Dulles, John Foster
From GWUEncyc
Alumni
John Foster Dulles (1888-1959) was appointed Secretary of State under President Eisenhower in 1952, and served until his death in 1959. He was famous for his strong stand against communism and his doctrine of “brinksmanship,” which he defined as an "ability to get to the verge without getting into the war."
Dulles's bloodlines almost destined him for diplomacy. He was a nephew by marriage of Robert Lansing, Woodrow Wilson's Secretary of State. His grandfather, John Watson Foster, served as Secretary of State under President Benjamin Harrison. In 1907 young John Foster Dulles accompanied his grandfather at the second Hague Peace Conference and gained his first experience with diplomacy. In order to live with his grandfather, Dulles moved to Washington, D.C. in 1909 and chose to study law at George Washington University.
In 1911 Dulles finished the three-year-long program in a span of only two years, scored the highest grades ever achieved at the university, and received the degree of Bachelor of Laws in 1912. He later received honorary degrees in law from many universities. In 1911, the same year as he concluded his coursework at George Washington, Dulles began the practice of law in New York City and eventually worked his way up to the prestigious firm of Sullivan and Cromwell.
During his long diplomatic career, he served as a member of the second Pan American Scientific Congress, as a special agent of the Department of State in Central America in 1917, as counsel to the American Commission to Negotiate Peace in 1918, as a member of the Reparations Commission and Supreme Economic Council in 1919, as legal advisor on the Polish Plan of Financial Stabilization in 1927, and as American representative to the Berlin Debt conferences in 1933. In 1939 he published a book about diplomacy, "War, Peace, and Change."
Dulles played a key role in the creation and development of the United Nations. He contributed first as a member of the United States delegation at the San Francisco Conference on World Organizations in 1945. He served as a member of the United Nations General Assembly in 1946, 1947, and 1950, as Acting Chairman of the United States Delegation at the United Nations General Assembly in Paris in 1948, and as Consultant to the Secretary of State in 1950.
In 1951 Dulles, the Special Representative of the President, negotiated the Japanese Peace Treaty, "a peace of reconciliation" for which he received praise as a "master craftsman." He also drafted the Australian, New Zealand, Philippine, and Japanese Security Treaties in 1950 and 1951.
Dulles died of cancer in 1959, and received a posthumous Distinguished Alumni Achievement award in 1964 "for notable achievement in the practice of the law and in diplomacy."
Document Information
Images: 2
Photographic Credit: GW University Historical Photographs Collection; alumni biographical files
Author or Source: Alumni biographical files
Document Location: University Archives
Date Added to Encyclopedia: December 21, 2006
Prepared by: Lyle Slovick, Assistant University Archivist; Evan Laney, Graduate Student Assistant
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