John Foster Dulles

John Foster Dulles (February 25, 1888 – May 24, 1959) is an American diplomat. A Republican, he served as United States Secretary of State under President Dwight D. Eisenhower from 1953 to 1959.

He is a significant figure in the early Cold War era, advocating an aggressive stance against communism throughout the world.

Born in Washington, D.C., Dulles joins the New York City law firm of Sullivan & Cromwell after graduating from George Washington University Law School.

His grandfather, John W. Foster, and his uncle, Robert Lansing, both serve as United States Secretary of State, while his brother, Allen Dulles, serves as the Director of Central Intelligence from 1953 to 1961.

John Foster Dulles serves on the War Industries Board during the First World War I and he is a U.S. legal counsel at the 1919 Paris Peace Conference.

He becomes a member of the League of Free Nations Association, which supports American membership in the League of Nations.

Dulles also helps design the Dawes Plan, which seeks to stabilize Europe by reducing German war reparations.

Dulles serves as the chief foreign policy adviser to Thomas E. Dewey, the Republican presidential nominee in 1944 and 1948.

He also helps draft the preamble to the United Nations Charter and serves as a delegate to the United Nations General Assembly.

In 1949, Dewey appoints Dulles to fill the Senate vacancy caused by the resignation of Sen. Robert F. Wagner.

He serves for four months but leaves office after being defeated in a special election by Herbert H. Lehman.

After Eisenhower wins the 1952 presidential election, he chooses Dulles as Secretary of State.

As Secretary of State, Dulles concentrates on building and strengthening Cold War alliances, most prominently the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

He is the architect of the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization, an anti-Communist defensive alliance between the United States and several nations in and near Southeast Asia.

He also helps instigate the 1953 Iranian coup d'état and the 1954 Guatemalan coup d'état.

He favors a strategy of massive retaliation in response to Soviet aggression.

He advocates support of the French in their war against the Viet Minh in Indochina but rejects the Geneva Accords that France and the communists agree to, and instead supportsSouth Vietnam after the Geneva Conference in 1954.

Suffering from colon cancer, Dulles resigns from office in 1959 and dies later this year.

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