Which may not be a high bar to clear, but still. From Present at the Creation, p. 71.
Without warning, a hurricane struck. The word is used advisedly to describe a severe cyclonic disturbance caused by hot air revolving counterclockwise (in fact, it turned the clock back about four months). Its center was filled with a large mass of cumulonimbus cloud, often called Arthur Vandenberg, producing heavy word fall. Senator Vandenberg, for whom I came to have great respect and considerable affection, had the rare capacity for instant indignation, often before he understood an issue, or even that there was one.
The best part is, of course, “for whom I came to have great respect and considerable affection.”
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4 comments
August 12, 2010 at 10:40 pm
Ralph Luker
Acheson did, undoubtedly, have a way with words. Senator Vandenberg had, of course, been dead for over 35 years when Acheson published them and no longer had to rely on the Senator for bipartisan support in American foreign policy.
August 13, 2010 at 5:51 am
kevin
Of course Dean Acheson was funny. That’s how he landed the role of the Joker on the ’60s Batman show.
What? Cesar who now?
August 13, 2010 at 11:38 am
CJColucci
Kevin:
In another book, the name of which I forget, Acheson tells of how, when he was out with his wife, a woman mistook him for movie star Robert Montgomery. The woman would not believe that he wasn’t Montgomery, so he played along, even telling her, “You can call me Bob.” After the happy Montgomery fan went away (maybe with an autograph, but I forget), Mrs. Acheson gave him a cocked eyebrow: “You can call me Bob.”
August 16, 2010 at 9:45 am
Anderson
Pretty good. May have to pick that one up.
I liked Chace’s bio of Acheson, tho I’m not sure whether the author meant for me to come away with a strong sense of Truman’s culpability for the Cold War. Chace presents Acheson as reluctantly dragged down to that level, FWIW.