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Dean Acheson Facts

Dean Acheson Facts
Dean Acheson was an American statesman who served under Democrat presidents in different capacities relating to foreign affairs, most notably as President Truman's Secretary of State from January 1949 to January 1953. Acheson was a pivotal figure in the early Cold War as urged the presidents he served under to take a tough stance against communist expansion, using force if necessary. Although Acheson was seen by some more militant anti-communists as weak, especially in regards to Communist China, he advocated American involvement in the Korean War, helped initiate the Marshall Plan in western Europe, and was a major advocate of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Acheson was born Dean Gooderham Acheson on April 11, 1893 in Middletown, Connecticut to Edward and Eleanor Acheson. He graduated from Yale College in 1915 and earned a law degree from Harvard in 1918. He married his wife, Alice, in 1917; the couple had three children and would remain married for Dean's entire life.
Interesting Dean Acheson Facts:
Acheson was a member of the secretive and elite Scroll and Key Society at Yale.
He was a classmate and friend of Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter.
One of Acheson's first major positions was as a legal advisor and Undersecretary of the Treasury in President Franklin Roosevelt's administration.
Acheson was the delegate from the United States State Department and the 1944 Bretton Woods Conference in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire. The conference established the post-World War II economic regime in the non-communist world and brought back a modified gold standard.
Acheson and his entire family were lifelong Democrats.
It was during the Truman administration when Acheson made his biggest impact on the world. He designed and wrote Truman's request to Congress in 1947 for aid to Greece and Turkey, which were fighting against communist insurgencies.
President Truman's support for anti-communist governments was part of the "Truman Doctrine," which Acheson is credited with developing.
Acheson's State Department published a 1949 report titled United States Relations with China with Special Reference to the Period 1944-1949. Covering more than 1,000 pages, the report essentially stated that China was "lost" and nothing the United States did could stop it from staying communist.
After Truman's presidency was over, Acheson returned to private life, working as a lawyer and consultant.
Despite his anti-communist stance, Acheson was against the Red Scare that overtook the United States during the 1950s.
President Kennedy hired Acheson on a temporary basis during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.
Acheson was initially in favor of U.S. involvement in Vietnam, but later changed his mind and advised President Johnson to pull all troops out of the region.
Although he was a lifelong Democrat, Acheson advised his former political rival, President Richard Nixon, about the Vietnam War, including potential exit strategies.
Acheson died on October 12, 1971 of a stroke at his home in Sandy Spring, Maryland at the age of seventy-eight. He was buried in Washington, D.C.
Alice Acheson died in 1996. She was an artist and had many of her works featured in a number of galleries.
Dean's granddaughter, Eleanor D. Acheson, served as an Assistant Attorney General under President William Clinton.


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