<P> Brought back as assistant secretary of state on February 1, 1941, Acheson implemented much of United States economic policy aiding Great Britain and harming the Axis Powers . Acheson implemented the Lend - Lease policy that helped re-arm Great Britain and the American / British / Dutch oil embargo that cut off 95 percent of Japanese oil supplies and escalated the crisis with Japan in 1941 . Roosevelt froze all Japanese assets merely to disconcert them . He did not intend the flow of oil to Japan to cease . The president then departed Washington for Newfoundland to meet with Churchill . While he was gone Acheson used those frozen assets to deny Japan oil . Upon the president's return, he decided it would appear weak and appeasing to reverse the de facto oil embargo . </P> <P> In 1944, Acheson attended the Bretton Woods Conference as the head delegate from the State department . At this conference the post-war international economic structure was designed . The conference was the birthplace of the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, the last of which would evolve into the World Trade Organization . </P> <P> Later, in 1945, Harry S. Truman selected Acheson as his Undersecretary of United States Department of State; he retained this position working under Secretaries of State Edward Stettinius, Jr., James F. Byrnes, and George Marshall . And, as late as 1945 or 1946 Acheson sought détente with the Soviet Union . In 1946, as chairman of a special committee to prepare a plan for the international control of atomic energy, he wrote the Acheson--Lilienthal report . At first Acheson was conciliatory towards Joseph Stalin . </P> <P> The Soviet Union's attempts at regional hegemony in Eastern Europe and in Southwest Asia, however, changed Acheson's thinking . From this point forward, one historian writes, "Achezon was more than' present at the creation' of the Cold War; he was a primary architect ." Acheson often found himself acting Secretary during the Secretary's frequent overseas trips, and during this period he cemented a close relationship with President Truman . Acheson devised the policy and wrote Truman's 1947 request to Congress for aid to Greece and Turkey, a speech which stressed the dangers of totalitarianism rather than Soviet aggression and marked the fundamental change in American foreign policy that became known as the Truman Doctrine . Acheson designed the economic aid program to Europe that became known as the Marshall Plan . Acheson believed the best way to contain Stalin's Communism and prevent future European conflict was to restore economic prosperity to Western Europe, to encourage interstate cooperation there, and to help the U.S. economy by making its trading partners richer . </P>

Us secretary of state who devised a plan