John Foster Dulles Critical Essay | Critical Essay by John M. Mulder

Critical Essay by John M. Mulder

SOURCE: "The Moral World of John Foster Dulles: A Presbyterian Layman and International Affairs," in Journal of Presbyterian History, Vol. 49, No. 2, Summer, 1971, pp. 157-82.

In the following essay, Mulder investigates the religious and moral sources of Dulles's approach to international affairs.

In his three roles as lawyer, churchman, and Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles revealed himself as a complex personality. To many there seemed to be a private Dulles—warm, cordial, flexible, knowledgeable, and articulate, as well as a public Dulles—austere, aloof, rigid, moralistic, and self-righteous. This paper is an attempt to probe something of the enigma which still surrounds the man in death, and in particular it will focus on the nature of Dulles' religious faith and activity in order to illuminate better his appearance to many as the pious Presbyterian in politics.

Such an analysis is admittedly deficient and incomplete, for while the importance of...
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