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Favorable or Unfavorable #258: John Foster Dulles


vcczar

Favorable or Unfavorable #258: John Foster Dulles  

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  1. 1. Did you read my first comment?

  2. 2. Favorable or Unfavorable #258: John Foster Dulles



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John Foster Dulles is the equally--if not more so--impressive brother of Allen Dulles, CIA Director. Both worked in tandem for Eisenhower. 

From what I've read both the Dulles brothers were very religious and earnestly believed that Communism was Satanism. To them this was a Holy Crusade. Like most zealots, they occasionally went overboard in action and rhetoric. Nuclear proliferation and Cold War tension escalate, and opponents of US Cold War strategy out a lot of blame on the Dulles brothers--they set the precedence for routine covert coups and Vietnam and near nuclear war. Dulles also, however, secured mutual treaties with almost the entire Eastern World. 

JFK was clearly influenced by the Dulles brothers's nuclear policy. According to Gore Vidal, who was a JFK friend, Vidal stated something to the affect that while Truman and Eisenhower didn't see the nuclear threat and missile gap thing as realistic threats, JFK was a true believer of it. By the time JFK was president, one Dulles brother was dead and the other soon fired by JFK, but their influence likely contributed to JFK's covert attempts in Cuba, his nuke proliferation, and his increasing of US involvement in Vietnam. Vidal thinks, had JFK lived, that US involvement in Vietnam would have begun earlier with the same results. 

This all said, I'd rather we have had the Dulles brothers than the USSR. 

His actions:

Dulles, John F 1924 Helped write Dawes Plan
Dulles, John F 1945 Helped write preamble to UN Charter
Dulles, John F 1950 Becomes special Asian-Pacific advisor for Truman
Dulles, John F 1951 Architect of the Treaty of San Francisco establishing relations between Japan and the West
Dulles, John F 1951 Architect of the US-Japan Security Treaty, establishing military alliance w/ Japan
Dulles, John F 1951 Architect of ANZUS Treaty, establishing security network with Austria and New Zealand
Dulles, John F 1953 Confirmed Sec of State for Eisenhower
Dulles, John F 1953 Considered by Eisenhower for ChJ of the SC
Dulles, John F 1953 Role in Iran coup
Dulles, John F 1954 Presses Eisenhower for greater US involvement in Indochina (US)
Dulles, John F 1954 Role in Guatemala coup
Dulles, John F 1954 Architect of SEATO, designed to lock Communism out of SE Asia
Dulles, John F 1955 Condemns non-aligned nations during Cold War
Dulles, John F 1959 Resigns as he's near death
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