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    "localId": "75848017",
    "label": "Correspondence Between Dean Acheson and McGeorge Bundy",
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    "id": "75848017",
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    "contentType": "document",
    "title": "Correspondence Between Dean Acheson and McGeorge Bundy",
    "citationUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75848017",
    "collections": [
        "Dean Acheson Papers",
        "Princeton Seminars Files"
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    "productionDates": [
        {
            "logicalDate": "1953-05-01",
            "month": 5,
            "year": 1953
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    "ocrText": "Carbon\nOrig. I serbon to me tooppie U-B\nPersonal and Confidential 2nd carbon Frankfurte\n3rd carbon -Syropsisfile\nMay 11, 1953.\n4th carbon file copy\nDear Mac:\nThank you very much for your letter of May 5\nregarding Oppie's suggestion for getting me to work\nas painlessly as possible. I have thought about it\na great deal since he spoke with me and have had some\ndiscussion regarding it. However, the matter contin-\nues to be too nebulous in my mind to get any real\nU.S.\nSERVICE\"\nLIBRARY\nconclusions -- even tentative ones -- and perhaps\nthis letter, of which I am sending a copy to Oppie,\nGOVERNMENT\nwill help me to clarify my problems and elicit some\nhelp from you two.\nIn your note you reasure me that in selecting those\nwho might work with me I could count on any not selected\nunderstanding and not feeling hurt. You also state\nyour preference for a written record, which would be\nmine.\nThese two points, which some might think were\ndetails which could be worked out as we went along,\nseem to me important because they point up the central\nproblem of what I would be trying to do. Perhaps in\nthinking about them in that connection we might find\nthe way to answer both these questions and the\nlarger problem. Because, clearly, the question who\nshould be selected cannot be sensibly answered until\nwe know for what purpose the selection is being made;\nand also the matter of whether there should be a writ-\nten record, in turn, depends upon the further question\nof what the record is to be about.\nIt seems to me that there are two main approaches\nwhich might be taken; although in practice the actual\ncourse might be any one of a number of variations or\ncombinations of either or both.\nMr. McGeorge Bundy,\nDepartment of Government,\nLittauer Center M-22,\nCambridge 38, Massachusetts.\nMr. McGeorge Bundy - 2 - Personal and Confidential\nFirst, it might be thought that having been quite\nclosely connected with Government for some time and\nwith the field of foreign relations I should try to get\ndown, beginning say about the end of the war, 8 very\ncomprehensive statement -- if not wholly chronological,\nstill recognizing the importance of chronology -- of\nthe development of our foreign policy, discussing the\nHARRY ARCHIVES NATIONAL RECORDS TRUMAN AND LIBRARY\nU.S.\nSERVICE\"\nmain problems as they a peared to the actors, the\nmeans available for meeting the problems, the practical\nGOVERNMENT\nconsiderations limiting alternatives, and the reasons\nwhy choices were made. This would be an ambitious,\nextensive, lengthy, and very difficult task. I would\nbe doubtful whether I should be the person about whom\nsuch an effort should center. The limitations of time\navailable and of materials available alone might pre-\nclude this.\nMaterials available to me are only the public,\npublished materials, largely appearing in the State\nDepartment Bulletin. Miss Evans has been working at\nputting these in useful and helpful shape. They would\nbe important aids to memory. But they would omit the\nmost vital materials to a task such as I have suggested,\nwhich are available only in the Department's files.\nAn effort so limited, could, I am quite sure, result\nin most important omissions and errors, confusion of\ndates, persons -- in short, a record which might be\nseriously misleading, even with all the care which\neveryone concerned might put on it.\nSecond, a quite different effort, which seems\nmore in accord with my recollection of my talk with\nOppie, is less ambitious, much less formal and organ-\nized, and, perhaps for that very reason more open to\ndoubts as to its utility. It would be more episodic\nand interstitial, teking 8. variety of actions, episodes,\npolicies -- perhaps not in any particular order --\nattempting to get down my memory as to how they\ndeveloped, the play of various personalities and\nother factors upon them, the crises which developed,\nand my best recollection as to why this or that course\nwas finally decided upon or adopted.\nThis might result in the missing of many crucial\nfactors, which, by their absence, might lead more\nemphasis to be placed on less important factors which\nwere remembered. This sort of thing might be interest-\ning from an anecdotal point of view, or it might go\nfurther; but it has limitations and hazards which I\nthink are fairly obvious.\nMr. MeGeorge Bundy\n- 3 - Personal and Confidential\nYou can see how pursuing these lines of thought\nbrings us back to the questions you discussed; that is,\nwho should be present and what sort of a record should\nbe kept. This, in turn, gets back to the question of\nwhat it is in my memory and experience which those of\nyou who have been so kindly interested in this proposal\nthink should be preserved. I am not sure that I am in\na good position to know about this. Some things which\nseem to me unimportant because very familiar may seem\nmore important to you.\nOne piece of sage advice which I have received\nTRUMAN\nis that we should start some how, see what happens,\nand see whether it is worthwhile. But it seems to me\na little difficult even to start until I am a little\nHARRY U.S. S. ARCHIVES NATIONAL RECORDS SERVICE\" GOVERNMENT AND LIBRARY\nclearer what it is that we are starting upon.\nIt may be that a meeting of some few people\nsomewhere to discuss the matter further might help\nclarify my mind. It may be that you and Oppie can\ndo this without a meeting.\nI had planned to write Oppie, if only to report\nthat I have nothing to report, but your letter has\nbrought out some of the questions more clearly than\nthey were before, and I know he will forgive me for\ntaking this method of pursuing clarification.\nIn reponse to your question about Bill's and\nMary's plans, I gather from what Whit Griswold has\ntold me, but not from anything Bill has said, that\nno developments are in the of fing at present.\nAs ever,\nDA:be\nHARVARD UNIVERSITY\nGOLL\nFACULTY OF ARTS AND SCIENCES\nDEPARTMENT OF GOVERNMENT\nLITTAUER CENTER M-22\nCAMBRIDGE 38, MASSACHUSETTS\nMay 5, 1953\nHon. Dean G. Acheson\n2805 P Street, N.W.\nWashington, D. C.\nHARRY ARCHIVES S. RECORDS NATIONAL TRUMAN AND LIBRARY\nU.S.\nSERVICE\"\nDear Dean:\nGOVERNMENT\nI hear from Robert Oppenheimer that he has had a chance to urge\nupon you the notion of making some use of your knowledge of the United\nStates Government in operation in recent years, and I want to add my\nplea to his. The one part of human beings which is certainly not\ninfallible or eternal is the memory, and my own feeling from some exper-\nience of comparing the contemporary word with recollection is that time\ndoes not simply subtract from one's accuracy, it divides it. As to the\nway in which you do it, you must suit yourself; I'll say only that if\nyou felt like holding discussions with a group of only six or eight,\nI feel certain that those who were not invited would entirely understand.\nThe people who really matter in this business will be more concerned\nto have a record made than to watch its making themselves.\nAnd that brings me to one other point: Robert says not to scare\nyou, but I do share the historian's prejudice in favor of a written\nrecord. If people are going to feel self-conscious with a tape recorder\nrunning, then some one should undertake the chore of prompt post-\nmeeting dictation, so that you yourself can make corrections and get\na fair copy for your own file. Of course, as I see it, there would\nbe only one copy of any such discussion -- your own.\nDo you think Bill and Mary can be wooed and won for New Haven?\nI know one thing -- if they are, Erwin Griswold will be annoyed.\nAs ever,\nMar\nMcGeorge Bundy\nMcGB:ma\nPersonal and Confidential\nMay 11, 1953.\nDear Oppie:\nI have been meaning to write you about\nour talk, but have not known what to say. I\nhave had some talks with the various people\nyou and I mentioned. They think most of the ir\nideas are reflected in the letter to Mac which\nhis letter on the subject inspired.\nI am continuing to think and talk about\nthe matter here. I should be glad to be helped\nby anything you or Mac may want to say, either\norally or on paper.\nAs ever,\ns.\nU.S.\nSERVICE\nRECORDS\nEnclosure:\nGOVERNMENT\nLetter to MacGeorge Bundy\nof May 11, 1953.\nMr. Robert Oppenheimer,\nDirector,\nThe Institute for Advanced Study,\nPrinceton, New Jersey."
}