Eisenhower and Dulles Brothers
John Foster Dulles was Eisenhower's secretary of state and was well known for his brinkmanship. The following major events took place while he was in charge of the world.- Stalin's death in 1953.
- An inconclusive conclusion of the Korean War (1953).
- Dien Vien Pu disaster in Vietnam (1954).
- Hungarian revolt in 1956.
- Suez crisis in 1956.
- The first satellite launched by the Soviet Union in 1957.
- Quemoi-Matsu crisis in China (1958).
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Even before becoming
the secretary of state, he carried out several important diplomatic
missions for the Truman administration. He was the architect of the
peace treaty with Japan in 1952.
In 1950, President Harry Truman appointed John Foster Dulles as a
special envoy to Japan to negotiate a peace treaty with Japanese
Prime Minister Yohida Shigeru. He also had a mission to go to
Korea to assess the situation there. The crucial question was
whether the United States should include Korea within its region of
interest. Dulles was invited to the 38th parallel (boundary between
North Korea supported by the Soviet Union and the South supported by
the United States).
In 1961, Dwight Eisenhower came to Princeton to give a speech during the dedication ceremony of John Foster Dulles room at the Firestone Library. He had a lunch with Robert Goheen (the president of the University) at the Prospect Garden and walking toward the Library. I was waiting outside, and clapped my hands as soon as he emerged from the Garden gate. He saw me and said "Hello There." He was regarded as a very inactive president at that time, and that was the reason why John F. Kennedy got elected in 1960. However, these days, he is praised as a very forward-looking president.
During his presidency, the United States built up a formidable military power. In addition to many thousand nuclear warheads, the U.S. industry built one thousand B-52 bombers which we still use, and developed nuclear submarines. After the Soviets launched the first artificial satellite in 1957, his administration accelerated the developments of rockets and missiles. Furthermore, he drastically increased the science research budgets. These days, almost all research projects are funded by the federal government.
He appeared to be a very inactive president playing gold all the time, but we now realize that he was a very forward-looking president. After building up a formidable military power with vast nuclear stockpiles, he invented the the word "military industrial complex." I like him and I like Ike!
John Foster's younger brother Allan also went to Princeton. He was the first director of a branch of the U.S. government called the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency). Indeed, the Dulles brothers were the founders of this intelligence gathering agency. By its design, the CIA remained as an obscure agency, but became known to the world after the one of the U-2 flights was shot down over the Soviet territory. Allan had to resign in 1961, and came to the 1962 alumni reunion. He was He was enjoying his regained freedom, and was talking with everybody who wanted to talk with him. I even exchanged greetings with him. I took this photo with my Canon camera.
copyright@2002 by Y. S. Kim, unless otherwise specified.
photo of John Foster Dulles, originally by the AP photo, sent to me by North Korean authorities through their propaganda mailing system.