Secretaries of State: John Foster Dulles
A recent PBS documentary series on the Vietnam War traced the roots of that war to French colonialism and to the US policy of containment of communism that arose in the aftermath of the Second World War. One of the architects of that policy advocating an aggressive stance against communism in the cold war era was John Foster Dulles, who served as Secretary of State for President Dwight Eisenhower from January 26, 1953 to April 22, 1959. He once famously said, "the United States does not have friends, it has interests."
Dulles was born in Washington, D.C., the eldest son of five children born to Presbyterian minister Allen Macy Dulles and his wife, Edith. His brother Allen would later become the director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Both brothers attended public schools in Watertown, New York. John Foster Dulles attended Princeton University and graduated in 1908. He then attended the George Washington University Law School in Washington, D.C. His grandfather, Foster Dulles, and his uncle, Robert Lansing had both held the position of Secretary of State.
On June 26, 1912, Dulles married Janet Pomeroy Avery. The couple had two sons and a daughter. Their older son John W. F. Dulles was a professor of history at the University of Texas at Austin. Their daughter Lillias Dulles Hinshaw became a Presbyterian minister. Their son Avery Dulles became the first American to be appointed a Cardinal in the Catholic church.
After graduating from law school and passing the bar examination, Dulles joined the New York City law firm of Sullivan & Cromwell, where he specialized in international law. After the start of World War I, Dulles tried to join the United States Army, but was rejected because of poor eyesight. He received an Army commission as Major on the War Industries Board. In 1915 his uncle Robert Lansing, the then-Secretary of State, recruited him to travel to Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama, to covertly meet with Latin American heads of state on the issue of aiding the US war effort against Germany. In 1918, President Woodrow Wilson appointed Dulles as legal counsel to the United States delegation to the Versailles Peace Conference where he served under his uncle, Secretary of State Robert Lansing. Later, he served as a member of the War Reparations Committee at Wilson's request.
As a partner in Sullivan & Cromwell, Dulles specialized in international finance. He helped to design the Dawes Plan, which reduced German reparations payments and arranged to have American firms lend money to German states and private companies.
In 1924, Dulles served as defense counsel in the church trial of Rev. Harry Emerson Fosdick, who had been charged with heresy by opponents in his denomination. The theological issue was over the literal interpretation of Scripture versus the newly developed "Historical-Critical" method, based on recent scientific and archeological discoveries. The case was settled when Fosdick resigned his pulpit in the Presbyterian Church.
After the Wall Street Crash of 1929, Dulles's practice of brokering international loans ended. After 1931 Germany stopped making some of its scheduled payments. In 1935, with the Nazis in power, Sullivan & Cromwell decided to cut all business ties with Germany. Dulles was then a prominent isolationist.
Dulles was a prominent Republican and a supporter of New York Governor Thomas Dewey of New York, who became the Republican presidential nominee in the elections of 1944 and 1948. During those campaigns Dulles served as Dewey's chief foreign policy adviser. In 1944, Dulles took an active role in establishing the Republican plank calling for the establishment of a Jewish commonwealth in Palestine.
In 1945, Dulles participated in the San Francisco Conference as an adviser to Senator Arthur H. Vandenberg. He helped draft the preamble to the United Nations Charter and later attended the United Nations General Assembly as a United States delegate in 1946, 1947 and 1950. He had been a vocal opponent of the dropping of the atomic bomb on Japan. Following the bombings, he drafted a public statement that called for international control of nuclear energy under United Nations auspices. He wrote "If we, as a professedly Christian nation, feel morally free to use atomic energy in that way, men elsewhere will accept that verdict. Atomic weapons will be looked upon as a normal part of the arsenal of war and the stage will be set for the sudden and final destruction of mankind."
Dovernor Dewey appointed Dulles to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Democratic incumbent Sen. Robert F. Wagner, who resigned due to ill health. Dulles served in the Senate from July 7 to November 8, 1949. He lost the 1949 special election to finish the term.
Dulles became a strong anti-communist following the Berlin blockade, the Soviet detonation of an A-bomb, and the beginning of Korean war. He helped to formulate the Republican Party policy for addressing world communism. It was known as "rollback", and was an alternative to the Democrats' containment model. It proposed taking the offensive to push Communism back rather than defensively containing it within its areas of control and influence. In 1950, Dulles published a book entitled "War or Peace", a critical analysis of the American policy of containment favored in the Democratic administration of President Harry S. Truman.
When Dwight D. Eisenhower became U.S. President in January 1953, Dulles was appointed and confirmed as Secretary of State. In that role, Dulles supervised the completion of the Japanese Peace Treaty, in which full independence was restored to Japan under United States terms. He concentrated on building up the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and worked to form other international alliances as part of his strategy of addressing the problem of Soviet expansion. In the 1950s, he worked to reduce the French influence in Vietnam, with a goal of having the United States help to strengthening the Vietnamese army and to gradually get France out of Vietnam. In 1950 he helped to initiate the ANZUS Treaty for mutual protection with Australia and New Zealand.
In March 1953, Dulles supported President Eisenhower's decision to direct the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), then headed by his brother Allen Dulles, to draft plans to overthrow the Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh of Iran. This led to the coup d'état in support of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who became the Shah of Iran.
In 1954, Dulles orchestrated the formation of the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO). The treaty, signed by representatives of Australia, Britain, France, New Zealand, Pakistan, the Philippines, Thailand and the United States, provided for collective action against aggression.
In 1954 Dulles convinced Eisenhower to instigate a military coup by the Guatemalan army, with CIA aid, fearful that democratically-elected President Jacobo Árbenz's government and the Guatemalan Revolution had communist leanings. He was named Time's Man of the Year for 1954. He was critical of non-aligned leaders who he believed to be sympathetic to Communism, including India's leader V.K. Krishna Menon.
In November 1956, Dulles and Eisenhower strongly opposed the Anglo-French invasion of the Suez Canal zone in response to the Suez Crisis. Dulles was hospitalized after surgery at the time. He later become an opponent of Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt and prevented him from receiving arms from the United States. This policy allowed the Soviet Union to gain influence in Egypt.
Dulles contracted colon cancer. He was first operated on in November 1956 for this issue when it had caused a bowel perforation. He experienced abdominal pain at the end of 1958 and was hospitalized with a diagnosis of diverticulitis. In January 1959, Dulles returned to work, but with more pain and declining health underwent abdominal surgery in February at Walter Reed Hospital when the cancer's recurrence became evident. After recuperating in Florida, Dulles returned to Washington for work and radiation therapy. As his health worsened, he resigned as Secretary of State on April 15, 1959.Thirty-nine days later, Dulles died at Walter Reed on May 24, 1959, at the age of 71. His funeral services were held in Washington National Cathedral on May 27, 1959, and Dulles was interred at Arlington National Cemetery. He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Freedom.
Dulles was born in Washington, D.C., the eldest son of five children born to Presbyterian minister Allen Macy Dulles and his wife, Edith. His brother Allen would later become the director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Both brothers attended public schools in Watertown, New York. John Foster Dulles attended Princeton University and graduated in 1908. He then attended the George Washington University Law School in Washington, D.C. His grandfather, Foster Dulles, and his uncle, Robert Lansing had both held the position of Secretary of State.
On June 26, 1912, Dulles married Janet Pomeroy Avery. The couple had two sons and a daughter. Their older son John W. F. Dulles was a professor of history at the University of Texas at Austin. Their daughter Lillias Dulles Hinshaw became a Presbyterian minister. Their son Avery Dulles became the first American to be appointed a Cardinal in the Catholic church.
After graduating from law school and passing the bar examination, Dulles joined the New York City law firm of Sullivan & Cromwell, where he specialized in international law. After the start of World War I, Dulles tried to join the United States Army, but was rejected because of poor eyesight. He received an Army commission as Major on the War Industries Board. In 1915 his uncle Robert Lansing, the then-Secretary of State, recruited him to travel to Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama, to covertly meet with Latin American heads of state on the issue of aiding the US war effort against Germany. In 1918, President Woodrow Wilson appointed Dulles as legal counsel to the United States delegation to the Versailles Peace Conference where he served under his uncle, Secretary of State Robert Lansing. Later, he served as a member of the War Reparations Committee at Wilson's request.
As a partner in Sullivan & Cromwell, Dulles specialized in international finance. He helped to design the Dawes Plan, which reduced German reparations payments and arranged to have American firms lend money to German states and private companies.
In 1924, Dulles served as defense counsel in the church trial of Rev. Harry Emerson Fosdick, who had been charged with heresy by opponents in his denomination. The theological issue was over the literal interpretation of Scripture versus the newly developed "Historical-Critical" method, based on recent scientific and archeological discoveries. The case was settled when Fosdick resigned his pulpit in the Presbyterian Church.
After the Wall Street Crash of 1929, Dulles's practice of brokering international loans ended. After 1931 Germany stopped making some of its scheduled payments. In 1935, with the Nazis in power, Sullivan & Cromwell decided to cut all business ties with Germany. Dulles was then a prominent isolationist.
Dulles was a prominent Republican and a supporter of New York Governor Thomas Dewey of New York, who became the Republican presidential nominee in the elections of 1944 and 1948. During those campaigns Dulles served as Dewey's chief foreign policy adviser. In 1944, Dulles took an active role in establishing the Republican plank calling for the establishment of a Jewish commonwealth in Palestine.
In 1945, Dulles participated in the San Francisco Conference as an adviser to Senator Arthur H. Vandenberg. He helped draft the preamble to the United Nations Charter and later attended the United Nations General Assembly as a United States delegate in 1946, 1947 and 1950. He had been a vocal opponent of the dropping of the atomic bomb on Japan. Following the bombings, he drafted a public statement that called for international control of nuclear energy under United Nations auspices. He wrote "If we, as a professedly Christian nation, feel morally free to use atomic energy in that way, men elsewhere will accept that verdict. Atomic weapons will be looked upon as a normal part of the arsenal of war and the stage will be set for the sudden and final destruction of mankind."
Dovernor Dewey appointed Dulles to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Democratic incumbent Sen. Robert F. Wagner, who resigned due to ill health. Dulles served in the Senate from July 7 to November 8, 1949. He lost the 1949 special election to finish the term.
Dulles became a strong anti-communist following the Berlin blockade, the Soviet detonation of an A-bomb, and the beginning of Korean war. He helped to formulate the Republican Party policy for addressing world communism. It was known as "rollback", and was an alternative to the Democrats' containment model. It proposed taking the offensive to push Communism back rather than defensively containing it within its areas of control and influence. In 1950, Dulles published a book entitled "War or Peace", a critical analysis of the American policy of containment favored in the Democratic administration of President Harry S. Truman.
When Dwight D. Eisenhower became U.S. President in January 1953, Dulles was appointed and confirmed as Secretary of State. In that role, Dulles supervised the completion of the Japanese Peace Treaty, in which full independence was restored to Japan under United States terms. He concentrated on building up the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and worked to form other international alliances as part of his strategy of addressing the problem of Soviet expansion. In the 1950s, he worked to reduce the French influence in Vietnam, with a goal of having the United States help to strengthening the Vietnamese army and to gradually get France out of Vietnam. In 1950 he helped to initiate the ANZUS Treaty for mutual protection with Australia and New Zealand.
In March 1953, Dulles supported President Eisenhower's decision to direct the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), then headed by his brother Allen Dulles, to draft plans to overthrow the Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh of Iran. This led to the coup d'état in support of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who became the Shah of Iran.
In 1954, Dulles orchestrated the formation of the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO). The treaty, signed by representatives of Australia, Britain, France, New Zealand, Pakistan, the Philippines, Thailand and the United States, provided for collective action against aggression.
In 1954 Dulles convinced Eisenhower to instigate a military coup by the Guatemalan army, with CIA aid, fearful that democratically-elected President Jacobo Árbenz's government and the Guatemalan Revolution had communist leanings. He was named Time's Man of the Year for 1954. He was critical of non-aligned leaders who he believed to be sympathetic to Communism, including India's leader V.K. Krishna Menon.
In November 1956, Dulles and Eisenhower strongly opposed the Anglo-French invasion of the Suez Canal zone in response to the Suez Crisis. Dulles was hospitalized after surgery at the time. He later become an opponent of Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt and prevented him from receiving arms from the United States. This policy allowed the Soviet Union to gain influence in Egypt.
Dulles contracted colon cancer. He was first operated on in November 1956 for this issue when it had caused a bowel perforation. He experienced abdominal pain at the end of 1958 and was hospitalized with a diagnosis of diverticulitis. In January 1959, Dulles returned to work, but with more pain and declining health underwent abdominal surgery in February at Walter Reed Hospital when the cancer's recurrence became evident. After recuperating in Florida, Dulles returned to Washington for work and radiation therapy. As his health worsened, he resigned as Secretary of State on April 15, 1959.Thirty-nine days later, Dulles died at Walter Reed on May 24, 1959, at the age of 71. His funeral services were held in Washington National Cathedral on May 27, 1959, and Dulles was interred at Arlington National Cemetery. He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Freedom.