Dean acheson cold war timeline

Statesman Dean Acheson (1893-1971) helped define American Cold War policy following World War II. A graduate of Yale University, Acheson joined President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administration as undersecretary of the treasury in 1933.

As undersecretary of the U.S. Department of Defense, he shaped the Truman Doctrine to support Greece and Turkey against the threat of Soviet expansion, and helped formulated what came to be the Marshall Plan for spurring economic revival in Europe.

Named secretary of state by Harry S. Truman in 1949, Acheson promoted the formation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). His memoir, Present at the Creation, won the Pulitzer Prize in history in 1970.

Always a controversial figure, Acheson, a lifelong Democrat, broke with the early New Deal policies of Franklin D.

Roosevelt when that president took the United States off the gold standard. He returned to government at the outset of World War II and served in various high-level positions in the