Acheson, Dean Gooderham definition of Acheson, Dean Gooderham in the Free Online Encyclopedia.

Acheson, Dean Gooderham (ăch`ĭsən), 1893–1971, U.S. secretary of state (1949–52), b. Middletown, Conn., grad. Yale, Harvard Law School. He was (1919–21) private secretary to Louis Brandeis Brandeis, Louis Dembitz (brăn`dīs), 1856–1941, Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1916–39), b. Louisville, Ky.
..... Click the link for more information. , became a successful lawyer, and served (1933) as undersecretary of the treasury until he resigned in disagreement with President Franklin D. Roosevelt Roosevelt, Franklin Delano (dĕl`ənō rō`zəvĕlt)
..... Click the link for more information. 's fiscal policy. Having been assistant secretary of state (1941–45) and a key actor in the Bretton Woods Conference Bretton Woods Conference, name commonly given to the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference, held (July 1–22, 1944) at Bretton Woods, N.H. The conference resulted in the creation of the International Monetary Fund , to promote international monetary
..... Click the link for more information. , then undersecretary of state (1945–47), he was appointed (Jan., 1949) secretary of state. Beginning in 1946 Acheson became convinced of the necessity of resisting and restraining the Soviet Union. Under his direction the policy of using foreign economic and military aid to contain Communist expansion, as enunciated in the Truman Doctrine, was developed, and the Marshall Plan Marshall Plan or European Recovery Program, project instituted at the Paris Economic Conference (July, 1947) to foster economic recovery in certain European countries after World War II. The Marshall Plan took form when U.S.
..... Click the link for more information. was implemented. He also played an important role in establishing (1949) the North Atlantic Treaty Organization Partnership for Peace, formed in 1994. Twenty-three countries now belong to the partnership, which engages in joint military exercises with NATO. NATO is not required to defend Partnership for Peace nations from attack.
..... Click the link for more information. (NATO).

Acheson's attempts to dissociate the United States from the Nationalist Chinese regime in Taiwan drew relentless attacks from congressmen of his own party as well as Republicans; his support of U.S. military commitments to South Korea also aroused much criticism. Moreover, his unwillingness to condemn Alger Hiss Hiss, Alger (ăl`jər), 1904–96, American public official, b. Baltimore.
..... Click the link for more information. brought personal abuse as well as attacks on his handling of loyalty and security policy at the Dept. of State. Returning to private practice in 1953, Acheson remained a Democratic spokesman on foreign policy and exerted considerable influence on the Kennedy administration. He wrote A Democrat Looks at His Party (1955), A Citizen Looks at Congress (1957), Power and Diplomacy (1958), Fragments of My Fleece (1971), and three autobiographical works, Morning and Noon (1965), Present at the Creation (1969), and Grapes from Thorns (1972).

Bibliography

See biographies by G. Smith (1972), D. S. McLellan (1976), D. Brinkley (1992), J. Chace (1998), and R. L. Beisner (2006).