John Foster Dulles

John Foster Dulles
DULLES, John Foster, (1888 - 1959)

Senate Years of Service: 1949-1949

Party: Republican

DULLES, John Foster, a Senator from New York; born in Washington, D.C., February 25, 1888; attended the public schools of Watertown, N.Y.; graduated from Princeton University in 1908; attended the Sorbonne, Paris, in 1908 and 1909; graduated from the law school of George Washington University, Washington, D.C., in 1911; admitted to the bar and commenced the practice of law in New York City in 1911; special agent for Department of State in Central America in 1917; during the First World War served as a captain and a major in the United States Army Intelligence Service 1917-1918; assistant to chairman, War Trade Board 1918; counsel to American Commission to Negotiate Peace 1918-1919; member of Reparations Commission and Supreme Economic Council 1919; legal adviser, Polish Plan of Financial Stabilization 1927; American representative, Berlin Debt Conferences 1933; member, United States delegation, San Francisco Conference on World Organization 1945; adviser to Secretary of State at Council of Foreign Ministers in London 1945, Moscow and London 1947, and Paris 1949; representative to the General Assembly of the United Nations 1946-1949 and chairman of the United States delegation in Paris 1948; trustee of Rockefeller Foundation; chairman of the board, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace; member of the New York State Banking Board 1946-1949; appointed on July 7, 1949, as a Republican to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Robert F. Wagner and served from July 7, 1949, to November 8, 1949, when a duly elected successor qualified; unsuccessful candidate for election to the vacancy; United States representative to the Fifth General Assembly of the United Nations 1950; consultant to the Secretary of State 1951-1952; appointed Secretary of State by President Dwight D. Eisenhower 1953-1959; died in Washington, D.C., May 24, 1959; interment in Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Va.

The late Dallas Townsend, the famous newsman who anchored the equally famous CBS "World News Roundup" for a quarter- century, told the story about one of the show's faithful listeners, John Foster Dulles, secretary of state under Dwight Eisenhower in the 1950s.

Dulles took vacations on a small island off Canada. When he went there, he liked to decompress so thoroughly that he didn't even have a telephone.

But he still listened to "World News Roundup," so when the White House needed to reach him, it asked CBS to tag a particular story that night with the phrase, "this news will be of particular interest to Secretary of State Dulles."

That was his signal to get on a boat for the mainland and call the office.

From NY Daily News, March 13, 2008 Television/Radio Section story "At 70, 'World News Roundup' is still fresh"

The Dulles State Office Building in Watertown was named for him.