Dulles << DUHL uhs >>, John Foster (1888-1959), was an American lawyer and diplomat. He enjoyed a long and distinguished career in helping formulate the foreign policies of the United States. He won international praise in 1951 as the chief author of the peace treaty between Japan and most of the Allied nations of World War II (1939-1945). He also negotiated the Australian, New Zealand, Philippine, and Japanese security treaties in 1950 and 1951. In 1953, Dulles became secretary of state under President Dwight D. Eisenhower. In this post, he was best known for his unyielding opposition to Communism (see Cold War (To the brink and back)). Dulles served as secretary of state until 1959.
Dulles was born on Feb. 25, 1888, in Washington, D.C. He graduated from Princeton University and received a law degree from George Washington University. Dulles was a U.S. delegate to the United Nations from 1946 to 1948 and in 1950. He served as a United States senator from New York in 1949. Washington Dulles International Airport, near Washington, D.C., was named for him. Dulles died on May 24, 1959.
Dulles’s younger brother, Allen W. Dulles, served as director of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) from 1953 to 1961. In 2001, Dulles’s son Avery Dulles was named a cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church by Pope John Paul II.
