Acheson Quotes

When Acheson was first joined State as Assistant Secretary for Economic Affairs, he writes the following in a section entitled "My Search for a Function"..."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)
Acheson "never for one moment believed that the holding of office was a source of power – it was an obligation of service." View quote
Dean Acheson
In response, Acheson wrote to "tell a tale of large conceptions, great achievements...Its hero is the American people." View quote
Dean Acheson
[Recalling George H. W. Bush's Secretary of State James Baker:]...the best secretary of state since Dean Acheson. I say that because he and Bush 41 had an incredibly tempestuous period in history, and they navigated through it with great success. View quote
John R. Bolton
Jim Acheson, our designer, told me I looked like his Auntie Wyn and I have never forgotten it. I wondered if it was the way I walked or wore my hat, but Jim just said that I had some indefinable air of an aunt. It was then I began to hope that one day I might play Lady Bracknell. View quote
Tom Baker