Acheson, Dean Gooderham

Acheson, Dean Gooderham (b. 11 Apr. 1893, d. 12 Oct. 1971). US Secretary of State 1949–53 Born at Middletown, Connecticut, he was educated at Yale and Harvard Law School. He served as a personal assistant to Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis between 1918 and 1921, and built a successful New York law practice thereafter. Having briefly served as Under-Secretary of the Treasury in 1933, he became Assistant Secretary of State for economic affairs for President F. D. Roosevelt in 1941, and in 1944 became a key figure in promoting the establishment of the Bretton Woods conference. As Under-Secretary for President Truman, 1945–7, he urged international control of atomic power in the Acheson–Lilienthal Report of 1946, helped formulate the Truman Doctrine of US support for nations threatened by Communism, and was instrumental in creating the Marshall Plan. As Secretary of State he helped in the creation of NATO, but was criticized by Republicans in Congress for what they regarded as his failure to pursue a more vigorously anti-Communist policy in China; and his policy towards South Korea was seen as having invited the North Korean offensive in 1950. He was a strong supporter of the French in Indochina and of the Republic of China in Taiwan. In 1961, he once again became an important influence on US foreign policy as an adviser to President Kennedy. In 1967–8, he became opposed to the Vietnam War despite his earlier staunch support, and called publicly upon President Johnson to end it. His memoirs, Present at the Creation, won the 1970 Pulitzer Prize in history.