Dean Acheson

Dean Gooderham Acheson ( ATCH-iss-ən; April 11, 1893 – October 12, 1971) was an American politician and lawyer. As the 51st U.S. secretary of state, he set the foreign policy of the Harry S. Truman administration from 1949 to 1953. He was also Truman's main foreign policy advisor from 1945 to 1947 during early years of the Cold War. Acheson helped design the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan, as well as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. He was in private law practice from July 1947 to December 1948. After 1949, Acheson came under political attack from Republicans led by Senator Joseph McCarthy over Truman's policy toward the People's Republic of China. During the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, President John F. Kennedy called upon Acheson for advice, bringing him into the executive committee (ExComm), a strategic advisory group. As a private citizen in 1968, he counseled President Lyndon B. Johnson to negotiate for peace with North Vietnam.