Dean Rusk
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
This article may require copy-editing for grammar, style, cohesion, tone or spelling. You can assist by editing it now. (January 2009) |
|
Dean Rusk
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|---|---|
| In office January 20, 1961 – January 20, 1969 |
|
| President | John F. Kennedy Lyndon B. Johnson |
| Preceded by | Christian Herter |
| Succeeded by | William P. Rogers |
|
|
|
| In office February 8, 1949 – May 26, 1949 |
|
| President | Harry S. Truman |
| Preceded by | Post created |
| Succeeded by | John D. Hickerson |
|
|
|
| Born | February 9, 1909 Cherokee County, Georgia |
| Died | December 20, 1994 (aged 85) |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Alma mater | Davidson College University of California-Berkeley |
| Profession | Professor, Soldier, Politician |
| Religion | Presbyterian |
| Military service | |
| Service/branch | United States Army |
| Rank | Colonel |
| Battles/wars | World War II |
| Awards | Legion of Merit |
David Dean Rusk (February 9, 1909 – December 20, 1994) was the United States Secretary of State from 1961 to 1969 under presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. He was the second-longest serving Secretary of State, behind Cordell Hull.
Contents |
[edit] Childhood and education
Dean Rusk was born a poor farm boy[1] in Cherokee County, Georgia. Son of Robert Hugh and Frances Elizabeth (Clotfelter) Rusk[2]. He was educated in Atlanta's public schools. After graduation from Boys High School in 1925[3] he worked two years for an Atlanta lawyer. Rusk then worked his way through Davidson College. He was a member of the Kappa Alpha Order Sigma chapter,[4], Cadet Lieutenant Colonel commanding the ROTC battalion, and was graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1931.[3] While attending St. John's College, Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, he received the Cecil Peace Prize in 1933.[3][5]
From 1934 to 1940 he taught at Mills College in Oakland, California. He earned his law degree at the University of California, Berkeley in 1940.
He married Virginia Foisie on June 9, 1937[3] and they had three children.[6]
[edit] Career prior to 1961
In World War II he joined the infantry as a reserve captain, and served as a staff officer in the China Burma India Theater. At war's end he was a colonel, decorated with the Legion of Merit with Oak Leaf Cluster.[3]
He returned to America to work briefly for the War Department in Washington. He joined the Department of State in February 1945 working for the office of United Nations Affairs. In the same year, he suggested splitting Korea into a sphere of U.S. and one of Soviet influence at the 38th parallel north. He was made Deputy Under Secretary of State in 1949. He was made Assistant Secretary of State for Far Eastern Affairs in 1950 and played an influential part in the US decision to become involved in the Korean War, and also Japan's postwar compensation for victorious countries, such as the Rusk documents. However he was a cautious diplomat and always sought international support.
Rusk was a Rockefeller Foundation trustee from 1950 to 1961. In 1952 he succeeded Chester L. Barnard as president of the Foundation.[3]
[edit] Secretary of State
On December 12, 1960, Democratic President-elect John F. Kennedy appointed Rusk Secretary of State. He was sworn in January, 1961.[3]
As Secretary of State he was a believer in the use of military action to combat Communism. During the Cuban missile crisis he supported diplomatic efforts. Early in his tenure, he had strong doubts about US intervention in Vietnam,[7] but later his vigorous public defense of US actions in the Vietnam War made him a frequent target of anti-war protests. Outside of his work against communism, he continued his Rockefeller Foundation ideas of aid to developing nations and also supported low tariffs to encourage world trade. Rusk also drew the ire of supporters of Israel after he let it be known that he believed the USS Liberty incident was a deliberate attack on the ship, rather than an accident.
As he recalled in his autobiography, As I Saw It, Rusk didn't have a good relationship with President Kennedy. He repeatedly offered his resignation, but it was never accepted. Shortly after the John F. Kennedy assassination, Rusk offered his resignation to the new President, Lyndon Baines Johnson. It has been suggested that President Johnson asked him to stay and that the two became friends. When Johnson died in 1973, Rusk eulogized the former President when he lay in state.
After President of France Charles de Gaulle withdrew France from the common NATO military command in February 1966 and ordered all American military forces to leave France, President Johnson asked Rusk to seek further clarification from President de Gaulle by asking whether the bodies of buried American soldiers must leave France as well.[8] Rusk recorded in his autobiography that de Gaulle did not respond when asked, "Does your order include the bodies of American soldiers in France's cemeteries?"[9][10]
Rusk again offered to resign in 1967, after it became known that his daughter, Peggy, planned to marry Guy Smith,[11] "a black Georgetown grad working at NASA. (Johnson didn't accept it.)"[12] In fact, the Richmond News Leader stated that it found the wedding offensive, further saying that "anything which diminishes [Rusk's] personal acceptability is an affair of state".[1] A year after his daughter's wedding, Rusk was invited to join the faculty of the University of Georgia Law School, only to have his appointment denounced by Roy Harris, an ally of Governor George Wallace and a member of the university's board of regents, who stated that his opposition was because of Peggy Rusk's interracial marriage. The university nonetheless appointed Rusk to the position.[13]
[edit] Retirement
Rusk received both the Sylvanus Thayer Award and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1969.
Following his retirement, he taught international law at the University of Georgia School of Law in Athens, Georgia (1970-1984).
Rusk Eating House, the first women’s eating house at Davidson College, was founded in 1977 and is named in his honor.
Dean Rusk Middle School, located in Canton, Georgia, was named in his honor, as was Dean Rusk Hall on the campus of the University of Georgia.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ MORRISON, DONALD (1990-07-30). "Ghost Dad (bk rvw of AS I SAW IT by Dean Rusk, as told to Richard Rusk)". Time. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,970754,00.html. Retrieved on 2008-02-04. ""I won't be around for history's verdict," says Rusk, now 81 and ailing in his Georgia retirement, "and I am perfectly relaxed about it.""
- ^ Page 425 of Congressional Directory,89th Congress, Second Session, January 1966
- ^ a b c d e f g Anonoymous. "Biography of Dean Rusk". Davidson College. http://www3.davidson.edu/cms/x10615.xml. Retrieved on 2008-02-03.
- ^ "Famed Fraternity Members". Kappa Alpha Order. http://www.kappaalphaorder.org/repository/unmanaged_content/joinka/fame.html. Retrieved on 2008-02-03.
- ^ Turner, Arthur Campbell; Francis Carney and Jan Erickson (2005-04-05). "[http://www.ucrhistory.ucr.edu/pdf/turner2.pdf Transcription of Oral History Audio Interview with ARTHUR CAMPBELL TURNER April 6 and May 28, 1998]" (PDF). University of California, Riverside. p.8. http://www.ucrhistory.ucr.edu/pdf/turner2.pdf. Retrieved on 2008-02-03.
- ^ "Parks Rusk Collection of Dean Rusk Papers". Richard B. Russell Library for Political Research and Studies. University of Georgia. Biographical Note. http://www.libs.uga.edu/russell/collections/ruskparks/index.shtml. Retrieved on 2008-02-04.
- ^ Henry II, John B.; William Espinosa (Autumn, 1972). "The Tragedy of Dean Rusk" (fee). Foreign Policy, No. 8, (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace): pp. pp. 166-189. doi:. http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0015-7228(197223)8%3C166%3ATTODR%3E2.0.CO%3B2-S. Retrieved on 2008-02-04.
- ^ Ogden, Christopher (1995-09-18). "BOMBS AWAY!". TIME Magazine Volume 146, No. 12: pp. pp. 166-189. http://www.time.com/time/international/1995/950918/cover.washington.html. Retrieved on 2009-02-11.
- ^ "Andrew Roberts addresses The Bruges Group". The Bruges Group. http://www.brugesgroup.com/events/index.live?article=13490. Retrieved on 2009-02-11.
- ^ Schoenbaum, Thomas J. (1988). Waging Peace and War: Dean Rusk in the Truman, Kennedy, and Johnson Years. Ann Arbor, Michigan: Simon and Schuster. p. 421. ISBN 0671603515.
- ^ Romano, Renée Christine, "Race Mixing", Harvard University Press, 2003, pages 204-205
- ^ Rick, Frank, "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner", The New York Times, 2 November 2006, page W-10
- ^ Romano, Renée Christine, "Race Mixing", Harvard University Press, 2003, pages 204-205
- Rusk, Dean (1963). The winds of freedom; selections from the speeches and statements of Secretary of State Dean Rusk, January 1961- August 1962. Boston: Beacon Press. OCLC 1106835.
- Rusk, Dean; Richard Rusk, ed. Daniel S. Papp (1990). As I Saw It. W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 0393026507.
[edit] External links
- Interview for WGBH series, War and Peace in the Nuclear Age
- Dean Rusk at Find a Grave Retrieved on 2008-02-05
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Christian Herter |
United States Secretary of State Served Under: John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson 1961–1969 |
Succeeded by William P. Rogers |
| Awards | ||
| Preceded by Bob Hope |
Sylvanus Thayer Award recipient 1969 |
Succeeded by Ellsworth Bunker |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||
