Acheson, Dean Gooderham

Acheson, Dean Gooderham ăch´ĭsən [key], 1893–1971, U.S. secretary of state (1949–53), b. Middletown, Conn., grad. Yale, Harvard Law School. He was (1919–21) private secretary to LouisBrandeis, became a successful lawyer, and served (1933) as undersecretary of the treasury until he resigned in disagreement with President Franklin D.Roosevelt's fiscal policy. Having been assistant secretary of state (1941–45) and a key actor in theBretton Woods Conference, then undersecretary of state (1945–47), he was appointed (Jan., 1949) secretary of state. Beginning in 1946 Acheson became convinced of the necessity of resisting and restraining the Soviet Union. Under his direction the policy of using foreign economic and military aid to contain Communist expansion, as enunciated in the Truman Doctrine, was developed, and theMarshall Planwas implemented. He also played an important role in establishing (1949) theNorth Atlantic Treaty Organization(NATO).

Acheson's attempts to dissociate the United States from the Nationalist Chinese regime in Taiwan drew relentless attacks from congressmen of his own party as well as Republicans; his support of U.S. military commitments to South Korea also aroused much criticism. Moreover, his unwillingness to condemn AlgerHissbrought personal abuse as well as attacks on his handling of loyalty and security policy at the Dept. of State. Returning to private practice in 1953, Acheson remained a Democratic spokesman on foreign policy and exerted considerable influence on the Kennedy administration. He wroteA Democrat Looks at His Party(1955),A Citizen Looks at Congress(1957),Power and Diplomacy(1958),Fragments of My Fleece(1971), and three autobiographical works,Morning and Noon(1965),Present at the Creation(1969), andGrapes from Thorns(1972).

See biographies by G. Smith (1972), D. S. McLellan (1976), D. Brinkley (1992), J. Chace (1998), and R. L. Beisner (2006).

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