretary in Charge of Administration (was) a job which should be undertaken only by a saint or a fool... the House and Senate subcommittees in charge of appropriations, their chairmen, and the Comptroller General's office make this job perfect hell. Like an ill-tempered chatelaine of a medieval manor, her keys hanging from her belt, Congress parsimoniously and suspiciously doles out supplies for the shortest time, each item meticulously weighed and measured, each request at first harshly denied. Almost simultaneously yesterday's accounting goes on amid screamed accusation and denunciation of every purpose of policy.

Dean Acheson
Only immediate assertion of leadership by the United States could prevent war in the next decade... The President and the Secretary of State must shock the country into a realization of its peril...

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