Letter from McGeorge Bundy to Dean Acheson

HARVARD UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF ARTS AND SCIENCES DEPARTMENT OF GOVERNMENT LITTAUER CENTER M-22 CAMBRIDGE 38, MASSACHUSETTS August 5, 1953 Mr. Dean Acheson 5. Union Trust Building AND Washington, D. C. RECORDS es SERVICE? Dear Dean: I thought you were going to take a vacation. I think you are very good to take time to think ahead on what we ought to do in the autumn period. The real question, as you say, is just what it is that we are trying to do. If we want to make a really comprehensive discussion of everything that happened between 1949 and 1953, then surely we must include everything on your list and the additional items that you mention in your letter. We might even have to go further, and consider in detail things like the recruitment of your staff, the preparation of your speeches, the character of your personal relationships with a very large number of people, and such substantive matters of policy as Spain, trusteeships, Point Four, and even statehood for Hawaii and Alaska! We would also want to know about your position on party politics and other similar matters. But the very making of a comprehensive list suggests to me that this is the wrong way to go about it. I cannot help feeling that we would do better to limit our attention to those matters which are of major concern and interest, either to you personally or in a general historical way, and if possible we should give first emphasis to those which are both. The reason for this is not simply that we have not the time to do a thorough job; it is rather that the specialized contribution of this kind of seminar is probably most effective when it concentrates its attention upon questions of general interest, so that the members can join effectively in the discussion. It was good, I am sure, to try out the technique of developing in real detail the course of events at the Foreign Ministers meeting in 1949, but I think probably we spent more time on it than was wholly desirable; the reconstruction of chronology and the identification of de- cisions are both matters which can be done faster and better by people who come to work eventually from the written record. Our task is different, and has to do with feelings, attitudes, and unwritten intentions and practices. For these the seminar is the ideal place, and these things generally turn up most effectively when attention is concentrated on matters of high interest and importance.