Former Secretary of State Dean Acheson’s memoir, “Present at the Creation,” is a classic account of how a durable and productive Atlantic alliance, based on common values and a cleareyed judgment of America’s strategic interests, rebuilt Europe after World War II and produced international institutions responsible for the security and expanding economic opportunities that have been of such benefit to the United States.

Today we are faced with this question: Will two remarkable events within the past several months, the Brexit vote in Britain and the election of Donald J. Trump as president, threaten to undo what Harry S. Truman, George C. Marshall, Acheson, Dwight D. Eisenhower and their farsighted counterparts in Europe and Asia created 70 years ago?

Acheson’s book recounts the struggles, the intense negotiations and the occasionally brilliant statecraft that established the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The foundations of NATO became the European Union and other international institutions. They also led to the Bretton Woods agreement stabilizing currencies; the Marshall Plan, which saved much of Europe from tyranny; efforts to devise an international understanding on nuclear weapons; and development of the Truman Doctrine, which halted Communist expansion in Europe.

These eventually led to border arrangements that produced freer flows of people and goods, a common currency in much of Europe and, most of all, a stable and secure trans-Atlantic region. These institutions, while not perfect and always ripe for reform and evolution to meet contemporary challenges, have brought prosperity to millions and created a remarkably peaceful period in a European history filled with costly wars.