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Dean Acheson

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Dean Acheson

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Also known as Dean Gooderham Acheson

American statesman and lawyer (1893-1971)

AI overview

Dean Acheson was an American statesman and lawyer who served as Secretary of State under President Harry Truman from 1949 to 1953, playing a central role in shaping Cold War foreign policy. He is remembered as an influential architect of key postwar policies including the Marshall Plan and NATO, which fundamentally shaped America's international relations during the second half of the twentieth century.

AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.

Person · Open Library

Born
1893
Died
1971
Works
61

Top works

  • The credit to Britain and world trade
  • An open letter to Dean Acheson
  • Diplomacia y poder
  • The shield of faith
  • Some social factors in legal change

via Open Library + Wikidata

Music · MusicBrainz

Type
Person
Gender
Male
Origin
United States
Active from
1893-04-11
Active to
1971-10-12

via MusicBrainz · CC0

Listeners · Last.fm

Listeners
8
Total plays
12

<a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Dean+Acheson">Read more on Last.fm</a>

via Last.fm · Dean Acheson

Quotes

  • I will undoubtedly have to seek what is happily known as gainful employment, which I am glad to say does not describe holding public office.
  • Great Britain has lost an Empire and has not yet found a role.
  • The first requirement of a statesman is that he be dull. This is not always easy to achieve.
  • I am willing to join in your statement on the ground that I feel about the future of the United States whenever the President starts out on his travels the way the Marshal of the Supreme Court does when he opens a session of that Court. You will recall that he ends up his liturgy by saying "God save the United States for the Court is now sitting.
  • A memorandum is written not to inform the reader but to protect the writer.
  • Vietnam was worse than immoral — it was a mistake.

via Wikiquote · CC BY-SA

Key facts

President
Harry S. Truman
Preceded by
George C. Marshall
Succeeded by
John Foster Dulles
Born
Dean Gooderham Acheson , ( 1893-04-11 ) April 11, 1893, Middletown, Connecticut , U.S.
Died
October 12, 1971 (1971-10-12) (aged 78), Sandy Spring, Maryland , U.S.
Resting place
Oak Hill Cemetery , Washington, D.C. , U.S.
Party
Democratic
Spouse
Alice Stanley ​ ( married</span>"}]]}'>m. May 15, 1917</span>"}]]}'>1917 ) ​
Children
3, including David
Education
Yale University ( BA ), Harvard University ( LLB )
Allegiance
United States
Branch service
National Guard
Battles wars
World War I , Operation Valuable

via Wikipedia infobox

~22 min read

Encyclopedic overview

Dean Gooderham Acheson (/ˈætʃɪsən/ 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.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Dean Acheson” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

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