The United States of America does not have friends; it has interests.


Like his younger brother Allen, John Foster Dulles was an international Wall Street attorney with the law firm of Sullivan and Cromwell. His grandfather, Watson Foster, was Secretary of State under Benjamin Harrison and his uncle, Robert Lansing held the position in the Woodrow Wilson administration.

Poor eyesight prevented his participation in World War I. However he served as legal counsel to the US delegation to the Versailles Peace Conference. A Republican, Dulles advised Thomas Dewey on foreign policy during his unsuccessful attempt to unseat Democrat, Harry Truman.

In spite of this, Truman appreciated his knowledge of foreign affairs and he became the President's outside advisor. His advice was counter to Truman's policy of containment of communism, but, instead favored a policy of liberation.

When Dwight Eisenhower assumed the presidency in 1953 Dulles was appointed Secretary of State. In this position he lacked the outgoing, socializing personality, and tended to be a humorless technician. Winston Churchill referred to him with the phrase: Dull, Duller, Dulles.

He had a massive retaliation approach to dealing with Soviets as opposed McNamara's mutual assured destruction theory.

He helped his brother's CIA bring about 1953 coup d'etat that returned the Shah to power in Iran and the CIA/United Fruit Company revolution in Guatemala the next year. He supported the French efforts in Indochina (Vietnam), calling on President Eisenhower to send American B-29s to bomb the Viet Minh positions. Eisenhower agreed to do this if the British would go along. Dulles could not bring the British on board so the idea was scrubbed.

Allen Dulles was fond of saying he and his brother controlled the foreign policy of the United States. John dealt with the friendly countries and he dealt with the unfriendly ones.

BOOK: The Brothers / Kinzer

The Brothers: John Foster Dulles, Allen Dulles, and Their Secret World War
by Stephen Kinzer

During the 1950s, when the Cold War was at its peak, two immensely powerful brothers led the United States into a series of foreign adventures whose effects are still shaking the world.

John Foster Dulles was secretary of state while his brother, Allen Dulles, was director of the Central Intelligence Agency. In this book, Stephen Kinzer places their extraordinary lives against the background of American culture and history. He uses the framework of biography to ask: Why does the United States behave as it does in the world?

The Brothers explores hidden forces that shape the national psyche, from religious piety to Western movies—many of which are about a noble gunman who cleans up a lawless town by killing bad guys. This is how the Dulles brothers saw themselves, and how many Americans still see their country's role in the world.

Propelled by a quintessentially American set of fears and delusions, the Dulles brothers launched violent campaigns against foreign leaders they saw as threats to the United States. These campaigns helped push countries from Guatemala to the Congo into long spirals of violence, led the United States into the Vietnam War, and laid the foundation for decades of hostility between the United States and countries from Cuba to Iran.