| Interment Location | Visited | |
|---|---|---|
| Washington, D.C. | July 5, 2015 |
In Washington’s Georgetown neighborhood, tucked into shrubbery behind Oak Hill Cemetery’s Renwick Chapel, stands the headstone of one of the key diplomats of the twentieth century. Dean Acheson influenced the United States’s foreign policy for decades, most notably during the early stages of the Cold War. He advocated for the containment of communism and served as a presidential advisor during the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Vietnam War.
Acheson served in the State Department for most of Harry S. Truman’s presidential administration. At the time Truman assumed office in April 1945, Acheson was working as the assistant secretary of state for congressional relations and international conferences. In August of that year, he rose to the position of undersecretary of state. He held that post until June 1947. Acheson then succeeded George C. Marshall as secretary of state in January 1949, and he remained in that job until the conclusion of Truman’s presidency in January 1953.
One of the most notable moments of Acheson’s career was the speech he delivered at the National Press Club on January 12, 1950. In his address, Acheson explained the U.S.’s military security policies in the Pacific and the nation’s relations with the peoples of Asia. The secretary of state outlined the “defensive perimeter” the U.S. would maintain throughout the continent, but omitted the Korean Peninsula, which was divided into two oppositional republics. Acheson declared a new day had dawned “in which the Asian peoples are on their own, and know it, and intend to continue on their own.” Just five months later — 164 days to be exact — armed conflict began when Soviet-supported North Korean troops crossed the 38th parallel and into South Korea. Acheson was publicly criticized as having signaled that the U.S. would not guarantee intervention should a forced reunification attempt be launched on the peninsula. Documents declassified nearly half a century later indicated that, despite the “green-light” narrative that is typically attached to Acheson’s speech, his remarks had little bearing on the North Korean government’s decision to invade.
The former secretary of state was married for 54 years to Alice Stanley Acheson, who is interred by his side. Two of the Achesons’ children have been laid to rest with them, along with their daughter-in-law. Oak Hill was a logical burying place for the Achesons — as the crow flies, their townhouse of many decades is about 1,200 feet from their burial plot. Several other presidential cabinet secretaries are residents of Oak Hill Cemetery: Madeleine Albright, John Eaton, William H. Hunt, Ann McLaughlin, John Barton Payne, William Adams Richardson, Edwin M. Stanton, James Noble Tyner, Abel Upshur, and Robert John Walker.
Fast Facts
Born: April 11, 1893 in Middletown, Connecticut
Spouse: Alice Stanley Acheson (m. 1917-1971)
Military Service: U.S. National Guard
Political Affiliation: Democratic Party
Served in Cabinet of: Harry S. Truman
Cabinet Position: Secretary of State (1949-1953)
Presidential Medal of Freedom: Awarded by Lyndon B. Johnson (1964)
Pulitzer Prize for History: Present at the Creation: My Years in the State Department (1970)
Died: October 12, 1971 in Sandy Spring, Maryland
Cause of Death: Stroke
Age: 78
Interment: Oak Hill Cemetery, Washington, D.C.
"Senator, I agree with you that neither you nor I should comment in any way upon the matter of Mr. Alger Hiss which is now before a United States court. I agree with you that the matters of security are of first importance, and that there is no step that should not be taken in order to make secure the State Department in its conduct of our foreign affairs."
- Dean Acheson
January 13, 1949 in reply to Senator Arthur Vandenberg of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations during Acheson's confirmation hearing for secretary of state, held in Washington, D.C.
Dean and Alice Acheson purchased 2805 P Street NW in Georgetown as their home in 1922. It adjoins another residence, number 2803. The townhouses were designed by Reuben Daw and constructed circa 1843. According to her 1996 Washington Post obituary, Mrs. Acheson, who was a painter, “kept a studio on an upper floor, where she spent mornings producing work that was shown at such galleries as New York’s Wildenstein and Washington’s Franz Bader and in such museums as the Corcoran and the Phillips Collection.” Various political figures visited the Acheson home over the decades. On the afternoon of January 20, 1953 — Dwight D. Eisenhower’s inauguration day — the Achesons hosted Harry and Bess Truman for a farewell luncheon prior to their return trip home to Independence, Missouri. President John F. Kennedy also went to 2805 P Street, as did diplomat W. Averell Harriman, with whom Dean discussed the Vietnam War during a December 1967 visit. In August 1988, after 66 years on P Street, a widowed Alice Acheson sold the home for $1.4 million.
Sources Consulted and Further Reading
Bredemeier, Kenneth. “Discord in an Oasis.” Washington Post. October 19, 1984. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1984/10/20/discord-in-an-oasis/84926226-713a-427a-9ee9-0d472408974c/.
British Pathé. “Dean Acheson Speak to Senate (1949).” YouTube video, 1:02. April 13, 2014. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOIK9CRAYXM.
Matray, James I. “Dean Acheson’s Press Club Speech Reexamined.” Journal of Conflict Studies 22, no.1 (2002). https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/JCS/article/view/366.
Office of the Historian. “433. Memorandum for Personal File.” history.state.gov. Accessed April 4, 2026. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v05/d433.
Office of the Historian. “Biographies of the Secretaries of State: Dean Gooderham Acheson (1893–1971).” history.state.gov. Accessed September 6, 2022. https://history.state.gov/departmenthistory/people/acheson-dean-gooderham.
Redfin. “2805 P Street NW, Washington, DC 20007.” Accessed April 4, 2026. https://www.redfin.com/DC/Washington/2805-P-St-NW-20007/home/9929710.
Steele, Bruce. “Korea: Historians debunk some popular myths about the Korean war.” University Times, University of Pittsburgh. June 22, 2000. https://www.utimes.pitt.edu/archives/?p=3016.
Weil, Martin. “ALICE STANLEY ACHESON DIES AT 100.” Washington Post. January 21, 1996. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1996/01/22/alice-stanley-acheson-dies-at-100/5718e70f-395f-4257-ab08-73b0d0d5b7b5/.