A Cold War diplomat who built containment through international coalitions
“Our United Nations action should be aimed at removing the missile threat; our objective in the OAS would be to persuade other Latin American countries to act with us under the Rio Treaty.”
Dean Rusk was an internationalist who reached the center of American foreign policy through World War II service and the postwar State Department. As secretary of state under Kennedy and Johnson, he helped manage the Cuban Missile Crisis, backing a quarantine rather than immediate attack while using the Organization of American States and the United Nations to defend it internationally. In Vietnam he became an increasingly forceful advocate of intervention, leaving a defining tension between his commitment to international legitimacy and his role in explaining an expanding war. After leaving office, he taught international law and foreign relations at the University of Georgia.
Career Timeline
- 1934–1940Professor of government, Mills College
- 1941–1945U.S. Army staff officer, China-Burma-India Theater
- 1947–1949Director, State Department Office of Special Political Affairs
- 1949–1950Deputy Under Secretary of State
- 1950–1952Assistant Secretary of State for Far Eastern Affairs
- 1952–1961President, Rockefeller Foundation
- 1961–1969United States Secretary of State
- 1970–1984Professor of international law, University of Georgia