--- created: 2026-05-15 updated: 2026-10-28 title: Dean Acheson aliases: - Dean Gooderham Acheson tags: - Person - StateDepartment - ColdWar - 1940s - 1950s category: "Political Figure" summary: "Dean Acheson was Secretary of State under Truman from 1949 to 1953, who helped design the Truman Doctrine, NATO and the Marshall Plan, pushed through NSC-68 over George Kennan's objections, and managed the Korean War." born: 1893-04-11 died: 1971-10-12 location: "Sandy Spring, Maryland" relations: - type: reported_to with: "[[Project Troy]]" reverse: true role: "recipient of the report of February 1, 1951" start: 1951-02 fn: 4 - type: relative_of with: "[[William P. Bundy]]" role: "father-in-law; William P. Bundy married Mary Acheson in 1943" start: 1943 fn: 6 --- Dean Gooderham Acheson (April 11, 1893 - October 12, 1971) was [[United States|U.S.]] Secretary of State from 1949 to 1953 under President [[Harry Truman]], and one of the principal architects of American [[Cold War]] foreign policy. Acheson helped design the [[Truman Doctrine]], [[NATO]], and the [[Marshall Plan]], and was responsible for approving [[NSC-68]] - the 1950 policy document that militarized the "containment" strategy [[George Kennan]] had formulated, over Kennan's explicit objections. Acheson's memoir, *Present at the Creation* (Norton, 1969), took its title from his self-assessment of having helped build the postwar international order.[^1] ### Early Career Acheson graduated from [[Yale University]] and [[Harvard Law School]] and clerked for Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis. He practiced law at Covington & Burling in [[Washington, D.C.]] and served briefly as Under Secretary of the Treasury in 1933 before resigning over disagreements with Roosevelt's monetary policies. He returned to government as Assistant Secretary of State for Economic Affairs in 1941 and rose to Under Secretary of State under Secretary James Byrnes from 1945 to 1947. In this role he was central to the early articulation of postwar American foreign policy, including drafting the speech for which the Truman Doctrine was named when [[Britain]] informed the United States it could no longer sustain aid to [[Greece]] and [[Turkey]] against communist insurgencies.[^1] ### Address to Italian-Americans, 1942 On June 3, 1942, while Assistant Secretary of State, Acheson released an address to Americans of Italian descent. The [[Mazzini Society]] and the [[Italian-American Labor Council]] had invited him to speak at a gathering held on the day dedicated to the memory of [[Giuseppe Garibaldi]].[^2] The address stated that "The President of the United States has made it clear that the liberation of the Italian and other peoples from the military cliques which hold them in their clutches is one of the war aims of the United Nations."[^2] ### Secretary of State Acheson was appointed Secretary of State in January 1949 and served through the end of the Truman administration in January 1953. His tenure covered the most consequential early Cold War events: the Soviet atomic bomb test in August 1949, the Chinese communist victory and proclamation of the People's Republic in October 1949, the Korean War beginning in June 1950, and the development of the hydrogen bomb. Acheson's central policy disagreement with George Kennan, whom he effectively marginalized and replaced as Policy Planning director with [[Paul Nitze]] in 1950, concerned whether containment was primarily a political-economic strategy or required massive military buildup. Acheson backed Nitze's NSC-68 analysis that the Soviet military threat required U.S. defense spending to roughly quadruple. Kennan viewed this as a militarization that misread Soviet intentions and would produce unnecessary confrontation.[^1] On March 1, 1950 Truman sent Acheson a note on the Sarnoff proposal for a committee to improve the [[Voice of America]], and wrote: "I wish you would consider that, and we will discuss it when you come over tomorrow."[^3] Acheson discussed the proposal with Truman on March 6, 1950, and told him that Assistant Secretary [[Edward W. Barrett|Barrett]] was preparing a plan for an advisory committee along the lines [[David Sarnoff|Sarnoff]] had suggested.[^3] In 1951 the [[Project Troy]] report reached Acheson's office; it was dated February 1, 1951, and Acheson received it on February 15.[^4] ### NATO and German Rearmament Acheson was a primary architect of NATO's founding in 1949 and subsequently pushed for West German rearmament as a NATO partner - a deeply controversial position given the recency of [[World War II]] and European fears of German military power. His success in achieving West German rearmament within a NATO framework was one of his most significant diplomatic accomplishments, helping integrate [[West Germany]] into the Western alliance structure that would persist for the remainder of the Cold War. ### Korean War The [[Korean War]] that began June 1950 dominated the second half of Acheson's tenure. His January 1950 speech defining the American "defense perimeter" in Asia - which appeared to exclude [[South Korea]] - was later cited as a possible signal to [[North Korea]] that the United States would not defend the South, though Acheson disputed this reading. The war eventually led to Truman's firing of General [[Douglas MacArthur]] in April 1951 after MacArthur publicly challenged Truman's authority over war strategy - a civil-military confrontation that Acheson supported Truman in resolving in favor of civilian control.[^5] ### Son-in-law, William P. Bundy [[William P. Bundy]] married [[Mary Acheson]], Acheson's daughter, in 1943. He later held posts at the CIA, the Defense Department and the State Department.[^6] In July 1953 the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations chairman [[Joseph McCarthy]] pressed the CIA about Bundy's $400 contribution to the defense of [[Alger Hiss]]. A newspaper report of August 4, 1953 said that Bundy's stated reason for the contribution was to help his father-in-law, Dean Acheson, in clearing Hiss.[^7] ### Legacy Acheson was a target of Senator Joseph McCarthy's attacks, primarily over the "loss" of [[China]] to communism, which McCarthy attributed to State Department subversion, and over Acheson's refusal to condemn former State Department official Alger Hiss following Hiss's conviction for perjury in connection with Soviet espionage. On January 25, 1950, the day Hiss was sentenced, Acheson told reporters at his news conference, as the New York Times reported, "I do not intend to turn my back on Alger Hiss."[^8] McCarthy called Acheson's State Department a "Dean Acheson College of Cowardly Communist Containment." After leaving government, Acheson returned to law practice and remained influential in Democratic foreign policy circles, advising subsequent administrations informally. He won the [[Pulitzer Prize]] for History in 1970 for *Present at the Creation*. He died at Sandy Spring, Maryland, on October 12, 1971. ### Footnotes [^1]: Acheson, Dean. *Present at the Creation: My Years in the State Department.* Norton, 1969. Beisner, Robert L. *Dean Acheson: A Life in the Cold War.* Oxford University Press, 2006. [^2]: *Department of State Bulletin*, vol. VI, no. 154 (June 6, 1942), "Address by Assistant Secretary Acheson to Americans of Italian Descent," released to the press June 3. https://archive.org/details/sim_department-of-state-bulletin_1942-06-06_6_154 [^3]: FRUS 1950, volume IV, Document 127 (Truman to Acheson, March 1, 1950) and Document 131 (Barrett to Acheson, March 6, 1950) with the editorial note on Acheson's discussion with Truman. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1950v04/d131 [^4]: Bessner, "The Night Watchman," p. 238 (the report's final date and Acheson's receipt on February 15, 1951). [^5]: Brands, H.W. *The General vs. the President: MacArthur and Truman at the Brink of Nuclear War.* Doubleday, 2016. Hogan, Michael J. *A Cross of Iron: Harry S. Truman and the Origins of the National Security State, 1945-1954.* Cambridge University Press, 1998. [^6]: William P. Bundy Papers (MC189), Biography/History, Princeton University Library, https://findingaids.library.upenn.edu/records/PRIN_MUDD_MC189 [^7]: Allen Drury, "McCarthy Warns CIA Head Fight on Bundy Isn't Over," newspaper article, August 4, 1953, CIA Reading Room, CIA-RDP74-00297R000401370024-4, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp74-00297r000401370024-4 [^8]: Harry S. Truman Library, "The President's News Conference," January 27, 1950, footnote 1 (quoting the New York Times report of Acheson's January 25, 1950 remark). https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/public-papers/23/presidents-news-conference