An American diplomat who drove the Cold War through alliance-building
At the 1954 Berlin Conference, he rejected an all-German government without free elections and upheld the Western electoral procedure.
John Foster Dulles was an American diplomat and lawyer who sought to organize the postwar order through alliances and military deterrence. As Dwight D. Eisenhower’s secretary of state, he pressed beyond containment toward rolling back communist influence and consolidated the Western bloc around NATO. At the 1954 Berlin Conference, he opposed Molotov’s collective-security proposal and call for an all-German government, insisting on reunification through free elections; later that year he secured West German entry into NATO, choosing institutionalized division in Europe over an unguaranteed settlement. The policy strengthened Western cohesion and American influence, but also carried responsibility for interventionism, including support for coups in Iran and Guatemala and reliance on nuclear threats.
Career timeline
- 1908Graduated from Princeton University
- 1911International lawyer at Sullivan & Cromwell
- 1919Legal counsel to the U.S. delegation at the Paris Peace Conference
- 1945–1950U.S. representative at UN conferences and General Assembly, and foreign-policy adviser
- 1950–1952Special adviser to President Truman on the Japanese peace settlement
- 1953–1959United States secretary of state
- 1954Participant at the Berlin Conference and leading negotiator for West Germany’s NATO accession
- 1959Resigned as secretary of state and died on May 24
The Secretary of State who pushed Reagan toward dialogue with Gorbachev and helped end the Cold War
Over dinner with the Reagans, snowbound at the White House, Shultz listened to the president's relentless questions about Soviet leaders and realized: 'This man has never had a real conversation with a big-time communist leader, and he is dying to have one.'
George Shultz is one of only two Americans to have held four different Cabinet posts, serving as Labor Secretary, OMB Director, Treasury Secretary, and finally as Reagan's Secretary of State for six and a half years, reshaping the direction of U.S. diplomacy with the Soviet Union. Against the opposition of Defense Secretary Weinberger and CIA Director Casey, Shultz insisted that Reagan engage Gorbachev directly, laying the diplomatic groundwork for the Geneva (1985) and Reykjavik (1986) summits. The result was the 1987 INF Treaty, the first abolition of an entire class of nuclear weapons; Shultz then watched the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan and the unraveling of Moscow's hold on Eastern Europe, witnessing the end of the Cold War from the front row. His memoir Turmoil and Triumph remains an essential primary source for the diplomacy of the 1980s.
Career timeline
- 1920Born in New York City, raised in Englewood, New Jersey
- 1942–1945Marine Corps officer; saw action at Angaur in the Pacific
- 1969–1974Labor Secretary → OMB Director → Treasury Secretary; ended the Bretton Woods system
- 1974–1982Bechtel president and director; expanded Middle East operations
- 1982–1989Secretary of State; Geneva and Reykjavik summits, INF Treaty
- 1989–2021Hoover Institution distinguished fellow; nuclear disarmament and carbon tax advocacy
- 1993Published Turmoil and Triumph: My Years as Secretary of State
The architect of détente who used 'linkage' to build the first framework for superpower arms control, the face of American realism
In his notorious 1972 interview with Oriana Fallaci, he declared: 'Americans like the cowboy who leads the wagon train by riding ahead alone on his horse. This amazing, romantic character suits me precisely.' The comment infuriated Nixon.
A Jewish refugee who fled Nazi Germany at fifteen, Kissinger rose through Harvard's academic ranks to become the most consequential American foreign-policy maker of the Cold War. As National Security Advisor and Secretary of State under Nixon and Ford, he pioneered détente with the Soviet Union, devising the 'linkage' strategy that tied arms control and trade to Soviet restraint and conducting the secret backchannel with Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin that broke the deadlock over SALT I and the ABM Treaty at the 1972 Moscow Summit. He opened relations with Mao's China through clandestine diplomacy, mediated the Paris Peace Accords to win the Nobel Peace Prize, but also presided over the bombing of Cambodia and covert interventions that earned him lasting accusations of war crimes.
Career timeline
- 1938–1943Fled Nazi Germany for the U.S.; studied accounting at CCNY, then drafted into the U.S. Army
- 1943–1949Served in U.S. Army intelligence in Europe, Battle of the Bulge; CIC agent tracking Gestapo and administering denazification
- 1950–1969Harvard professor of government, director of the Defense Studies Program; foreign-policy advisor to Rockefeller and Nixon campaigns
- 1969–1975National Security Advisor: led détente, China opening, SALT I negotiations; managed the secret Dobrynin backchannel
- 1971–1972Secret trips to Beijing, meeting Zhou Enlai; paved the way for Nixon's 1972 China visit
- 1973–1977Secretary of State: Paris Peace Accords, Nobel Peace Prize (1973), Middle East shuttle diplomacy; implicated in 1973 Chilean coup
- 1977–2023Founded Kissinger Associates; authored books and advised twelve U.S. presidents
The pragmatic diplomat who engineered the Cold War's final transition
In his November 29, 1989 Malta briefing memo, Baker wrote that Bush should project a "new pace and purpose" while leading as much as Gorbachev.
James Baker was a lawyer and Republican political operator who became central to American conservative politics through his long alliance with George H. W. Bush. After serving as treasury secretary on currency and international finance, he became secretary of state and helped manage the diplomacy of the Cold War's final years, German reunification, and the Gulf crisis. He did not treat Gorbachev's reforms as a matter of faith, weighing them against American interests and allied stability, yet he persuaded Bush to reach toward perestroika and translated that choice into the agenda and working arrangements of the 1989 Malta summit. His cautious realism slowed the inertia of confrontation while turning rapid change into negotiations that Washington could help manage.
Career timeline
- 1930Born in Houston, Texas
- 1952–1954Graduated from Princeton and served as a Marine officer
- 1957–1980Practiced corporate law in Houston
- 1981–1985White House chief of staff under President Reagan
- 1985–1988U.S. secretary of the treasury; advanced the Plaza Accord and Baker Plan
- 1989–1992U.S. secretary of state; managed the Malta summit and late-Cold War diplomacy
- 1992–1993Returned as White House chief of staff in the Bush administration
- 2010s–Advised on public policy and international affairs
