John Foster Dulles

John Foster Dulles(February 25,1888–May 24,1959) served as U.S.Secretary of Stateunder PresidentDwight D. Eisenhowerfrom 1953 to 1959. He was a significant figure in the early Cold War era, advocating an aggressive stance against communism around the world.

John Foster Dulles

Quotes

• You have to take chances for peace, just as you must take chances in war. Some say that we were brought to the verge of war. Of course we were brought to the verge of war. The ability to get to the verge without getting into the war is the necessary art. If you cannot master it, you inevitably get into war. If you try to run away from it, if you are scared to go to the brink, you are lost. We’ve had to look it square in the face—on the question of enlarging the Korean war, on the question of getting into the Indochina war, on the question of Formosa. We walked to the brink and we looked it in the face.
  • InLife(16 January 1956)

• We have reconfirmed the unity and firmness of our position, the position expressed in the Joint Communique of the four powers at Paris on December 14th. We do not accept any substitution ofEast Germansfor theSoviet Unionin its responsibilities towardBerlinand its obligations to us. We are resolved that our position in, and access to, West Berlin shall be preserved.
  • Quoted in"1959 Year In Review: Death of John Foster Dulles,"UPI.com(1959).
• The ability to get to the verge without getting into the war is the necessary art.
  • InStephen E. Ambrose (2010).Rise to Globalism: American Foreign Policy Since 1938, Ninth Revised Edition.Penguin. p. 109.
• Neutralityhas increasingly become obsolete and, except under very exceptional circumstances, it is an immoral and shortsighted conception.
  • Ian Shapiro (2009).Containment: Rebuilding a Strategy against Global Terror.Princeton University Press. pp. 145–.

Quotes about

• We just heard from the Minister ofHonduras.Let us recall thatUnited Fruit Companyessentially ran his country for a long time. United Fruit’s attorney was US Secretary of StateJohn Foster Dulles,and his brotherAllen Dulleswas the head of theCIA.On behalf of United Fruit Company, the two Dulles Brothers conspired to overthrow PresidentJacobo Árbenzof Guatemala, next door to Honduras, in order to stop the land reforms that Árbenz was trying to implement. So, yes, we have a global food system, but we need a different system.
  • Jeffrey Sachs' speech at the UN Food Systems Pre-summit,Speech transcript(October 2021)