Dean Rusk
![](http://web.archive.org./web/20200319214626im_/https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a5/Dean_Rusk%2C_Lyndon_B._Johnson_and_Robert_McNamara_in_Cabinet_Room_meeting_February_1968.jpg/220px-Dean_Rusk%2C_Lyndon_B._Johnson_and_Robert_McNamara_in_Cabinet_Room_meeting_February_1968.jpg)
David Dean Rusk (February 9, 1909 – December 20, 1994) was the United States Secretary of State from 1961 to 1969 under presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. Rusk is one of the longest serving U.S. Secretaries of State, behind only Cordell Hull.
Born in Cherokee County, Georgia, Rusk taught at Mills College after graduating from Davidson College. During World War II, Rusk served as a staff officer in the China Burma India Theater. He was hired by the United States Department of State in 1945 and became Assistant Secretary of State for Far Eastern Affairs in 1950. In 1952, Rusk became president of the Rockefeller Foundation.
After winning the 1960 presidential election, Kennedy asked Rusk to serve as secretary of state. He supported diplomatic efforts during the Cuban Missile Crisis and, though he initially expressed doubts about the escalation of the U.S. role in the Vietnam War, became known as one of its strongest supporters. Rusk served for the duration of the Kennedy and Johnson administrations before retiring from public office in 1969. After leaving office, he taught international relations at the University of Georgia School of Law.
Childhood and education[edit]
David Dean Rusk was born in a rural district[1] of Cherokee County, Georgia, to Robert Hugh Rusk and Frances Elizabeth (née Clotfelter) Rusk.[2] Rusk's father worked as a sharecropper, an exploitative form of agriculture common in the South, and Rusk inherited a strong work ethic from his Presbyterian parents.[3] Owing to the extreme poverty in rural Georgia at the time, Rush had to walk to school barefoot as shoes were too expensive for his parents to buy.[3] In his memoir recounted to his son Rich in the 1980s (Rusk had gone blind by that point), he described a youth spent in "hardscrabble farming" as none of the families in Cherokee county had any modern amenities such as running water, central heating, indoor plumbing or electricity and where diseases were a constant threat.[4] Rusk's sister recalled that when the family killed a pig, they "ate everything but the squeal" while Rusk himself noted that "the Rusks who stayed in Cherokee County were eventually spewed out by this unforgiving land".[4] For the young Rusk, his main consolation was the Presbyterian Church, and he came to embrace the stern Calvinist work ethic and morality.[4] Like almost all white Southerners at the time, Rusk was a Democrat and his childhood hero was President Woodrow Wilson, the first Southern president since Andrew Johnson.[5] As a 9 year old, Rusk attended a rally hosted by Wilson urging the United States join the League of Nations.[5] Rusk grew up on the mythology and legends of the "Lost Cause" so common to the South, and he came to embrace the militarism of Southern culture as he wrote in a high school essay that "young men should prepare themselves for service in case our country ever got into trouble".[6]
He was educated in Atlanta's public schools, graduated from Boys High School in 1925,[7] and spent two years working for an Atlanta lawyer before working his way through Davidson College. Rusk was coached in football by William "Monk" Younger and was a member of the Kappa Alpha Order Sigma chapter,[8] and the national military honor society Scabbard and Blade becoming a Cadet Lieutenant Colonel commanding the Reserve Officers' Training Corps battalion. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1931.[7] Through Davidson College was not the most distinguished college, Rusk applied the Calvinist work ethic to his studies, and won a Rhodes Scholarship after graduation.[3] When asked in an interview for the Rhodes Scholarship why in the Seal of the U.S. the American eagle carried arrows in one claw and the olive branch of peace in the other, Rusk replied: "The two must go together. Armed force and world peace are two sides of the same coin".[5] The journalist Stanley Karnow described Rusk as being like a character from a Horatio Alger story, the boy who rose up from poverty of the rural South to high positions of power via his hard work, determination and intelligence.[3] Rusk's rise up from poverty made him into a passionate believer in the "American Dream", and a recurring theme throughout his life was his often expressed pride in his nation, a place that he believed that anyone, no matter how modest their circumstances, could rise up to live the "American Dream".[4]
While studying in England as a Rhodes Scholar at St. John's College, Oxford, he received the Cecil Peace Prize in 1933.[7][9] Rusk's experiences of the events of the early 1930s decisively shaped his later views as he told Karnow in an interview:
"I was a senior in college the year that the Japanese seized Manchuria and I have the picture still etched in my mind from the newsreel of the Chinese ambassador standing before the League of Nations, pleading for help against the Japanese attack. I myself was present in the Oxford Union on that night in 1933, when they passed the motion that "this house will not fight for king and country"...
So one cannot have lived through those years and not have some pretty strong feelings...that it was the failure of the governments of the world to prevent aggression that made the catastrophe of World War II inevitable".[3]
Rusk married the former Virginia Foisie (October 5, 1915 – February 24, 1996) on June 9, 1937.[7] They had three children: David, Richard, and Peggy Rusk.[10]
Rusk taught at Mills College in Oakland, California, from 1934 to 1949 (except during his military service), and he earned an LL.B. degree at the University of California, Berkeley in 1940.
Career prior to 1961[edit]
During World War II, Rusk joined the infantry as a reserve captain and served as a staff officer in the China Burma India Theater. At war's end he was a colonel, decorated with the Legion of Merit with Oak Leaf Cluster.[7]
Rusk returned to America to work briefly for the War Department in Washington. He joined the Department of State in February 1945, and worked for the office of United Nations Affairs. In the same year, he suggested splitting Korea into spheres of U.S. and of Soviet influence at the 38th parallel north. After Alger Hiss left State in January 1947, Rusk succeeded him (as director of the Office of Special Political Affairs), according to Max Lowenthal.[11] In 1949, he was made Deputy Under Secretary of State. In 1950, Rusk was made Assistant Secretary of State for Far Eastern Affairs. He played an influential part in the US decision to become involved in the Korean War, and in Japan's postwar compensation for victorious countries, such as the Rusk documents. Rusk was a cautious diplomat and always sought international support.
When the question arose about whatever the United States should support the French war to hang to their colony of Indochina against the Communist Viet Minh guerrillas, Rusk argued for support to France, stating that the Viet Minh were just the instruments of Soviet expansionism in Asia and to refuse to support the French would be an appeasement.[3] Under strong American pressure, the French granted nominal independence to the State of Vietnam in February 1950 under the Emperor Bao Dai, which the United States recognized within days.[12] However, it was widely known that the State of Vietnam was still in effect a French colony as French officials controlled all of the important ministries and the Emperor bitterly remarked to the press: "What they call a Bao Dai solution turns out to be just a French solution".[13] In June 1950, Rush testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee: "This is a civil war that has been in effect captured by the [Soviet] Politburo and, besides, has been turned into a tool of the Politburo. So it isn't a civil war in the usual sense. It is part of the international war...We have to look at in terms of which side we are on in this particular kind of struggle...Because Ho Chi Minh is tied with the Politburo, our policy is to support Bao Dai and the French in Indochina until we have time to help them establish a going concern".[3]
Rusk and his family moved to Scarsdale, New York, while he served as a Rockefeller Foundation trustee from 1950 to 1961.[14] In 1952 he succeeded Chester L. Barnard as president of the foundation.[7]
Secretary of State[edit]
On December 12, 1960, Democratic President-elect John F. Kennedy nominated Rusk to be secretary of state. Rusk was not Kennedy's first choice, but rather the "lowest common denominator", as Kennedy's first choice, J. William Fulbright, proved too controversial.[15] David Halberstam also described Rusk as "everybody's number two".[16] Rusk was sworn in on January 21, 1961.[7] Kennedy biographer Robert Dallek explained Rusk's choice thus:
By process of elimination, and determined to run foreign policy from the White House, Kennedy came to Dean Rusk, the president of the Rockefeller Foundation. Rusk was an acceptable last choice, with the right credentials and the right backers. A Rhodes scholar, a college professor, a World War II officer, an Assistant Secretary of State for the Far East under Truman, a liberal Georgian sympathetic to integration, and a consistent Stevenson supporter, Rusk offended no one. The foreign policy establishment — Acheson, Lovett, liberals Bowles and Stevenson, and the New York Times — all sang his praises. But most of all, it was clear to Kennedy from their one meeting in December 1960 that Rusk would be a sort of faceless, faithful bureaucrat who would serve rather than attempt to lead.[17]
As secretary of state he believed in the use of military action to combat communism. Despite private misgivings about the Bay of Pigs invasion, he remained noncommittal during the executive council meetings leading up to the attack and never opposed it outright. During the Cuban Missile Crisis he supported diplomatic efforts. A careful review by Sheldon Stern, Head of the JFK Library, of Kennedy's audio recordings of the EXCOMM meetings suggests that Rusk's contributions to the discussions probably averted a nuclear war.[18] Early in his tenure, he had strong doubts about US intervention in Vietnam,[19] but later his vigorous public defense of US actions in the Vietnam War made him a frequent target of anti-war protests. Just as had under the Truman administration, Rusk tended to favor hawkish line towards Vietnam and frequently allied himself in debates in the Cabinet and on the National Security Council with equally hawkish Defense Secretary Robert McNamara.[20]
In April 1961, when a proposal to send 100 more American military advisers to South Vietnam to make a total of 800 appeared before Kennedy, Rusk argued for acceptance even as he noted that it violated the Geneva Accords of 1954 (which had the United States had not signed, but promised to abide by), which limited the number of foreign military personnel in Vietnam to 700 at a time.[21] Rusk stated that International Control Commission consisting of diplomats from India, Poland and Canada which was supposed to enforce the Geneva Accords should not be informed of the deployment and the advisers "be placed in varied locations to avoid attention".[21] Outside of his work against communism, he continued his Rockefeller Foundation ideas of aid to developing nations and also supported low tariffs to encourage world trade. Rusk also drew the ire of supporters of Israel after he let it be known that he believed the USS Liberty incident was a deliberate attack on the ship, rather than an accident.
On March 24, 1961, Rusk released a brief statement saying his delegation was to travel to Bangkok and the SEATO nations' responsibility should be considered if peace settlements were not realized.[22]
In August 1963, a series of misunderstandings rocked the Kennedy administration when in reaction to the Buddhist crisis a policy proposal urging the overthrow of President Diem of South Vietnam was presented to Kennedy who stated he would consider adopting it if Rusk gave his approval first.[23] Rusk who had gone to New York to attend a session of the United Nations cautiously gave approval out of the impression that Kennedy had approved it first.[23] When it emerged that was not the case, Kennedy assembled his foreign policy team for a stormy meeting at the White House with several such as McNamara, Vice President Lyndon Johnson, and CIA director John McCone all spoke for standing with Diem while others like the Undersecretary of State George Ball, W. Avrell Harriman and Roger Hilsman argued for deposing Diem.[23] Much to Kennedy's annoyance, Rusk maintained a stony silence, refusing to take a side.[23] At the end of the meeting, Kennedy exclaimed: "My God, my government is falling apart!"[23] On 31 August 1963, the diplomat Paul Kattenburg returned from Saigon where he reported that public opinion in South Vietnam was overwhelmingly hostile to Diem, which led him to suggest it was time for "for us to get out honorably".[24] All of the assembled officials rejected Kattenburg's idea with Rusk saying "we will not pull out...until the war is won".[24] Rusk reassigned Kattenburg from South Vietnam to Guyana.[24]
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As he recalled in his autobiography, As I Saw It, Rusk did not have a good relationship with President Kennedy. The president was often irritated by Rusk's reticence in advisory sessions and felt that the State Department was "like a bowl of jelly" and that it "never comes up with any new ideas". Special counsel to the president Ted Sorensen believed that Kennedy, being well versed and practiced in foreign affairs, acted as his own secretary of state. Sorensen also said that the president often expressed impatience with Rusk and felt him under-prepared for emergency meetings and crises.[25] As Rusk recounted in his autobiography, he repeatedly offered his resignation, but it was never accepted.[26] Rumors of Rusk's dismissal leading up to the 1964 election abounded prior to President Kennedy's trip to Dallas in 1963. Shortly after Kennedy was assassinated, Rusk offered his resignation to the new president, Lyndon B. Johnson.[27] However, Johnson refused Rusk's resignation and retained him as the secretary of state throughout his administration.[27] When Lyndon B. Johnson died in 1973, Rusk eulogized the former president when he lay in state.[28]
On August 29, 1964, amid the ongoing presidential election, Rusk called for bipartisan support to ensure that the US's foreign policy have both consistency and reliability and said Republican presidential nominee Barry Goldwater was creating "mischief".[29] The following month, at a September 10 press conference in the main auditorium of the State Department, Rusk said that Senator Goldwater's critiques "reflect a basic lack of understanding" of a U.S. President's handling of conflict and peace.[30]
On September 21, Rusk said the US would not be pushed out of the Gulf of Tonkin and that the prevention of it becoming a "communist lake" would be assured by the continued presence of American forces there.[31]
On March 19, 1965, Rusk commented that Russia was appearing "disinclined to put its full weight behind" international agreements on Vietnam and Laos during a press conference.[32]
After President of France Charles de Gaulle withdrew France from the common NATO military command in February 1966 and ordered all American military forces to leave France, President Johnson asked Rusk to seek further clarification from President de Gaulle by asking whether the bodies of buried American soldiers must leave France as well.[33] Rusk recorded in his autobiography that de Gaulle did not respond when asked, "Does your order include the bodies of American soldiers in France's cemeteries?"[34][35]
On April 18, 1967, during a speech in Washington in regards to ending the conflict in South Vietnam, Rusk said the United States was prepared to "take steps to deescalate the conflict whenever we are assured that the north will take appropriate corresponding steps."[36] Rusk's support for the Vietnam War caused considerable torment for his son Richard who was opposed to the war, but enlisted in the Marine Corps and refused to attend anti-war demonstrations out of love for his father.[37] The psychological strain caused the younger Rusk to suffer a nervous breakdown and led to a break between father and son.[5]
Rusk planned to offer to resign in the summer of 1967, because "his daughter planned to marry a black classmate at Stanford University, and he could not impose such a political burden on the president"[38] after it became known that his daughter, Peggy, planned to marry Guy Smith,[39] "a black Georgetown grad working at NASA".[40] In fact, the Richmond News Leader stated that it found the wedding offensive, further saying that "anything which diminishes [Rusk's] personal acceptability is an affair of state".[1] He decided not to resign after talking first to Robert S. McNamara and Lyndon Johnson.[41] A year after his daughter's wedding, Rusk was invited to join the faculty of the University of Georgia Law School, only to have his appointment denounced by Roy Harris, an ally of Alabama Governor George Wallace and a member of the university's board of regents, who stated that his opposition was because of Peggy Rusk's interracial marriage. The university nonetheless appointed Rusk to the position.[39]
On January 5, 1968, notes by Rusk were delivered to Ambassador of the Soviet Union to the United States Anatoly Dobrynin, pleading support from the US to "avoid recurrence of" claimed bombing of Russian cargo ships in the Haiphong North Vietnam port the day prior.[42]
On February 9, Rusk was asked by Senator William Fulbright over his possible information in regards to a US tactical nuclear weapons introduction in South Vietnam report.[43]
On April 17, during an American Society of Newspaper Editors luncheon meeting, Rusk admitted that the United States has taken "some lumps" propaganda wise but the Johnson administration should persist in trying to find a location of neutrality for the peace talks to occur.[44] The following day, Rusk added 10 sites to the 5 proposed initially, accusing Hanoi of having a propaganda battle over neutral areas for discussion during a press conference.[45]
On June 26, Rusk assured Berlin citizens that the United States along with its North Atlantic Treaty partners were "determined" in securing Berlin's liberty and security, additionally criticizing the recent travel restrictions of East Germany as violating "long standing agreements and practice."[46]
On September 30, Rusk met privately with Foreign Minister of Israel Abba Eban in New York City for discussion on peace plans from the Middle East.[47]
On November 1, Rusk said long term allies of the North Vietnam bomb halt should pressure Hanoi to accelerate their involvement in the peace talks in Paris.[48]
On December 1, citing the halt of bombing in North Vietnam, Rusk said that the Soviet Union would need to come forward and do what it could to forward peace talks in southeast Asia.[49] On December 22, Rusk appeared on television to officially confirm the 82 surviving crew members of the USS Pueblo intelligence ship, speaking on behalf of the hospitalized President Johnson.[50]
January 2, Rusk met with five Jewish American leaders in his office to assure them the US had not changed its policy in the Middle East recognizing the sovereignty of Israel, one of the leaders, the American-Israeli Public Affairs committee's Irving Kane, saying afterward that Rusk had successfully convinced him.[51]
Retirement[edit]
On July 27, 1969, Rusk voiced his support for the Nixon administration's proposed anti-ballistic missile system, saying that he would vote for it, were he a senator, from an understanding that further proposals would be reviewed if any progress would be made in Soviet Union peace talks.[52] The same year, Rusk received both the Sylvanus Thayer Award and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, with Distinction.
Following his retirement, he taught international law at the University of Georgia School of Law in Athens, Georgia (1970–1984). Rusk was emotionally exhausted after 8 years as Secretary of State and narrowly survived a nervous breakdown in 1969.[5] Rusk found that the return to teaching in 1970 to resume the academic career he had abandoned in 1940 to be emotionally satisfying as the other professors remembered him as being like a "junior associate seeking tenure".[5] Rusk told his son "the students I was privileged to teach helped rejuvenate my life and make a new start after those hard years in Washington".[5] In the 1970s, he was a member of the Committee on Present Danger, a hawkish group opposed to détente with the Soviet Union and distrustful of treaties to control the nuclear arms race.[53] In 1984, Rusk's son Richard, whom he had not spoken to since 1970 owing to the opposition of Rusk fils to the Vietnam War, surprised his father by returning to Georgia from Alaska to seek a reconciliation.[54] As part of the reconciliation process, Rusk who had gone blind by this point, agreed to dictate his memoirs to his son who recorded what he said and wrote it down into what became the book As I Saw It.[54]
In a review of his memoir As I Saw It, the American historian Warren Cohen noted little of the acrimony of his relations with McNamara, Bundy and Fulbright appeared, but that Rusk was unremitting hostile in his picture of Kennedy's closest adviser and right-hand man, his younger brother Robert together with the UN Secretary General U Thant.[55] In As I Saw It, Rusk expressed considerable anger at the media's coverage of the Vietnam War, accusing anti-war journalists of "faking" stories and images that portrayed the war in an unflattering light.[55] Rusk spoke about he called the "so-called freedom of the press" as he maintained that journalists from The New York Times and The Washington Post only wrote what their editors told them to write, saying if there was true freedom of the press that both newspapers would have portrayed the war more positively.[55] Despite his hawkish views towards the Soviet Union, Rusk stated during his time as Secretary of State that he never saw any evidence that the Soviet Union planned to invade Western Europe and he "seriously doubted" that it ever would.[55] Cohen noted that in contrast to Kennedy that Rusk was more warmer and protective towards Johnson, whom he clearly got on better with than he ever did with Kennedy.[56] In a review of As I Saw It, the historian George Herring wrote that the book was mostly dull and uninformative when it came to Rusk's time as Secretary of State, telling little that historians did not already know, and the most interesting and passionate parts concerned his youth in the "Old South" and his conflict with and reconciliation with his son Richard.[57] He died of heart failure in Athens, Georgia on December 20, 1994, at the age of 85.[58] He and his wife are buried at the Oconee Hill Cemetery in Athens.
Rusk Eating House, the first women’s eating house at Davidson College, was founded in 1977 and is named in his honor. The Dean Rusk International Studies Program at Davidson College is also named in his honor.
Dean Rusk Middle School, located in Canton, Georgia, was named in his honor, as was Dean Rusk Hall on the campus of the University of Georgia.
Legacy[edit]
The consensus of historians is that Rusk was a very intelligent man, but very shy and so deeply immersed in details and the complexities of each case, that he was reluctant to make a decision, and unable to clearly explain to the media what the government's policies were. [59] Jonathan Coleman says that he was deeply involved in Berlin Crisis, the Cuban Missile Crisis, NATO, and Vietnam. Typically he was highly cautious on most issues, except for Vietnam:
- He established only a distant relationship with President Kennedy but worked more closely with President Johnson. Both presidents appreciated his loyalty and his low‐key style. Although an indefatigable worker, Rusk exhibited little talent as a manager of the Department of State.[60]
Regarding Vietnam, historians agree that President Johnson relied heavily on the advice of Rusk, Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, and national security adviser McGeorge Bundy to the effect that a communist takeover of all of Vietnam was unacceptable, and the only way to prevent it was to escalate America's commitment. Johnson took their conclusions and rejected dissenting views.[61]
Rusk's son Rich wrote about his father's time as Secretary of State: "With this reticent, reserved, self-contained, emotionally bound-up father of mine from rural Georgia, how could the decision making have gone any differently? His taciturn qualities, which served him so well in negotiating with the Russians, ill-prepared him for the wrenching, introspective, soul-shattering journey that a true reappraisal of Vietnam policy would have involved. Although trained for high office, he was unprepared for such a journey, for admitting that thousands of American lives, and hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese, might have been lost in vain".[56]
George Herring wrote about Rusk in 1992: "He is a man utterly without pretense, a thoroughly decent individual, a man of stern countenance and unbending principles. He is a man with a passion for secrecy. He is a shy and reticent man, who as Secretary of State sipped scotch to loosen his tongue for press conferences. Stolid and normally laconic, he also has a keen, dry wit. He has often been described as the "perfect number two," a loyal subordinate who had strong- if unexpressed-reservations about the Bay of Pigs operation, but after its failure could defend it as though he had planned it".[62]
Summarizing the views of historians and political scientists, Smith Simpson states:
- Here was a man who had much going for him but failed in crucial respects. A decent, intelligent, well-educated man of broad experience in world affairs who, early in life, evidenced qualities of leadership, seemed diffidently to hold back rather than to lead as secretary of state, seeming to behave, in important ways, like a sleeve-plucking follower of presidents rather than their wise and persuasive counselor.[63]
Media[edit]
Appearances
- Cuban Missile Crisis Revisited. Produced for The Idea Channel by the Free to Choose Network, 1983.
- Phase I (U1015) (January 22, 1983)
- Featuring Dean Rusk, McGeorge Bundy, Richard Neustadt, Edwin Martin & Donald Wilson in Atlanta, Georgia.
- Phase I (U1015) (January 22, 1983)
Portrayal in media
- Actor Henry Strozier played Secretary Rusk in Thirteen Days, a 2000 American historical thriller film directed by Roger Donaldson, dramatizing the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962.
Publications[edit]
- “U.S. Foreign Policy: A Discussion with Former Secretaries of State Dean Rusk, William P. Rogers, Cyrus R. Vance, and Alexander M. Haig, Jr.”. International Studies Notes, Vol. 11, No. 1, Special Edition: The Secretaries of State, Fall 1984. JSTOR 44234902 (pp. 10-20)
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ MORRISON, DONALD (1990-07-30). "Ghost Dad (bk rvw of AS I SAW IT by Dean Rusk, as told to Richard Rusk)". Time. Retrieved 2008-02-04.
I won't be around for history's verdict," says Rusk, now 81 and ailing in his Georgia retirement, "and I am perfectly relaxed about it.
- ^ Page 425 of Congressional Directory,89th Congress, Second Session, January 1966
- ^ a b c d e f g Karnow, Stanley Vietnam: A History, New York: Viking, 1983 p.179
- ^ a b c d Herring, George (Spring 1992). "Rusks on Rusk: A Georgian's Life as Collaborative Autobiography". The Georgia Historical Quarterly. 76 (1): 63.
- ^ a b c d e f g Herring, George (Spring 1992). "Rusks on Rusk: A Georgian's Life as Collaborative Autobiography". The Georgia Historical Quarterly. 76 (1): 64.
- ^ Herring, George (Spring 1992). "Rusks on Rusk: A Georgian's Life as Collaborative Autobiography". The Georgia Historical Quarterly. 76 (1): 63–64.
- ^ a b c d e f g Anonymous. "Biography of Dean Rusk". Davidson College. Archived from the original on 2007-01-30. Retrieved 2008-02-03.
- ^ "Famed Fraternity Members". Kappa Alpha Order. Archived from the original on 2008-05-09. Retrieved 2008-02-03.
- ^ Turner, Arthur Campbell; Francis Carney; Jan Erickson (2005-04-05). "Transcription of Oral History Audio Interview with ARTHUR CAMPBELL TURNER April 6 and May 28, 1998" (PDF). University of California, Riverside. p. 8. Retrieved 2008-02-03.
- ^ "Parks Rusk Collection of Dean Rusk Papers". Richard B. Russell Library for Political Research and Studies. University of Georgia. pp. Biographical Note. Archived from the original on May 17, 2008. Retrieved 2008-02-04.
- ^ Lowenthal, Max (1948), Dawson, Donald S. (ed.), 1948 Diary of Max Lowenthal, Library of Congress, p. 155
- ^ Karnow, Stanley Vietnam: A History, New York: Viking, 1983 p.180
- ^ Karnow, Stanley Vietnam: A History, New York: Viking, 1983 p.175
- ^ Dean Rusk 60s Foreign Policy Leader Dies
- ^ Schlesinger Jr., Arthur M. (2008). Journals 1952-2000. Penguin Books. p. 98. ISBN 978-0-14-311435-2.
Elizabeth Farmer told me this evening that, at five this afternoon, it looked as if it would be Rusk in State, with Bowles and Bundy as Undersecretaries. (Ken, by the way, told me that Jack had called him on the 7th and talked seriously about Mac as Secretary.) I asked why Rusk had finally emerged. Elizabeth said, 'He was the lowest common denominator.' Apparently Harris Wofford succeeded in stirring the Negroes and Jews up so effectively that the uproar killed Fulbright, who was apparently Jack's first choice.
- ^ Halberstam, David (1972). The Best and the Brightest. Random House. p. 32. ISBN 0-394-46163-0.
- ^ Robert Dallek, An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy 1917–1963, p. 315, 2003, Little, Brown and Company
- ^ Averting the Final Failure: John F. Kennedy and the Secret Cuban Missile Crisis Meetings, by Sheldon M. Stern, Stanford University Press, 2003, p. 80.
- ^ Henry II, John B.; William Espinosa (Autumn 1972). "The Tragedy of Dean Rusk". Foreign Policy. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (8): 166–189. doi:10.2307/1147824. JSTOR 1147824.
- ^ Karnow, Stanley Vietnam: A History, New York: Viking, 1983 p.249
- ^ a b Karnow, Stanley Vietnam: A History, New York: Viking, 1983 p.250
- ^ "DEAN RUSK WARNS OF LAOS DANGERS; ON WAY TO SEATO". Chicago Tribune. March 24, 1961.
- ^ a b c d e Karnow, Stanley Vietnam: A History, New York: Viking, 1983 p.287
- ^ a b c Karnow, Stanley Vietnam: A History, New York: Viking, 1983 p.293
- ^ Sorensen, Ted (2008). Counselor: A Life At The Edge Of History. HarperCollins. pp. 233–234. ISBN 978-0-06-079871-0.
President Kennedy was less satisfied with his secretary of state, Dean Rusk...John F. Kennedy, more than any president since FDR, was his own secretary of state...But it was not the White House staff that said the State Department was 'like a bowl of jelly', or that it 'never comes up with any new ideas'. Those were John F. Kennedy's words...More than one White House tape revealed the president's impatience with Rusk...nor did JFK or RFK believe that Rusk himself was as thoroughly prepared for emergency meetings and crises as he should have been.
- ^ Rusk 1990, pp. 198
- ^ a b Rusk 1990, pp. 311, 321, 327
- ^ Rusk 1990, p. 328
- ^ "Rusk Assails Barry's Hot Line Charges". Chicago Tribune. August 30, 1964.
- ^ "Barry's Blasts Foolish, Rusk Charges". Chicago Tribune. September 11, 1964.
- ^ Korman, Seymour (September 22, 1964). "Reds Can't Push U.S. from Gulf, Rusk Says". Chicago Tribune.
- ^ "Russia Fails To Back Viet Pacts - Rusk". Chicago Tribune. March 20, 1965.
- ^ Ogden, Christopher (1995-09-18). "Bombs Away!". Time. 146 (12). pp. 166–189. Retrieved 2009-02-11.
- ^ "Andrew Roberts addresses The Bruges Group". The Bruges Group. Archived from the original on 2009-07-22. Retrieved 2009-02-11.
- ^ Schoenbaum, Thomas J. (1988). Waging Peace and War: Dean Rusk in the Truman, Kennedy, and Johnson Years. Ann Arbor, Michigan: Simon & Schuster. p. 421. ISBN 0-671-60351-5.
- ^ King, William (April 19, 1967). "Rusk Again Asks Hanoi to Move for Peace". Chicago Tribune.
- ^ Herring, George (Spring 1992). "Rusks on Rusk: A Georgian's Life as Collaborative Autobiography". The Georgia Historical Quarterly. 76 (1): 64–66.
- ^ In Retrospect, Robert McNamara, pg. 282
- ^ a b Romano, Renée Christine (2003). Race Mixing. Harvard University Press. pp. 204–205.
- ^ Rick, Frank (November 2, 2006). "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner". The New York Times. p. W-10.
- ^ McNamara, Robert S. (1995). In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam. Random House. p. 282. ISBN 0-8129-2523-8.
It may be hard for readers today to understand what went through his mind. But it was very clear to me at the time: he believed that because he was a southerner, working for a southern president, such a marriage – if he did not resign or stop it – would bring down immense criticism on both him and the president. .... [T]he president reacted as I expected – with congratulations for the impending marriage. So far as I was aware, the marriage had absolutely no effect – political or personal – on Dean or the president.
- ^ "Rush Assured By US In Bomb Raid Charges". Chicago Tribune. January 5, 1968.
- ^ "Rusk Is Quizzed". Chicago Tribune. February 9, 1968.
- ^ Freeburg, Russell (April 17, 1968). "Hanoi Warned By Rusk: Don't Wreck Hopes". Chicago Tribune.
- ^ Yuenger, James (April 18, 1968). "Rusk Names 4 In Europe And 6 In Asia". Chicago Tribune.
- ^ Siegert, Alice (June 26, 1968). "Berlin Shall Remain Free, Rusk Pledges". Chicago Tribune.
- ^ Fulton, William (September 30, 1968). "Rusk, Israeli Confer; Deny Mid-East Plan". Chicago Tribune.
- ^ Yuenger, James. "Rusk Asks Aid To Push Hanoi Toward Peace". Chicago Tribune.
- ^ Kling, William (December 1, 1968). "Rusk Urges Soviet Peace Role". Chicago Tribune.
- ^ "Rusk Breaks Pueblo News on Television". Chicago Tribune. December 22, 1968.
- ^ Yuenger, James (January 2, 1969). "Arab Recognition of Israel Still U.S. Goal, Says Rusk". Chicago Tribune.
- ^ Jones, William (July 27, 1969). "Rusk Backs ABM, Hails Peace Work". Chicago Tribune.
- ^ Cohen, Warren (Spring 1991). "New Light on Dean Rusk? A Review Essay". Political Science Quarterly. The Academy of Political Science. 106 (1): 124. doi:10.2307/2152177. JSTOR 2152177.
- ^ a b Herring, George (Spring 1992). "Rusks on Rusk: A Georgian's Life as Collaborative Autobiography". The Georgia Historical Quarterly. 76 (1): 58.
- ^ a b c d Cohen, Warren (Spring 1991). "New Light on Dean Rusk? A Review Essay". Political Science Quarterly. The Academy of Political Science. 106 (1): 125. doi:10.2307/2152177. JSTOR 2152177.
- ^ a b Cohen, Warren (Spring 1991). "New Light on Dean Rusk? A Review Essay". Political Science Quarterly. The Academy of Political Science. 106 (1): 126. doi:10.2307/2152177. JSTOR 2152177.
- ^ Herring, George (Spring 1992). "Rusks on Rusk: A Georgian's Life as Collaborative Autobiography". The Georgia Historical Quarterly. 76 (1): 59 & 63.
- ^ New York Times, December 22, 1994, pg. A1
- ^ Roger Hilsman, To Move a Nation: The politics of foreign-policy in the administration of John F. Kennedy (1967) pp 40-43.
- ^ Jonathan Coleman, "Rusk, Dean (1909–94)' in Gordon Martel, ed. The Encyclopedia of Diplomacy (2018) https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118885154.dipl0478
- ^ Schulzinger, Robert D. (2012). "Fighting the Vietnam War". In Mitchell B. Lerner (ed.). A Companion to Lyndon B. Johnson. Wiley. p. 338. ISBN 9781444347470.
- ^ Herring, George (Spring 1992). "Rusks on Rusk: A Georgian's Life as Collaborative Autobiography". The Georgia Historical Quarterly. 76 (1): 66.
- ^ Smith Simpson, "Featured Review" Perspectives on Political Science (1991) 20#4 221-49 Excerpt
Further reading[edit]
- Cohen, Warren I. Dean Rusk (1980).
- Colman, Jonathan. "The ‘Bowl of Jelly’: The US Department of State during the Kennedy and Johnson Years, 1961–1968." The Hague Journal of Diplomacy 10.2 (2015): 172-196. online
- Henry, John B., and William Espinosa. "The Tragedy of Dean Rusk." Foreign Policy 8 (1972): 166–189. in JSTOR
- Nuenlist, Christian. "The quiet man: Dean Rusk and Western Europe." Journal of Transatlantic Studies 6.3 (2008): 263–278.
- Schoenbaum, Thomas J. Waging Peace and War: Dean Rusk in the Truman, Kennedy, and Johnson Years (1988).
- Snyder, William P. "Dean Rusk to John Foster Dulles, May–June 1953: The Office, the First 100 Days, and Red China." Diplomatic History 7.1 (1983): 79–86.
- Stupak, Ronald J. "Dean Rusk on international relations: An analysis of his philosophical perceptions." Australian Outlook 25.1 (1971): 13–28.
- Zeiler, Thomas W. Dean Rusk: Defending the American Mission Abroad (2000).
Primary sources[edit]
- Dean Rusk, and Ernest K. Lindley. Winds of Freedom-Selections from the Speeches and Statements of Secretary of State Dean Rusk, January 1961-August 1962 (1963).
- Dean Rusk, as told to Richard Rusk. As I Saw It (1990), memoirs told to his son online review
External links[edit]
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Wikisource has original works written by or about: Dean Rusk |
- Dean Rusk Oral History Collection, from the Richard B. Russell Library
- Interview for WGBH series, War and Peace in the Nuclear Age
- Works by or about Dean Rusk at Internet Archive
- Oral History Interviews with Dean Rusk, from the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library
- A film clip "Longines Chronoscope with Dean Rusk" is available at the Internet Archive
- A film clip "Longines Chronoscope with Dean Rusk (November 30, 1951)" is available at the Internet Archive
- Sully, François, "Dean Rusk with General Khanh, Harkins and Wheeler and Lodge touring Vietnamese highlands." (photo/caption), April 1964; copyright Healey Library, UMass Boston; via openvault.wgbh.org.
- "Dean Rusk". Find a Grave. Retrieved 2008-02-05.
- Appearances on C-SPAN
Government offices | ||
---|---|---|
Preceded by Dean Acheson as Assistant Secretary of State for Congressional Relations and International Conferences |
Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs 1949 |
Succeeded by John D. Hickerson |
Preceded by William Walton Butterworth |
Assistant Secretary of State for Far Eastern Affairs 1950–1951 |
Succeeded by John Moore Allison |
Political offices | ||
Preceded by Christian Herter |
U.S. Secretary of State Served under: John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson 1961–1969 |
Succeeded by William P. Rogers |
Awards | ||
Preceded by Bob Hope |
Sylvanus Thayer Award recipient 1969 |
Succeeded by Ellsworth Bunker |
- 1909 births
- 1994 deaths
- People from Cherokee County, Georgia
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