what did dean rusk do in the vietnam warwhat did dean rusk do in the vietnam war

He studied international relations, taking an MA in PPE (Politics, Philosophy and Economics). [62] Rusk also instructed Taylor to say: "The United States has not provided massive assistance to South Vietnam, in military equipment, economic resources, and personnel in order to subsidize continuing quarrels among South Vietnamese leaders. Lyndon Johnsons war policy exposed him to public criticism. In the last days of the Johnson administration, the president wanted to nominate Rusk to the Supreme Court. [109] Fulbright made his sympathies clear by wearing a necktie decorated with doves and olive branches. They can invade Sussex and we won't do a damn thing about it. [65] Rusk told Ambassador Taylor that with the elections occurring in less than 48 hours, Johnson did not want to act, but after the election there would be "a more systematic campaign of military pressure on the North with all implications we have always seen in their course of action". Releases, Administrative As far as I can tell, there are three sources for this quote: one is "Waging peace and war: Dean Rusk in the Truman, Kennedy, and Johnson Years", by Thomas J. Schoenbaum (1988, p. 421), another is Rusk's autobiography "As I saw it" (1990, p. 271), and another is the transcript of an interview of Rusk by Schoenbaum, made circa 1985, which is like. [3] Rusk told his son "the students I was privileged to teach helped rejuvenate my life and make a new start after those hard years in Washington. Dean Rusk was the United States Secretary of State from 1961-1969.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dean_Rusk [126] At a farewell dinner hosted by Dobrynin, the longest-serving ambassador in Washington, Rusk told his host: "What's done cannot be undone. Report Video Issue. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. The Black Watch would have done it. Kennedy biographer Robert Dallek explained Rusk's choice thus: By process of elimination, and determined to run foreign policy from the White House, Kennedy came to Dean Rusk, the president of the Rockefeller Foundation. Dean Rusk served as Secretary of State for eight controversial years, from 1961 through 1969, when public discomfort over his daughter's interracial marriage prompted him to offer his resignation. defused tensions during the October 1962 Cuban Missile [31] Rusk, who had much experience of Southeast Asia during World War Two, expressed much doubt if bombing alone would stop the Pathet Lao, saying it was his experience that bombing only worked with ground troops to hold the ground or advance. [18] Rusk's speech attracted more attention than he expected, as the columnist Walter Lippmann ran a column reading "Bradley vs. Rusk", accusing Rusk of advocating a policy of unconditional surrender in the Korean war. [121] On December 22, Rusk appeared on television to officially confirm the 82 surviving crew members of the USS Pueblo intelligence ship, speaking on behalf of the hospitalized President Johnson.[122]. After Kennedy won the 1960 presidential election, he asked Rusk to serve as secretary of state. Anyway, he was the. [3] The experience of poverty made him sympathetic to black Americans. [112], Just before the peace talks in Paris were due to open on 13 May 1968, Rusk advocated bombing North Vietnam north of the 20 parallel, a proposal strongly opposed by the Defense Secretary Clark Clifford who stated it would wreck the peace talks. [43] Kennedy quietly dispatched several U.S. Air Force squadrons to Saudi Arabia and warned Nasser that if he attacked Saudi Arabia, the United States would go to war with Egypt. [19] In 1952 he succeeded Chester L. Barnard as president of the foundation. Rusks diplomatic Dean Rusk served as U.S. secretary of state from 1961 to 1969, the second longest tenure in that office (after Cordell Hull, 1933-44). He is a man with a passion for secrecy. [105], On January 5, 1968, notes by Rusk were delivered to Ambassador of the Soviet Union to the United States Anatoly Dobrynin, pleading support from the US to "avoid recurrence of" claimed bombing of Russian cargo ships in the Haiphong North Vietnam port the day prior. [42] Rusk accused Indonesia of aggression by attacking the Dutch forces in New Guinea in 1962 and believed that Sukarno had violated the United Nations charter, but was again overruled by Kennedy. Shortly after Kennedy was assassinated, Rusk offered his resignation to the new president, Lyndon B. [30] Rusk expressed considerable disgust when he learned that neither side in the Lao civil war fought very hard, citing a report that both sides had broken off combat to go celebrate a water festival for ten days before resuming their battle. He left the Secretary role in January 1969, and taught international relations at the University of Georgia School of Law. [61] In September 1964, Rusk grew frustrated with the endless infighting amongst South Vietnam's junta of generals and after a failed coup d'tat against Nguyn Khnh sent a message to Maxwell Taylor, the ambassador in Saigon, on September 14, stating he was to "make it emphatically clear" to Khnh and the rest of the junta that Johnson was tired of the infighting. invasion, Cuban Missile [117], On September 30, Rusk met privately with Foreign Minister of Israel Abba Eban in New York City for discussion on peace plans from the Middle East. As such, the Secretarys role reflected that of an advisor who would Rusk found that the return to teaching in 1970 and the resumption of the academic career he had abandoned in 1940 was emotionally satisfying. Crisis and contributed toward the successful negotiation of the Limited Nuclear Test Ban accepted a position as an associate professor at Mills College in Oakland, democracy. "[49] On August 31, 1963, the diplomat Paul Kattenburg reported from Saigon that public opinion in South Vietnam was overwhelmingly hostile to Diem, which led him to suggest it was time "for us to get out honorably". [102] Unlike the abrasive McNamara, who was widely disliked at the Pentagon, Rusk was sufficiently liked by his colleagues in the State Department that none leaked their concerns about his drinking to the media. Introduction David Dean Rusk served as Secretary of State under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Baines Johnson. John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston (PX 86-8) (1909-94). From his own perspective, As a minimum, the attack must be condemned as an act of military irresponsibility reflecting reckless disregard for human life. assistance to speed these nations along the path toward modernity and "The 'Bowl of Jelly': The US Department of State during the Kennedy and Johnson Years, 19611968". David Dean Rusk (1909 - 1994) served as U.S. secretary of state from 1961 to 1969, the second longest tenure in that office (after Cordell Hull, 1933-44). [43] On October 8, 1962, a "Food for Peace" deal was signed with Egypt under the United States committed itself to sell at cost $390 million worth of wheat to Egypt for the next three years. Accompanied President Kennedy on State visit. Rusk favored support for Asian nationalist movements, arguing that European imperialism was doomed in Asia, but the Atlanticist Acheson favored closer relations with the European powers, which precluded American support for Asian nationalism. Johnson. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. [88], By 1966, the Johnson administration had become divided between the "hawks" and the "doves", through the latter term was somewhat misleading as the "doves" within the administration merely favored opening peace talks to end the war as opposed to pulling out U.S. forces from Vietnam. [53] Rumors of Rusk's dismissal leading up to the 1964 election abounded prior to President Kennedy's trip to Dallas in 1963. [124] Through Eastland was a fellow Southerner, he had neither forgotten nor forgiven Rusk for allowing his daughter to marry a black man. [90] Rusk equated withdrawal from Vietnam as "appeasement", through at times he was willing to advise Johnson to open peace talks as a way to rebut domestic criticism that Johnson was unwilling to consider alternative ways to end the war. [43] Rusk noted the United States still had significant leverage over Egypt in the form of the PL 480 law that allowed the United States to sell surplus American agricultural production to any "friendly nation" in the local currency instead of U.S. A careful review by Sheldon Stern, Head of the JFK Library, of Kennedy's audio recordings of the EXCOMM meetings suggests that Rusk's contributions to the discussions probably averted a nuclear war. As a civilian he became a senior official in 1945 at the State Department, rising to the number three position under Dean Acheson. He ended up serving through the end of Johnson's term. [85] 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? Department, Copyright 1947 and 1951, including Director of the Office of Special Political Affairs, [44] In Egypt, the government subsidized the sale of staple foods like bread at cost or below cost prices, and Egypt's growing population, which outstripped the capacity of Egypt's agriculture, required Egypt to import food. [48], In August 1963, a series of misunderstandings rocked the Kennedy administration when, in reaction to the Buddhist crisis, a policy proposal urging the overthrow of President Diem of South Vietnam was presented to Kennedy. "[3], In the 1970s, Rusk was a member of the Committee on Present Danger, a hawkish group opposed to dtente with the Soviet Union and distrustful of treaties to control the nuclear arms race. The Rusk ancestors had emigrated from Northern Ireland around 1795. You are the Commander-in-chief, and we are in war. entitled As I Saw It. Dean Rusk, in full David Dean Rusk, (born February 9, 1909, Cherokee county, Georgia, U.S.died December 20, 1994, Athens, Georgia), U.S. secretary of state during the John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson administrations who became a target of antiwar hostility as he consistently defended the United States participation in the Vietnam War. [6], On December 12, 1960, Democratic President-elect John F. Kennedy nominated Rusk to be Secretary of State. Samuel H. Sibley Professor of International Law at the University of Georgia Rusk was not Kennedy's first choice; his first choice, J. William Fulbright, proved too controversial. The leaders reached an understanding that Korea would be liberated from Japan but would be placed under an international trusteeship until the Koreans would be deemed ready for self-rule. the Secretary of State, Travels of [100] 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 Alabama 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. [55] Rusk told Alphand: "To us, the defense of South Vietnam has the same significance as the defense of Berlin. [114] Rusk continued his advocacy of bombing north of 20 parallel, telling Johnson on 21 May 1968 "We will not get a solution in Paris until we prove they can't win in the South". America's 54th secretary of state and second only to Cordell Hull in length of service, Dean Rusk (1909-1994) presided over the Department of State during the turbulent Kennedy-Johnson years of the Vietnam War.. Rusk was a supporter of the Marshall Plan and of the United Nations. Rusk 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. A s U.S. secretary of state from 1961 to 1969, Dean Rusk was one of America's major Vietnam War policy makers. [123] Although Rusk had studied the law, he did not have a law degree nor had he ever practiced law, but Johnson pointed out that the constitution did not require legal experience to serve on the Supreme Court and "I've already talked to Dick Russell and he said you'd be confirmed easily. <i> From a Times Staff Writer</i> ATHENS, Ga. Former Secretary of State Dean Rusk, who rose from the poverty of a tiny tenant farm in Georgia to the heights of American diplomacy only to. (19701984), established the Dean Rusk Center for International and Comparative and resigned on January 20, 1969. It could and should have been scrutinized visually at close range before torpedoes were fired.[37] In 1990 he wrote, I was never satisfied with the Israeli explanation. One of the leaders, the American-Israeli Public Affairs committee's Irving Kane, said afterward that Rusk had successfully convinced him. Ambassador to Israel Walworth Barbour confirmed that Israel's story was bogus: No request for info on U.S. ships operating off Sinai was made until after Liberty incident. [5] Rusk had an intense reverence for the military and throughout his later career, he was inclined to accept the advice of generals. He was very outspoken about his views on the attack: Accordingly, there is every reason to believe that the USS Liberty was or should have been identified, or at least her nationality determined, prior to the attack. [8] [9] Agent Orange has also caused enormous environmental damage in Vietnam. [6], Rusk returned to America to work briefly for the War Department in Washington. Treaty, Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, Administrative Timeline of The foreign policy establishment Acheson, Lovett, liberals Bowles and Stevenson, and The New York Times all sang his praises. Rusk later recalled: "We didn't expect Nasser to bow, scrape, lick our boots, and say 'Thank you Uncle Sam', but we did expect to at least moderate his virulent criticism of the United States. [80] Rusk told the Times of London: "All we needed was just one regiment. Rusk was emotionally exhausted after 8 years as Secretary of State and narrowly survived a nervous breakdown in 1969. [49] Rusk, who had gone to New York to attend a session of the United Nations, cautiously gave approval out of the impression that Kennedy had approved it first. I didnt believe them then, and I dont believe them to this day. "[132], George Herring wrote about Rusk in 1992: "He is a man utterly without pretense, a thoroughly decent individual, a man of stern countenance and unbending principles. At St. Johns, Rusk "[17], In April 1951, Truman sacked General Douglas MacArthur as the commander of the American forces in Korea over the question about whether to carry the war into China. orientation and his ability to evaluate and judge competing points of view We're going to get some breaks, and this thing is going to work. President. [110] When Senator Claiborne Pell asked if the war was worth all the suffering, Rusk charged that he was suffering from "moral myopia" about "the endless struggle for freedom". [130], In a review of his memoir As I Saw It, the American historian Warren Cohen noted that little of the acrimony of Rusk's relations with McNamara, Bundy and Fulbright appeared, but that Rusk was unremittingly hostile in his picture of Kennedy's closest adviser and right-hand man, his younger brother Robert, together with the UN Secretary General U Thant. Rusk continued his Rockefeller Foundation interest in aiding developing nations and also supported low tariffs to encourage world trade. He is a shy and reticent man, who as Secretary of State sipped scotch to loosen his tongue for press conferences. "Dean Rusk on international relations: An analysis of his philosophical perceptions". [69] Nasser realized what he had done and began to lobby for the resumption of PL 480 food sales, but got nowhere. [41] In 1961, Rusk disapproved of the Indian invasion of Goa, which he regarded as an act of aggression against NATO ally Portugal, but was overruled by Kennedy who wanted to improve relations with India and who also noted the Portuguese had no other option but to be allied to the United States. It is part of the international war We have to look at in terms of which side we are on in this particular kind of struggle Because Ho Chi Minh is tied with the Politburo, our policy is to support Bao Dai and the French in Indochina until we have time to help them establish a going concern. The attack was outrageous.[38][39], After an Israeli claim appeared in The Washington Post that they had inquired about the presence of U.S. ships in the area before the attack, Rusk telegrammed the U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv and demanded urgent confirmation. U.S. In these circumstances, the later military attack by Israeli aircraft on the USS Liberty is quite literally incomprehensible. [51] The author of the story wrote that Rusk "was not known for his force and decisiveness" and asserted that Bundy was "the real Secretary of State". Typically he was highly cautious on most issues, except for Vietnam: He established only a distant relationship with President Kennedy but worked more closely with President Johnson. He immersed himself in English history, politics, and popular culture, making lifelong friends among the British elite. "[83] Rusk ordered Henry A. Byroade, the ambassador in Rangoon, to make contact with the North Vietnamese ambassador to Burma with the offer that the bombing pause might be extended if North Vietnam made "a serious contribution to peace". Kennedy decided otherwise, on the grounds that Laos had no modern airfields and there was a risk of Chinese intervention. [64], In September 1964, a peace initiative was launched by the UN Secretary General U Thant who tried to set up secret peace talks in his native Burma, which were supported by the Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev who pressured Ho Chi Minh to take part in the projected peace talks, saying he would only increase Soviet aid to North Vietnam if the North Vietnamese took part in a diplomatic effort to end the war first. [83] The offer was rejected as the North Vietnamese refused to open peace talks until the bombing raids were stopped "unconditionally and for good". the President, Visits by Foreign Heads [34] Rusk favored a hawkish line on Laos. [79], In 1964 and again in 1965, Rusk approached the British Prime Minister Harold Wilson to ask for British troops to go to Vietnam, requests that were refused. He left the ministry to become a cotton farmer and school teacher. [88] Historian Stanley Karnow wrote the televised hearings were a compelling "political theater" as Fulbright and Rusk verbally dueled about the merits of the Vietnam war with both men pouncing on any weaknesses in the other's argument. [128], In 1973, Rusk eulogized Johnson when he lay in state. The new administration hoped to infuse a new energy into the Department of State, but Kennedy made some appointments that he came to regret. The division of Korea began with the defeat and surrender of Japan in World War II.During the war, the Allied leaders considered the question of Korea's future after Japan's surrender in the war. Law, and completed a memoir, with the assistance of his son Richard Rusk, Accompanied President Kennedy to talks with Soviet Premier . [43] In common with decision-makers in Washington, Rusk felt that the United States had to support Saudi Arabia against Egypt, but he advised Kennedy against pushing Nasser too hard, saying that it would only drive him closer to the Soviet Union. [21] Rusk had recently written an article titled "The President" in Foreign Affairs calling for the president to direct foreign policy with the secretary of state as a mere adviser, which had Kennedy's interest after it was pointed out to him. [81] When Johnson asked Rusk about the matter, the latter replied that in diplomacy "there is a difference between rejecting a proposal and not accepting it", a distinction that maintained that U Thant had missed. Eastland announced he would not confirm Rusk if he were nominated to the Supreme Court. [58] The following month, at a September 10 press conference in the main auditorium of the State Department, Rusk said that Senator Goldwater's critiques "reflect a basic lack of understanding" of a U.S. President's handling of conflict and peace. We wish now to leave quietly. He won a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford University. in political science from Davidson College in 1931 prior to entering St. During that period of service under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, he was a primary architect of U.S. intervention in the Vietnam War on the side of the South Vietnamese. He described and defended . Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Baines During the war, Rusk had authorized an air drop of arms to the Viet Minh guerrillas in Vietnam commanded by his future enemy Ho Chi Minh. [115] During a meeting on 26 July 1968, Johnson briefed all three presidential candidates about the state of the war and the peace talks. [33], In April 1961, when a proposal to send 100 more American military advisers to South Vietnam to make a total of 800 appeared before Kennedy, Rusk argued for acceptance even as he noted that it violated the Geneva Accords of 1954 (which the United States had not signed, but promised to abide by), which limited the number of foreign military personnel in Vietnam to 700 at a time. [18] For embarrassing Acheson, Rusk was forced to resign and went into the private sector as the director of the Rockefeller Foundation. After the war he held positions in both the state and war departments. [88] Rusk who served as Johnson's principal spokesman on Vietnam was sent by the president together with General Maxwell Taylor to serve as his rebuttal witnesses before the Foreign Relations Committee. [26] He had faith in the use of military action to combat communism. [34] Rusk stated that International Control Commission consisting of diplomats from India, Poland and Canada which was supposed to enforce the Geneva Accords should not be informed of the deployment and the advisers "be placed in varied locations to avoid attention". Dean Rusk served as U.S. secretary of state from 1961 to 1969. [78] At meetings of the National Security Council, Rusk consistently argued against Ball. [6] While at Davidson, Rusk applied the Calvinist work ethic to his studies. "[102] When McNamara advised Johnson in October 1967 to agree to North Vietnam's demand that the United States cease the bombing campaign as the precondition for opening peace talks, Rusk opposed the idea of a "bombing pause" as removing the "incentive for peace", and urged Johnson to continue Operation Rolling Thunder. [42], President Nasser of Egypt was regarded as a trouble-maker in Washington owing to Egypt's alliance with the Soviet Union and his plans for a pan-Arab state that would of necessity require overthrowing the governments of every Arab state, most notably American allies such as Saudi Arabia. On the other hand, if we were to lose South Vietnam, we would not be losing much. When Ball argued the governing duumvirate of Thieu and Ky in South Vietnam were "clowns" unworthy of American support, Rusk replied: "Don't give me that stuff. David Dean Rusk. In 1961 he became secretary of state under President Kennedy. of Georgia (1970-84). On January 2, 1969, Rusk met with five Jewish American leaders in his office to assure them the US had not changed its policy in the Middle East of recognizing the sovereignty of Israel. Secretary of State Dean Rusk served his term during the whirl of the Cold War and witnessed conflicts and crises as the Bay of Pigs Invasion, Cuban Missile Crisis, Vietnam War, the Six-Day War and the Biafra famine. Books "We Owe It to Future Generations to Explain Why." How Robert McNamara Came to Write His Memoirs About Vietnam Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara (right), President Lyndon Johnson and. His presidency was short but it spanned a critical period, both in Vietnam and the formulation of US policy. Although he favored a gradualist approach to U.S. involvement in Vietnamin order On December 1, 1968, citing the halt of bombing in North Vietnam, Rusk said that the Soviet Union would need to come forward and do what it could to forward peace talks in southeast Asia. [125], January 20, 1969 marked Rusk's last day as Secretary of State, and upon leaving Foggy Bottom he delivered a brief valedictory: "Eight years ago, Mrs. Rusk and I came quietly. [52] As Rusk recounted in his autobiography, he repeatedly offered his resignation, but it was never accepted. Rusk was an acceptable last choice, with the right credentials and the right backers. [71], In April 1965, Senator Robert Kennedy during a visit to the White House advised Johnson to sack Rusk and replace him with Bill Moyers. [135] Jonathan Coleman says that he was deeply involved in the Berlin Crisis, the Cuban Missile Crisis, NATO, and the Vietnam War. "[108] Shortly afterwards, in March 1968 Rusk appeared as a witness before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee chaired by Fulbright that was examining allegations that the Johnson administration had been dishonest about the Gulf of Tonkin incident in 1964. Rusk testified that the war was a morally justified struggle to halt "the steady extension of Communist power through force and threat". He later recalled that during a visit to Cherokee County in February 1968 that people were telling him: "Dean if you can't tell us when this war is going to end, well then maybe we just ought to chuck it. [9] At war's end he was a colonel, decorated with the Legion of Merit with Oak Leaf Cluster.