an ExComm meeting on October 18, 1962, Dean Rusk read a letter he wrote the previous night during deliberations in which he advocated for dealing with Khrushchev through firm diplomatic action, followed by a declaration of war if his response was unsatisfactory. To everyone's surprise, he kept reservations aboard an ocean liner that would take him to his Paris post as ambassador, rather than waiting until after the crisis had been resolved. He was thus absent for most of what was arguably the most important confrontation between the two superpowers of the Cold War. He was a consultant in 1968 and 1969 to the transition at the State Department from Secretary of State Dean Rusk to President Richard Nixon's first Secretary of State, William P. Rogers. Bohlen served as Acting Secretary of State in January 1969. Bohlen retired in January 1969. Death Bohlen died of pancreatic cancer in Washington, D.C., on January 1, 1974, at the age of 69. His funeral services, at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C., on January 4, 1974, were followed by burial at Laurel Hill Cemetery, Philadelphia. Legacy In May 2006, Bohlen was featured on a US postage stamp, one of a group of six prominent diplomats that was then honored.<ref>Charles E. Bohlen – U.S. Postage Stamps Commemorate Distinguished American Diplomats, US Department of State</ref> References Further reading Harper, John L. "Friends, Not Allies: George F. Kennan and Charles E. Bohlen." World Policy Journal 12.2 (1995): 77-88. Online Walter Isaacson. The Wise Men: Six friends and the world they made: Acheson, Bohlen, Harriman, Kennan, Lovett, McCloy (1986) Mark, Eduard. "Charles E. Bohlen and the Acceptable Limits of Soviet Hegemony in Eastern Europe: A Memorandum of 18 October 1945." Diplomatic History 3.2 (1979): 201-214. Ruddy, T. Michael. The Cautious Diplomat: Charles E. Bohlen and the Soviet Union, 1929-1969'' (1987) External links Charles E. Bohlen Oral History Interview 5/21/1964, JFK Library Charles E. Bohlen papers, Library of Congress Encyclopedia of World Biography Avis Howard Thayer Bohlen papers - Harvard University Library 1904 births 1974 deaths 20th-century American diplomats 20th-century American male writers Acting United States Secretaries of State Ambassadors of the United States to France Ambassadors of the United States to the Philippines Ambassadors of the United States to the Soviet Union Burials at Laurel Hill Cemetery (Philadelphia) Cold War diplomats Deaths from pancreatic cancer Eustis family Harvard College alumni People from Aiken, South Carolina People