(6 of 6)
The Woodsman's Pal. The U.S. Secretary of State spends most of his evenings poring over documents in the small, well-worn study of his red brick home, the walls of which are brightened by Mrs. Acheson's own cheerful, absent-minded oil paintings. The bookcases are stacked with history, biography and international law, a solemn collection in which a book on gardening appears to be an anomaly. But gardening now is Acheson's chief fun.
Over the years the farmhouse out in the country, at Sandy Spring, has gradually had its face lifted and has become a comely, charming estate with a name, "Hare-wood," after one of Dolly Madison's estates. On weekends the Secretary of State manages to get out there with his wife. He finds it a never-ending challenge: his wintertime project is clearing out the woods. Armed with a South Pacific wartime weapon, a sharp, machete-like tool called a "Woodsman's Pal," the Secretary works through the woods, slicing through the underbrush. Mrs. Acheson, whom he jocularly calls the "Fire Goddess," follows behind, piling the brush on a bonfire.
Tough Old Monkey. The Secretary has demonstrated that he also has the kind of incisive mind which can slice quickly and effectively through the Kremlin's underbrush. He demonstrated that most recently in his handling of Stalin's blatant propaganda offensive via I.N.S. Correspondent Kingsbury Smith. There might have been other ways of handling the situation besides turning the cold eye on Stalin's bid.
Other ways were considered. Might it have been a good idea, for instance, to counter Stalin's offer by accepting the idea of a Truman-Stalin meeting, providing it was held on neutral ground? Behind Acheson's decision was this thinking: there is no magic in meeting Stalin, because he is just part of the machinery and a pretty tough part at that. Why play their game? Stalin is a pretty tough old monkey who got where he is through the blood of many of his friends.
Dealing with the Russians, "You say to yourself, 'What are the specific things they are trying to accomplish?' And then you make it as inconvenient for them as possible. If you had a conference you might say to yourself, 'We've got them now.' But what about the days after that? You just give them a propaganda sounding board. When they finally see they're getting nowhere and they know you know they're getting nowhere, then they come around and say, 'Let's talk about these specific things.' And then you say: 'Fine.' "