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    "localId": "75848136",
    "label": "Letter from McGeorge Bundy to Dean Acheson",
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    "title": "Letter from McGeorge Bundy to Dean Acheson",
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            "day": 5,
            "logicalDate": "1953-08-05",
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    "ocrText": "HARVARD UNIVERSITY\nFACULTY OF ARTS AND SCIENCES\nDEPARTMENT OF GOVERNMENT\nLITTAUER CENTER M-22\nCAMBRIDGE 38, MASSACHUSETTS\nAugust 5, 1953\nMr. Dean Acheson\nTRUMAN\nUnion Trust Building\nHARRY\n\"NATIONAL\nARCHIVES AND\nWashington, D. C.\nRECORDS\nU.S.\nLIBRARY\nSERVICE\"\nDear Dean:\nGOVERNMENT\nI thought you were going to take a vacation. I think you\nare very good to take time to think ahead on what we ought to\ndo in the autumn period.\nThe real question, as you say, is just what it is that we\nare trying to do. If we want to make a really comprehensive\ndiscussion of everything that happened between 1949 and 1953,\nthen surely we must include everything on your list and the\nadditional items that you mention in your letter. We might\neven have to go further, and consider in detail things like\nthe recruitment of your staff, the preparation of your speeches,\nthe character of your personal relationships with a very large\nnumber of people, and such substantive matters of policy as\nSpain, trusteeships, Point Four, and even statehood for Hawaii\nand Alaska! We would also want to know about your position on\nparty politics and other similar matters.\nBut the very making of a comprehensive list suggests to me\nthat this is the wrong way to go about it. I cannot help feeling\nthat we would do better to limit our attention to those matters\nwhich are of major concern and interest, either to you personally\nor in a general historical way, and if possible we should give\nfirst emphasis to those which are both. The reason for this is\nnot simply that we have not the time to do a thorough job; it is\nrather that the specialized contribution of this kind of seminar\nis probably most effective when it concentrates its attention\nupon questions of general interest, so that the members can join\neffectively in the discussion. It was good, I am sure, to try\nout the technique of developing in real detail the course of\nevents at the Foreign Ministers meeting in 1949, but I think\nprobably we spent more time on it than was wholly desirable;\nthe reconstruction of chronology and the identification of de-\ncisions are both matters which can be done faster and better\nby people who come to work eventually from the written record.\nOur task is different, and has to do with feelings, attitudes,\nand unwritten intentions and practices. For these the seminar\nis the ideal place, and these things generally turn up most\neffectively when attention is concentrated on matters of high\ninterest and importance.\nS.\nHARRY\nTHE\nU.S.\nRECORDSAND\nSERVICE\nLIBRARY\nMr. Dean Acheson\n-2-\nGOVERNMENT\nAugust 5, 1953\nOn this basis I would be inclined to make the following\ncomments about your list. I wonder if Point 1 - the British\ndevaluation - is a proper major subject of attention. .0f course\nif you mean the whole problem of sterling balances being is at or\nnear the center of the Western economic position, I would have\nto agree, and I think we might do well to try to have a real\ndiscussion of this point. In this context it might easily be\ntrue (I simply do not know, and you do) that the negotiations\nof late 1949 would be central But that specific crisis\ndoes not seem to me to be of importance comparable to some of\nyour other items.\nI feel the same way about the Japanese peace treaty. Again\nthis may be simply ignorance, but I wonder if those negotiations\nbring up decisive questions and difficulties of the kind that\nwe meet in other areas. The whole operation passed off very well;\ndid this conceal a number of really tough and interesting questions -\nin particular, are they interesting to you?\nI think that questions 2, 4, and 5 - NATO, Germany, and France -\nare all so closely connected that we might do better to try to\nexamine them under the same heading of policy toward Western\nEurope. Here I would include the sterling area question and re-\nlationships between us and the U.K. generally. This is certainly\na problem of the first interest, and it seems to me that all of\nthe points you have suggested need attention and can profitably\nbe discussed by the seminar.\nI feel the same way about Korea. This is probably the most\nimportant thing that happened while you were Secretary. The only\ntime-saving device I can suggest here is that it might be well if\nwe laid upon the members of the seminar in this case a specific\nrequirement that they do some homework on the MacArthur hearings\non this issue. If Butch were willing to designate the pages that\nseem to him pretty significant, you might be spared the task of\na chronological survey, and might simply expose yourself to cross-\nexamination by the seminar. This might get you into the really\ndecisive issues, and to the kind of thing that the seminar can do,\nand the hearings do it without taking us over well trodden ground.\nI think that both questions 6 and 8 are of great interest, although\nperhaps they will not take us as long as Western Europe and Korea;\nhere I think your outline already indicates that there are things\nwhich you want to say, and notions which you want to lay before the\nseminar, it might well be advisable for you to indicate\nin a little more detail, a meeting or so in advance, what points\ndo some homework.\nare of real interest to you, so that again the seminar members may\nMr. Dean Acheson\n-3-\nAugust 5, 1953\nI do not observe any major items that are neglected in this\nlist. I think one or two of the matters I mentioned in my first second\nparagraph may be worth some comment; it will be helpful to any\nfuture student to know something about the pattern of preparation\nof your public utterances, and I think something about the course\nand pattern of your personal relationships is also important; your\nchoice of friends for relaxation, and your feelings of personal as\nwell as official connection with some members of your staff that\nare of real importance, I also think that some comments on your\nrelations to party politics would be interesting; one of the real\nproblems about the Department of State is whether and to what\nextent the Secretary of State should be a partisan in the usual\nfashion of cabinet officers.\nAll these comments, as I am sure you will understand, are made\nsubject to my overriding feeling that the best thing for the seminar\nto talk about is the thing that most interests you.\nI hope you are having a really satisfactory vacation.\nAs ever,\nMar\nU.S. SERVICE:, CIRNARY\nMcGeorge Bundy\nGOVERNMENT\nMB:pc\nBut this you may find it better to\ndo in private dietation to Barbara\nas of today, Bill may seem in good shape - and as a matter of\nfact. I think it's OK whicheve way it trum ant- because if mel.\nnos presses his they home him at a good time for them\n& a bael time for him"
}