Analysis: Address by Secretary Acheson, September 19, 1949

Date: September 19, 1949

Author: Dean Acheson

Genre: speech

Summary Overview

In 1949, Secretary of State Dean Acheson addressed the Pan American Society, an organization founded in 1910 to foster fellowship between the United States and Central and South America, headquartered in New York City. It was a critical time in Pan-American relations, with unrest in Panama, Columbia, Cuba, and throughout the Caribbean. At the end of August, the Soviet Union tested an atomic weapon, and though this news was not made public until September 23, it was certainly foremost on Acheson's mind as he gave this speech, and American foreign policy over the following decades would focus on preventing Communist expansion, particularly critical in neighboring countries that could provide bases for nuclear weapons aimed at the United States. Acheson reminded his audience of the values and agreements that the nations of the Americas shared, the challenges to “hemisphere security,” and opportunities for economic expansion and the growth of democracy.

Defining Moment

The 1947 Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance, known as the Rio Treaty, was the governing document for American relations when Secretary Acheson gave this speech in 1949. The United States had long been concerned with the defense of the Americas; per the Monroe Doctrine of 1823, European attempts to further colonize or interfere with any nation in the hemisphere would be considered an act of aggression to which the United States would respond. At the First International Conference of American States, held in Washington, DC, from October 1889 to April 1890, American nations discussed how to encourage greater communication with one another and also promoted economic cooperation and an arbitration system to settle disputes. From this body sprang the International Union of American Republics, followed by the Pan American Union, and then, in 1948, the Organization of American States.

In 1936, the Inter-American Conference for the Maintenance of Peace agreed to mutual defense in case of a European war. During World War II, all American nations supported the Allies, with the exception of Uruguay and Argentina, who stayed neutral for most of the war before finally siding with the Allies; six Central American states signed the 1942 United Nations Declaration, joined by other American states in subsequent years. In March 1945, with Germany and Japan close to collapse, the Inter-American Conference on War and Peace convened in Mexico City, with high-ranking delegates from twenty-one countries. The Act of Chapultepec (1945) that resulted from this conference laid out a framework for mutual defense and arbitration, with the understanding that these agreements would need to be formalized after the war was over. In 1947, the Rio Treaty did just that—making the agreements of Chapultepec into a long-term formalized treaty that went into effect in 1948. The Rio Treaty established the principles that an attack against any American nation would be an attack against all, and that conflicts between American nations would to be settled by arbitration rather than war. The first cracks in Pan-American unity were already present at the signing of the treaty, however, and it included clauses by the signers reaffirming their claims on disputed territory. In addition, former colonial territories in the Caribbean agitated for independence, and there were violent uprisings in Columbia, Cuba, and Panama.

Author Biography

Dean Gooderham Acheson was born on April 11, 1893, in Middletown, Connecticut, the son of Canadian immigrants. His mother, Eleanor Gooderham Acheson, came from a well-to-do family in Toronto; his father, Edward Campion Acheson, was an Episcopal minister who later became bishop of Connecticut. Acheson attended the Groton School and, later, Yale University and Harvard Law School, where he was appointed to the Harvard Law Review. Acheson, a Navy Auxiliary Reserve enlistee, served as an ensign at the Brooklyn Navy Yard toward the end of World War I. Acheson was a clerk for Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis from 1919 until 1921 and then entered a law firm, Covington and Burling, leaving briefly in 1933 when appointed undersecretary of the United States Treasury. In 1941, Acheson joined the Department of State as assistant secretary of state for economic affairs, where he oversaw the oil embargo of Japan. During and after the war, Acheson assumed increasing leadership roles in the State Department, and in 1949, he was appointed secretary of state by President Truman. Acheson's was one of the strongest voices in the formation of United States foreign policy during the Cold War. He was influential in the formation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and worked with George Kennan to develop the policy of containment, intended to stop the spread of Communism. Acheson retired at the end of the Truman administration in 1953 and returned to private law practice. He acted as an unofficial advisor to subsequent administrations, and in 1964, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Acheson died in Maryland on October 12, 1971, and is buried in Washington, DC.

Document Analysis

Secretary Acheson begins his address to the Pan American Society by reaffirming the reasons for the importance of Central and South American relations to United States foreign policy. First, the nations are neighbors and should be friends. Second, US foreign policy across the rest of the world is necessarily focused on repairing the damage done by the war, while the Americas are relatively unscathed. The nations of the Americas can, therefore, “work together in an atmosphere of relative peace and stability.”

In the face of growing ideological threats, particularly that of Communism, Acheson is eager to reassert that the hemisphere's shared values included free enterprise and individual rights. The Rio Treaty is front and center in this speech—reminding the other nations of the Americas that they have pledged to treat an attack on any of them as an attack on them all, and to submit their conflicts to arbitration rather than resorting to the use of force. This agreement is “facing a crucial test” as conflicts throughout the Caribbean multiply. In fact, “at times the entire area has approached a state of political turmoil.” However, if the nations of the Americas honor their commitments to each other and abide by the terms of the Rio Treaty, Acheson asserts, they will have no reason to worry about security in the Western Hemisphere.

This is not to say, however, that the United States would not embrace positive, democratic change, according to Acheson: “Indeed, we welcome and encourage change where it is in the direction of liberty and democracy.” The United States will always welcome the strengthening of democratic institutions in the Americas. Having said that, Acheson tackles the problem of the recognition of undemocratic governments. Recognition of a government should not be confused with approval or support of it, he says. “We maintain diplomatic relations with other countries primarily because we are all on the same planet and must do business with each other.” If a government is willing to adhere to its international obligations, and is in control of a country, it is often necessary to recognize it, though this does not “imply approval of it or its policies.”

A key element of relations between the American nations is economic support and cooperation. Acheson lays out the steps that the United States has taken to encourage economic growth in the rest of the Americas, but also champions the role of private investment. Loans and aid can only be “supplementary to the efforts of private capital, both local and foreign,” and because the needs of countries vary, they require slightly different forms and amounts of assistance. The common message, however, is that countries that help themselves will succeed.

Acheson encourages steady growth based on three key foreign policy goals: “the security of our nation and of the hemisphere; the encouragement of democratic representative institutions; and positive cooperation in the economic field,” and he expresses confidence that the American nations will continue to work together.

Glossary

denunciations: public censure or condemnation; an act or instance of denouncing

equilibrium: a state of rest of balance due to the equal action of opposing forces; an equal balance between any powers or influences

fiscal: of or relating to the public treasury or revenues; of or relating to financial matters in general

preponderance: superiority in weight, power and/or numbers

Bibliography and Additional Reading

Acheson, Dean. Present at the Creation: My Years in the State Department. 1960. New York: Norton, 1987. Print.

Beisner, Robert. Dean Acheson: A Life in the Cold War. New York: Oxford UP, 2006. Print.

Green, David. The Containment of Latin America: A History of the Myths and Realities of the Good Neighbor Policy. Chicago: Quadrangle, 1971. Print.