Dulles, Allen Welsh
From GWUEncyc
Alumni
Allen Welsh Dulles (1893-1969) was born in 1893 in Watertown, New York. He is one of the five children of the Rev. Allen Macy and Edith (Foster) Dulles. His father, a Presbyterian minister, was the nephew of John Welsh, envoy to England during the Hayes administration. His maternal grandfather, John Watson Foster, was Secretary of State under President Benjamin Harrison.
Mr. Dulles graduated from the Auburn High School, Auburn, New York. From there he went to the Ecole Alsatienne in Paris before entering Princeton University. He held a B.A. degree from Princeton (1914); an M.A. from Princeton (1916); and LL.B. from George Washington University (1926). He was awarded the LL.D. from Brown University (1947), Temple University (1952), and Columbia University (1955).
Mr. Dulles taught English at Allahabad, India in 1915, and entered the U.S. diplomatic service in 1916, being assigned to Vienna, Austria, and in 1917 to Berne, Switzerland. He was a member of the American Commission to negotiate peace at the Paris Peace Conference, 1918-19, and was appointed first secretary of the American Embassy in Berlin in 1919. He served with the American Commission in Constantinople, Turkey, from 1920 to 1922 and was chief of the State Department’s Division of Near Eastern Affairs from 1922 to 1926. Mr. Dulles was delegate of the United States to the International Conference on Arms Traffic in Geneva in 1925, and to the Preparatory Disarmament Conference in 1926. He served as legal advisor to the American delegation at both the Three-Power Naval Conference in Geneva in 1927 and the General Disarmament Conference in Geneva in 1932 and 1933.
Mr. Dulles resigned from the diplomatic service in 1926 to take up the practice of law with Sullivan and Cromwell in New York City. During World War II he served with the Office of Strategic Services in Switzerland, and later headed the OSS mission to Germany. In 1948 he was designated by President Truman as chairman of the three-man group to survey the U.S. intelligence system. He wrote several books, including Germany’s Underground (1947). He received the Medal of Merit and Medal of Freedom, 1946, from the U.S. government, and was also decorated by the French, Belgian and Italian governments for his work during 1942-1945.
In January 1951, Mr. Dulles joined the Central Intelligence Agency and was appointed Deputy Director in August of the same year. On February 26, 1953 he was designated by President Eisenhower to be Director of Central Intelligence.
During the Kennedy Administration, Dulles faced increasing criticism. The failed Bay of Pigs Invasion and several failed assassination plots utilizing CIA-recruited operatives from the Mafia and anti-Castro Cubans directly against Fidel Castro undermined the CIA's credibility, and pro-American but unpopular regimes in Iran and Guatemala were widely regarded as brutal and corrupt.
Dulles was fired from the CIA by President Kennedy in 1961 over Operation Northwoods, a proposed covert CIA operation aimed at gaining popular support for a war against Cuba by framing Cuba for staging real or simulated attacks on American citizens.
On November 29, 1963 President Lyndon Johnson appointed Dulles as one of seven commissioners of the Warren Commission to investigate the assassination of the U.S. President John F. Kennedy.
Dulles received an Alumni Achievement award from GW in 1964, and died in 1969. Below is the citation on occasion of his receiving an honorary degree at The George Washington University’s commencement, June 3, 1959:
In the dark days of 1865 James A. Garfield said, ‘For the security (of this nation) I would do everything.’ Although he was to become the twentieth president of the United States, his words were not intended as a prophecy. He was recognized, as do all thoughtful students of the government, the necessity of dedication to national security. The truth of this position was never more evident than it is today.
But security is not to be found solely in armed strength and scientific developments, nor in expert analysis of matters great and small, gathered with infinite patience and finite knowledge. While each of these must have its place, there is another indispensable element connoted by the word judgment.
Judgment in the law is based upon experience in and study of law; judgment in the humanities and social sciences, upon experience in and study of their disciplines. This rule, applied to government, underscores one of the great needs of out time: men whose judgment is based upon broad experience in government.
Such a man is Allen Welsh Dulles. In 1916, after the Bachelor and Master of Arts at Princeton, he entered the United States diplomatic service. During the succeeding ten years he filled a variety of posts in this country, Europe, and the Near East, and found time to complete study for the Bachelor of Laws at this University. Thereafter, while practicing law, he served his country with distinction on important missions. For service during World War II with the Office of Strategic Services he was awarded the Medal for Merit, the Medal for Freedom, and numerous honors by foreign governments. In 1951 he became Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency and Director in 1953.
The contributions of Allen Welsh Dulles in the service of his country reflect his devotion to duty and his excellence of judgment. In recognition of those qualities and of his service diplomat, lawyer, government executive, citizen, I confer upon him the degree of Doctor of Laws, with all the rights honors and privileges pertaining thereto.
Document Information
Images: 0
Photographic Credit: n/a
Author or Source: Alumni files; Public Relations files
Document Location: University Archives
Date Added to Encyclopedia: December 21, 2006
Prepared by: Lyle Slovick, Assistant University Archivist
For more information about GW history
Contact:
Special Collections Research Center [1]
The Melvin Gelman Library [2]
The George Washington University [3]
2130 H Street, NW Suite 704
Washington, DC 20052
202-994-7549
mailto:archives@gwu.edu
Please send us your questions and comments about the encyclopedia.
This site is maintained by the Special Collections Research Center and the Web Development Group.
