From 1960: Acheson Declares Free Americans Look Unafraid at World Troubles

This article is from exactly 60 year ago today, published on April 18, 1960 in the New York Times. It was written by William R. Conklin. The photographs are of (top to bottom) Acheson (on the cover of Time magazine), James Baldwin, and Ellie Wrubel.

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Visiting Boyhood Home, He Says Nation, Rooted in Individual Liberty, Has No Doubt Its Strength Will Prevail

Because the United States is a nation of free thinkers and free speakers it will surmount all its international difficulties, Dean Acheson, Secretary of State, said here tonight.

Without mentioning the "cold war" directly, Mr. Acheson declared that the American way would triumph over any "imposed political doctrine." He spoke to an audience of 500 gathered in his birthplace for the bicentennial celebration of the church of the Holy Trinity, here on the campus of Wesleyan University.

Mr. Acheson recalled that his late father, the Right Rev. E. Campion Acheson, had been rector of the church from 1898 to 1915. The rector, who later became Episcopal Bishop of the Diocese of Connecticut, died in 1934. Mr. Acheson was joined here by his younger brother, Dr. Edward C. Acheson, 48, associate professor of economics at George Washington University. Both sons spent the night with their mother at the family home here.

Declaring that New Englanders were traditionally strong individualists, Mr. Acheson said their qualities were typically American. In his boyhood, he said, "everyone had strong opinions on nearly all subjects and some apparently believed that all facts were created free and equal."

Role of Individual Cited
"The foundations of society," he continued, "have come to rest in America on the voluntary participation of the individual in the activity of the group, with the recognition that the structure will stand or fall with the quality of his participation.

It is our glory and our pride that our attitude toward our country springs from our individual experiences, childhood impressions and moral convictions, and not from an imposed political doctrine.
This gives us a strength in our national purposes which is rarely revealed except in times of national crises.
There are other parts of the world where the centralized power of the state is an impressive crust, concealing a vast pulp of human misery and helplessness. We spurn that type of impressiveness. We rejoice that the real elements of our immense strength are here in the foundations of our society; in many tens of thousands of quiet, decent and God-fearing American communities.

Without that faith, Mr. Acheson said, many Americans might fear the future because of chaotic world conditions.

Notes Confidence in Future
"We may have our reservations about one administration or another, and we may believe that this party or that is taking us down the road to ruin," he observed. "But we never doubt that the strength of a nation in which men think and speak for themselves will surmount all difficulties."

Mr. Acheson shared the speaking platform with Raymond E. Baldwin, associate justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court of Errors, who attended Holy Trinity Church as a boy.

This afternoon Mr. Acheson attended a reunion of forty Holy Trinity choir boys where he joined in singing "Chinatown" and "I Want to Be Happy" as Allie Wrubel, now a Hollywood songwriter, played the piano. Mr. Wrubel wrote the songs for the Walt Disney films, "Make Mine Music" and "Melody Time."

The reunion, held at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Arthur R. Wrubel, recalled that the four sons of Isaac Wrubel, of whom Allie and Arthur are two, sang in the Holy Trinity choir. This came about when Bishop Acheson, because there was no synagogue in the town, invited the four Wrubel boys to learn the Old Testament in his church.

Secretary Acheson flew to New Haven aboard the Presidential plane Sacred Cow and drove here from the airport. He expects to fly back to Washington early tomorrow morning.