Dean Acheson

DEAN ACHESON d1971. American statesman and lawyer. As the 51st US 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, especially regarding the Cold War. He 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 he came under partisan political attack from Republicans led by Senator Joseph McCarthy over Truman's policy toward the People's Republic of China. As a private citizen in 1968, he advised President Lyndon B Johnson to negotiate for peace with North Vietnam. During the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, President John F Kennedy called upon him for advice, bringing him into the executive committee (ExComm) strategic advisory group. He died in Maryland aged 71 on October 12th 1971