Richard H. Immerman - John Foster Dulles: Piety, Pragmatism, and Power in U.S. Foreign Policy

Archival documentation of John Foster Dulless life and work is fertile and voluminous. His personal papers, along with those of his brother Allen, are located at the Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library at Princeton University. Also at Princeton are the large and useful John Foster Dulles Oral History Collection and the papers of many individuals pivotal to the history of U.S. foreign relations throughout Dulless lengthy career and with whom he corresponded frequently. An even richer locus of archives is the Dwight D. Eisenhower Library in Abilene, Kansas. On deposit there (copies are available at Princeton) are Dulless official papers as secretary of state. They complement the Eisenhower Librarys records of other administration officials, executive offices, and, of course, Eisenhowers own papers as President of the United States. Known as the Ann Whitman File, Eisenhowers papers are perhaps the most extensive and well-organized archive of any U.S. president.

Equally essential are the U.S. government records, primarily but not exclusively those of the Departments of State and Defense and the National Security Council, that were recently moved to National Archives II in College Park, Maryland. While scholars and journalists have had some success in using the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to penetrate the veil of secrecy surrounding the U.S. intelligence community, and the release of some archives has attended the end of the cold war, the vast majority of the records of the Central Intelligence Agency remain classified.

Printed primary sources are also abundant. The most vital is the official documentary record of U.S. foreign policyU.S. Department of State, Foreign Relations of the United States published by the Government Printing Office. The first volume for the Eisenhower years appeared in 1979, and with most of the triennial volumes now available (many with microfiche supplements), the series comprises more than sixty volumes. While it suffers from lacunae created by still-classified records, especially those concerning covert operations, the Foreign Relations series is indispensable. Research on Dulles, of course, requires consulting the volumes on earlier administrations also.

Also important are U.S. Congress, Senate, Committee on Foreign Relations, Executive Sessions of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee ( Historical Series), 1953-1961, (Washington, DC, 1977-84); and U.S. Congress, House, Committee on Foreign Affairs, Selected Executive Session Hearings of the Committee , 1951-1956 (Washington, DC, 1980). For many of Dulless speeches, public statements, and press conferences, see the Department of State Bulletin ; for Eisenhowers, see Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States , Dwight D. Eisenhower, 8 vols. (Washington, DC, 1958-61). The excellent Papers of Dwight D. Eisenhower (Baltimore, 1970- ), currently edited by Louis Galambos, provide much insight on Dulles and now extend to the presidential years. See as well the presidents personal diary, most of which is published in Robert H. Ferrell, ed., The Eisenhower Diaries (New York, 1981); and the diary of Eisenhowers press secretary, idem, ed., The Diary of James C. Hagerty: Eisenhower in Mid-Course, 1954-1955 (Bloomington, IN, 1983).

There are a number of useful memoirs, starting with Eisenhowers two-volume account of his White House years: Mandate for Change, 1953-1956 (Garden City, NY, 1963); and Waging Peace, 1956-1961 (Garden City, NY, 1965). Other Eisenhower administration memoirs include Emmet John Hughes, The Ordeal of Power: A Political Memoir of the Eisenhower Years (New York, 1963); Robert Cutler , No Time for Rest (Boston, 1966); Steven Jurika, Jr., From Pearl Harbor to Vietnam: The Memoirs of Admiral Arthur W. Radford (Stanford, CA, 1980); and more episodic, Richard M. Nixon, Six Crises (Garden City, NY, 1962) and The Memoirs of Richard Nixon (New York, 1978). All should be read with caution. With the exception of Dean Acheson, Present at the Creation: My Years in the State Department (New York, 1969), there are no comparable memoirs for the previous administrations. Harry S. Trumans Year of Decisions (Garden City, NY, 1955), and Years of Trial and Hope (Garden City, NY, 1956), are disappointing. Eleanor Lansing Dulles, John Foster Dulles: The Last Year (New York, 1963), is an engaging and touching account by his sister, an academic and a State Department veteran herself. Andrew H. Berding, Dulles on Diplomacy (Princeton, NJ, 1965), part memoir and part scholarly analysis, is often overlooked.

Although Dulles did not produce a memoir, he was a prolific writer. His two books: War, Peace, and Change (New York, 1939), and War or Peace (New York, 1950), are musts. Of his many articles, the most important are the two-part Thoughts on Soviet Foreign Policy, Life, June 3,1946, and June 10,1946; A Policy of Boldness, Life, May 19, 1952; Policy for Security and Peace, Foreign Affairs 32 (April 1954); and Challenge and Response in United States Policy, Foreign Affairs 36 (October 1956). Of critical significance also is James Shepley, How Dulles Averted War, Life, January 16, 1956, which is in essence a lengthy interview with Dulles about Korea, Vietnam, and the Offshore Islands and gave rise to the term brinkmanship. Many of Dulless writings with religious themes are collected in Henry P. Van Dusen, ed., The Spiritual Legacy of John Foster Dulles (Philadelphia, 1960).