Dulles, John Foster

Dulles, John Foster, 1888–1959, U.S. Secretary of State (1953–59), b. Washington, D.C.; grandson of John Watson Foster, Secretary of State under President Benjamin Harrison, and nephew of Robert Lansing, Secretary of State under Woodrow Wilson. A graduate (1908) of Princeton, he was admitted (1911) to the bar and was counsel to the U.S. delegation to the Paris Peace Conference (1919). He soon achieved prominence as an international lawyer and attended various international conferences in the interwar years. He was appointed (1945) adviser to the U.S. delegation at the San Francisco Conference (1945), and served (1945–49) as a U.S. delegate to the United Nations General Assembly. He was appointed (1949) to finish the unexpired term of Senator Robert F. Wagner of New York, but was defeated (1950) in a general election for the seat. In 1951, as ambassador at large, Dulles negotiated the peace treaty with Japan. Appointed (1953) Secretary of State by Dwight D. Eisenhower, he emphasized the collective security of the United States and its allies and the development of nuclear weapons for "massive retaliation" in case of attack. Regarding Communism as a moral evil to be resisted at any cost, he firmly upheld the Chinese Nationalist defense of Matsu and Quemoy off the coast of Communist China and initiated the policy of strong U.S. backing for the South Vietnamese regime of Ngo Dinh Diem. Dulles helped develop the Eisenhower doctrine of economic and military aid to maintain the independence of Middle Eastern countries; under its terms U.S. forces were sent to Lebanon in 1958. Dulles resigned from office a month before his death. He wrote War, Peace, and Change (1939) and War or Peace (1950).

Bibliography

See biographies by M. A. Guhin (1972) and T. Hoopes (1973); studies by R. Goold-Adams (1962) and L. L. Gerson (1967); R. Drummond and G. Coblentz, Duel at the Brink (1960).

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Dulles, John Foster

(born Feb. 25, 1888, Washington, D.C., U.S.—died May 24, 1959, Washington, D.C.) U.S. secretary of state (1953–59). He was counsel to the American Peace Commission at Versailles, France, and later helped oversee the payment of World War I reparations. He helped prepare the charter of the UN and was a delegate to its General Assembly (1946–49). He negotiated the complex Japanese peace treaty (1949–51). As secretary of state under Pres. Dwight D. Eisenhower, he advocated active opposition to Soviet actions and developed the Eisenhower Doctrine. His critics considered him inflexible and harsh and a practitioner of “brinkmanship” for raising international tensions and bringing the country to the brink of war; later assessments credit his firmness in checking communist expansion.

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Dulles, John Foster (1888–1959) lawyer, diplomat, public official; born in Washington, D.C. (brother of Allen Dulles). A prominent international lawyer, he became President Eisenhower's secretary of state (1953–59). Advocating "Christian" ideals, he was the principal architect of cold war anti-Soviet/Chinese foreign policy. He strengthened NATO, established the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO), and authored the "massive retaliation" nuclear weapons policy and "brink of war" diplomacy strategies to "contain" what he considered the moral evil of communism.

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Dulles, John Foster 

Born Feb. 25, 1888, in Washington, died there May 24, 1959. US government figure and diplomat; a lawyer by profession.

Dulles was closely linked with influential monopolistic circles and for a number of years (beginning in 1927) headed the large law firm of Sullivan and Cromwell, which arranged deals, in particular, between American and German monopolies in the 1920’s and 1930’s. He was director of the international monopoly International Nickel Company, a member of the board of directors of the New York City Bank, and chairman of the board of trustees of the Rockefeller Foundation. Dulles began his diplomatic activity in 1907 as secretary to the US delegation at the Second Hague Conference. At the Paris Peace Conference of 1919–20, Dulles was an adviser to the American delegation. In 1924 he participated in drawing up the Dawes plan. After World War II (1939–45) he played a very active role in the preparation of the so-called Marshall Plan and in the organization of the North Atlantic Pact (1949). Between 1953 and 1959 he was US secretary of state. All Dulles’ foreign policy activity was directed against the USSR and the other socialist countries. He initiated and carried out such policies as “[acting] from a position of strength” and “balancing on the brink of war.”

D. S. ASANOV