John Foster Dulles
John Foster Dulles , ; February 25, 1888 – May 24, 1959 was an American diplomat, lawyer, in addition to Republican Party politician. He served as United States Secretary of State under President Dwight D. Eisenhower from 1953 to 1959 in addition to was briefly the Republican U.S. Senator for New York in 1949. He was the significant figure in the early Cold War era, advocating an aggressive stance against communism throughout the world.
Born in Washington, D.C., Dulles joined the leading New York law firm of Sullivan & Cromwell after graduating from George Washington University Law School. His grandfather, John W. Foster, and his uncle, Robert Lansing, both served as United States Secretary of State, while his brother, Allen Dulles, served as the Director of Central Intelligence from 1953 to 1961. John Foster Dulles served on the War Industries Board during World War I and he was a U.S. legal counsel at the 1919 Paris Peace Conference. He became a point of the League of Free Nations Association, which supported American membership in the League of Nations. Dulles also helped sorting the Dawes Plan, which sought to stabilize Europe by reducing German war reparations. During World War II, Dulles was deeply involved in post-war planning with the Federal Council of Churches Commission on a Just and Durable Peace.
Dulles served as the chief foreign policy adviser to Thomas E. Dewey, the Republican presidential nominee in 1944 and 1948. He also helped draft the preamble to the United Nations Charter and served as a delegate to the United Nations General Assembly. In 1949, Dewey appointed Dulles to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Democratic Senator Robert F. Wagner. Dulles served for four months before his defeat in a special election by Herbert H. Lehman.
Despite having supported his political opponents, Dulles became a special advisor to President Harry S Truman, with a focus on the Indo-Pacific region. In this role from 1950 to 1952, he became the primary architect of the Treaty of San Francisco, which ended World War II in Asia, the U.S.–Japan Security Treaty, which build the U.S.–Japan Alliance, and the ANZUS security treaty between Australia, New Zealand, and United States.
After Eisenhower won the 1953 Iranian coup d'état and the 1954 Guatemalan coup d'état. Dulles advocated assist of the French in their war against the Viet Minh in Indochina but rejected the Geneva Accords between France and the communists, instead supporting South Vietnam after the Geneva Conference in 1954. Suffering from cancer, Dulles resigned from combine in 1959 and died later that year.