John Foster Dulles Secretary Of State Of The United States

A joint biography of John Foster Dulles and Allen Dulles, who led the United States into an unseen war that decisively shaped today's world 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. The story of the Dulles brothers is the story of America. It illuminates and helps explain the modern history of the United States and the world. A Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Book of 2013

John Foster Dulles was one of the most influential and controversial figures in the history of twentieth-century U.S. foreign relations. Active in the field for decades, Dulles reflected and was a reflection of the tension that pervaded U.S. international conduct from its evolution as a global power in the early twentieth century through its emergence as the 'leader of the Free World' during the Cold War. His life and career embody the best and most troubling aspects of American foreign policy as it progressed toward international supremacy while swaying between altruism and self-interest. In this biography, Richard Immerman traces Dulles's path from his early days growing up in the parsonage of the First Presbyterian Church of Watertown, N.Y., through his years of amassing influence and power as an international business lawyer and adviser, to his service as President Eisenhower's secretary of state. This volume illuminates not only the history of modern U.S. foreign policy, but its search for a twentieth-century identity. Sophisticated yet accessible, John Foster Dulles: Piety, Pragmatism, and Power in U.S. Foreign Policy is an important resource for graduate and undergraduate courses in U.S. history and U.S. foreign relations.

As Dwight D. Eisenhower's Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles came to personify the shortcomings of American foreign policy. This collection of essays, representing the first archivally based reassessment of Dulles's diplomacy, examines his role during one of the most critical periods of modern history. Rejecting familiar Cold War stereotypes, this volume reveals the hidden complexities in Dulles's conduct of foreign policy and in his own personality.