The Fifties

by David Halberstam

Pressed further, Acheson said to look in their Bible for Matthew 25:36, a passage in which Christ called upon His followers to understand that anyone who turns his back on someone in trouble turns his back on Him: “Naked, and ye clothed me; I was sick and ye visited me; I was in prison and ye came unto me.” Later he explained that he was following “Christ’s words setting forth compassion as the highest of Christian duties.” His words were those of a very brave man, but they were also political dynamite. Had he, mused Scotty Reston of The New York Times years later, phrased his thoughts in terms ordinary men could understand, had he simply said he would not kick a man when he was down, a great deal less damage might have been done. Acheson’s words were, historian Eric Goldman wrote, “a tremendous and unnecessary gift to those who were insisting that the foreign policy of the Truman Administration was being shaped by men who were soft on Communism.”