John Foster Dulles, 1888–1959
Born in Washington DC into a prominent political family, the US politician was the brother of Allen W. Dulles, who headed the CIA, the US intelligence service, from 1953 to 1961. As an international lawyer, he was an official legal adviser to the US delegation at the Paris peace conference after the First World War. After the Second World War, he had a hand in wording the UN Charter. Dulles served as US ambassador to the United Nations from 1945 to 1950. In 1951, he was largely responsible for negotiating and gaining Allied acceptance for the San Francisco peace treaty with Japan. After President Dwight D. Eisenhower appointed him secretary of state in 1953, he was instrumental in bringing about the US-dominated Seato and Cento regional military pacts and was the US negotiator for the Trieste agreement of 1954 and the Austrian State Treaty of 1955. His actions as secretary of state were guided by his strong belief in international treaty obligations and his deep moral antagonism to communism. Illness forced him to resign in 1959 and he died six weeks later.
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