Dean Acheson

Dean Gooderham Acheson (April 11, 1893 – October 12, 1971) is an American statesman and lawyer.

As United States Secretary of State in the administration of President Harry S. Truman from 1949 to 1953, he plays a central role in defining American foreign policy during the Cold War.

Acheson helps design the Marshall Plan and plays a central role in the development of the Truman Doctrine and creation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Acheson's most famous decision is convincing President Truman to intervene in the Korean War in June 1950.

He also persuades Truman to dispatch aid and advisors to French forces in Indochina, though in 1968 he finally counsels President Lyndon B. Johnson to negotiate for peace with North Vietnam.

During the Cuban Missile Crisis, President John F. Kennedy calls upon Acheson for advice, bringing him into the executive committee (ExComm), a strategic advisory group.

In the late 1940s, Acheson comes under heavy attack over Truman's policy toward China, and for Acheson's defense of State Department employees (such as Alger Hiss) accused during the anti-gay Lavender and anti-Communist Red Scare investigations of Senator Joseph McCarthy and others.

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