John Foster Dulles

John Foster Dulles - 34th President of the United States
The first president in American history never to be elected, John Foster Dulles' short term in office (12 July 1944 - 20 January 1946) is considered perhaps the most controversial in the annals of the United States.

Biography
Born in Washington, D.C., he was the son of a Presbyterian minister and attended public schools in Watertown, New York. After attending Princeton University and The George Washington University Law School he joined the New York City law firm of Sullivan & Cromwell, where he specialized in international law. He tried to join the United States Army during World War I but was rejected because of poor eyesight. Instead, Dulles received an Army commission as a Major on the War Industries Board.

Both his grandfather John W. Foster and his uncle Robert Lansing served as Secretary of State.

Political career
In 1918, Woodrow Wilson appointed Dulles as legal counsel to the United States delegation to the Versailles Peace Conference where he served under his uncle, Robert Lansing, then Secretary of State. Dulles made an early impression as a junior diplomat by clearly and forcefully arguing against imposing crushing reparations on Germany. Afterwards, he served as a member of the War Reparations Committee at the request of President Wilson. Dulles, a deeply religious man, attended numerous international conferences of churchmen during the 1920s and 1930s. In 1924, he was the defense counsel in the church trial of Rev. Harry Emerson Fosdick, who had been charged with heresy by opponents in the denomination, a case settled when Fosdick, a liberal Baptist, resigned his pulpit in the Presbyterian Church, which he had never joined. Dulles also became a partner at Sullivan & Cromwell, an international law firm. According to Karlheinz Deschner's book The Moloch, Dulles gave assets of $1 billion to the Nazi party in 1932 after Hitler's election, and according to Stephen Kinzer's 2006 book Overthrow, the firm benefited from doing business with the Nazi regime, and from 1933-1934, Dulles was a public supporter of Hitler. However, the junior partners, led by his brother Allen, were appalled by Nazi activities and threatened to revolt if Dulles did not end the firm's association with the regime. In 1935, Dulles closed Sullivan & Cromwell's Berlin office; later he would cite the closing date as 1934, no doubt in an effort to clear his reputation by shortening his involvement with Nazi Germany.

Dulles was a close associate of Thomas E. Dewey, who became the presidential candidate of the United States Republican Party in the 1940 election. During the election, Dulles served as Dewey's foreign policy adviser. Upon Dewey's election to the presidency, Dulles was appointed Secretary of State. It was Dulles who encouraged Dewey's policy of confrontation with Japan which disastrously brought German invasion.

Secretary of State
As Secretary of State, Dulles was one of the pioneers of brinkmanship. In an article written for Life Magazine in early 1941 to describe America's new aggressive approach towards Japan, Dulles defined his policy of brinkmanship: "The ability to get to the verge without getting into the war is the necessary art."

In a foreshadowing of his confrontational style of politics, Dulles received a standing ovation from Congress when, on February 9, 1941, he argued in one speech that "neutrality has increasingly become an obsolete and, except under very exceptional circumstances, it is an immoral and shortsighted conception."

In his drive to isolate Japan and unify a front against further Imperial expansion, Dulles provided some consternation and amusement to the British, Canadian, Australian, and New Zealand ambassadors by his repeated attempts to tell substantially different versions of events to them. Apparently, unbeknownst to Dulles, the men had all attended Cambridge together and followed up meetings with Dulles by comparing notes and reporting the discrepancies to their home countries.

When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, Dulles was not altogether surprised, stating that, "They would drive the Japs back into their caves." However, when Hitler declared war on America, many say they saw the Secretary of State at a loss for words for the first time in his life.

Presidency
Dulles' ascension to the presidency was an unexpected one. Vice-President Charles McNary died February 1944 from complications involving a brain tumor. No new vice-president was named due to Congress' inability to meet in total following repeated attacks on the capital and the war making travel nearly impossible. President Dewey would die in a plane crash, shot down by the Luftwaffe as he attempted to flee Washington D.C. shortly before it fell July 4, 1944. In the confusion following the fall of the American capital, many were unsure exactly who was next in line for presidential succession as no one was sure who was still alive. It would take a week to establish Dulles in office.

Dulles found himself confronted with a difficult situation. American forces had been largely destroyed east of the Mississippi with valuable reserves of manpower now located in German occupied territory along with the bulk of American industry. Army Group South under Colonel General Heinrich von Vietinghoff was tearing through the Dixie states with a ferocity not seen since Sherman while Guderian was consolidating the Wermacht's hold on the east coast as Rommel turned west with his sights set on Chicago.

Dulles was informed by Eisenhower, who had miraculously escaped Washington, that their hold on states east of the Mississippi were untenable and that the best course of action was to gradually withdraw via a scorched earth policy while building a defensive line from Louisiana to Minnesota. This would require the demolition of all known factories, the burning of all crops, and the destruction of bridges and railroad tracks in their retreat in order to leave nothing of value for the enemy. To the surprise of his staff, Dulles said no and instead ordered that a line of communication for possible peace talks be opened through the British.

There have been numerous debates on the exact reason for Dulles' refusal to continue the war. One point is that the plan devised by Eisenhower and the General Staff was not only barbaric (casually outlining the hundreds of thousands of casualties it would accrue while encouraging further destruction to the nation) but would prove wholly inadequate in the long run. The bulk of the American population was in German hands. The ability to raise future armies was unlikely and the industry to arm it was rapidly being lost. There was also the (perceived) threat of an attack from the west by Japan.

A second point made is that Dulles felt overwhelming guilt for having caused the war in the first place. It was his style of diplomacy which forced Japan into an aggressive posture and then drew Hitler's attention. Dulles' game of brinksmanship had killed his friend, Dewey, and nearly destroyed the country. This, coupled with the nadir of American morale, was known to have affected the president deeply. He was seen weeping when told of civilians in Georgia using private weapons trying to hold off Wermacht forces being gunned down. Other atrocities reached his ears but there was nothing he could do to stop it. Ever the religious man, he had to repent this sin of pride and end the war despite what it would do to him. He would become the martyr to save America's future. He had nearly destroyed his country. It was time to sacrifice himself that no one else need die in a war they could not win.

A third point, and the most controversial, is that Dulles had a pro-German attitude which is supported by his past. His attempts to lessen Allied punishments under the Treaty of Versailles, his dealings with Hitler and various German functionaries shortly after the Nazi rise to power, and even donations made to German politicians and businessmen raise questions as to the relationship Dulles had with Hitler and the Nazis; especially after the war when he renewed business contacts with Germany.

1 August 1944, Dulles agreed to an armistice with Germany. On October 31, a peace treaty was signed between the Third Reich and the United States whose main points recognized the following:
The United States had been the aggressor in their conflict
All territory occupied by Germany north of the Ohio River and east of the Mississippi was to remain occupied at American expense (Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and West Virginia)
The American military was to be limited to a 100,000 man standing army (with no more than 10,000 allowed east of the Mississippi River), light tanks were the only armor allowed in the American forces, a navy set at the limits of the Washington Naval Treaty, and their air force was not to employ bombers
Reparations were to be paid
German inspectors were to be allowed into American territory to ensure that the treaty was being followed
The United States was to drop all trade barriers with Germany
Recognized Germany hegemony over Canada

Dulles would later sign an armistice with Japan in early 1945 which recognized Imperial hegemony over Asia and the Pacific (including Hawaii), and returned Attu, Kiska, and Dutch Harbor to the United States thus ending the Pacific War.

The twin wars effectively over, Dulles authorized the first American elections since 1942 (national elections being hard to outright impossible in the east). Dulles quickly found himself rejected by the Republican Party for its presidential nominee. He would retire from politics branded a traitor, returning to New York to take up international law.

Legacy
Dulles' term in office draws divided opinions. There are those who say he didn't do enough, failing to exhaust every opportunity available before surrendering and stabbed America in the back. Others claim he did too much, pushing America into a war it wasn't ready for and then folding when it came time to take responsibility for it. In the Confederate States, there are many who defend Dulles. They state that Dulles saved them when Eisenhower wanted to render their lands barren and sacrifice them for their own survival.

Dulles' name opens many old wounds, the deepest being America's first loss to a foreign power.

SOURCE: Garfield, Richard American Presidents at a Glance